During the Civil War

During the Civil War. . The Campbell Station Inn has also been known as the Avery Russell House, as many members of the Russell family lived in the home. The farm adjacent to Samuel Martin’s was occupied by Matthew Russell, a farmer, and his sons, Robert and William. By 1857, Samuel Martin had died and his property passed to his daughter, Nancy. Deeds and records indicate that Martin died without a will and the home and property were purchased from his heirs by Matthew Russell in 1858. Matthew and his twin, John, ran a store at Campbell’s Station., When the stagecoaches, cattle drovers and other travelers largely disappeared from Kingston Pile with the establishment of the railroad in the mid-1800s, the inns along the highway suffered financially. The Civil War was very difficult on what remained of Campbell’s Station. During the fall of 1863, the Union’s 24th Kentucky and 103rd Ohio Infantries camped near Concord and appropriated supplies from several area farms., On Nov. 15, 1863, in what is now called the Battle of Campbell’s Station, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s Confederate forces clashed with General Ambrose Burnside’s Union Army just east of the Campbell Station Inn., Longstreet’s First Corps made its way north from Chattanooga after the Battle of Chickamauga in an effort to retake Knoxville from Burnside’s army. His approximately 20,000 men, including 5,000 cavalry, crossed the Tennessee River and Huff’s Ferry on Nov. 13, and Burnside began a retreat along the railroad line back toward Knoxville. The two armies raced toward the hamlet of Campbell’s Station, which Longstreet hoped to capture and thus prevent Burnside from reaching fortifications in Knoxville., Burnside’s forces won the race, but Longstreet’s cavalry had ravaged the Union supply wagons and reserve artillery trains. To give his supply train the opportunity to progress, Burnside deployed his army on either side of Kingston Pike, and withing 15 minutes, the battle had begun. Longstreet timed his attacks to strike both Union flanks simultaneously, forcing he right to redeploy, but the lines held. The battle ended at nightfall with casualties in the hundreds on both sides. Union troops continued on to Knoxville., If Longstreet’s forces had reached Campbell’s Station first, the outcome of the Nov. 16 battle might have been different., (sidebar) , V.W. Bruce – Civil War Solder , On Nov. 16, 1863, the war came to local resident Nancy Galbraith’s front door with the battle of Campbell’s Station. A widow at 44, Nancy’s nine-year-old son Robert had just died in October, ad her two older sons, Samuel Andrew (age 19) and Thomas (age 17), were away at war in the First Tennessee Infantry. She was left with two sons, ages 13 and 11, and a large farm to run., To add to her worries, a group of Confederate soldiers arrive at her house with Union prisoners carrying fifteen wounded Union soldiers and a Confederate doctor to tend the wounded., Following is an account of what happened that night and in the duration of Nancy’s care:, V.W. Bruce (one of the wounded Union soldiers) was an 18-year-old Adrian College student when he went into the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry on Aug. 2, 1862. But on Nov. 16, 1863, while in a skirmish in the Virtue community before reaching Campbell’s Station, the Confederates overtook Bruce’s regiment, leaving 18 dead or wounded and many captured. Bruce was wounded in his right knee and taken to Mrs. Galbraith’s home., “She gave up her best room in the house with a large fireplace to use for me and my comrades to be treated and cared for by the doctor. Then next morning Lourinda and neighbor woman went with ropes and brought bundles of straw on their backs a mile and a half to make beds for the wounded men to lie on. Bed ticks were filled and laid in rows on each side of the room, with an alleyway between to the large fireplace. Our wounds were dressed and my leg amputated by the Confederate Surgeons, just 24 hours after we were wounded, and two of Mrs. Galbraith’s boys, Abram and David, buried by foot in the back yard., “We remained there nearly a month and Mrs. Galbraith furnished from her own secreted stores all we had to eat during our stay there, except one ration of flour which the Confederates gave us and she and her older daughter did our cooking and washing, and took care of us as our mothers and sisters would have done if they had the opportunity., “On Thanksgiving night the young women of the neighborhood dropped in to make our Thanksgiving a memorable one. It was a surprise visit and they brought a large dish of molasses candy with them, and passed it to us boys as we set up in bed, and we had a genuine candy pull in Dixie that Thanksgiving night in 1863.”, Funding for this sign was provided by the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable.