and parallel to the railroad.

On the south side of the river were Shackel-
ford's cavalry and Cameron's brigade of Hascall's
Division, Twenty-third army corps, the latter
supporting Koukle's battery of four guns and two
sections of Wilder's battery (all three-inch rifles).
Riley's brigade was held in reserve in the streets
of the town.

The defences at first raised by the troops were
simply ditches four feet wide and deep, with the
excavated earth embanked on the outside; except
the more formidable structures on Temperance
Hill and those held by Lieut. Benjamin's battery
built by the engineer battalion. Fatigued as were
the soldiers who had been at Campbell's Station,
they as well as others, labored with energy upon
the entrenchments throughout the whole day and
night of November 17th, and would then have



PREPARATIONS FOR A SIEGE. 253

been compelled to cease, had not Col. Sanders,
with his cavalry on the Kingston road, and Col.
Pennybaker, with his mounted regiments on the
Clinton road, held Longstreet's forces in check.
Capt. Poe says: "The hours in which to work,
that the gallant conduct of our cavalry secured us,
were worth to us a thousand men each." The next
morning two hours of rest were given them, and
were used in sleep by the men without delay on
the ground where they stood. At the same time
Gen. Burnside, in consultation with Capt. Poe and
Col. Sanders, was informed by the first that the
rifle pits would be ready for defence before the
end of many hours, and by the other, that with
his cavalry, "seven hundred strong and in good
fighting trim," he could hold Longstreet at bay
until that time had expired. For another day and
night the men persevered in labor with ready wills
and hands. The suggestion by one of their officers
that the alternative of effective resistance to the
enemy would be a visit to Libby prison, served
as an incentive to both industry and heroism.
Many of them had been without rest but for two
hours in a hundred, and it was necessary for their
relief that contrabands and citizens should be
pressed into service. The former did heartily the
tasks assigned them, the difficulty of which in
some instances may be inferred from the fact that
places for the guns of Benjamin's and Buckley's
batteries could only be cleared by four hours dili-
gent labor of two hundred men. Of the citizens
who had to work on the entrenchments, they who



254 THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.

were loyal to the United States did their duty
cheerfully, but "many," according the Chief En-
gineer, "were rebels, and worked with a very
poor grace, which blistered hands did not tend to
improve."

In the afternoon of the 18th the skirmishing be-
tween Sanders' dismounted cavalry and Long-
street's advance, two miles west of the town, was
concluded by a fire of artillery upon Sanders,
which compelled him to retreat after he had suc-
cessfully resisted — -with rail fences as shields — the
charges of his powerful foe. At the close of the
contest he received a mortal wound, reeled upon
his horse and falling, was caught in the arms of
his men and taken to a house in town. In full
possession of his mind, there was no disturbance
of its calmness by the answer of the surgeon to
his question as to the nature of his wound. Death
had no terrors for him. "He had done his duty
and served his country as well as he could." That
was all in few and simple words he had to say.
The following day, being informed that the end of
his life was nigh at hand, he asked for a Christian
minister, and then that he should be baptized in
the faith and name of Jesus, the Son of God. The
Rev. Mr. Hyder, chaplain of the post, complied
with this earnest desire, and a writer in the
Atlantic Monthly* relates that, "then the minister
in prayer commended the believing soul to God,
General Burnside and his staff, who were present,
kneeling around the bed. When the prayer

*Major Burrage, of the 36th Massachusetts Regiment.



FUNERAL OF GEN. SANDERS. 255

was ended, General Sanders took General Burn-
side by the hand. Tears dropped down the
bronzed cheeks of the chief as he listened to the
last words which followed. The sacrament of the
Lord's Supper was now about to be administered,
but suddenly the strength of the dying soldier
failed, and like a child he gently fell asleep." To
this pathetic recital its author appends the quota-
tion from the sayings of Him who spake as never
man spake: "Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends."

It was found impossible to assemble the chief
officers of the United States army by day at the
funeral of their slain companion. Longstreet's
troops had advanced to the ridge for which they
fought and planted themselves within rifle range
of the defences on the northwest, and the town
had become fairly besieged, north, from the river
above to the river below. Lines parallel with and
in cannon range of Burnside's, had been established,
and redoubts had been thrown up for batteries,
which on the third day opened a continuous fire
that met with prompt answer. There was need
of constant vigilance and alertness upon the long
line of defences, and those in command could not
prudently leave their posts of duty in day-light.

