Knoxville campaign
Knoxville campaign | |||||
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Part of the American Civil War | |||||
James Longstreet and Ambrose Burnside, principal commanders of the Knoxville campaign | |||||
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Belligerents | |||||
United States (Union) | Confederate States (Confederacy) | ||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||
Ambrose Burnside | James Longstreet | ||||
Units involved | |||||
Knoxville Campaign | |||||
The Knoxville campaign
Opposing forces
Union
Confederate
Background and initial movements
The mountainous, largely
Burnside's plan to advance from
By mid-August, Burnside began his advance toward the city. The direct route to Knoxville ran through the Cumberland Gap, a position strongly favoring the Confederate defenders. Instead, Burnside chose to flank them. He threatened the gap from the north with the brigade commanded by Col. John F. DeCourcy, while his other two divisions swung around 40 miles (64 km) to the south of the Confederate position, over rugged mountain roads toward Knoxville. Despite poor road conditions, his men were able to march as many as 30 miles (48 km) per day.[4]
Burnside's march began on 16 August 1863 from
As the Chickamauga campaign began, Buckner was ordered south to Chattanooga, leaving only a single brigade in the Cumberland Gap and one other east of Knoxville. Maj. Gen.
In the Cumberland Gap, 2,300 inexperienced soldiers commanded by
Burnside dispatched some cavalry reinforcements to Rosecrans and made preparations for an expedition to clear the roads and gaps from East Tennessee to Virginia and if possible secure the saltworks beyond
Battles of the East Tennessee campaign
Blountville (September 22, 1863)
On September 22, Union Col. John W. Foster, with his cavalry and artillery, engaged Col. James E. Carter and his troops at Blountville. Foster attacked at noon and in the four-hour battle, shelled the town and initiated a flanking movement, compelling the Confederates to withdraw.[9]
Blue Springs (October 10)
Confederate Brig. Gen.
Philadelphia (October 20)
The defeat at Blue Springs caused Jones to ask for help, which Bragg quickly provided from his Army of Tennessee. Bragg sent Maj. Gen.
Longstreet advances toward Knoxville
Reacting to Burnside's victories in the Cumberland Gap and at Blue Springs, and concerned that Burnside might reinforce the Federal army that was now besieged in Chattanooga, Braxton Bragg asked
While Longstreet's men prepared for rail transport, a small skirmish occurred in
Longstreet's plan was to travel by railroad to Sweetwater, approximately halfway to Knoxville, but it was a journey fraught by problems. The expected trains did not arrive on time, and the men started off on foot. When the trains did arrive, they were pulled by underpowered locomotives that could not negotiate all of the mountain grades under load, forcing the men to dismount and walk alongside the cars in the steeper sections. The engineers had insufficient wood for fuel, and the men had to stop and dismantle fences along the way to continue. It took eight days for all of Longstreet's men and equipment to travel the 60 miles (97 km) to Sweetwater, and when they arrived on November 12, they found that promised supplies were not available. The men, who had traveled from the campaigns in Virginia, would not be equipped with adequate food or clothing for the winter to come.[14]
The Lincoln administration became concerned about Burnside's situation and, despite weeks of urging him to leave Knoxville and head south, now ordered him to hold the city. Grant attempted to organize a relief expedition from Chattanooga, but Burnside calmly suggested that 5,000 of his men would advance southwest toward Longstreet, establish contact, and gradually withdraw toward Knoxville, which would ensure that the Confederates could not easily return to Chattanooga and reinforce Bragg. Grant readily accepted. On November 14, Longstreet erected a bridge across the Tennessee River west of Loudon and began his pursuit of Burnside.[15]
Wheeler's cavalry approached Knoxville on November 15 and attempted to occupy the heights overlooking the city from the south bank of the Holston River, but resistance from the Federal cavalrymen under Sanders and the threat of artillery in the forts on the river's southern bank caused him to abandon his plan and rejoin Longstreet's main body on the northern side of the river.[16]
Battles of Longstreet's Knoxville campaign
