“On the north bank of the river, a narrow ridge is formed, extending from a point about two and a-half miles east of Knoxville, to Lenoir’s. It has an average base of about one and a-half miles in width. At Knoxville, the width is about one mile. This ridge is cut through at short intervals by small streams, two of which, First and Second creeks, run through the town of Knoxville at a distance from each other of about three-fourths of a mile. The main part of the town is built upon that portion of the ridge bounded on the northwest by the valley, on the southwest by Second Creek, on the southeast by the Holston River and on the northeast by First Creek. It has the appearance of a table, elevated about 150 feet above the river, and about 100 feet above the valley. Again, Third Creek is found about seven-eighths of a mile below Second Creek, forming a second similar table. A depression in the ridge about the same distance east of First Creek, forms still another table upon which is built East Knoxville. This elevated ground is called Temperance Hill. From this eastward, the ridge is more broken until it disappears and other ridges spring up. This last division is known as Mabry’s Hill, and is the highest ground by some twenty feet to be found on the north side of the river within cannon range of Knoxville.” CAPTAIN O. M. POE, Chief Engineer, Dept. of the Ohio. APPENDIX: NOTE U: Page 282. Gen. Sherman found on Gen. Burnside’s table such a good dinner, that he exclaimed at its contradiction of statements he had heard, that the besieged army was starving. Gen. Burnside explained that he had access to supplies from farmers on the south side of the river. No doubt the dinner was exceptional in the family and had been provided at extra pains, in honor of the guest. Had he shared the rations of the soldiers during the siege, he could have verified the reported scarcity. The Comte de Paris seems to have read between the lines of Gen. Sherman’s Memoirs, for he represents that “Gen. Sherman relates his astonishment when entering a place (Knoxville) which he believed to be reduced to the last extremities, he beheld a park of the finest cattle, and when afterwards, Burnside bade him sit down to a table abundantly served, he understands that the peril has been exaggerated.” (History of the Civil War in America: By the Comte de Paris, Vol. IV., page 329.) The Count is here distressingly inaccurate. Gen. Sherman does not say that at Knoxville he beheld a park filled with the finest cattle. He could not have done so, for they were not there to be seen. The “park and the finest cattle” are figments of the imagination. APPENDIX: NOTE V: Page 285. Will H. Brearley of Michigan quotes from a letter written by Col. E. P. Alexander, Chief Engineer of Gen. Longstreet, dated October 18, 1870, as follows: