Tag: Fort Sanders (Knoxville TN)

Wikipedia says: Fort Sanders is a neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, located west of the downtown area . Fort Sanders is named for a Civil War-era Union bastion that once stood near the center of the neighborhood, which was the site of a key engagement in 1863.

Battle of Fort Sanders

In November 1863, Confederate forces under General James Longstreet marched north from Chattanooga to Knoxville in hopes of dislodging Union forces under Ambrose Burnside, who had occupied Knoxville a few months prior. After a brief skirmish at Campbell’s Station (Farragut), Longstreet’s forces approached Knoxville from the west along Kingston Pike. Delaying maneuvers executed by General William P. Sanders gave Union forces in the city time to complete fortifications, although Sanders was mortally wounded on November 18, and died at the Lamar House the following day. With Union fortifications in place, Longstreet decided to surround the city and starve Union forces out.

During the Siege of Knoxville, Confederate pickets stretched roughly along what is now Twenty-First Street between Cumberland and Forest avenues. Union fortifications included Fort Byington atop “The Hill,” Battery Noble at what is now the intersection of Melrose and Seventeenth, and Battery Zoellner near the intersection of Highland and Eleventh. Fort Sanders, originally “Fort Loudon” but renamed in honor of the deceased General Sanders, was an earthen fort that spanned Seventeenth between Laurel and Clinch, and continued along Laurel and Clinch eastward to Sixteenth Street.

On the morning of November 29, 1863, after a two-week siege, Longstreet ordered three brigades under General Lafayette McLaws to attack Fort Sanders, in hopes of breaching Union lines. The attackers marched from what is now the intersection of Nineteenth and Forest, southeastward across the intersection of Eighteenth and Highland, toward the fort’s northeast corner at the intersection of Seventeenth and Laurel. They were unable to overcome a deep trench at the base of the fort, however, and retreated with heavy casualties. The battle, which lasted just twenty minutes, effectively ended Longstreet’s chances of taking the city, and he retreated shortly afterward.