Longstreet’s Headquarters

In the winter of 1863-1864, after abandoning the siege of Knoxville, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet was given command of the Confederate forces in Upper East Tennessee. He chose Russellville, a small town on the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad roughly an equal distance from Morristown and Bull’s Gap, as his winter quarters. He and his staff established their headquarters here in the William Nenney House, using first-floor rooms as their command center, while the soldiers constructed hut camps along the railroad and also from the Holston to the Nolichucky Rivers.