There were several significant battles fought during Longstreet's Knoxville campaign:
Campbell's Station (November 16)
Following parallel routes, Longstreet and Burnside raced for Campbell's Station, a hamlet where Concord Road, from the south, intersected Kingston Road to Knoxville. Burnside hoped to reach the crossroads first and continue on to safety in Knoxville; Longstreet planned to reach the crossroads and hold it, which would prevent Burnside from gaining Knoxville and force him to fight outside his earthworks. By forced marching on a rainy November 16, Burnside's advance reached the vital intersection and deployed first. The main column arrived at noon with the baggage train just behind. Scarcely 15 minutes later, Longstreet's Confederates approached. Longstreet attempted a double envelopment: attacks timed to strike both Union flanks simultaneously. McLaws's Confederate division struck with such force that the Union right had to redeploy, but they held. Jenkins's Confederate division maneuvered ineffectively as it advanced and was unable to turn the Union left. Burnside ordered his two divisions astride Kingston Road to withdraw three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) to a ridge in their rear. This was accomplished without confusion. The Confederates suspended their attack while Burnside continued his retrograde movement to Knoxville.[17]
The Federal withdrawal under pressure was well executed, and on November 17, the bulk of Burnside's army was within the defensive perimeter of Knoxville, and the so-called Siege of Knoxville began. The Confederates were not equipped for siege operations and were running short on supplies. On November 18, William Sanders, leading the cavalry that was screening Burnside's withdrawal, was mortally wounded in a skirmish. Longstreet planned an attack as early as November 20, but he delayed, waiting for reinforcements under Brig. Gen. Bushrod Johnson (3,500 men) and the cavalry brigade of Brig. Gen. Grumble Jones. Col. Edward Porter Alexander, Longstreet's artillery chief, wrote that "every day of delay added to the strength of the enemy's breastworks."[18]
Kingston (November 24)
Longstreet worried that an isolated Union garrison at Kingston might interfere with the line of communication between his forces and Bragg's near Chattanooga. He sent Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler with two divisions of cavalry to wipe out a force that was estimated to be weak. When Wheeler's cavalrymen arrived near Kingston, they found that a brigade of Union infantry and a regiment of mounted infantry occupied a good defensive position. After an unsuccessful skirmish, the Confederate cavalry withdrew and rejoined Longstreet's command, while Wheeler himself returned to Bragg's army.[19]
Fort Sanders (November 29)
Longstreet decided that Fort Sanders was the only vulnerable place where his men could penetrate Burnside's fortifications, which enclosed the city, and successfully conclude the siege, already a week long. The fort, named in honor of slain cavalry chief William Sanders, surmounted an eminence just northwest of Knoxville. Northwest of the fort, the land dropped off abruptly. Longstreet believed he could assemble a storming party, undetected at night, below the fortifications and overwhelm Fort Sanders by a coup de main before dawn. Following a brief artillery barrage directed at the fort's interior, three Rebel brigades charged. Union wire entanglements—telegraph wire stretched from one tree stump to another to another—delayed the attack, but the fort's outer ditch halted the Confederates. This ditch was twelve feet (3.7 m) wide and from four to ten feet (1–3 m) deep with vertical sides. The fort's exterior slope was also almost vertical. Crossing the ditch was nearly impossible, especially under withering defensive fire from musketry and canister. Confederate officers did lead their men into the ditch, but, without scaling ladders, few emerged on the scarp side, and the few who entered the fort were wounded, killed, or captured. The attack lasted twenty minutes and resulted in extremely lopsided casualties: 813 Confederate versus 13 Union.[20]
Walker's Ford (December 2)
