Poor Planning

The Battle of Fort Sanders a part of the Knoxville Campaign was fought November 29^th 1863, hastening the end of the Siege of Knoxville.

When a Union force occupied Knoxville, Tennessee, engineer Captain Orlando M Poe built several earthwork fortifications around the city, including Fort Sanders to the west of Knoxville.  The Fort was 70 feet higher than the surrounding plateau, and included a ditch 12 feet wide and 4 to 10 feet deep.  The fort was held by 440 men of the 79^th New York Infantry with 12 cannon.

Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet was ordered to the area of Knoxville to prevent Union Major General Ambrose E Burnside from moving his troops to support Union troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Longstreet decided that Fort Sanders was the best place to attempt a break in the Union line.

On November 29^th 1863 the assault began, which quickly went wrong due to poor planning and unknown obstacles the Confederate soldier would run into.  In the very early morning hours Longstreet’s men moved to within 130 yards of the Fort, and then waited for dawn in a freezing rain.  The men first encountered telegraph wire which had been strung about knee high, then reaching the ditch they found the ground to steep, frozen and slippery to get up.  The Union soldiers defending the Fort shot into the massed Confederates below them with deadly fire.  As the Confederates attempt to reach the top, they climbed up each other.  For a short time the flags of the 13^th Mississippi, 16^th Georgia, and 17^th Mississippi Infantry were planted at the top of the ditch, but color bearers were quickly shot down.

Twenty minutes into the attack Longstreet had it called off.  Union soldiers captured over 200 Confederates, stuck in the ditch.  The casualties were quite lopsided, with the Confederates loosing 813 to the Union’s 13 looses.

The Camp Was Made Up Of Confederate Trees

The Battle of Ball’s Bluff [also called the Battle of Leesburg or Harrison’s Island] was fought October 21^st 1861 in Loudoun County, Virginia.

On October 19^th 1861 Union Brigadier General George A McCall took his division to Dranesville, Virginia about 12 miles from Leesburg, Virginia to see if Confederate Colonel Nathan Evans had abandoned Leesburg.  Evans was in fact in a defensive position on the Alexandria Winchester Turnpike to the east of the town.

Union Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone was ordered on October 20^th 1861 to conduct a demonstration on the Confederates.  He had troops moved along the river, with artillery firing into the suspected Confederate position; Stone crossed about 100 of the 1^st Minnesota Infantry just before dark.  Getting no reaction from Evans troops, Stone recalled his men.  After dark Stone ordered Colonel Charles Devens of the 15^th Massachusetts Infantry to send about 20 men across the river to gather information.  These soldiers advanced about mile inland, mistaking a row of tree for a Confederate camp they reported this “camp” without verifying.  This information caused Stone to order 300 troops to be moved across the river as soon as it was light.

Devens’ troops quickly discovered on the morning of October 21^st 1861, that there wasn’t a camp for raiding.  He had his men deploy along the tree line and sent back to Stone for new orders.  Stone had the rest of the 15^th Massachusetts cross the river and join the first of Devens’ troops and make a reconnaissance towards Leesburg.  Stone sent Colonel Edward Dickinson Baker to evaluate the situation.  Baker was told to move additional troops across the river or withdraw at his discretion.  At this point Baker learned that Devens’ men had engaged a company of the 17^th Mississippi Infantry, and so decided to move more troops across the river.  The problem was a lack of boats and so the crossing took forever.  Devens found himself facing a growing number of Confederate troops and around 2 pm was forced to withdraw to the bluff along the river where Baker deployed the men he had gotten across.  At about 3 pm the fighting became heavy, continuing until after dark.  Baker was killed about 4:30 becoming the only United States Senator ever killed in battle.  At dark with their line breaking the Union troops began to look for an escape route.  Banks of the river along Ball’s Bluff were steep, boats which were over loaded by men trying to re-cross the river became swamped, and many Union men drowned.

There were 223 Union soldiers killed, including Colonel Baker, 226 wounded, and 553 taken prisoner of war.