OneManGang
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,853
- Likes
- 8,240
Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Missouri
As many of you know, I am a proud alumnus of Knoxville Catholic High School. Naturally, in the days I was there, we had to chase giant lizards off the practice field every day and took notes in class using slate rocks and chisels. However, I would be remiss if I did not give a shout out to MY KCHS Fightin' Arish who have mirrored my beloved Vols by starting off ugly but finishing strong. A further congrats to all the teams in the TSSAA semi-finals.
In the end, it came down to Aaron Medley's foot. Tennessee's kicker has struggled of late, but went four out of five Saturday and it was his third one that provided the winning points. Everything else was gravy. Vol fans must doff their coonskins to the Mizzou defense which deserved better from their offensive counterparts. Having been in many such games over the last several years, Vol fans can certainly sympathize.
That being said, Tennessee's defense was nothing short of outstanding. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what gives this writer bright hopes for the future. During Majors era and the early days of Sir Philip of Winchester it was the Vol defense that won many a game by protecting leads and putting the offense in scoring position. Holding Vol opponents scoreless for eight quarters (4th vs USC, the entire North Texas game and for three quarters last night) is a stat worth celebrating.
---
Students of the University of Tennessee generally have no idea they are walking, studying and living on a Civil War battlefield. This is that story.
One aspect of the Civil War most people overlook is that the vast struggle which ripped our country apart was also the first time in history that political leaders and generals in the field could communicate over vast distances in real time. President Abraham Lincoln had a telegraph station put in the White House and would often haunt the operators during a major action, awaiting early reports. His Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis also lit up the wires exerting what control he could over his far-flung armies.
Of course, those lines ran in both directions and both presidents found themselves sucked into the petty squabbles between and excuses offered by their generals. Lincoln would needle generals such as Burnside or McClellan to get moving going so far as to cable McClellan once that, If you do not intend to use the Army, I should like to borrow it. Given the rather dismal capabilities of his commanders until Meade and Grant came on the scene, these missives usually did prod the reluctant generals into action but with disastrous results.
The signal (and single major) victory for the Confederate Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater was at Chickamauga (I was born in Chattanooga and therefore did not have to look up the spelling!) where the timely arrival of Longstreet's Corps sent from Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, shattered the Union line and the gray-bellies chased the blue-bellies all the way to Chattanooga and took up positions atop the hills and mountains overlooking the town and settled in for a siege.
It was there that the command structure fell apart. The commander of the Army of Tennessee was the ever-cantankerous Braxton Bragg. His corps commanders were the vain and cerebral (he wrote the book on tactics used by both sides) William J, Hardee, the Fighting Bishop Leonidas Polk and, of course, Longstreet. The four generals, as time went on, grew to despise each other.
Eventually, their squabbling reached Davis and the Confederate leader took the odd step of actually traveling to see them. There he settled on the idea of separating the contentious generals. A Union force under the lackluster Ambrose Burnside had moved into Knoxville and posed a threat to Bragg's position so Longstreet was sent get rid of them.
It was November of 1863. The weather was atrocious and Union cavalry had cut the railroad line in many places. It took two WEEKS for Longstreet's Corps to cover the hundred miles or so between Chattanooga and Knoxville.
Arriving at Loudon, Longtreet detached his able cavalry under Fightin' Joe Wheeler to sweep south of Knoxville and come at the federals from that direction. Fightin' Joe's horsemen took off and made their way to Maryville. They swept into town assuming (since the two towns were about the same size then) they were in Knoxville. Somewhat crestfallen at being informed they'd missed by about twenty miles, Wheeler's boys cantered up Maryville Pike to the foot of the ridge south of downtown. That particular ridge was crowned by two forts, Dickerson and Stanley. Lacking heavy artillery the federals had mounted Quaker guns - logs painted black in the embrasures. From his location, Wheeler couldn't tell the difference and didn't want to find out the hard way, so he skedaddled back to Longstreet now approaching Knoxville up what is now Kingston Pike.
After offering a rearguard action at Cambell's Station, Burnside retreated into Knoxville and willingly let himself be bottled up as Longstreet's boys took up positions west and north of town. Longstreet did direct that his heavy artillery be placed south of the river on Cherokee Bluff but the vagaries of terrain rendered these guns out of position to do any good.
Burnside's ace in the hole was his chief engineer an energetic and able officer named Orlando Poe. Poe undertook to make Knoxville very nearly impervious to anything Longstreet could do. Miles of trenches and strongpoints encircled Knoxville. Approaching from the north or east meant the graycoats would be traversing over 1500 yards of open terrain under federal artillery positions and having learned his lesson at Gettysburg, Longstreet quickly discarded those options.
Orlando Poe (on right) in front of Fort Sanders. (US Army)
What was left was the strongest position in the federal line, Fort Sanders. It was named for a Brigadier General of Cavalry who got himself mortally wounded in what is now the parking lot of the Second Presbyterian Church and died in the Lamar House (Bijou Theater building) on Gay Street. The fort sat where 17th Street tops the hill overlooking Cumberland Avenue. Imagine the area with no buildings or trees and you can see why it was there.