About 6,000 Union troops under Brig. Gen. Orlando B. Willcox remained near Cumberland Gap, protecting the wagon road leading back to the supply base at Camp Nelson in Kentucky.[21] Following Burnside's instructions, Willcox sent a cavalry brigade under Col. Felix W. Graham to Maynardville and began moving his infantry to Tazewell. Longstreet ordered Brig. Gen. William T. Martin to oppose Graham's thrust with three Confederate cavalry brigades. Graham pulled his brigade back toward the Clinch River and Martin's horsemen caught up with it, bringing on a clash. As Graham's cavalry were being pressed back, Willcox brought up two infantry regiments, which crossed the river at Walker's Ford, and they brought Martin's cavalry to a halt. A Confederate attempt to cross at an upstream ford was also blocked by one of Graham's regiments. Martin pulled his forces back toward Knoxville the next day.[22]
Siege lifted (December 4)
As Longstreet contemplated his next move, he received word that Bragg's army was soundly defeated at the
Bean's Station (December 14)
On December 13, Shackelford was near Bean's Station on the Holston River. Longstreet decided to go back and capture Bean's Station. Three Confederate columns and artillery approached Bean's Station to catch the Federals in a vise. By 2:00 a.m. on December 14, one column was skirmishing with Union pickets. The pickets held out as best they could and warned Shackelford of the Confederate presence. He deployed his force for an assault. Soon, the battle started and continued throughout most of the day. Confederate flanking attacks and other assaults occurred at various times and locations, but the Federals held until Southern reinforcements arrived. By nightfall, the Federals were retiring from Bean's Station through Bean's Gap and on to Blain's Cross Roads. Longstreet set out to attack the Union forces again the next morning, but as he approached them at Blain's Cross Roads, he found them well-entrenched. Longstreet withdrew, and the Federals soon left the area.[24]
Aftermath
The Knoxville campaign ended following the battle of Bean's Station, and both sides went into winter quarters. The only real effect of the minor campaign was to deprive Bragg of troops he sorely needed in Chattanooga. Longstreet's foray as an independent commander was a failure, and his self-confidence was damaged. He reacted to the failure of the campaign by blaming others, as he had done at the
Burnside's competent conduct of the campaign, despite apprehensions in Washington, partially restored his military reputation that had been damaged so severely at Fredericksburg. His successful hold on Knoxville, plus Grant's victory in Chattanooga, put much of East Tennessee under Union control for the rest of the war.[26]
See also
Notes
- ^ The U.S. National Park Service classifies the five battles in this article into two campaigns: the East Tennessee campaign (Blountsville and Blue Springs) and Longstreet's Knoxville campaign (Campbell's Station, Fort Sanders, Bean's Station).
- ^ Eicher, pp. 613-14; Hartley, pp. 1131-32; Korn, p. 101; Hess, ch. 1.
- ^ Eicher, pp. 613-14.
- ^ Korn, p. 101.
- ^ Cox 1882, pp. 9–11.
- ^ Korn, p. 103.
- ^ Korn, p. 104.
- ^ Korn, pp. 104-05.
- ^ NPS Blountsville
- ^ NPS Blue Springs
- ^ Hess 2013, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Eicher, p. 614; Longstreet, pp. 480-83; Alexander, p. 311; Hartley, p. 1132; Korn, p. 100.
- ^ Eicher, p. 614.
- ^ Korn, pp. 100-01; Eicher, p. 614; Hartley, p. 1132.
- ^ Hartley, pp. 1132-33; Korn, pp. 105-06; Eicher, p. 615.
- ^ Eicher, p. 614; Hartley, pp. 1132-33.
- ^ NPS Campbell's Station
- ^ Wert, p. 346; Eicher, p. 615; Korn, p. 109-11.
- ^ Hess 2013, pp. 115–118.
- ^ Eicher, p. 616; NPS Fort Sanders
- ^ Hess 2013, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Hess 2013, pp. 186–189.
- ^ Hartley, p. 1133; Eicher, pp. 616-17.
- ^ NPS Bean's Station
- ^ Wert, pp. 340-59, 360-75; Longstreet, pp. 480-523.
- ^ Hartley, p. 1133.
References
- Cox, Jacob D. (1882). Atlanta. Campaigns of the Civil War, IX. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
- ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
- Hartley, William. "Knoxville Campaign." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
- Hess, Earl J. (2013). The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-57233-995-8.
- Korn, Jerry, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. The Fight for Chattanooga: Chickamauga to Missionary Ridge. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1985. ISBN 0-8094-4816-5.
- ISBN 0-671-70921-6.
- National Park Service battle descriptions
Primary sources
- ISBN 0-8078-4722-4.
- ISBN 0-306-80464-6. First published in 1896 by J. B. Lippincott and Co.
- U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Recordsof the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-8032-9813-7.