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Feature article
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Battle of Kingsport remembered by history buffs, Civil War devotees
By Steve Igo
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| David Bayer plays 'Taps' at a ceremony commemorating the Battle of Kingsport. Ned Jilton II |
KINGSPORT — The gathering night hid a smattering of Civil War re-enactors and even fewer onlookers in the midst of a modern Kingsport subdivision Wednesday.
Unnoticed, unheralded and utterly undeterred, the few who remembered and honored the fallen of the Dec. 13, 1864, Battle of Kingsport gathered in the glow of a Rivermont Estates street lamp and provided a salute to local history.
Large trees and heavy brush blanket a graveyard that was rediscovered in recent years when the subdivision was being built. Perhaps 18 Confederate soldiers and two or three Union troops killed in the 1864 clash near the North Fork of the Holston River are believed to be buried at the site.
Developers Victor Blevins and Joe Johnson Jr. left the plot of ground undisturbed once they encountered not only a forgotten burial place, but an important piece of Kingsport’s history.
About 300 Confederate soldiers led by Col. Richard Morgan intended to ambush Union troops at Rotherwood Ford, just over the hill from the cemetery site. Instead, about 5,000 Union soldiers surrounded the small band of Confederates.
On Wednesday, after dusk 10 Civil War re-enactors and about a half dozen others paid homage to the battle and especially to those buried in the old graveyard.
“This is my way of honoring the soldiers who died for what they believed in,” said Rick Ragle of Mount Carmel, a member of the 19th Tennessee Volunteers Co. “B” re-enactors. “This is just my way of supporting my belief in the South.”
Danny Carter of Blountville, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said his group and state historians are searching for information and other evidence of the old graveyard’s historical significance. Carter said historians believe the soldiers buried in the subdivision plot are from Kentucky.
Jim Maddox of Johnson City, a historian for the 8th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, said there is no doubt of the site’s historical significance. It’s the details that would be nice to get.
“According to local, written and oral tradition, at least some of the dead from the Battle of Kingsport were taken here and buried,” Maddox said.
Holding a memorial service after dark on the anniversary of the battle was about the only time one could be arranged, he said.
“We’re trying to preserve the Civil War heritage for the area. We’re losing a lot of our historical sites to development. And we want to make people aware of their local history. But this was a matter of honoring those who are here, too,” said Maddox.
David Bayer, a sophomore at Dobyns-Bennett High School, played “Taps.” Carter read the Civil War-era poem “Only A Soldier’s Grave,” and the re-enactors provided a military honor guard fitting for the Civil War dead.
Maddox said getting out on a cold Wednesday night was nothing compared to what the soldiers of Dec. 13, 1864, went through.
“Just try to imagine being out here in the cold back then,” he said. “I don’t see how they did it. I just don’t see how they managed to do it. But they did.”
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