Author Archives:

About Dick Stanley

Retired daily newspaperman

Former Tennessee slave writes his former master

Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865 To My Old Master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee Sir: I got your letter and was glad to find you had not forgotten Jourdan, and that you wanted me to come back and … Continue reading

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The Bridge Burners

In 1861, a group of forty Unionists of East Tennessee, some of them from Knoxville, set out to put their actions where their politics were. They plotted to burn regional railroad bridges to stop or at least slow Confederate soldiers … Continue reading

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Own your own Whitworth

The Rebs fatally sharpshot Fort Sanders’ namesake Union Gen. William P. Sanders, with a thirteen-pound English Whitworth rifle like this one. It was fired more than a mile away, from the tower  of the Bleak House mansion, Gen. Longstreet’s headquarters. … Continue reading

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A reenactor explains the cavalry

Cavalry played no part at all in the attack on Fort Sanders and little enough in the whole Siege of Knoxville. But General Joseph Wheeler’s rebel cavalry had an early role, and that’s my excuse for including this good video … Continue reading

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Civil War accoutrements, Civil War armament, Civil War clothing, Knoxville, Reenactors | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“…the only real night charge we ever made.”

Two of the Mississippi Brigade’s regiments, the 18th and the 21st, were charged with driving in the Union pickets the night before the dawn assault on Fort Sanders by the 17th and 13th regiments. After the war, 18th regiment Captain … Continue reading

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Confederate Veteran Magazine, Eighteenth Mississippi, Fort Sanders, Twenty-First Mississippi | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

USCT Reenactors

Reenactors of the African-American Civil War Museum in Washington, D.C., in period clothing, presumably portraying the wives and mothers of the United States Colored Troops, such as the ones who served in Knoxville.

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Civil War clothing, Knoxville, Reenactors, United States Colored Troops | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Reprise: Bleak House

One reader of the novel recently emailed to say he‘d Googled “Bleak House” and was surprised to see that it still stands. This is an old photo of the Armstrong home—which hosted Gen. Longstreet’s headquarters during the siege—when it was still a … Continue reading

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Sharpshooter

Literary critic and writing professor David Madden’s 1996 novel Sharpshooter is the only other fiction I’m aware of about the Siege of Knoxville and, very briefly, the Battle of Fort Sanders. It’s a good story, worth your money (as little … Continue reading

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Bleak House, Civil War armament, Gen. William P. Sanders, Tennessee | Tagged , | Leave a comment

At First Light

Historical artist Ken Smith of Pulaski, Virginia, depicts the opening artillery before the dawn attack. Print and more available here.

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Reprise: Chicken Guts

“The men call them ‘chicken guts,’” fictional Confederate Major Clayton Ellis tells his wife, Parthenia Leila Ellis, in the novel. He was sheepishly referring to the fancy gold braid on the sleeves of his new uniform coat tailored in Nashville. The thickness … Continue reading

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