General Burnside in his official report, says in connection with a recital of his first encounter with Longstreet near Loudon: “Knowing the purpose of Gen. Grant as I did, I decided that he could be better served by drawing Longstreet farther away from Bragg than by checking him at the river, and I accordingly decided to withdraw my forces and retreat leisurely towards Knoxville, and soon after daylight on the 15th the whole command was on the road.” His object was attained. As he retired, his adversary pursued, except that Longstreet sent Wheeler’s cavalry by way of Maryville to seize the heights on the south side of the river, opposite and commanding Knoxville. Wheeler surprised and captured at Maryville, the Eleventh Kentucky. Gen. Parkes with a part of the 23rd corps, and a body of cavalry under Gen. Sanders had been left at Knoxville to protect it. Sanders checked the progress of Wheeler and fell back upon the heights south of the river, where he and Parkes defeated Wheeler, who retreated to join Longstreet by way of Louisville. To that village, Longstreet had tried to have boats towed up the Tennessee River, but the current was too rapid. New life was given the United States troops at the front by Burnside’s coming to them. As he went forward, he passed by a large body of them, near Lenoir’s Station. “Under his slouched hat,” says one of his observers, “there was a sterner look than there was wont to be.” “There is trouble ahead,” said the men: but the cheers which rose from regiment to regiment, as, with his staff and battle flag he swept past, told the confidence which all felt in “old Burnie.” Their strong trust in him was also shown when he arrived near Loudon and took the chief command. One of them relates: “Notwithstanding the continued rain and the heavy roads, the presence of our commander produced a noticeable change in the spirit of the troops. An hour before, the men were deliberately covering themselves with mud, as if that were an appropriate mourning for their departed hopes, and their guns seemed naturally to seek a reverse position. But now they were all animation, and a slip here and a fall there, was made the cause of laughing, notwithstanding the rain. I think the secret of it was, that we reposed in our leader an almost perfect confidence resulting from long and tried associations. Few corps commanders have ever won the affection of their men as Burnside did.”