Longstreet made his headquarters at Bleak House (now Confederate Memorial Hall) on Kingston Pike. The house features a cupola and soon Confederate sharpshooters took up residence there and potted away at any Yank who dared show himself. The federals soon grew tired of this but couldn't reach their tormentors until an old gunner on a 10-pounder Parrot Rifle cannon in Fort Sanders said, Watch this. Taking careful aim, he pulled the lanyard and scored a first-round direct hit on the cupola from a range of 2500 yards. Over open sights. Without a rangefinder. Poe called it, The prettiest shot of the War.
Meanwhile, Longstreet was scouting the fort itself and was reassured when he spotted Union pickets and even a dog walking back and forth across the ditch at the foot of the dirt embankments. As he drew up his plans the Confederates of Bragg's Army were being ejected from their positions over Chattanooga by the Union Army now led by the eminently capable U.S. Grant and William T. Sherman.
On the morning of 29 November, Longstreet played HIS hole card. He had possibly the best artillery commander on either side in his Corps, General E. Porter Alexander. Alexander mounted his guns on the hill where Knoxville College used to sit and pounded away at Fort Sanders for half an hour. Unfortunately, he had to lift his fire as McLaws Division moved out due to the unreliability of his powder and explosive shells, the risk of friendly fire was simply too great.
Advancing across frost-covered ground and in a thick fog (part fog and part smoke from Alexander's guns) McClaws boys soon found themselves bedeviled by a Yankee trick. Their route to the fort was covered in stumps. The federals had strung used telegraph wire between the stubs about ankle high. Stumbling and cursing the Rebs kept going right up to what they had been assured was a shallow ditch
It was anything but.
The pickets Longstreet had seen were using boards to cross the ditch which was over seven feet deep and when the height of the parapet is added meant McClaws' boys would have to climb up about fifteen or twenty feet just to get into the fort.
Manning the fort that morning was the 79th New York Regiment which had faced McClaws Division earlier in the War. Chanting Fredricksburg! Fredricksburg! the New Yorkers poured fire into the mass of gray infantry trapped in the ditch. They lit fuses on artillery shells and rolled them down and there ever reports of them hurling bayonet-tipped rifles into the ditch like harpoons.
It was over in twenty minutes. Human flesh could stand no more and the Confederates pulled back, leaving some 800 casualties (129 KIA, 458 WIA, 226 POW) behind. The Union suffered but thirteen (8 KIA, 5 WIA) in one of the most lopsided battles in American history.
Longstreet now got word that Sherman was coming up from Chattanooga and so, on 5 December, he pulled out and began to make his way back to Virginia. After fighting skirmishes at Bean Station and Dandridge, the Confederates went into winter quarters at Russellville before rejoining Lee's army in early 1864.
---
Like Longstreet's boys at Knoxville, the Mizzou Tigers found themselves trapped by bad field position and a stout defense most of Saturday night. Also like Longstreet, they had no answers.
One final regular season challenge remains for HeadVol Butch Jones and his Vols. The Vanderbilt Common Hoes will heave onto the shores of Lake Loudon next Saturday.
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
The Tigers presented the Vol defense with an uninspired and vanilla game plan that played directly into Tennessee's strengths. There is a reason that the results of Missouri's games this year have resembled baseball scores.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
Tennessee seemed to spend most of the game inside the Mizzou side of the fifty, but couldn't find the end zone until the second quarter. However, Medley's field goals were more than sufficient, if not very satisfying.
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Missouri's repeated defensive stands inside their own twenty gave Vol fans pause. Their total lack of offense soon put minds at ease.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Joshua Dobbs had a monster game without putting up gaudy stats. Jalen Hurd topped the magical 1,000-yard mark and Alvin Kamara is emerging as a dandy running back. It's all good.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Jalen Reese-Maybin played like a man possessed. I hope he got a game ball.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
Leaving aside Medley's miss, the kickers were simply outstanding. Better than that, the Vols' kick coverage was stellar. The teams seems to grasp (at long last!) the significance of this Maxim.
7. Carry the fight to Missouri and keep it there for sixty minutes.
On the dot.
We Vol fans can nit-pick various aspects of Saturday's game which displeased us. Your Scribe found himself oinking about unimaginative offense on Tennessee's last drive. One first down and the Vols could have taken a knee and gone home. No reason to give Missouri the ball back, none.
BUT!
This season is not about style points it is about winning. No matter how ugly or frustrating.
JUST WIN!
Better days are ahead.
Brick by Brick, Baby!
MAXOMG
Suggested Reading:
General Edward Porter Alexander, Fighting for the Confederacy
Brig. Gen. Orlando Poe, USA, The Defense of Knoxville
Digby Gordon Seymour, Divided Loyalties: Fort Sanders and the Civil War in East Tennessee
© 2015
Keeping Your Stories Alive
Last edited:
