Campbell's Station

On November 16, 1863, at a spot in Knox County, Tennessee, known today as Farragut but then called Campbell's Station, Confederate troops commanded by Lieutenant General James Longstreet clashed with Union forces under Major General Ambrose Burnside. The engagement formed part of the wider Knoxville Campaign. Longstreet's aim was to shatter the Union Army of the Ohio before it could pull back to safety within Knoxville. Although his men managed to push Burnside's soldiers out of five different defensive lines over the course of the fighting, the Union force ultimately achieved an orderly and effective retreat.

Bragg had detached two infantry divisions under Longstreet, reinforced by 5,000 cavalry, and sent them to strike Burnside and reclaim Knoxville for the Confederacy. Success depended on catching the Federals in the open, since letting them reach the fortifications around Knoxville would ruin any chance of victory. Because Longstreet could not spring that trap at Campbell's Station, he had little choice afterward but to lay siege to the city. That siege would eventually collapse once Union reinforcements arrived to relieve Burnside, forcing Longstreet to withdraw northeast in the direction of Virginia.

Lenoir's Station

Beginning near Hough's Ferry, Chestnut Ridge extended in a northeasterly direction. Along its northern flank ran the Hotchkiss Valley Road, connecting the ferry to Burns House, the site of a natural gap in the ridge. From that gap a road led south to Lenoir's Station, situated on the rail line. Traveling north out of Burns House, this same route met the Kingston Road, which connected Kingston with Knoxville. Separately, the railroad and its neighboring main thoroughfare followed the ridge's southern side, linking Loudon to Knoxville in a northeasterly line. Another crossing over Chestnut Ridge existed close to

Wheeler's strike

Bringing four brigades of horsemen into Sweetwater on November 11, Wheeler received orders from Longstreet to launch his assault on Knoxville's southern approaches at first light two days later. Longstreet's strategy rested on the assumption that Burnside would keep his attention fixed on the Tennessee River's north bank, though he did warn Wheeler about a sizable body of Union horsemen standing in his path. By nightfall on the 13th, Wheeler's troopers had forded the Little Tennessee River at Motley's Ford, situated southeast of Morganton.

With designs on encircling Union cavalry at Maryville, Wheeler split his forces: Brigadier General Frank Crawford Armstrong's division swept around to approach from the north while Brigadier General William T. Martin's division came in from the west. The plan fell short of complete success, however, since Colonel Charles D. Pennebaker's brigade had already pulled back across the Little River toward Rockford, leaving behind only the 11th Kentucky Mounted Infantry to face the converging Confederates. Armstrong managed to seal off an escape route, yet a fortunate downpour allowed most of the 11th Kentucky to slip free of the encirclement.

Armstrong then dispatched Colonel Thomas Harrison's brigade against the 1st Kentucky Cavalry and the 45th Ohio Mounted Infantry, positioned some two miles southwest of Rockford. These two Union regiments buckled under Harrison's assault and fell back toward Rockford itself. Finding fording points across the Little River without much trouble, the Confederates forced Sanders to give up Rockford entirely and establish fresh defenses along Stock Creek, two miles farther north. Wheeler then had Martin's division ford the river upstream to turn Sanders' flank while Armstrong kept up pressure from the front. This combined pressure pushed Sanders' cavalry back within Knoxville's southern fortifications by the close of November 15. There, Colonel Daniel Cameron's infantry brigade, part of Hascall's division, halted the Confederate advance that evening and into the following morning.

A summons from Longstreet on November 16 called Wheeler to rejoin him, prompting a crossing of the Tennessee River at Louisville to reach the north bank. The timing proved too late, however, for Wheeler to assist in severing Burnside's path of retreat.

According to Wheeler's own count, his forces captured 300 Union soldiers while suffering only 57 casualties of their own. The clash south of Rockford on November 14 cost the 1st Kentucky one man killed, four wounded, and thirty seven taken prisoner, while the 45th Ohio counted two wounded and five captured, bringing total losses to 49. The fighting on Knoxville's south side during November 15 and 16 inflicted 101 casualties on the Union cavalry: the 11th Kentucky suffered one wounded and three captured, the 27th Kentucky Mounted Infantry lost three killed, and the 45th Ohio counted three killed, eight wounded, and eighty three captured.

