Battle for Route 33

“Where are my damn scouts”, Allen Hurst commander of Roger’s Army, Kingsport Forces.

Where the battle took place

The ridges and hollers of this local area is filled with family clans that don’t rightly like armies(of either side) marching though their land.  Add to this local people have been working as watchers for the Army of the East and feeding news of where enemy armies are.  This has allowed the Army of the East to have a good idea about where Roger’s army is at all times but has cause quite a bit of trouble for Roger’s Army.

     Allen Hurst has sent scouts forward to take a measure of the Tazewell defenses and get an idea of how to attack but none of the scouts have returned.  There have been increasing attacks on foraging parties to the extent that rations are now running low.  Hurst has not heard any news about how other forces are doing but knows that the Army of the East is somewhere behind him.

    The army of the east knowing were Roger’s army is has not pushed to hard but has kept moving.  When the rains started The army of the east decided to camp on the intersection of route 25 and route 33.  This allowed general Brock commanding the Army of the east to block Roger’s army line of supply and retreat putting Roger’s Army at risk without actually having to take any action.
    Hurst had to make a choice did he move forward into unknown ground with diminishing supplies or did He try to make it back to route 33 and link up with Sneedville.  Going back risked meeting the army of the East but he at least knew that force.  Waiting a day was all he could do and when it started raining he made the decision to try and make it to route 33.
    As the Roger’s army approaches route 33 their worst nightmares were played out.  The army of the east was sitting in a defensive position and it was beginning to snow.  This was going to be a hard day for Kingsport forces.

Opening set up

    The battle started with Kingsport having success driving both the wings of the Knoxville force back off the ridge but it did not last.  Knoxville moved quickly to the attack after sending reenforcements to the right wing driving the Kingsport infantry back.  Both sides took heavy losses but the Kingsport left broke and only the use of cannons that had lagged behind on the road stopped a complete wipe out.  Some light cavalry also forced the Knoxville infantry to slow down and go to square but it was at a high cost.

Kingsport left flank end of battle

Knoxville empty ridge end of battle

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally Kingsport heavy cavalry and grenadiers made their way forward and tried to punch their way down route 25 to open a whole for the rest of the army but Knoxville fire from both of the ridges tore through the cavalry and infantry that advanced down the road.
By noon is was all over.  There was just no way through the defense that Knoxville had put up and so Hurst offered to surrender and at 4pm that day Roger’s army stepped into captivity.

Army of the East lost 1/3 of it’s infantry as a total loss and another 1/3 took over 50% losses.
The losses to cavalry and guns were minor