Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-11-07

Az '"o udyS OF SklrmlShlng, the 18th
and 18th of November, 1863, the
II rate of Knoxville, Tenn, was de-
c1ded. While virtually holding the
Federal army at Chattanooga under
siege, the Confederate General Bragg
dispatched Longstreet's corps from the
besleging lines to attack Knoxville.
The Federal General Burnside was
looking out for Knoxville with four, d.
visions Of infantry and one of cavalry.
AS Longstreet marched up the river
from Chattanooga, Burnside gradually
withdrew his troops toward the threat
ened city.
When Longstreet found his enemy in
great numbers on his front he laid
plan to get around to his rear and cut
him off from Knoxville For this pur-
pose he called into his service a local
guide, who promised to pilot the Con-
federates by blind road around the
Federal front. The guide failed to keep
his contract. but the persistent Long
street nearly succeeded in spite Of this
failure. There were three roads leading
up the valley, converging at Campbelrs
Station. The troops that could get to
the junction first would decide whether
the battle for Knoxville should be
fought in the open or behind the earth
works the Federals were rapidly piling
up around the town.
1t would have suited the Confederate
leader had Burnside made a deliberate
retreat In that event he hoped to beat
him in the march to the junction. The
elements favored Longstreet's wish for
delay. Rain had made the roads so
heavy that it required sixteen to TWEEN
ty horses to haul a single Federal can
non through the mud. But Burnside
made hasty and skillful retreat One
division had been sent back hurriedly
to seize the coveted junction, and when
Iongstreet reached there the Federals
were ready in line of battle
Although he had failed to head off the
retreating Federals at the junction,
Longstreet still chung to the idea of
marching around to their rear He
lined up the division of McLaws for
battle on the front and personally con-
Quoted Jenkins division around the
Federal flank to strike the enemy in
the rear. The flank movement was to
be the master stroke, but Burnside's
scouts detected the march Of Jenkins
men, and Burnside drew his front back
nearly a mile to a stronger position.
Iongstreet delayed his attack, and that
night Burnside marched all his troops
into the unfinished lines Of Knoxville,
leaving rear guard of 100 fresh troop
ers under General ". P. Sanders to
stand off the Confederates while the
ranks were being formed for defense at
close quarters.
Ahead of Longstreet's column, about
q mile back from Sanders thin line
of sharpshooting skirmishers, stood the
principal fort in the Knoxville de-
lenses. 1t had been laid out by the
Confederates during their long occu
pancy of the place and the weeks of
labor put upon it by Burnside's engi-
neers had not brought it to the point
of completion for battle. When Burn
side saw the enemy marshaling in thou
sands within gunshot Of the fort he
asked his chief engineer how long it
would take to complete the work and
was told that it could be finished by
noon of the 18th. This was the even
ing of the 18th. Turning to General
Sanders, Burnside asked him if he
could hold the enemy at a distance un-
Til the hour named. Sanders replied
that he could and lay down in his
blanket to get some rest. Before day.
the front, where the battalions of
Longstreet were pressing up on all
sides.
About half a mile in front Of San
ders' line handful of Confederate
sharpshooters had climbed into the
tower of a brick house and from that
vantage ground were making it hot for
the Federal troopers. Sanders best
shots could not dislodge the unerring
marksmen, and he sent request to
Lieutenant Benjamin, whose guns were
In the fort behind, to try his hand upon
them. The distance from the fort to
the tower was $500 yards, but the
Yankee gunner demolished the tower
at the first shot.
The key to Sanders line was hill on
the Armstrong farm near the crossing
of the East Tennessee railroad over
the Holston (now the Tennessee) river.
This hill the troopers had barricaded
with rails and from that elevation the
sharpshooters could get range on the
whole valley. After Benjamin's splen-
did shot at the tower, Longstreet be-
came envious Of the enemy's gunnery
and told his chief of artillery. Colonel
Alexander, to knock out the Yankee
rail piles on Armstrong hill. Two ma
poleon guns were hauled by hand to
a position behind Armstrong house
out of sight, of the Yankees. At the
same time two regiments of infantry,
the Second and Third South Carolina,
crept forward under the cover Of the
fences and trees of the farmyard and
waited for the gunners to smash the
rail piles, when they would charge
and drive the blue troopers from the
hill .@ 5sE