Battle

Under cover of darkness, Burnside chose to pull his forces out of Lenoir's Station and push toward Campbell's Station. Most of the artillery moved out at 7 pm, though mule teams were needed to haul the guns through roads thick with mud. The remaining Union troops burned or destroyed whatever supplies were left behind at Lenoir's before marching out at first light to catch up with the rest. Guarding the retreat was Colonel William Humphrey's brigade from Ferrero's division, joined by a section of Captain Jacob Roemer's Battery L of the 2nd New York Artillery. With one of its regiments detached to guard the wagons, Humphrey's rearguard numbered only about 700 men. A company under Chapin never received word to pull back and was taken prisoner as a result. Longstreet directed Jenkins' division to chase the retreating Federals across the twelve miles (19.3 km) separating them from Campbell's Station. Meanwhile Hart's cavalry and McLaws' division swung north from Burns House onto the Kingston Road before angling east, a march of ten miles (16.1 km). Throughout the withdrawal, Bratton's Confederate brigade kept close on Humphrey's heels.

Campbell's Station itself was little more than a crossroads settlement, where the Concord Road met the Kingston Road, today known as Kingston Pike. Hartranft's division reached the junction where the Lenoir Road fed into the Kingston Road, a mile (1.6 km) west of Campbell's Station and just a short way from the Avery Russell House. From there Hartranft sent Colonel James Biddle's 6th Indiana Cavalry, some 200 riders, west along the Kingston Road while positioning his infantry to hold the crossing. Biddle's men advanced two and a half miles (4.0 km) before running into Hart's Confederate brigade and retreating while trading fire. At half past nine on the morning of November 16, Humphrey's three Michigan regiments made their first stand at Little Turkey Creek, roughly 1.7 miles (2.7 km) south of the fork. When Bratton's men swung around their flank, Humphrey's troops fell back to higher ground for a second line of defense.

There, along a fence, Humphrey's brigade held firm for about thirty minutes before falling back once more to join Hartranft near the road junction. During this second engagement, Colonel Huntington Smith of the 20th Michigan Infantry was struck in the head and killed. Before retreating, Humphrey ordered a brief counterattack that pushed Bratton's line backward. At the third defensive position, his brigade lined up beside Colonel David Morrison's brigade of Ferrero's division. Not long after, Potter instructed Hartranft's division and Biddle's horsemen to retire behind Turkey Creek, three quarters of a mile (1.2 km) to the east. By then Burnside's supply trains had cleared the fork safely and were rolling eastward on the Kingston Road. White had already stationed Chapin's brigade in the new line. Jenkins committed Bratton's brigade on the left and Brigadier General George T. Anderson's on the right. As Anderson's men threatened to collapse Humphrey's left flank, two regiments from Morrison's brigade, the 36th Massachusetts and 8th Michigan, abandoned their post on the right and rushed to reinforce the left. Their fire halted Anderson's advance, after which they dashed back to the right in time to blunt Bratton's assault as well. Both Humphrey's and Morrison's men then fell back at a run, slipping free of the attempted encirclement.

Burnside himself chose the site for the fourth stand, on the eastern bank of Turkey Creek. The rise there climbed as much as 100 feet (30.5 m) above the water, across open, exposed ground. The Concord Road joined the Kingston Road along this eastern bank. The Matthew Russell House stood before the Union line, while the Avery Russell House lay further to the west. White placed Henshaw's Illinois battery

Results

A sense of pride ran through Union ranks over how smoothly their units had performed their maneuvers during the engagement. Artillery crews on both sides played a significant role in the fighting, and Roemer's battery alone discharged 429 rounds over the course of the action. According to National Park Service figures, casualties reached roughly 400 on the Union side and 570 among the Confederates at Campbell's Station. The Park Service also observed that Burnside's men had won the "race" to reach Campbell's Station first, and suggested that had Longstreet's troops arrived there ahead of them, the outcome of the Knoxville campaign could have unfolded quite differently.

Federal casualties at Campbell's Station totaled 318, broken down into 31 killed, 211 wounded, and 76 missing. Within these figures, Ferrero's division absorbed 232 losses, White's division 63, and Hartranft's division only 15. When the 120 casualties suffered at Lenoir's Station are folded in, the Union total climbs to 438 for the period spanning November 14 through 16, not counting the cavalry engagement south of the river. McLaws never disclosed his own losses, though Jenkins acknowledged 174 casualties, with 124 of these falling within Bratton's brigade. Residents living nearby claimed the Confederates had suffered 91 killed and 300 wounded, though this figure likely runs too high. Orlando Metcalfe Poe, writing later for Battles and Leaders, proposed that casualties on both sides had actually been roughly equivalent.

The fighting at Campbell's Station and Lenoir's Station constituted Longstreet's most promising opportunity to crush Burnside and take Knoxville outright. His inability to shatter Burnside's army in open combat substantially diminished any rema