Qualla: Battle of Fort Sanders https://qualla.com/battle-of-fort-sanders en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/k/k/battle-of-fort-sanders-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Fort Sanders https://qualla.com/battle-of-fort-sanders Battle of Fort Sanders: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-fort-sanders/ Photo credit Undetermined (signature in scan illegible), Public domain. James Longstreet made his decision based on what he saw through field glasses: a Union soldier walking casually across the ditch surrounding Fort Sanders. The ditch could not be deep, he reasoned. His men could cross it easily. What Longstreet failed to notice was the plank the soldier walked upon. That small miscalculation, on the morning of November 29, 1863, would send hundreds of Confederate troops into a killing ground from which many would never emerge. In just twenty minutes of fighting outside this earthen fortification on the western edge of Knoxville, Tennessee, the Confederacy suffered one of its most devastating and disproportionate defeats of the entire war.

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Image: Undetermined (signature in scan illegible) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/k/k/battle-of-fort-sanders-wp/dnkk-battle-of-fort-sanders-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Fort Sanders: A Region Divided Against Itself https://qualla.com/battle-of-fort-sanders/ Photo credit Theodore Russel Davis, Public domain. East Tennessee was Confederate territory that did not want to be Confederate. Unlike the plantation-heavy western and central portions of the state, East Tennessee's population consisted largely of yeoman farmers with few enslaved people and little connection to the economic engi...

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Image: Theodore Russel Davis | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/k/k/battle-of-fort-sanders-wp/dnkk-battle-of-fort-sanders-a-region-divided-against-itself.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Fort Sanders: The Fort on the Hill https://qualla.com/battle-of-fort-sanders/ Photo credit Brian Stansberry (photographer), Public domain. Union Captain Orlando M. Poe, Burnside's chief engineer, oversaw the construction of formidable earthworks around Knoxville. Fort Sanders rose just west of downtown, a salient in the defensive line that surrounded three sides of the city, originally called Fort Loudon before bein...

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Image: Brian Stansberry (photographer) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/k/k/battle-of-fort-sanders-wp/dnkk-battle-of-fort-sanders-the-fort-on-the-hill.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Fort Sanders: Twenty Minutes of Annihilation https://qualla.com/battle-of-fort-sanders/ Photo credit Theodore Russel Davis, Public domain. Longstreet, sent by Braxton Bragg to prevent Burnside from reinforcing the Union effort at Chattanooga, laid siege to Knoxville beginning November 17. He chose Fort Sanders as his breakthrough point and assembled three infantry brigades for the assault. They crept to within 120-1...

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Image: Theodore Russel Davis | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/k/k/battle-of-fort-sanders-wp/dnkk-battle-of-fort-sanders-twenty-minutes-of-annihilation.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Fort Sanders: Flags of Truce and Frozen Dead https://qualla.com/battle-of-fort-sanders/ Photo credit Theodore Russel Davis, Public domain. After the failed assault, Burnside extended a humanitarian gesture that the Confederates deeply appreciated: a flag of truce to allow recovery of the dead and wounded. Union details pulled bodies from the blood-stained ditch on blankets, carrying them halfway across no-man's-land...

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Image: Theodore Russel Davis | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/k/k/battle-of-fort-sanders-wp/dnkk-battle-of-fort-sanders-flags-of-truce-and-frozen-dead.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Fort Sanders: Where Victorian Homes Stand on Hallowed Ground https://qualla.com/battle-of-fort-sanders/ Photo credit Lloyd Branson (artist); Petri & Pels (engraving), Public domain. Longstreet withdrew from Knoxville on December 4, heading northeast toward Rogersville. His failure, combined with the Confederate defeat at Chattanooga four days earlier, secured much of East Tennessee for the Union for the remainder of the war. Three decades later, the Fort San...

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Image: Lloyd Branson (artist); Petri & Pels (engraving) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/k/k/battle-of-fort-sanders-wp/dnkk-battle-of-fort-sanders-where-victorian-homes-stand-on-hallowed-ground.mp3 0:06 6 full