Battle of Fort Sanders The Battle of Fort Sanders was the decisive 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 . Background . The Confederacy had never had effective control of large areas of East Tennessee . There had been little slavery practiced in East Tennessee , because of moral opposition to the practice and the fact that little of the land was suitable to plantation agriculture ; pro - Union and Republican sentiment ran high and most East Tennesseans had not been in favor of secession . Therefore , Union forces had little trouble from the local populace when Burnside occupied Knoxville in September 1863 ; the Army had considerably more difficulty reaching Knoxville over the rugged mountainous roads of the region . Union engineers commanded by Captain Orlando M . Poe built several fortifications in the form of bastioned earthworks near Knoxville . One was Fort Sanders , just west of downtown Knoxville across a creek valley . It was named for Brig . Gen . William P . Sanders , mortally wounded in a skirmish outside Knoxville on November 18 , 1863 . The fort , a salient in the line of earthworks that surrounded three sides of the city , rose above the surrounding plateau and was protected by a ditch wide and deep . An almost vertical wall rose above the ditch . Inside the fort were 12 cannons and 440 men of the 79th New York Infantry . As a Confederate army under General Braxton Bragg besieged Union forces at Chattanooga , Tennessee , a detachment under the command of Lt . Gen . James Longstreet , a trusted subordinate of Robert E . Lee , was sent to Knoxville to prevent Burnside ' s Army of the Ohio from moving in support of Chattanooga . After Burnside escaped a trap at the Battle of Campbell ' s Station , his men took up defensive positions around Knoxville and the Siege of Knoxville began on November 17 , 1863 . Longstreet determined that Fort Sanders was the most appropriate place to attempt a breakthrough of the Union defenses . He initially planned an assault on November 20 , but chose to delay while he received reinforcements . His eventual assault was conducted by three infantry brigades , under Brig . Gen . Benjamin G . Humphreys , Brig . Gen . Goode Bryan , and Col . Solon Z . Ruff ( commanding Wofford ' s Brigade ) . On November 23 , 1863 , Longstreet ' s forces seized Cherokee Heights , a tall bluff south of the Holston River ( now called the Tennessee River ) from Knoxville , but only about from Fort Sanders . Longstreet ' s original intent was to use artillery to " soften up " Fort Sanders in preparation for a frontal assault ; however , at virtually the last minute , he changed the plan to a surprise infantry assault at dawn , hoping that the benefits of surprise would outweigh those of a cannonade . Inexplicably , he squandered the element of surprise by deploying skirmisher s forward hours before the assault . Although this movement placed them in good positions for sharpshooting , it clearly revealed his plans to the Union troops . Battle . The assault , conducted on November 29 , 1863 , was poorly planned and executed . Longstreet discounted the difficulties of the physical obstacles his infantrymen would face . He had witnessed , through field glasses , a Union soldier walking across the ditch and , not realizing that the man had crossed on a plank , believed that the ditch was very shallow . He also believed that the steep walls could be negotiated by digging footholds , rather than requiring scaling ladders . The Confederates moved to within 120 - 150 yards of the salient during the night of freezing rain and snow and waited for the order to attack . Their attack at dawn has been described as " cruel and gruesome by 19th century standards . " They were initially confronted by telegraph wire that had been strung between tree stumps at knee height , possibly the first use of such wire entanglements in the Civil War , and many men were shot as they tried to untangle themselves . When they reached the ditch , they found the vertical wall to be almost insurmountable , frozen and slippery . Union soldiers rained murderous fire into the masses of men , including musketry , canister , and artillery shells thrown as hand grenades . Unable to dig footholds , men climbed upon each other ' s shoulders to attempt to reach the top . A succession of color bearers was shot down as they planted their flags on the fort . For a brief time , three flags reached the top , those of the 16th Georgia , 13th Mississippi , and 17th Mississippi . Aftermath . Longstreet called off the disastrous attack after 20 minutes . As the Confederates retreated , Union soldiers captured over 200 in the ditch . It was one of the most lopsided defeats of the war , with the Confederates suffering 813 casualties compared to the Union ' s 13 . The combination of this defeat and word that Bragg had been defeated at the Battle of Chattanooga meant the effective end of the Siege of Knoxville . Longstreet did not resume his attacks and withdrew on December 4 . His Knoxville Campaign had been a failure , unable to defeat Burnside or to assist Bragg . East Tennessee remained under Union control for the remainder of the war . Battlefield today . The Fort Sanders area became the site of many Victorian homes that were built approximately three decades later . Several , especially those located on the uphill sides of streets , are most impressive ; some have been restored in recent decades . A few were incorporated into the grounds of the 1982 World ' s Fair . Many more have been divided into apartments and are rented out to University of Tennessee students . The author James Agee was from this area ; the exteriors for the motion picture version of " All the Way Home " were shot outside one of the more palatial homes , which has since burned . Agee ' s novel , " A Death in the Family " , ends with Agee ( " Rufus " in the novel ) and his uncle conversing while looking out over the ruins of Fort Sanders .