Knoxville, Tennessee was the scene of much military activity during the Civil War. In 1861, Camp Cummings was established in the vicinity of the current fairgrounds and zoo. This was the main Confederate training camp in East Tennessee. Edmund Kirby Smith launched his Kentucky campaign from Knoxville via Cumberland Gap. The Confederate army of General Braxton Bragg retreated to Knoxville after the battle of Perryville Ky. The East Tenn. and Virginia Railroad was a major conduit for Troops, supplies, munitions and food stuffs for the Conferderate government in Virginia. Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Ohio wrested Knoxville from Confederate control in Sept. of 1863. These troops consisted of the 23rd and 9th U.S. Army corps formerly of the Army of the Potomac. They immediately occupied and fortified Loudon. Not long thereafter, General James Longstreet's Division drove the Yankees from Loudon, and pursued them into the fortifications of Knoxville, fighting a running battle along the Kingston Pike.The siege of Knoxville began in earnest, culminating in the attack on Fort Sanders. This resulted in a bloody repulse for the Confederates who retreated to the vicinity of Bean's Station in the face of Union reinforcements under Sherman. These are some of my recent finds from Knoxville.

    

    

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