Tag Archives: Knoxville

The battle’s sesquicentennial

One hundred fifty years ago at dawn today, four seriously-under strength Mississippi and Georgia regiments attacked the earthwork Fort Sanders on Knoxville’s west side. The very subject of Knoxville 1863, the novel—this blog—and the book itself. I suppose there will be … Continue reading

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A neighborhood’s ghost

The real Fort Sanders is long gone, but it haunts the Knoxville neighborhood named for it. And the ghost still draws researchers, including retired University of Tennessee archeologist Charlie Faulkner: “The earthwork fort actually stood for decades after the war; there … Continue reading

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Gay Street 1910

Knoxville’s Gay Street, fifty-one years after it was the scene of Rebel and Union recruiting, as recalled by the novel’s Parthenia Leila Ellis. Via Instapundit.

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Reprise: Burnside’s congratulations

The day before President Lincoln issued his proclamation of thanksgiving for the Confederate defeat at Knoxville, Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside congratulated his troops on their steadfast performance: “The Army of the Ohio has nobly guarded the loyal region it redeemed … Continue reading

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Bethel Cemetery

The Confederate monument at Knoxville’s Bethel Cemetery which holds the remains of about 1,600 Rebel soldiers, “including several hundred soldiers who were killed in the battle of Fort Sanders.” This month, an 1886 cemetery caretaker’s house was transformed into the … Continue reading

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Blue-Gray Reunion 1890

The reunion tent (left) was erected at the edge of what little remained (to the right of the tent) of Fort Sanders. Photo via McClung Collection.

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Too cold to write

Texas Brigade Private John Camden West wrote his wife from their camp near Knoxville on Dec. 19, almost three weeks after the assault on Fort Sanders: “I would like to write you a long letter but it is so windy … Continue reading

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Hie thee to the street corner

That is, if you wish to commemorate the Battle of Fort Sanders during these Sesquicentennial years of the war. Supposedly, near the intersection of Seventeenth Street and Laurel Avenue is where the fort’s pivotal northwest bastion was sited, until neglect, … Continue reading

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