Message board topic:

Hey Tim, I've been reading a bit about Knoxville during the Civil War, and wondered what you might know about it, particularly about Fort Loudon, later Fort Sanders.  John

Hi John Peggy and David Sorry I haven't been posting John I do not really know any Civil War history of Knoxville but I do live close to Fort Dickerson a civil war fort and used to go there years ago it overlooks Fort Loudon lake but thats about all I know about it. Tim

The book I was reading was about the battle of Chattanooga, and only gave a short account of what was going on in Knoxville at the time.  I know Knoxville was predominantly pro-union, and as long as the Confederates held it, things were rough. Ambrose Burnside took it for the North and were treated mostly as liberators.  While the North had recently taken Chattanooga, Braxton Bragg had a stranglehold on it until Grant came along and broke the seige.  In the meantime Grant was told that James Longstreet was starving out Knoxville so he sent William Sherman there to break that seige.  It took Sherman a week to get there on foot and when he did, Burnside told him Longstreet had left 3 days ago and while the Confederate attack on Fort Loudon was vicious, he never felt Longstreet had a chance and they were never in any danger of starving.

I was wondering if anything was left of either fort.  Are the forts still preserved?  Have they been built over or partially built over?  I've been to Chattanooga and up on Lookout Mountain, but never got to see Knoxville.  At the time, I was too young to appreciate the history.  John