SEPTEMBER 3, 1863:
“The
great campaign of the war is over,” trumpeted the Union Press, after the fall
of Knoxville, Tennessee is confirmed. Knoxville was a crucial rail link between
eastern and western Confederate-held areas, and its seizure isolated Braxton
Bragg C.S.A.’s retreating Army of Tennessee. In retrospect, the fall of
Knoxville was far from the turning point it seemed, but at the time it was a
severe blow that crumpled battered Confederate morale even further.
