Longstreet's two infantry divisions, supported by 5,000 cavalry, were detached from General Braxton Bragg's army with the goal of defeating Burnside's forces and recapturing Knoxville.

[6] Two divisions of IX Corps joined Burnside on September 20, and Brigadier General Orlando B. Willcox with 3,000 6-month Indiana soldiers reached at Cumberland Gap on October 3.

[11] Yet, the Confederate department commander Major General Samuel Jones felt that his 8,000 troops were too weak to challenge the Union occupation.

[12] On October 17, Bragg sent an infantry division under Major General Carter L. Stevenson and two cavalry brigades under Colonels George Gibbs Dibrell and J. J. Morrison to threaten the southern part of the Union area of control.

The remaining XXIII Corps infantry division under Brigadier General Milo Smith Hascall held Knoxville, Brigadier General William P. Sanders' cavalry division watched the area near Maryville, Willcox defended Bull's Gap, and two infantry regiments and 300 cavalry garrisoned Cumberland Gap.

Bragg was critical of Longstreet's mishandling of the Battle of Wauhatchie on October 28, in which the Confederates failed to cut the Federals' newly established Cracker Line.

Longstreet wanted to be reinforced to 20,000 men for the campaign, but Bragg refused and recalled both Stevenson's and Benjamin F. Cheatham's infantry divisions that had been sent to oppose Burnside.

Longstreet belatedly discovered that Stevenson's troops had stripped the countryside of food supplies and that his own wagon train was barely adequate to maintain an offensive.

Longstreet had 10,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 35 guns after Bragg agreed to loan him Major General Joseph Wheeler and almost all of his army's mounted force.

[16] Longstreet's staff selected Hough's Ferry, a short distance west of Loudon, as the most suitable location for a pontoon bridge across the Tennessee River.

On the evening of November 13, the Palmetto Sharpshooters from Colonel John Bratton's South Carolina brigade crossed the Tennessee at Hough's Ferry and secured the bridge site.

Burnside, who arrived at the scene, ordered Colonel Marshall W. Chapin's brigade of White's division to probe Confederate forces at Hough's Ferry.

Chapin and Ferrero reached Lenoir's at 1:00 pm, taking nine hours to march 6 mi (9.7 km) because a violent rainstorm in the night had turned the roads to quagmires.

He ordered the four companies of the 6th Indiana Cavalry Regiment and Lieutenant Erskine Gittings' Battery L and M, 3rd US Artillery to withdraw to the key intersection of the Lenoir and Kingston Roads.

In the event, the Union brigade under Colonel Charles D. Pennebaker had withdrawn behind the Little River to Rockford, leaving only the 11th Kentucky Mounted Infantry in Maryville.

[24] Next, Armstrong sent Colonel Thomas Harrison's brigade to attack the 1st Kentucky Cavalry and 45th Ohio Mounted Infantry Regiments, which were 2 mi (3.2 km) southwest of Rockford.

Quickly finding places to cross the Little River, the Confederates compelled Sanders to abandon Rockford and form a new defense line behind Stock Creek, 2 mi (3.2 km) north.

Colonel William Humphrey's brigade of Ferrero's division and one section of Captain Jacob Roemer's Battery L, 2nd New York Artillery formed the rearguard.

Hart's cavalry brigade and McLaws' division moved north from Burns House to the Kingston Road and then turned east, a distance of 10 mi (16.1 km).

Hartranft sent the 200 horsemen of Colonel James Biddle's 6th Indiana Cavalry west on the Kingston Road and deployed his infantry division to cover the intersection.

At 9:30 am on November 16, Humphrey's three Michigan regiments made the first Federal stand at Little Turkey Creek, 1.7 mi (2.7 km) south of the fork.

Two of Sims' guns were disabled and a Confederate-made 20-pounder Parrott rifle in Captain Pichegru Woolfolk's Virginia battery burst its barrel when fired.

Colonel Edward Porter Alexander unlimbered the Confederate guns and another artillery duel commenced, with neither side gaining the upper hand.

It noted that Burnside's troops won the "race" for Campbell's Station and that the Knoxville campaign might have ended differently if Longstreet's men had reached there first.

[35] Adding the 120 casualties at Lenoir's Station makes 438 Federal losses for November 14–16, exclusive of the cavalry fighting on the south bank.

Not only did this save Knoxville from capture, but it drew Longstreet's forces farther away from Bragg's army which was being threatened by Grant's buildup of Federal troops.

[38] On November 29, 1863, only 30 minutes after the Confederate attack on Fort Sanders failed, Longstreet received official news that Grant had beaten Bragg at the Battle of Missionary Ridge.

[39] Major General William Tecumseh Sherman with 30,000 Union infantry[40] set out from Chattanooga on November 29 in order to relieve Knoxville.

The Avery Russell House, also known as the Campbell's Station Inn was built in the early 1800s and was used as a stopping place for people passing through Knoxville.

Early visitors included Tennessee Governor John Sevier and President Andrew Jackson, who raced horses at a track in nearby Concord.