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[50] when they pushed on, on September 1st, as far as Loudon in hopes of preserving the bridge for their army and of preventing the enemy's rearguard from having access to it. They came too late to save it from the flames. After having exchanged a few cannon-shots with Scott's brigade of cavalry strongly posted on the left bank, the Unionists recognized that it was useless to attempt to cross over. Scott continued to occupy Loudon, while Buckner was falling back on the other side of the Hiawassee River, and a few days thereafter, without having been further disturbed, Scott effected a junction with Bragg. Burnside, having joined Minty's cavalry, which Rosecrans had pushed as far as the vicinity of Kingston, left that town on the 2d with his' army, and on the 3d made a triumphal entry into Knoxville. There he found important depots of provisions and a considerable amount of railway material, which Buckner in his precipitate retreat had neglected to destroy. East Tennessee was finally rescued, after two years and a half, from Confederate domination. According to the testimony of eyewitnesses, the joy of the people was beyond description. Innumerable Federal flags which had been preserved in secret were displayed at the windows in the towns and villages. Several regiments of the Twenty-third corps, being composed of refugees, met many acquaintances and relatives. The other Federal soldiers, accustomed in Kentucky to the hostility of a large part of the population, were carried away by this unanimous welcome. However, to finish his conquest Burnside had to be master of the road which traverses Cumberland Gap and to drive Jones' troops into Virginia. That was his first care. Courcy's brigade, in order to cover Kentucky, had already occupied the outlet of the road on the north-west slope of the mountains. Shackelford went with his cavalry to flank Frazer, so as to completely surround him. On the 7th, Burnside followed him with infantry and artillery by taking as far as Morristown the railway, which the enemy had not destroyed. Thence, by a forced march of forty-three miles in one day and a half, he arrived on the 9th before the enemy's works. Frazer, who had an abundance of munitions, and rations for forty days, had taken no notice of the summons made by Courcy and Shackelford. They had confined
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