Nov. 6, 1863. |
1863. |
 |
| Longstreet's Headquarters. |
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found it necessary to abandon his trains or fight.
He chose the latter alternative, and taking a good position, with his batteries well posted, he turned upon his pursuer,
and gave him a stunning blow.
A conflict ensued, which lasted several hours, during which Burnside's trains moved rapidly forward.
The battle ceased at twilight, ending in a repulse of Longstreet, and a loss to the Nationals of about three hundred men.1 The Confederate loss was about three hundred and seventy.
Taking advantage of this check, Burnside moved on to the shelter of his. intrenchments at Knoxville, the chief of which was an unfinished work on a. hill commanding the southwestern approaches to the town, and afterward called Fort Sanders.
Longstreet followed as rapidly as possible.
Wheeler and Forrest had failed to seize the height on which works had been thrown up on the south side of the Holston, owing to the gallant bearing of some.
of the troops of General W. P. Sanders, of Kentucky, who was in immediate command at Knoxville.2 Equally gallant was the reception of the same force, which dashed up in advance of Longstreet, and attacked the outposts there, on the 16th of November.
The main body of the Confederates were then near, and, on the morning of the 18th, Longstreet opened some guns on the National works, sharply attacked Sanders's advanced right, composed of four regiments,3 who offered determined resistance, drove them from the ridge they occupied, and making his Headquarters at the fine mansion of R. H. Armstrong, near the bank of the Holston, less than a
mile from Fort Sanders, planted batteries a little in advance of it. In the attack on Sanders's right, that leader was killed,4 and the National loss,
1 Among the slain was Lieutenant P. M. Holmes, son of Professor Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Charlestown, Massachusetts. On his breast he wore the badge of the Bunker's Hill Club, on which was engraved the line from Horace,,quoted by General Warren, just before his death on Bunker's Hill--“Dulce et decorum est, pro patria circ;mori.” --“It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country.”
2 Knoxville is on the northern bank of the Holston River, one of the main streams that form the Tennessee-River, and a large portion of it stands on a table-land, 150 feet above the river, about a mile square in area. On the northeast is a small creek, running through a deep ravine, beyond which is Temperance Hill. Still farther to the east is Mayberry Hill. On the northwest the table-land slopes down to a broad valley, along which lies. the railway. On the southwest boundary of the town is another creek, flowing through a ravine, beyond which is College Hill. Farther to the southwest is a high ridge, running nearly parallel with the road that enters Knoxville from below, on which, at the time we are considering, was an unfinished work, afterward known as Fort Sanders, so named in honor of General Sanders, who lost his life near. College Hill was fortified with a. strong work carrying a piece of siege artillery. On the height near the Summit House was another work. There were two forts on Temperance Hill, and on each of two other eminences near was a battery. On the principal height, south of the Holston, was a fort, and in the town, near the street leading to the railway station, was a considerable work. Extending around the town, from river to river, was a line of rifle-pits and breastworks. The fortifications for the defense of Knoxville were constructed under the skillful direction of Captain Poe, of Burnside's engineers. “Under Poe's hands,” said a participant, “rifle-pits appear as if by magic, and every hill-top of the vast semicircle around Knoxville, from Temperance Hill to College Hill, is frowning with cannon and bristling with bayonets.”
3 The One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois, Forty-fifth Ohio, Third Michigan, and Twelfth Kentucky.
4 General Sanders was killed in a field, a short distance from the residence of Mr. Armstrong, on the left of the road leading to the town. The bullet that killed him was from a sharp-shooter (supposed to have been young Gist, mentioned in the next note), sent from a window in the tower of Armstrong's house. He was taken to the Lamar House, in Knoxville, and died the next day (Nov. 19), in the bridal chamber of that hotel. His body was buried at midnight, in the Presbyterian churchyard at Knoxville, after the celebration of the impressive funeral service of the Protestant Episcopal Church, by the Rev. Mr. Hume.
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