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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.

    

    

click to enlarge






      

Relics from Spotsylvania, VA. and
Tullahoma, TN.




   


           
      

Early Coke bottle found on the surface while relic
hunting. It is worth almost $200.00





       




Confederate Cook and Brother Rifle lock.
Dug by my good friend Larry Bates in 1992
at Chickamauga.

This image is before electrolysis.




     


     

After Electrolysis.
We believe this lock was struck by a shell fragment
that took the hammer with it.



     


I dug this flagstaff finial in December. I dug a spade shaped one the
previous February. I would rather dig Confederate buckles, but
I really can't complain. These things are kinda rare. They are
mute witnessess to some serious tradgedy and drama. I would
venture to say that men have died holding this flag pole.