giment, the whole under
the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Hawkes of the Twenty-first, drove back
the Rebels at this point, and reoccupied our old position.

The same day an attack was made by the Second Michigan on the advanced
parallel, which the enemy had so constructed as to envelop the northwest
bastion of Fort Sanders. The works were gallantly carried; but before
the supporting columns could come up, our men were repulsed by fresh
troops which the enemy had at hand.

On the 25th of November the enemy, having on the day previous crossed
the Holston at a point below us, made another unsuccessful attempt to
occupy the heights opposite Knoxville. He succeeded, however, in
planting a battery on a knob about one hundred and fifty feet above the
river, and twenty-five hundred yards south of Fort Sanders. This
position commanded Fort Sanders, so that it now became necessary to
defilade the fort.

November 26th was our national Thanksgiving day, and General Burnside
issued an order, in which he expressed the hope that the day would be
observed by all, as far as military operations would allow. He knew the
rations were short, and that the day would be unlike the joyous festival
we were wont to celebrate in our distant homes; and so he reminded us of
the circumstances of trial under which our fathers first observed the
day. He also reminded us of the debt of gratitude which we owed to Him
who during the year had not only prospered our arms, but had kindly
preserved our lives. Accordingly, we ate our corn bread with
thanksgiving; and, forgetting our own privations, thought only of the
loved ones at home, who, uncertain of our fate, would that day find
little cheer at the table and by the fireside.

Allusion has already been made to the bastion-work known as Fort
Sanders. A more particular description is now needed. The main line,
held by our troops, made almost a right angle at the fort, the northwest
bastion being the salient of the angle. The ground in front of the fort,
from which the wood had been cleared, sloped gradually for a distance of
eighty yards, and then abruptly descended to a wide ravine. Under the
direction of Lieutenant Benjamin, Second United States Artillery, and
Chief of Artillery of the Army of the Ohio, the fort had now been made
as strong as the means at his disposal and the rules of military art
admitted. Eighty and thirty yards in front of the fort, rifle-pits were
constructed. These were to be use