You are standing on Seawell Hill, where Confederate Gen. Joseph Wheeler's cavalrymen camped during their raid through Tennessee. They had destroyed parts of the railroad to Chattanooga then moved north up the Tennessee River Valley, damaging the railroad and then riding east and then north around Knoxville. Crossing the Cumberland Mountains, Wheeler's men passed through Crossville, Sparta, Smithville, and Lebanon. The small garrison of Union troops in Lebanon hurriedly fled to Nashville but burned their barracks and headquarters at Cumberland College before they left town.
