No. 7.

Reports of Captain Orlando M. Poe, U. S. Corps of Engineers, Chief Engineer, Department of the Ohio.

NAVARRE, STARK COUNTY, OHIO, January 13, 1864.

GENERAL: * Meantime, I had dispatched Asst. J. H. Brooks to Loudon, with instructions concerning defensive works at that point. He had been directed to make a survey of the road from Knoxville to Loudon, which road I had decided to adopt as the base of surveys on the peninsula included between the Clinch and Holston Rivers, and extending as far to the eastward as Strawberry Plains. The subsequent active military operations defeated this part of my plan, though the data on hand will enable us to make a tolerably good map of the territory alluded to.

On the 23rd of October, I accompanied the general commanding to Loudon, where the ground was thoroughly reconnoitered, and on Tuesday, October 27, after two strong reconnaissances in the direction of the Sweet Water, it was decided to evacuate Loudon, not because it was untenable but to adopt another line much more favorable. This was the line of the Tennessee, from Kingston to Lenoir's, where a pontoon bridge was to be thrown over the Holston, thence by the right bank of the Little Tennessee River, sufficiently near the mountains to render a movement in force by the enemy around that flank impracticable. This line required a much smaller force to hold, particularly as the autumn rains were coming on, when the Little Tennessee would not be fordable. The wisdom of this movement became apparent to those who had misunderstood it, when Longstreet made his advance upon Knoxville, by two columns infantry, by way of the Kingston road, and a heavy cavalry force by way off Maryville, having for its object to seize the heights on the south side of the Holston, opposite Knoxville. We all have a lively and grateful remembrance of the beautiful manner in which this latter movement was thwarted by that very force which had been guarding the right bank of the Little Tennessee. By direction of the general commanding, I took up the pontoon bridge at Loudon on the morning of the 28th of October, immediately after the troops had crossed it, and transported it to the railroad track at the east end of Loudon bridge, where the boats, some forty in number, the chess, and a part of the anchorage were loaded upon cars and carried to Knoxville. This occupied the limited transportation of the railroad for two days, so that it was not until 1 p.m. of Sunday, November 1, that the bridge was finally in a condition to permit Sanders' division of cavalry, with its baggage, to cross over it from Knoxville to the south bank of the river. The bridge was thrown across the river at the mouth of First Creek. The transportation and reconstruction of this bridge, while it involved no great skill, did require an immense amount of hard labor, but the usefulness of the bridge has been so great that a hundred times as much would have been well spent.

The bridge across the Holston at Lenoir's was successfully constructed out of the materials at hand by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, assistant inspector-general, Ninth Army Corps. It was destroyed by

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*For part [here omitted] covering operations August 12-October 10, in East Tennessee, see Series I, Vol. XXX, Part II, p.566.

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