Much had been hoped for, when General Buell led a gallant army through Kentucky, almost to her border, but the day of her emancipation had not yet arrived. In the fall of 1863, a determined effort was made by the Government to occupy East Tennessee. General Burnside had been called to the command of the Department of the Ohio, in the month of March, but the exigencies of the Vicksburg campaign had deprived him of his troops, and he had subsequently remained inactive. The surrender of that stronghold had placed an army again at his disposal, and by the latter part of August he was in condition to attempt the occupation of East Tennessee, and thus cooperate with General Rosecrans, who was then in the midst of his heavy campaign bearing on Chattanooga. It was feared that reinforcements would reach Bragg at Chattanooga, through East Tennessee from Virginia, and to General Burnside was assigned the duty of destroying the communications between these points. He entered the State late in August, about midway between the eastern and western boundaries, and immediately occupied Knoxville, which was evacuated by the rebel General Buckner, without a struggle. His retreat was so precipitate, and his surprise so great, that he had no opportunity to notify the garrison at Cumberland Gap of their danger, consequently the rebel forces at that point, numbering some two thousand men, were environed by the Union army, and compelled to surrender. Knoxville was now delivered from the rebel rule; and the inhabitants hailed the presence of their deliverers with the warmest tokens of joy. Recruits flocked to the Union army by hundreds, from all the surrounding country, much faster than they could be either armed or clad. Though the capture of Knoxville was an easy enterprise on the part of General Burnside, its retention promised to be a work of great difficulty. He was two hundred and fifty miles from the base of his supplies in Kentucky, and on either side of him were the two great armies of the rebellion—Lee on the east, and Bragg on the south. The country in the neighborhood swarmed with guerrillas, and important posts in the vicinity were liable to, and subjected to frequented attacks from the Confederate forces, yet too feeble to attack the main Union army. Clothes and shoes began to fail, and economy became necessary in all means of subsistence. The disastrous battle of Chickamauga, which imperilled the existence of General Rosecrans’ army, tended to increase the difficulties of General Burnside.