Sanders' Knoxville Raid

The Sunsphere located in World’s Fair Park in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, is a 266-foot (81 m) high hexagonal steel truss structure, topped with a 75 ft (23 m) gold-colored glass sphere that served as the symbol of the 1982 World's Fair.

Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's third largest city after Nashville and Memphis. It is the principal city of the Knoxville metropolitan area, which had a population of 879,773 in 2020.First settled in 1786, Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. The city struggled with geographic isolation throughout the early 19th century; the arrival of the railroad in 1855 led to an economic boom. The city was bitterly divided over the issue of secession during the American Civil War and was occupied alternately by Confederate and Union armies, culminating in the Battle of Fort Sanders in 1863. Following the war, Knoxville grew rapidly as a major wholesaling and manufacturing center. The city's economy stagnated after the 1920s as the manufacturing sector collapsed, the downtown area declined and city leaders became entrenched in highly partisan political fights. Hosting the 1982 World's Fair helped reinvigorate the city, and revitalization initiatives by city leaders and private developers have had major successes in spurring growth in the city, especially the downtown area.Knoxville is the home of the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee, whose sports teams, the Tennessee Volunteers, are popular in the surrounding area. Knoxville is also home to the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for East Tennessee, and the corporate headquarters of several national and regional companies. As one of the largest cities in the Appalachian region, Knoxville has positioned itself in recent years as a repository of Appalachian culture and is one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The siege of Knoxville (November 19 – December 4, 1863) saw Lieutenant General James Longstreet's Confederate forces besiege the Union garrison of Knoxville, Tennessee, led by Major General Ambrose Burnside. When Major General William T. Sherman approached Knoxville with an overwhelming Union force, Longstreet ended the siege on December 4 and withdrew northeast. The siege was part of the Knoxville campaign of the American Civil War. In August and September 1863, Burnside's Army of Ohio carried out a nearly bloodless invasion of East Tennessee, an area that included a substantial pro-Union population. Burnside's occupying force was thrown on the defensive when Longstreet's corps and Major General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry launched a counter-invasion from the southwest in November. Longstreet missed his chance to smash the Union forces in the field when Burnside conducted a successful fighting withdrawal to Knoxville. When Longstreet hesitated to attack, the Union soldiers built fortifications to make Knoxville's strong natural defenses even more powerful. Longstreet's forces lacked sufficient strength to completely surround Knoxville. Therefore, Burnside's Union garrison avoided starvation by bringing food into the city from the south bank of the Tennessee River. On November 29, a major Confederate assault was repulsed with heavy losses in the Battle of Fort Sanders. Aside from day-to-day skirmishing, there were two other significant actions, the first on November 18 west of the city and the second on November 25 at Armstrong's Hill on the south bank. After the siege ended, Longstreet's troops lingered in East Tennessee until April 1864, but were unable to capture Knoxville.

World's Fair Park is a public park in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The park sits on the former fairgrounds of the 1982 World's Fair hosted in Knoxville. Today, the park is home to the Sunsphere and the Tennessee Amphitheater, the two remaining structures from the exposition.

The Knoxville Convention Center is a 500,000-square-foot convention center in Knoxville, Tennessee, occupying the former location of the US Pavilion of the 1982 World's Fair. It offers 120,000 square feet (11,000 m2) of exhibit space.

The 1982 World's Fair, officially known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition (KIEE) and simply as Energy Expo '82 and Expo '82, was an international exposition held in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Focused on energy and electricity generation, with the theme Energy Turns the World, it was officially registered as a "World's Fair" by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).The KIEE opened on May 1, 1982, and closed on October 31, 1982, after receiving over 11 million visitors. Participating nations included Australia, Belgium, Canada, The People's Republic of China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany. It was the second World's Fair to be held in the state of Tennessee, with the first being the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897, held in the state's capital, Nashville.The fair was constructed on a 70-acre (280,000 m2) site between Downtown Knoxville and the University of Tennessee campus. The core of the site primarily consisted of a deteriorating Louisville and Nashville Railroad yard and depot. The railroad yard was demolished, with the exception of a single rail line, and the depot was renovated for use as a restaurant during the fair. The Sunsphere, a 266-foot (81 m) steel tower topped with a five-story gold globe, was built as the main structure and symbol for the exposition. Today, the Sunsphere stands as a symbol for the city of Knoxville.

The Tennessee Amphitheater, also known as the World's Fair Park Amphitheater, is an open-air amphitheater located in the 1982 World's Fair Park in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA), is an art museum in Knoxville, Tennessee. It specializes in historical and contemporary art pieces from the East Tennessee region. According to its mission statement, the museum "celebrates the art and artists of East Tennessee, presents new art and new ideas, educates and serves a diverse community, enhances Knoxville’s quality of life, and operates ethically, responsibly, and transparently as a public trust."

The Knoxville Downtown YMCA, also known as the Lindsay Young Downtown YMCA, is a building in Knoxville, Tennessee, that is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It was designed by the Barber & McMurry architecture firm. Completed in 1929, it is the third oldest YMCA facility in the United States.

Church Street United Methodist Church is a United Methodist church located on Henley Street in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The church building is considered a Knoxville landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The L&N Station is a former rail passenger station in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, located in the downtown area at the northern end of the World's Fair Park. Built in 1905 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and designed by its chief engineer, Richard Montfort, the station was renovated for use in the 1982 World's Fair, and is currently home to Knox County's STEM-based magnet high school, the L&N STEM Academy. In 1982, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and role in Knoxville's transportation history.The L&N completed a rail line running from Cincinnati to Atlanta in the early 1900s, and built a string of passenger stations and depots to service trains along this line. The company's Knoxville station was the city's largest, and considered by some the "finest" along the L&N's entire Cincinnati–Atlanta line. It served as a passenger station until the L&N ceased passenger train service to Knoxville in 1968, and continued to house L&N offices until 1975. The L&N Station is mentioned in several scenes in author James Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family. The L&N Station is now home to the L&N STEM Academy, a magnet high school which focuses on science, technology, engineering, and math.

Old City Hall is a complex of historic buildings located at 601 West Summit Hill Drive in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Originally constructed in 1848 as the Tennessee School for the Deaf and Dumb (now the Tennessee School for the Deaf), the complex served as Knoxville's city hall from 1925 until 1980. The complex has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. It currently houses Lincoln Memorial University's Duncan School of Law.