In 1863, Union General Ambrose Burnside sought intelligence on Confederate strength and aimed to cripple the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad before invading East Tennessee. In June, he ordered Colonel William P. Sanders to march from Kentucky and destroy track north and south of Knoxville. After failing to destroy the heavily defended railroad bridge at Loudon, Sanders and his 1,500 men, including the locally raised 1st East Tennessee Mounted Infantry, turned to Lenoir's Station on the 2,700-acre plantation of the Lenoir family. On June 19, Sanders's troops overwhelmed a small Confederate force there and destroyed the depot, the general store, and a railroad car containing Confederate military supplies. They also captured 65 artillerymen along with their cannons, horses, and mules. Sanders spared the brick cotton mill, allegedly to protect the only source of cloth for local Unionists, and local tradition held that Dr. Benjamin B. Lenoir, one of the owners, exchanged secret signs with fellow Masons among the Federal officers to ensure the mill's safety. The next day, Sanders's troops marched to Knoxville, briefly engaged Confederate batteries there, then continued to Strawberry Plains and destroyed a major railroad bridge. The raid netted about 300 Confederate prisoners and ten pieces of artillery. Later, in November 1863, Confederate General James Longstreet passed through Lenoir's Station during his Knoxville campaign, briefly liberating the place. Sanders later died of wounds received on November 19, 1863, during the fight of Knoxville, and Union officials named a fort in his honor.