The Virtue Mill site was the scene of fighting on November 16, 1863, during the Battle of Campbell Station, when the 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, serving in the rear guard with the 2nd Michigan, 20th Michigan, and 100th Pennsylvania, helped protect Burnside's retreating army as it fell back into the defenses of Knoxville. Earlier in November 1863, Confederate forces under General Longstreet had been sent from Chattanooga to march north, take Knoxville, and claim East Tennessee, a vital river town and railroad center that would link Virginia with the Deep South and aid the movement of soldiers and supplies. After minor skirmishes at Loudon and more serious resistance at Lenoir Station on November 15, the key battle came on November 16 near this site, where Burnside's outnumbered Federal troops used the high ground and important road intersections at Campbell Station to delay Longstreet's advance long enough for the main Union force to move down the Kingston Road into Knoxville. At Turkey Creek, believed to be at this exact location, Longstreet's Confederates caught up with the 17th Michigan skirmishers and nearly cut them off, but Captain Frederick Swift of Company E and Sgt. Joseph Brandle, the flag bearer, rallied the regiment and stopped the Confederates from overrunning them and the rest of the guard. Swift later recalled moving the regiment across the creek and up the hill, seizing the colors after members of the color guard were killed or wounded, and calling on the men to form on him. The first organized resistance at Campbell Station came where the Lenoir Road reached the Kingston Road, a fight needed to slow the Confederate advance and protect the intersection long enough to bring the Michigan rear guard out of its fight along the Lenoir Road. After six hours of heavy fighting, the Confederates failed to break through the Union defenses, and the Union troops, having delayed the offensive, continued to Knoxville and joined in the successful defense of the city. For their actions, Captain Swift and Sgt. Brandle each received the Medal of Honor, and the 17th Michigan suffered 7 killed and 52 wounded.