Fort Dickerson Park commemorates the Confederate siege of Knoxville TN during the Civil War. It is one of the best-preserved earthenworks Civil War forts.
For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and travel around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I visit. I am currently in Tennessee.
When the Civil War broke out, the area of eastern Tennessee was considered to be vital by the Federal forces. Although Tennessee had joined with the Confederacy, much of the population in the Knoxville area was sympathetic to the Unionists, and the town also sat in a strategic spot in the middle of the railroad network that connected Chattanooga and the Confederate capitol at Richmond. President Lincoln hoped to seize the area early in the war, but a series of victories by the Confederates from Bull Run to Chancellorsville meant that there was no Union move towards Knoxville until August 1863, when General Ambrose Burnside set out from Lexington KY with 18,000 troops. The Confederates in Tennessee had already been concentrated at Chattanooga, and Burnside found himself largely unopposed. He entered Knoxville on September 2.
Most of the Federal forces were then sent to Chattanooga and the Cumberland Gap, where the Confederates had launched new offensives. A detachment of occupation troops remained in Knoxville, however, and began constructing a ring of earthenworks forts to defend the city. These consisted of a series of ditches and banks, often topped by wooden palisade fences with cannon positions. In all there were over 20 of these forts.
By November 1863 Burnside’s troops had taken control of the Cumberland Gap, and the Confederates wanted to prevent them from moving to reinforce the Union Army that was under siege inside Chattanooga. So Confederate General James Longstreet was dispatched with 15,000 men to take Knoxville, which would restore the railroad connection to Chattanooga and also distract Burnside’s forces and prevent them from joining the surrounded Federal forces in Chattanooga. Longstreet opposed the plan, arguing that dividing the Confederate forces would just weaken both portions, but he reluctantly accepted the assignment. He began to move on Knoxville in November 1863, reaching the city on the 14th.
The next day, Longstreet sent a force of cavalry to attack the Union cannon batteries that had been located along the banks of the Tennessee River, and was driven back. On November 16, he moved to occupy a strategic crossroads at Campbell’s Station, but Burnside beat him there and once again stopped the Confederate advance before withdrawing his own forces to a defensive position atop a ridge a short distance away.
With the Federals now ensconced inside their circle of defensive forts, Longstreet had no choice but to lay siege to the town, hoping to cut off their supplies and force a surrender. But he was not equipped for this, and after just a week was forced into planning a direct assault on the ring of forts.
On November 29, Longstreet’s infantry made a charge at Fort Sanders, hoping to break through the Federal defensive positions. But the Confederates lacked scaling ladders and were unable to climb the earthen banks and wooden fences, and trapped within the fort’s defensive ditches they were shot to pieces and withdrew. Four days later, another Confederate cavalry advance was stopped by the Federals at Walker’s Ford.
At around this time, Longstreet received word that General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army had been crushed at Chattanooga, and he realized that his position at Knoxville had become untenable. After a few more skirmishes, he began withdrawing towards Virginia on December 14. Knoxville remained in Union hands for the rest of the war.
Today, the Siege of Knoxville is commemorated by Fort Dickerson Park, which was established in 1957 and preserves the site of one of the Federal defensive forts. Fort Dickerson was never directly attacked during the siege, but it faced several artillery duels with Confederate cannon batteries. Much of the earthen ditches and banks are still intact.
Some photos from a visit.