THE siege of Knoxville, Tennessee, was raised late in 1863. When the news of Bragg's defeat at Chattanooga reached Longstreet, who was besieging Knoxville, he knew that Grant would now send Burnside relief. Bragg decided to carry the city by storm. The attack was to be made on Fort Sanders, a Federal fort of great strength, containing twenty-six guns. The Confederate columns forced their way through a network of wire that had been wound from stump to stump, until they finally reached the parapet. A Confederate officer sprang to the summit with the flag of his regiment and demanded surrender. Pierced by a shower of bullets, his body rolled into the ditch, his hand clutching the flagstaff. The Confederates charged again only to be repulsed. Under a flag of truce the fighting ceased while Longstreet's men carried away their dead, dying and wounded. Grant had ordered twenty thousand men under General Granger to the rescue of the besieged city, but they failed to start, and Sherman hurried to the relief. He reached Knoxville on the fifth of December and found the siege reduced and Longstreet had started for Virginia. Sherman's troops had marched four hundred miles to fight at Chattanooga, then marched one hundred and two miles to compel the Confederates to retire from Knoxville. When the news reached the North, Grant was hailed as the Nation's saviour. Congress bestowed upon him a gold medal, while Bragg, the Confederate general, went down before a storm of indignation in the South. One of the war cameras shortly after the battle was placed on the parapet of Fort Sanders, and this negative of the ruins was taken, showing the University of Tennessee.
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN OVER THE RUINS AT KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, IN 1863, FROM FORT SANDERS
LIBBY PRISON AT RICHMOND CROWDED WITH UNION PRISONERS IN 1864
ANDERSONVILLE PRISON WITH ITS "DEAD LINE" AND "BROOK"