Rediscovering Fort Sanders: The American Civil War and Its Impact on Knoxville's Cultural Landscape
Autor Charles H. Faulkner, Teresa Faulkneren Limba Engleză Hardback – 2 sep 2020
In the fall of 1863, Knoxville came under Union occupation, and troops went immediately to work to strengthen existing defenses and construct new ones. The most important of these was the earthwork atop a hill west of the city that came to be known as Fort Sanders. The fort would be the site of a critical battle on November 29, in which General James Longstreet’s Southern forces mounted a bold but ill-conceived assault that lasted only twenty minutes yet resulted in over eight hundred Rebel casualties. The completion of the fort under General Davis Tilson would safeguard Knoxville from further attack for the rest of the war.
Rediscovering Fort Sanders is a unique book that combines a narrative history of pre-Civil War Knoxville, the war years and continuing construction of Fort Sanders, the failed attempts to preserve the postwar fort, and the events which led to its almost total destruction. Research by Terry and Charles Faulkner resulted in two major discoveries: the fort was actually located a block farther to the west then previously recognized, and there are still identifiable remnants of the fortification where none were believed to exist.
More than just a chronicle of a significant chapter in Civil War and postwar history, this book will inspire others to continue the effort to ensure that the site and remains of Fort Sanders are preserved and properly commemorated for future generations.
Rediscovering Fort Sanders is a unique book that combines a narrative history of pre-Civil War Knoxville, the war years and continuing construction of Fort Sanders, the failed attempts to preserve the postwar fort, and the events which led to its almost total destruction. Research by Terry and Charles Faulkner resulted in two major discoveries: the fort was actually located a block farther to the west then previously recognized, and there are still identifiable remnants of the fortification where none were believed to exist.
More than just a chronicle of a significant chapter in Civil War and postwar history, this book will inspire others to continue the effort to ensure that the site and remains of Fort Sanders are preserved and properly commemorated for future generations.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781621904816
ISBN-10: 1621904814
Pagini: 416
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 33 mm
Greutate: 0.73 kg
Ediția:1st Edition
Editura: University of Tennessee Press
Colecția Univ Tennessee Press
ISBN-10: 1621904814
Pagini: 416
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 33 mm
Greutate: 0.73 kg
Ediția:1st Edition
Editura: University of Tennessee Press
Colecția Univ Tennessee Press
Notă biografică
TERRY FAULKNER, a history and art major, graduated from the University of Tennessee and was for many years a graphic artist in the Department of Transportation. She has published numerous articles on local history.
CHARLES H. FAULKNER is professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Massacre at Cavett’s Station: Frontier Tennessee during the Cherokee Wars.
CHARLES H. FAULKNER is professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Massacre at Cavett’s Station: Frontier Tennessee during the Cherokee Wars.
Extras
Eighty-five years after the founding of America, the first nation in history to be based on the principles of liberty and “dedicated to the belief that all men are created equal” was engaged in a great civil war that would threaten its continued existence. The victory of the Federal forces in that war ensured the survival of the union of the United States, and American citizens today continue to enjoy the benefits of freedom and equal treatment under the law. Because of that momentous conflict that took place between 1861 and 1865, hundreds of thousands of people between 2011 and 2015 attended or participated in local and national events during the Sesquicentennial commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Thousands of Civil War sites and historical figures associated with the war were honored in some way during this period. Many of the battlefield sites, historic structures, Civil War leaders, and notable civilians of that time are well known to the public here and abroad. Presently many battlefields, military artifacts, and personal artifacts are reverently preserved by museums and state, local, and federal agencies. Because of the Sesquicentennial commemoration, many other sites and objects related to the war that had been lost in time have been rediscovered, documented, preserved, and readied for public viewing and research.
In Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2008, as citizens prepared to commemorate the Civil War Sesquicentennial, the authors began an effort to discover and document the exact location of Fort Sanders, a large Union earthwork where the major battle for the town took place. We hoped that funding could be found to create an educational walking tour in the area of this well-known Civil War fortification for the 150th commemoration of the war. This quest resulted in two major discoveries of historic significance: that the fort was located a block farther to the west than previously recognized, and that there are still identifiable remnants of the fortification where none were believed to exist. Local historians had long believed that all evidence of the fort had been lost during the development of the first west Knoxville suburb, which began in the late 19th century and continued into the early 20th century. This area, initially called the town of “West Knoxville,” has since assumed the name of the very fort that it almost completely destroyed.
