Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainThe Holston River banks near Kingsport mark where Union General Stoneman's troops flanked and routed Confederate forces on December 13, 1864 in one of the war's final east Tennessee engagements.
Holston River Banks, Kingsport, TN 37660
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free; outdoor public site along the river
Access
Limited Access
River bank terrain; uneven ground, vegetation. No formal trail infrastructure at the battle site.
Equipment
Photos OK
Stoneman's Raid 1864 · Final Confederate Resistance in Upper Holston Valley · Civil War — East Tennessee Theater
The Battle of Kingsport took place on December 13, 1864, as part of General George Stoneman's Raid through upper east Tennessee — one of the Union Army's final major offensive operations in the region before the war's end. Stoneman commanded approximately 5,500 cavalry and mounted infantry against a Confederate force of roughly 300 soldiers holding a position along the Holston River near Kingsport, then known as Christianville.
The engagement was brief and one-sided. Stoneman's troops flanked the Confederate position, forcing a rout that left approximately 18 Confederate soldiers dead and 84 captured. Union casualties were minimal by comparison. The battle removed the last significant Confederate resistance in the upper Holston valley and opened the route for Stoneman's continuation into Virginia.
The wider context of Stoneman's Raid included the destruction of Confederate salt works at Saltville, Virginia, and rail infrastructure throughout the region. The east Tennessee campaigns of late 1864 accelerated the Confederate collapse in the region, which had already been under Union control in most areas since the Knoxville campaign of 1863.
The specific ground where the December 13 engagement occurred along the Holston River banks has not been formally marked or developed as an interpretive site, though the battle appears in Tennessee Civil War records and is documented by the Appalachian Historian and Tennessee's official Civil War heritage program.
Sources
Local accounts collected from Kingsport-area residents describe sightings of figures in Civil War-era dress along the Holston River banks on foggy evenings. The apparitions are described as moving through the terrain rather than interacting with witnesses, consistent with the category of what paranormal researchers call residual phenomena — impressions of past events playing back on the landscape.
The Kingsport visitor documentation that references these accounts connects them specifically to the December 13, 1864 engagement. The relatively contained nature of the battle — 300 defenders against an overwhelming force — and the terrain along the river create conditions that ghost-lore traditions frequently attach to sites of sudden, violent death.
These accounts are local in character and appear in Kingsport visitor-facing media rather than dedicated paranormal literature. There is no formal ghost tour of the battle site, and the site itself has no interpretive infrastructure that would bring organized groups to the location at night.
The Holston River banks where Stoneman's troops engaged Confederate forces on December 13, 1864 can be visited as an outdoor historical site. No formal interpretive infrastructure exists at the specific engagement locations, but the terrain is accessible.
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