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The Battle of Fort Sanders was the crucial engagement of the Knoxville Campaign of the American Civil War, fought in Knoxville, Tennessee, on November 29, 1863.Assaults by Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet failed to break through the defensive lines of Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, resulting in lopsided casualties, and the Siege of Knoxville entered its final days.
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.
Longstreet learned that Bragg had been defeated at Chattanooga on November 25 and that Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's men were marching to relieve Burnside. He decided to risk a frontal attack on Union entrenchments before they arrived. On November 29, he sent his troops forward at the Battle of Fort Sanders.
On November 22, Longstreet contemplated making an assault on Fort Sanders, but called it off. Instead, he sent the four 10-pounder Parrott rifles of William W. Parker's Virginia Battery across to Cherokee Heights. This would allow Fort Sanders to be shelled from the south, but only at the extreme range of 2,300 yd (2,103 m).
November 17 - Longstreet lays siege to Knoxville [17] November 18 - Engagement at West Knoxville. Union General Sanders is mortally wounded. [18] November 25 - Engagement at Armstrong's Hill, South Knoxville. [19] November 28. Weather rainy and cold in Knoxville. General McLaws drives in the pickets at Fort Sanders that evening.
The following Confederate States Army units and commanders fought in the Knoxville Campaign and subsequent East Tennessee operations during the American Civil War from November 4 to December 31, 1863, under the command of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. Engagements of this campaign include the Battle of Dandridge and the Battle of Bean's Station.
Fort Sanders was the childhood home of author James Agee, and provided the setting for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family. A ten-fold expansion of U.T.'s student body after World War II brought about the need for student housing, and many of the old homes in Fort Sanders have since been converted into apartments. [1]
Campbell's Station is a short distance northwest of Concord. The Battle of Campbell's Station (November 16, 1863) saw Confederate forces under Lieutenant General James Longstreet attack Union troops led by Major General Ambrose Burnside at Campbell's Station (now Farragut), Knox County, Tennessee, during the Knoxville Campaign of the American Civil War.