The Civil War is often called the first modern war by military historians. It is the first war in human history to be extensively documented by first-person observation and personal mail, and by newspaper reporters, photographers, and artists who were present on the fields of battle. Their observations, thoughts, and feelings have been a source for thousands of books and articles; their descriptions of war have been brought to life in movies, on television, in outdoor dramas, and in reenactments. The momentous and traumatic impact of this horrendous conflict resulted in different eyewitness accounts of the same battle. These could be brief or embellished, and even myths can appear in the records. This is one reason why professional historians and other students of history continue to sift through the literature and study photographs and engravings in an effort to discover and document new facts that might provide insight as to why and how this war was fought.
In both the written word and on the landscape of actual battlefields, much documentation revolves around the end result of the event itself and the effects or consequences of that event. Understandably, the physical landscape, battle sites, and construction techniques used in building fortifications were often not adequately described or even documented at all. So the earthworks that are still preserved today remain our most visible evidence of the conflict that consumed this country for four years.
During the war, millions of cubic feet of earth were excavated using shovels, picks, axes, sticks, and even knife blades, tin cups, and spoons. This earth was loaded into buckets, wheelbarrows, and wagons, or into whatever containers might be available at the time, and then moved to an appropriate place to create a defensive earthworks for the soldiers. Forests surrounding these sites were often denuded of trees to build stockades, gun platforms, and supporting walls for embankments of earth, and also to provide firewood and shelter for the troops. Not only did forts built in this manner effectively absorb and disperse the energy of enemy cannon fire, but the material to build them was usually readily available at the site to be fortified. Earth, inside and outside of the area to be fortified, was removed and added to the earthworks. Interior removal of soil produced level areas for parade grounds and movements of forces within the fort. Defensive trenches like “rabbit warrens” were dug outside the fortification to provide additional protection by blocking and entrapping attacking foot soldiers and cavalry. Many of these works were so formidable that 150 years of erosion, construction, and landscaping have not erased the magnitude and vestiges of the earthworks nor diminished the respect one feels for the soldiers who built them.
While the construction and plans for many of these fortifications are sometimes presented in detail, often only a map, sketch, or photograph remains to illustrate what they looked like during their use and after their abandonment. However, like any built structure, these works went through an evolution of phases, including initial construction, remodeling or modification, removal or reuse of earth, eventual abandonment and erosion, or complete destruction. These aspects of a transformation of earthen fortifications through time are seldom discussed. A case in point is the Civil War earthwork now called Fort Sanders, which was built and maintained on a ridge located just west of Knoxville, Tennessee, during the years 1863–65. Although one can find photographs and many eyewitness descriptions of the fort in various archives, only a small amount of archival evidence indicates exactly where the fort was located and very little is to be found that documents the process of the fort’s construction.
During our eight years of research, we carefully examined historic maps, photographs, and archival records, conducted archaeological surveys and testing, and excavated both in the fort and the area surrounding it. We discovered how the original fort was built, the ways in which it was modified during additional construction, and how it looked in 1865 at the war’s end. We learned that the actual site of the fortification did not correspond exactly to the traditional location and that historic markers present in the area today are inaccurate. Most important, we found that, contrary to the widespread belief that the fort had been completely destroyed by development, remnants of the earthworks can still be seen. We saw how the fort, like any feature on an urban landscape, whether natural or manmade, can be transformed by environmental processes and human activity over time. We learned how this large fortification affected the original topography of the ridge upon which it was located and impeded the development of the town of West Knoxville between 1888 and 1897 and the neighborhood of Fort Sanders that succeeded it.
Thousands of Civil War sites and historical figures associated with the war were honored in some way during this period. Many of the battlefield sites, historic structures, Civil War leaders, and notable civilians of that time are well known to the public here and abroad. Presently many battlefields, military artifacts, and personal artifacts are reverently preserved by museums and state, local, and federal agencies. Because of the Sesquicentennial commemoration, many other sites and objects related to the war that had been lost in time have been rediscovered, documented, preserved, and readied for public viewing and research.
In Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2008, as citizens prepared to commemorate the Civil War Sesquicentennial, the authors began an effort to discover and document the exact location of Fort Sanders, a large Union earthwork where the major battle for the town took place. We hoped that funding could be found to create an educational walking tour in the area of this well-known Civil War fortification for the 150th commemoration of the war. This quest resulted in two major discoveries of historic significance: that the fort was located a block farther to the west than previously recognized, and that there are still identifiable remnants of the fortification where none were believed to exist. Local historians had long believed that all evidence of the fort had been lost during the development of the first west Knoxville suburb, which began in the late 19th century and continued into the early 20th century. This area, initially called the town of “West Knoxville,” has since assumed the name of the very fort that it almost completely destroyed.
The Civil War is often called the first modern war by military historians. It is the first war in human history to be extensively documented by first-person observation and personal mail, and by newspaper reporters, photographers, and artists who were present on the fields of battle. Their observations, thoughts, and feelings have been a source for thousands of books and articles; their descriptions of war have been brought to life in movies, on television, in outdoor dramas, and in reenactments. The momentous and traumatic impact of this horrendous conflict resulted in different eyewitness accounts of the same battle. These could be brief or embellished, and even myths can appear in the records. This is one reason why professional historians and other students of history continue to sift through the literature and study photographs and engravings in an effort to discover and document new facts that might provide insight as to why and how this war was fought.
In both the written word and on the landscape of actual battlefields, much documentation revolves around the end result of the event itself and the effects or consequences of that event. Understandably, the physical landscape, battle sites, and construction techniques used in building fortifications were often not adequately described or even documented at all. So the earthworks that are still preserved today remain our most visible evidence of the conflict that consumed this country for four years.
During the war, millions of cubic feet of earth were excavated using shovels, picks, axes, sticks, and even knife blades, tin cups, and spoons. This earth was loaded into buckets, wheelbarrows, and wagons, or into whatever containers might be available at the time, and then moved to an appropriate place to create a defensive earthworks for the soldiers. Forests surrounding these sites were often denuded of trees to build stockades, gun platforms, and supporting walls for embankments of earth, and also to provide firewood and shelter for the troops. Not only did forts built in this manner effectively absorb and disperse the energy of enemy cannon fire, but the material to build them was usually readily available at the site to be fortified. Earth, inside and outside of the area to be fortified, was removed and added to the earthworks. Interior removal of soil produced level areas for parade grounds and movements of forces within the fort. Defensive trenches like “rabbit warrens” were dug outside the fortification to provide additional protection by blocking and entrapping attacking foot soldiers and cavalry. Many of these works were so formidable that 150 years of erosion, construction, and landscaping have not erased the magnitude and vestiges of the earthworks nor diminished the respect one feels for the soldiers who built them.
While the construction and plans for many of these fortifications are sometimes presented in detail, often only a map, sketch, or photograph remains to illustrate what they looked like during their use and after their abandonment. However, like any built structure, these works went through an evolution of phases, including initial construction, remodeling or modification, removal or reuse of earth, eventual abandonment and erosion, or complete destruction. These aspects of a transformation of earthen fortifications through time are seldom discussed. A case in point is the Civil War earthwork now called Fort Sanders, which was built and maintained on a ridge located just west of Knoxville, Tennessee, during the years 1863–65. Although one can find photographs and many eyewitness descriptions of the fort in various archives, only a small amount of archival evidence indicates exactly where the fort was located and very little is to be found that documents the process of the fort’s construction.
During our eight years of research, we carefully examined historic maps, photographs, and archival records, conducted archaeological surveys and testing, and excavated both in the fort and the area surrounding it. We discovered how the original fort was built, the ways in which it was modified during additional construction, and how it looked in 1865 at the war’s end. We learned that the actual site of the fortification did not correspond exactly to the traditional location and that historic markers present in the area today are inaccurate. Most important, we found that, contrary to the widespread belief that the fort had been completely destroyed by development, remnants of the earthworks can still be seen. We saw how the fort, like any feature on an urban landscape, whether natural or manmade, can be transformed by environmental processes and human activity over time. We learned how this large fortification affected the original topography of the ridge upon which it was located and impeded the development of the town of West Knoxville between 1888 and 1897 and the neighborhood of Fort Sanders that succeeded it.