In the afternoon, a resident minister of the Gos-
pel was requested by General Burnside to attend
after nightfall the funeral of the officer, whose
wound unto death had signalized the beginning of
the siege and thrown a dark shadow upon the
spirits of his companions. They gathered together



256 THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.

at their commander's headquarters, and among
them was the Chief Engineer of the Department,
who was a personal friend of the deceased — his
only class-mate at the siege — who spoke of him as
a "most gallant, chivalric soldier and noble gentle-
man." To Capt. Poe, Gen. Sanders had commu-
nicated the premonition he had, that death awaited
him in battle on the day he fell. And with the
Captain, he had left on going to the field, some per-
sonal treasures, among which were a few letters
from one who he had hoped would in the future be
his bride. He was yet young, his age being 28.

As the party of mourners passed down the
street to the hotel where the body lay, Gen. Burn-
side spoke of the extraordinary personal daring of
the departed man. With sad emphasis he said,
" I told Sanders not to expose himself, but he
would do it." Upon reaching the hotel, the com-
pany's number was increased by waiting friends,
and after religious offices a procession was formed
upon the silent street. There was no plumed
hearse, drawn by well-fed horses, but kindly hands
of brother-soldiers to bear the dead, at the end of

"The path of glory that leads but to the grave."

A sort of weird solemnity invested the darkened
scene. Its features were in such strong contrast
with those which might be expected in the fitness
of things it would wear. No funeral strains of
martial music floated on the air. Its quiet was not
even disturbed by the dull thumping of the solitary
drum and the heavy tread of armed soldiers. It



FUNERAL OF GEN. SANDERS. 257

seemed as if War, disrobed of its pomp and pag-
eantry, had taken its departure and its absence
was supplied by heaven-born Peace, clothed in
plain and simple attire, disdaining through pro-
found grief all trappings of woe. An observer
might fancy that the army, which with dauntless
courage refused to surrender to men in superior
force, had now surrendered to God, and that its
chieftains, having yielded up their swords, were
marching along the way into captivity.

But yet, not all is peaceful. For hark! there
comes the sound of booming cannon. And
every little while it again peals forth upon the
hushed air. From the presence of these night
obsequies, War is gone, but he lingers near and
bids defiance to the encroacher on his domain.
Little heed, though, do the mourners give to his
hoarse notes. And the heavens appear to sympa-
thize in the grief, for their face is covered with
mist as with a veil, and hanging low in the western
sky, a young moon sheds her dimmed luster on the
scene, and from above all, the loving eye of One
looks down, without whose notice, although He
rules the army of heaven, not a sparrow falls to
the ground.

At the head of the procession went the Com-
mander-in-chief and the minister. By their side
walked the Medical Director of the army,* bearing
a lighted lantern in his hand. Said the clergyman:

"I am reminded of the lines on 'The Burial of
Sir John Moore.'"

* Dr. Jackson, of Pennsylvania.



258 THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.

Gen. Burnside quickly replied, striking his hand
on his thigh, "I have thought of them twenty times
to-day."

That lantern did duty at the grave, as the body
was committed, " earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust," in hope of the resurrection of the
dead. When all was over, the General said to the
minister a thoughtful word concerning the event,
inevitable, awaiting all men; and then every one
went his way, some to watch and some to sleep:
but probably few of the company could forget
the burial of Gen. R. M. Sanders, in the likeness
of its circumstances to the "Burial of Sir John
Moore."

"Not a drum was heard nor a funeral note
As his corse to the ramparts we hurried,
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we huried.

We buried him darkly at dead of night,

The sod with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeams' misty light,

And the lantern dimly burning.

Few and short were the prayers we said

And we spoke not a word of sorrow,
But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead

And we bitterly thought of the morrow.



But half of our heavy task was done,

When the clock struck the hour for retiring,

And we knew by the distant random gun
That the foe was sullenly tiring.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down
From the field of his fame, fresh and gory,

We carved not a line, we raised not a stone
But we left him alone in his glory."



PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE. 259

On the morning of November 20th the defences
were thought to be capable of resisting any prob-
able foe, but during that entire day and night, the
work of strengthening them was continued. In-
deed such labor was prosecuted for a considerable
period of time, in which the besiegers were also
busy at work for a contrary purpose. All that skill
and toil could effect was done to hold the town.
First Creek was successfully dammed at the Vine
Street bridge, and a dam that made a strong
obstacle was built across Second Creek where it
passes through a tunnel under the railroad. In
front of the rifle pits, a chevaux de frise was
formed of pointed stakes, bound together by wire,
and nearly five feet high, and at one place two
thousand pikes, captured at Cumberland Gap,
were used for a like purpose. In front of the
stakes thick branches of trees were firmly set in
the ground. The besiegers occupied a large brick
dwelling house a short distance west of Fort San-
ders, which the adult children of the Hon. Wm.
B. Reese, Sr., deceased, had been compelled to
vacate. The sharp-shooting carried on from it
became at length so annoying that at night on the
20th, the Seventeenth Michigan regiment was sent
to destroy the building. One might have supposed
from the loud voice of the Colonel in giving
orders and the ringing cheers of his men, that a
small army was approaching the house, and in
a great fright the inmates ingloriously fled without
firing a gun. The dwelling and barns were
burned to the ground. On that day, there was a



2 6o THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.

repetition of the firing from a battery Longstreet
had planted upon the Tazewell road, and which
had thrown the first shells into the town — without
harm at either time. For several days there were
constant sharp-shooting, skirmishing and cannon-
ading without important consequences.

It was believed by some that had Gen. Long-
street attempted with concentrated forces to take
the town upon his arrival, he would have suc-
ceeded, but the judgment of mere civilians upon
the subject is of little or no account, and compe-
tent military strategists would probably differ in
opinion concerning it. There can be no doubt
that his delay in a vigorous and determined assault
increased the hazard of defeat, by giving Burnside
time and opportunity, which he took care to im-
prove, for adding to the strength of his defences.
Perhaps Longstreet felt that he had Burnside in a
trap from which there was no reasonable hope of
escape, and that instead of sacrificing men in cap-
turing him by violent conflict, he would compel
the surrender of the United States army by starva-
tion. To all appearances the Confederate com-
mander had plenty of time to that end. Armed
help could not come to the besieged, except from
Gen. Grant at Chattanooga, whose predecessor
had not long before sustained a quasi defeat at
Chicamauga, who was confronted by a powerful
foe, and who, Gen. Bragg, from his own advan-
tageous position, thought was at his mercy. Could
Longstreet have fore-seen the complete rout of
Bragg at Missionary Ridge, no doubt he would



PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE. 26 1

more actively have prosecuted his undertaking at
Knoxville, but alas! for the shortness of human pre-
vision. Important events in the womb of the near
future, military as well as civil, are foreknown but
by Him who only is wise. As Longstreet could
not anticipate the serious disaster to the Confed-
erate arms at the battle of Chattanooga, he sat
down before Knoxville with composure and wari-
ness, and rather toyed with his supposed victim
than contended with him as an equal adversary.

And really, the investment of the town was so
closely maintained, that a surrender of the be-
sieged army, because of starvation before relief
could be had from any quarter, seemed within the
range of probabilities. The amount of its supplies
when the siege began was very limited. Cattle
and hogs were at once slaughtered and salted down,
but there were in the commissary department only
one or two days' rations for the whole army. Only
quarter rations were at first issued. Within a few
days these were wholly stopped, as all that could
be served were needed by the hospitals, and no
sugar or coffee could be had. Possession was
taken of the mills for Government use. Citizens
were living upon plain food in reduced quantities,
but these were necessarily drawn upon to meet
the army's necessities. The larders of people who
sympathized with the Confederacy had especially to
suffer. In some cases Union families befriended
their neighbors, who in the exigency would other-
wise have been put to great straits. A Union man
might be troubled by the thought that he was giv-



262



THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.



ing"aid and comfort to the enemy," by keeping
under his bedstead a sack of flour for a Secession-
ist who had a wife and five children to feed (of
which there was an instance), but his troubled
mind would easily find refuge in the thought that
he was obeying the teachings of humanity. A
spirit of fear was widely diffused, under the influ-
ence of which money as well as provisions, were
temporarily transferred for safety from one person
to another. The fright was greatest in respect to
cash, at the beginning of the siege, when not only
small sums thus changed hands, but a place of se-
cure deposit for large ones was eagerly sought. A
citizen was surprised by a night visit, the object of
which was to leave with him a hundred thousand
dollars, belonging to a stranger who the next morn-
ing had sufficient nerve to decamp to Kentucky,
carrying the money with him.

