November, having reference to the visit of Colonel Willson and Mr. Dana. General Grant's despatch was as follows: "Your despatch and Dana's just received. Being there, you can tell better how to resist Longstreet's attack than I can direct. With your showing, you had better give up Kingston at the last moment, and save the most productive part of your possessions. Every arrangement is now made to throw Sherman's force across the river, just at and below the mouth of Chickamauga Creek, as soon as it arrives. Thomas will attack on his left at the same time; and, together, it is expected to carry Missionary Ridge, and from there rush a force on to the railroad between Cleveland and Dalton. Hooker will at the same time attack, and, if he can, carry Lookout Mountain. The enemy now seems to be looking for an attack on his left flank. This favors us. To further confirm this, Sherman's advance division will march direct from Whiteside's to Trenton. The remainder of his force will pass over a new road just made from Whiteside's to Kelly's Ferry, thus being concealed from the enemy, and leave him to suppose the whole force is going up Lookout valley. Sherman's advance has only just reached Bridgeport. The rear will only reach there on the sixteenth. This will bring it to the nineteenth as the earliest day for making the combined movement as desired. Inform me if you think you can sustain yourself till that time. I can hardly conceive of the enemy breaking through at Kingston, and pushing for Kentucky. If they should, however, a new problem would be left for solution. Thomas has ordered a division of cavalry to the vicinity of Sparta. I will ascertain if they have started, and inform you.”

On the 15th, having received full despatches from Knoxville, and also from General Halleck in regard to the danger of the abandonment of East Tennessee, General Grant sent the following despatch to General Burnside, which was received very nearly at the same time with the preceding:

"I do not know how to impress on you the necessity of holding on to East Tennessee in strong enough terms.

Ac

cording to the despatches of Mr. Dana and Colonel Wilson, it would seem that you should, if pressed to do it, hold on to Knoxville and that portion of the valley you will necessarily possess holding to that point. Should Longstreet move his whole force across the Little Tennessee, an effort should be made to cut his pontons on that stream even if it sacrificed half the cavalry of the Ohio army.

"By holding on, and placing Longstreet between the Little Tennessee and Knoxville, he should not be allowed to escape with an army capable of doing anything this winter. I can hardly conceive the necessity of retreating from East Tennessee. If I did at all, it would be after losing most of the army, and then necessity would suggest the route.

"I will not attempt to lay out a line of retreat. Kingston, looking at the map, I thought of more importance than any one point in East Tennessee.. But my attention being called more closely to it, I can see that it might be passed by, and Knoxville and the rich valley about it possessed, ignoring that place entirely. I should not think it advisable to concentrate a force near the Little Tennessee to resist the crossing, if it would be in danger of capture; but I would harass and embarrass progress in every way possible, reflecting on the fact that the army of the Ohio is not the only army to resist the onward progress of the enemy."

General Burnside thus encouraged to believe that his plans had received the approval of his chief, and that he would be relieved from the presence of the enemy, as soon as General Grant could detach a force from Chattanooga, was doubly determined to hold on at Knoxville. He accordingly issued an order, to the effect that there was to be no further retreat and that the town was to be held at all hazards and to the last man. The enemy however seemed to labor under the impression, that his task was not difficult of accomplishment. All that was required was to remain patiently before the town until the supplies in our camps were exhausted, and starvation should compel surrender. In one of the fights on the south side of the

river, the enemy charged with the cry "Vicksburg and mule meat! But that point was far away, as he afterwards learned

to his cost.

The weary days of the siege passed slowly away. The monotony was broken only by occasional skirmishing and cannonading, a sortie of our men upon some part of the rebel lines which was thought weaker than the rest, or an attempted advance of the enemy's pickets and batteries. The loyal citizens of the town were engaged in zealous emulation with the troops in perfecting the defences. It became necessary to seize and destroy some buildings outside of our lines of fortification, which afforded shelter to the enemy's sharpshooters and were in the way of our artillery fire. The work was gallantly and thoroughly accomplished, on the night of the 20th, by a detachment of the 17th Michigan. On the night of the 23d, the enemy made an attack upon the right of our lines, and succeeded for a time in gaining considerable advantage. But at daylight on the 24th, Colonel Hartranft, with the 48th Pennsylvania and the 21st Massachusetts, made a counter assault, which was successful in driving the enemy from his advanced position and in reëstablishing our own lines of defence. On the 24th Colonel Mott, with a small cavalry force, had a smart engagement with General Wheeler, near Kingston, and inflicted upon him a serious defeat. On the same day Colonel Cameron was attacked, on the south side of the river, but gallantly repulsed the assault, with considerable damage to the attacking party. During this time, also, the enemy had been engaged in felling trees and adopting other means for strengthening his position. A force was detached to pass above the town, cut down trees upon the river bank, and make a raft to float down upon our pontons which connected the garrison with the troops on the opposite heights. The movement was discovered and seasonably foiled.

