Battle of Knoxville-Bleak House - Knoxville TN
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 35° 56.988 W 083° 57.377
17S E 233351 N 3982421
During the Siege and Battle of Knoxville, November 17–December 4, 1863, the Bleak house was Confederate Gen. James Longstreet’s headquarters. A sharpshooter unit, “The Elite Twenty,” occupied the house’s second-floor east-facing windows.
Waymark Code: WM17257
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 11/23/2022
Views: 0
TEXT FROM THE HISTORICAL MARKER
Bleak House-Confederate Memorial Hall
Bleak House, the home of Robert Houston Armstrong and Louisa Franklin Armstrong, is an Italianate-style mansion completed in 1858. During the Siege and Battle of Knoxville, November 17–December 4, 1863, the house was Confederate Gen. James Longstreet’s headquarters. A sharpshooter unit, “The Elite Twenty,” occupied the house’s second-floor east-facing windows, as well as the tower. They were armed with British Whitworth rifles, accurate to about 1,500 yards.
On November 18, when the Federal line was 750 yards east of the house, Union Gen. Williams P. Sanders ordered Lt. Samuel Benjamin in Fort Loudon to put a cannon shot through the Bleak House tower to dislodge the sharpshooters. Called “The Prettiest Shot of the War” by the Federals, it hit the second floor of the house at its southeast corner, killing three of the sharpshooters. Their pencil portraits are on the tower’s interior north wall. That afternoon, Sanders was mortally wounded, reputedly by a sharpshooter, after watching Capt. Stephen Winthrop rally the Confederates. Federal officials renamed Fort Loudon in honor of Sanders.
During the fighting, Mrs. Armstrong and her daughters were confined to an upstairs bedroom for their safety. A sentry was instructed not to allow them downstairs without permission. Mrs. Armstrong once defied the sentry, and when she refused to return upstairs, he fired a warning shot into the stairway, where the .58 caliber minie ball remains today.
On December 4, Longstreet left Bleak House, a place riddled with many bullet holes, as well as a shell scar in the main parlor.
(captions)
Drawing of Sharpshooters
Bleak House, circa 1874
Gen. James Longstreet
Mrs. Louisa Franklin Armstrong and James Longstreet, 1890
All photos courtesy Knoxville Chapter 89, United Daughters of the Confederacy
Erected by Tennessee Civil War Trails.
Name of Battle:
Battle of Knoxville
Name of War: U.S. Civil War
Date(s) of Battle (Beginning): 11/18/1863
Entrance Fee: Not Listed
Parking: Not Listed
Date of Battle (End): Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Post a photo of you in front of a sign or marker posted at the site of the battle (or some other way to indicate you have personally visited the site.
In addition it is encouraged to take a few photos of the surrounding area and interesting features at the site.