By the pontoon bridge over the river, free access
was had by Burnside's troops to a portion of the
country that was intensely loyal to the United
States, including the southern side of Knox county
and the whole of Sevier County. Some of the
people of that region voluntarily furnished supplies
to the besieged; and foraging parties from the
army were sent out, who returned with corn,
wheat, &c. By these means, conducted by Capt.
Doughty, spoken of by the commander-in-chief as
" a most excellent officer," the commissary depart-
ment was enabled to issue during the siege after
its first few days, bread made of mixed flour, meal
and bran, but then only in half and quarter rations.



PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE. 263

Even for this bread, corn on the cob, eaten in some
instances unroasted, had to be substituted several
times late in the siege. Soldiers often ate at
once the small piece of bread which was their
whole allowance of nourishment for twenty-four
hours. Some of them, whether from a prudent
regard to the returning excesses of hunger, or to
keep up the fiction of three meals a day, divided
their bread into as many parts, which gave them a
single mouthful for each meal. This scanty fare
was increased on occasional days by a piece of
fresh pork.

The besiegers wisely thought it important to de-
prive Burnside of his supplies from south of the
river, and for that purpose to destroy his bridge.
Therefore Confederate soldiers were sent a few
miles up the Tennessee to Boyd's Ferry — a point
near its junction with the French Broad River, for
the construction of a raft, which floating down
would carry away the pontoon. News of this
intended feat was conveyed to headquarters.
Townsmen understood that one of the patriotic
and courageous women, who never failed in
East Tennessee to serve the United States upon
opportunity, from her home in the country saw
the hewing down of timber and building of the
raft, then adroitly she made her way by night
through the Confederate lines with informa-
tion to Knoxville, at the risk of liberty and life.
In consequence, on the 22d, at the General's order,
Lieut. Col. Babcock and Capt, Poe constructed a
boom, by stretching an iron cable 1,000 feet long



264 THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.

across the river above the bridge. Begun at 5 p.
m., it was finished at 9 a.m. the next day, and three
days later upon renewed alarms, a second boom
was laid, of long timber fastened with chains, on
the surface of the water.

On the 23d, after night had fallen, the Second
Division, Ninth army corps, (Gen. Hartraupt), was
attacked and forced to fall back through that part
of the town lying north of the railroad. In this
retreat, houses that were occupied, or in danger of
being so, by Confederate sharp-shooters, were set
on fire and burned. For that purpose the Federal
troops made some gallant sorties. Among the
buildings destroyed in the course of the general
battling in that quarter, were dwellings of citizens.
In a few instances families were able to save some
of their household goods, to which work officers
and men contributed help when it was possible,
but on the night of the 23d, little or nothing could
be done in that way. The railroad machine shops,
numbering eighteen or twenty buildings, and a
former Confederate arsenal containing a large
quantity of war material, shared in the conflagra-
tion. The flames that with crackling noise wrap-
ped many houses in their glowing arms, the bil-
lows of smoke brightly spotted with huge sparks
and burning fragments of wood, the crash of
breaking timbers and falling roofs, the explosion
of shells in the arsenal, the firing of guns by the
contending armies which the light of the flames
made conspicuous, and their defiant shoutings at
each other in tumultuous anger, altogether com-



PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE. 265

bined to form a remarkable scene. To a lively
imagination, it might seem a panorama of the
infernal region — that the roar of guns was the
music of its orchestra, and that evil spirits joined
in the melee, were struggling for the mastery in
the smoky air above the blazing houses and fight-
ing men. The conflagration lasted nearly all
night.

Next morning the ground from which the Union
army had been driven was recovered by Lieut.
Colonel Hawkes of the Twenty-first Massachu-
setts.