General Longstreet was watching every opportunity and adopting every expedient to reduce the place. General Burnside was holding on with the utmost tenacity, and though his

communications were cut, his supplies were lessening, his forces were inferior, he himself was suffering somewhat from illness, and affairs generally were gloomy, yet he never once lost his hope. At last, it became evident that an assault must be made by the enemy, or the attempt to regain East Tennessee must be abandoned. General Bragg had become alive to the magnitude of the blunder which he had made. General Grant was making his power felt upon the enemy's weakened lines in those grand operations at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, which, on the 23d, 24th and 25th of November, inaugurated the final and successful campaign against Atlanta. General Longstreet could not endure the thought of leaving his enterprise unfinished, or retiring from it baffled by an inferior force. His position had now become perilous. Grant's success made it impossible for him to rejoin Bragg. General Sherman's junction with General Grant threatened his position in the rear too seriously to be neglected. The rebel General determined to risk an assault, hoping thus to secure the long desired position and an unmolested line of retreat to Virginia. General Burnside was ready for him, and the attack came.

The day appointed was the 29th of November. The place selected for the assault was Fort Sanders. It had been strengthened by General Burnside's accomplished Engineers, Lieutenant Colonel Babcock and Captain Poe, assisted by Lieutenant Benjamin, with every art known to their profession or available for their purpose. The ditch was widened, abattis were thickly laid in front and flank, trees were felled, and wires stretched from stump to stump. It was a desperate enterprise on the part of General Longstreet, and cost the lives of many brave men to no purpose, except to prove that the defences of Knoxville were impregnable. During the night of the 28th29th, the first demonstration was made by an attack upon our skirmish line to the right of the Kingston road, which resulted in some slight advantage to the enemy. Sharp skirmishing continued nearly all night, with little result, except in annoying our troops and preventing their needed rest.

In the gray of the morning of the 29th, the assaulting column, composed of three picked brigades, appeared. The garrison of the fort was awake and ready. Reënforcements were held in readiness to throw upon any point which was too hardly pressed. It was the men of the brave Ninth Corps that held the defences-the 79th New York for immediate garrison, with four companies of the 17th Michigan in support, and the men of Benjamin's and Buckley's batteries for cannoniers. It was a glorious day in the calendar of these invincible troops. Onward came the storming party-five regiments in columns by divisions closed in mass. They struck and stumbled over the wires amidst the deadly fire of our men. This obstruction was soon passed. A number fell amidst the entanglement, but the weight of the column carried it through. They came steadily on, with a courage which extorted the admiration of their antagonists. They cut away the abattis, never faltering beneath the withering musketry fire, and the destructive projectiles of the artillery. They filled the ditch. Their way was marked by carnage and death. Would nothing stop those devoted men? A few mounted the parapet. But they could go no further. Hand to hand, the conflict raged with unabated fury. One rebel, with a flag, endeavored to approach the embrasure, when Sergeant Frank Judge, of Company D, 79th New York, "seized him by the collar and dragged him with his flag into the fort." Grenades were thrown into the ditch. Lieutenant Benjamin, with his own hands, threw several lighted shells over the parapet among the masses of the struggling enemy. "It stilled them down," the Lieutenant said.

But even this stubborn resistance was not enough to stop the advancing troops. Two guns in the bastion poured triple rounds of canister in their faces. A gun upon the flank swept the ditch. Still they continued to press forward, until convinced that the attempt was useless, the assaulting column retired. But, as another column came up in support, the attack was renewed. The enemy was desperate, but our men were equally resolute. A more savage contest than the first, if that