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Updated: June 7, 2025
When Longstreet raised the siege of Knoxville, he took position near Rogersville, where he would be in reach of the unbroken part of the railway connecting him with Virginia, which now became his base.
Embarking on April 10th at the mouth of Big Creek near the present Rogersville, Tennessee, three hundred and fifty men led by Colonel Evan Shelby descended the Tennessee to the fastnesses of the Chickamaugas.
From Rogersville Calhoun made his way north. He ascertained that the railroad which Mitchell was engaged in repairing was not strongly guarded, and he believed that with five hundred men Morgan could break it almost anywhere between Athens and Columbia. Near Mount Pleasant he met a Confederate officer with a party of recruits which he was taking south.
The men carrying away all the sugar they could manage. The task being accomplished, the command fell back through Bluntsville and Kingsport to Rogersville, pressing all the horses that could be found, and remained there sometime, nothing particular occurring save the usual scouting in an enemy's country.
The country through which he had to pass was intensely Southern, and the Yankee cavalry did not venture far from the railroads. When Calhoun left Corinth, he rode straight eastward, until he reached Tuscumbia, Alabama. Here he found little trouble in finding means to cross the Tennessee River. Once across the river he took a northeast course, which would take him through Rogersville.
At first we only had the gunboats and coal-barge; but the ferry-boat and two transports arrived on the 31st of October, and the work of crossing was pushed with all the vigor possible. In person I crossed, and passed to the head of the column at Florence on the 1st of November, leaving the rear divisions to be conducted by General Blair, and marched to Rogersville and Elk River.
We therefore spent three or four days in vigorous efforts to gain information of the enemy by means of our cavalry. We learned that Longstreet held the line of Bays Mountain, where the railway passes through Bull's Gap, thirteen miles above Morristown. His right flank seemed to be at Rogersville on the Holston, and his left rested near the Nolachucky beyond Greeneville.
At first we only had the gunboats and coal-barge; but the ferry-boat and two transports arrived on the 31st of October, and the work of crossing was pushed with all the vigor possible. In person I crossed, and passed to the head of the column at Florence on the 1st of November, leaving the rear divisions to be conducted by General Blair, and marched to Rogersville and Elk River.
The country here is alternately mountain and valley, running nearly parallel east and west, with occasional narrow passes through the mountains from one valley to another, these valleys losing themselves every few miles in the main valley of the Holston river. The brigade of which the Seventh formed a part was camped in the main Holston Valley about three miles above Rogersville.
The other part of their command continued down the valley to where it comes into the Holston, one-half mile above Rogersville, where they again divided their force, leaving a part here and sending the remainder around a spur of the mountain, striking the valley one-half mile below the town. They closed in on the place, capturing and scattering everything that was there.
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