McClung Museum educator to speak at Pellissippi State on Civil War

Joan Markel never meant to become a detective. She just got hooked.

Now, she is looking for forgotten weapons and signs of a struggle. But it’s not easy, because the trail has long since gotten cold.

Markel will discuss some of her detective work—specifically, on local battle fortifications and other Civil War gems—when she speaks at Pellissippi State’s Magnolia Avenue Campus November 7, 10:45 and 11:45 a.m.

Her presentation, “Our Traumatic Past: The Battle of Fort Sanders,” is part of this year’s Common Academic Experience activities, which revolve around “Sharpshooter,” the David Madden novel about an East Tennessee Civil War soldier.

Markel’s detective “career” started some years back, when she was asked to teach a 45-minute class in historic archaeology as the new outreach educator for the University of Tennessee’s McClung Museum.

What could I say about Knoxville’s part in the Civil War? she thought.

“One day, while researching for the class, I realized what the monument on 17th Street was for,” she said. The tombstone-like memorial marks a significant battle site, the Battle of Fort Sanders. She learned too that Fort Sanders was named after a real man—Union general William Sanders—who was killed in the conflict in 1863. And she learned that the Knoxville landscape is dotted with fortifications.

“Even a quick glance at the 1864 map of Knoxville’s fortifications shows the ingenuity of the military engineering,” Markel said. “Discovering we live inside a fortified town is something like discovering we live in a meteoric crater—it’s all around us, but it needs a new perspective to be identified.”

The 360-degree earthworks surrounding Civil War–era Knoxville were built to protect the town, says Markel, who has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Fort Dickerson, located at the corner of Chapman Highway and Fort Dickerson Road, is a city park containing original Civil War fortifications. Fort Sanders was attacked unsuccessfully by Confederate general James Longstreet’s forces at dawn on November 29, 1863.

Battery Wiltsie, she says, was part of a large Union earthworks located behind Vine Avenue between Gay and Walnut streets downtown. The defense line ran along the ridge, from Fort Hill to Fort Sanders, and the ridge was crowned by 10 forts.

“The Hill” at UT was turned into a fort—Fort Byington.

“What I think is the most fascinating is the fierce Battle of Fort Sanders, which lasted only 20 minutes. The Union walked in without a fight in September [1863]. In November they heard that a big Confederate army was coming to retake the town.”

The ensuing battle resulted in 813 casualties for the South and 13 for the North, she says.

“As far as our day-to-day identity, you wouldn’t know Knoxville was so heavily involved,” Markel said. “There was a very high proportion of Unionists here. After the war, it seemed people just wanted to get on with their lives, and it was too traumatic to memorialize it.

“I love the subject,” Markel said. “We’ve got a modern veneer over a very powerful past.”

In addition to her duties at the McClung Museum, Markel is a member of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable.

For more information about this event, contact Remonda Swafford at 329-3102.