The 24th witnessed a brave sally of the Second
Michigan Volunteers upon the enemy's advanced
rifle pits north of Fort Sanders. They were at first
successful, but not being properly supported, were
finally repulsed, with some loss. On the night of
the same day, a pontoon bridge was thrown across
the river below the town, upon which a portion of
Longstreet's forces passed over, and on the 25th
they made a desperate attempt to seize the heights
commanding Knoxville, but Gen. Shackelford, re-
inforced by Col. Riley's brigade, encountered and
defeated them. Failing in that object, they planted
a battery upon a high bluff close to the river's
southern bank, more than a mile distant from Fort
Sanders, but partially commanding it and also the
nearer earthworks on College Hill.

The 26th was thanksgiving day, and Gen Burn-
side issued an order for its observance, not in cus-
tomary feasting, which was impossible, but by
gratitude to God; and he recalled to his men's



266



THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.



minds the trials of those who established the
Republic, as an encouragement to endure their
own hardships. And indeed they had need of
fortitude, for not only were they hungry, but the
weather was cold — the overcoats and blankets of
many had been cast away at Campbell's Station,
with their tents — and their resource for warmth
was to crawl, when off duty, into holes which
they dug in the bank, back of the trenches. Still
as they ate their bits of bread, their thoughts were
turned to loved ones at home, and their hearts
might be thankful. After dark, important posi-
tions were made stronger in front with telegraph
wires stretched from stump to stump.

On the 27th Longstreet kept up active firing
chiefly with artillery, but Burnside's army was
silent. Early that evening there was much cheer-
ing by the besiegers and music from their bands.
In the night men were employed in chopping
down trees, clearing the way for a battery on
the south-side river bluff, two thousand yards and
more from Fort Sanders. The signs of their
taking positions in the front for attack were so
strong in the afternoon that the Federal soldiers
stood in the trenches awaiting it.

Both armies were hard at work on Saturday,
the 28th. The battery of six guns on the river
bluff opened fire upon Roemer's battery between
Fort Sanders and west of College Hill, but did no
harm. About 1 1 o'clock at night, which was
cloudy and very dark, the enemy attacked and
drove in the pickets in front of Fort Sanders, cap-



PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE. 267

tured many of them and occupied their lines about
one hundred yards away from the Fort. The
fighting was hot, and lasted two hours. Capt.
BufTum, with a fresh detail, established a new line
of pickets and by hard work, new pits were thrown
up before day. There was skirmishing all night
long, and a slow cannonading from the enemy's
guns, principally upon Fort Sanders. The hours
of darkness seemed long to Burnside's men, for they
had to stand in the trenches, with no extra clothing
to protect them from the cold.

Evidently, Fort Sanders was to be assaulted.
Longstreet had had his arms around Knoxville for
ten days, and had closed its doors to all messages
from Burnside's friends. Grant had sought to
send encouraging words from Chattanooga to the
besieged commander, but could only dispatch them
to Gen. Wilcox at Cumberland Gap, in the hope
that by some means or other they might be trans-
mitted to Knoxville. And now, the Confederate
commander determined to come into close wrestle
with his adversary and bring the siege to a tri-
umphant conclusion.



CHAPTER XVI.

Hospital Needs — A Scene at Headquarters
— Increased Destitution — Assault on
Fort Sanders — Longstreet Retreats —
Sherman's Approach — Burnside Gives
Honor to his Army.

" Hark ! to the call of the bugle horn,
Or the quick rattle of mustering drum !
Swift to the summons at even or morn,
Bronzed and bearded the gallants come.
Balls from the rifle-pits plug about,
Great guns boom from the big redoubt,
And the angry hiss of the burning shell
Screams through the fire of smoke and hell.

' Who's for the trenches? We must have it out ;
Now is the time, lads, to try the redoubt.'
Belted with fire and shrouded with smoke,
Girdled with rifle-balls as with a wall,
Yet with a yell from the trenches they broke,
Plunging through rifle-balls, hell-fire and all."

Rev. Walter C. Smith,
In "Hilda Among the Broken Gods."

To a peace-loving civilian, not enlisted in the
fray, it seemed on the 28th of November, that