Introduction: Two battles in East Tennessee would be fought shortly after Union Maj. Gen. Burnside captured Knoxville in September 1863. In an effort to take control of the railroads east of Knoxville, Union units began assailing nearby Confederate forces encamped at various key railroad junctions. The East Tennessee Campaign, September-October 1863, as it was known, consisted of the fight at Blountsville (September 22, 1863) and the battle of Blue Springs (October 10, 1863). On the morning of Oct. 10, stubborn Union troops met stiff Confederate resistance in Blue Springs. But after several hours of fighting, it was superior Federal numbers that soon proved too much as thin Rebel lines would be stretched before breaking. At 5 p.m. the Federals concentrated and launched an assault on the enemy's center causing it to break, throwing Confederate units into a running yet fighting retreat toward southwestern Virginia.

Confederate forces would not be removed however, and soon Lt. Gen. Longstreet arrived with reinforcements to launch the Knoxville Campaign (November-December 1863). While Longstreet's army was determined to move on and push Burnside out of Knoxville and East Tennessee, it would never materialize. Longstreet's forces would engage in a series of battles throughout East Tennessee during the winter of 1863, but would never be in a position to press an offensive and attempt to retake Knoxville, the objective. The exigencies of war would next demand Longstreet to return to Virginia. For the remainder of the conflict, Southern commands in the region would continue to be swept aside, but not destroyed. Union forces would hold Knoxville until the war ended, but many smaller battles would be fought as each side strived to remove the other from the region.

Railroads: Railroads allowed an army to rapidly move troops and supplies and to contest an enemy's advance, and the rails were vital for the smaller force needing reinforcements for an imminent fight. Remove the East Tennessee railroad, and the nearest line was south and through Georgia and the Carolinas, a costly delay that could quickly spell defeat. East Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of the Volunteer State, was host to the only track which connected the state to southwest Virginia, making it prime real estate and a battlefield of wills. Practically every battle of consequence was fought along the railroads of this mountainous terrain, and while the railroad bridges which spanned its peaks and valleys were set ablaze only to be rebuilt again, the locals would see a grand effort between the blue and gray as one destroyed and the other rebuilt during a vicious four year cycle of destruction and reconstruction as each army was determined to best the other. Lee said of a single railroad that it was the lifeline of the Confederacy. Once the remaining railroad in North Carolina was captured, Lee's Army of Northern Virginia would soon capitulate to Grant.