Posted on 11/29/2017 8:09:59 AM PST by Bull Snipe
Just as the sun rose over a frosty Knoxville, TN, 3,000 Confederate infantry, of General Longstreet’s Corp, rush Fort Sanders. Defending the fort are 400 soldiers of the 8th MI, 79th NY, and 36th MA. Poor reconnaissance leads to a disaster for the Confederate attackers. The 15-foot-high walls of the fort are surrounded by a ditch, 8 to 12 foot deep. The night before, Sander’s defenders had poured buckets of water over the walls that froze to sheets of ice. Inside the fort, they cut artillery case shot fuses short. As the Confederates advanced, they became entangled in unseen telegraph wire strung between stumps. Approaching the fort, lead troops fall head first into the deep trench. Without scaling ladders, the climb up the near vertical ice-covered walls was almost impossible. The Defenders rolled lite case shot into the ditch, inflicting heavy casualties among the attackers. A few reached the top, men of the 16th GA, 13th and 17th MS did make it, but they were quickly shot, pushed back down or captured. The whole action lasted about 20 minutes. For their trouble, Longstreet’s infantry suffered over 800 casualties. Witnesses said that blood ran ankle deep at the bottom of the trench. The Union defenders of Fort Sanders lost 13 men. 1st Sgt. Judge of Co K. 79th NY was awarded the Medal of Honor for capturing the Regimental flag of the 51st GA.
What a cluster...
By this time Grant had already routed Bragg outside Chattanooga so Longstreet’s attack was a complete waste of soldiers.
Longstreet forgot one of the more important Military maxims:
“Prior planning prevents piss poor performance.”
Like the mountain area of Western Virginia, Eastern Tennessee in the mountain areas of the state had little sympathy for the Confederacy or its cause.
That is true. There were plenty of Union sympathizers throughout the South, but Tennessee had even more than most of the other states of the confederacy. The farther east, the more their were.
Many communities in eastern Tennessee and western NC sent their young men north to fight for the Union. Some were ambushed and killed trying to return home.
IIRC, Tennessee had more men fighting for the union than any other Confederate state.
I always enjoy the information but the writer needs to learn the proper tense.
Eastern Tennessee was Unionist territory , lot of “confederate” areas was deeply Unionist and resented
the slave holders who pushed for session
That explains their current problems with the Tennessee football team.
What it explains is why there are two RINOS from the state in the senate. TN repubs tend to be from the eastern part of the state
Unprincipled people. No use for’m.
Prior planning prevents p!ss poor performance.
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