Divided Loyalties; Fort Sanders and the Civil War in East Tennessee

Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1963. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. xii, 244 pages. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Appendices, Bibliography. Pictures and Sources. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. Slightly cocked. Format is approximately 8.75 inches by 11.5 inches. Dr. Seymour was born and raised in Knoxville. He worked as an anesthesiologist at Fort Sanders Hospital for over 30 years. He served in the Army in World War II and the Air Force during the Korean War. Dr. Seymour was also a historian and wrote the book Divided Loyalties about the Civil War in East Tennessee. Fort Sanders is named for a Civil War-era Union bastion that was the site of a key engagement in 1863. Divided Loyalties details the often overlooked but strategically vital East Tennessee campaign of 1863 and the climactic battle of Fort Sanders, a fierce, twenty-minute assault that secured East Tennessee for the Union and set the stage for the war's final phase. But Divided Loyalties is also the story of East Tennessee's "war within a war," a conflict marked by violence, retribution, and bitterness that destroyed communities, pitted neighbor against neighbor, and tore families apart. Seymour brings these stories together in a forceful narrative based on his extensive research in both official and personal records. In November 1863, Confederate forces under General James Longstreet marched north from Chattanooga to Knoxville in hopes of dislodging Union forces under Ambrose Burnside, who had occupied Knoxville a few months prior. After a brief skirmish at Campbell's Station, Longstreet's forces approached Knoxville from the west along Kingston Pike. Delaying maneuvers executed by General William P. Sanders who was mortally wounded on November 18, and died the following day. During the Siege of Knoxville, Union fortifications included Fort Byington atop "The Hill," Battery Noble at what is now the intersection of Melrose and Seventeenth, and Battery Zoellner near the intersection of Highland and Eleventh. Fort Sanders, originally "Fort Loudon" but renamed in honor of the deceased General Sanders, was an earthen fort. On the morning of November 29, 1863, Longstreet ordered three brigades under General Lafayette McLaws to attack Fort Sanders, in hopes of breaching Union lines. They were unable to overcome a deep trench at the base of the fort, however, and retreated with heavy casualties. The battle effectively ended Longstreet's chances of taking the city, and he retreated shortly afterward.