Sweetwater Depot

Settled in the 1820s, Sweetwater flourished after the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad was built through the town in 1852, with trains stopping there for water and a freight depot serving the line. Because of its strategic location, Sweetwater became an important Civil War supply center. A Confederate garrison initially protected its facilities, but during Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s East Tennessee campaign the 45th Ohio Mounted Infantry arrived in September 1863 and occupied the town. Control of the Sweetwater Valley shifted repeatedly that autumn amid continuous cavalry fighting. In November 1863, Gen. James Longstreet used Sweetwater as his headquarters and staging area for the campaign against Knoxville, bringing troops and artillery by rail from Chattanooga to join cavalry there before the attack. After Federal reinforcements reached Burnside, Longstreet withdrew. Later Confederate efforts to retake Sweetwater led to several more engagements, and in February 1865 Gen. John C. Vaughn reported the capture of the garrison there and the burning of the depot. Federal troops nevertheless controlled the railroad in Sweetwater until the war ended, and a July 1865 recollection remembered peace returning there.

Sweetwater, Tennessee · United States