Colonel Sanders from Kentucky

Not the pretend colonel who founded the fried chicken chain, but William P. Sanders, a Kentucky-born West Pointer who on this date in 1863 was leading a successful raid in the vicinity of Knoxville, Tennessee, having advanced south from Kentucky under orders from Major-General Ambrose Burnside. He would turn 30 in August.
Sanders had served in the Peninsula Campaign and at Antietam before moving west. He helped Burnside capture Knoxville in early September, 1863, and defend it against Confederate General James Longstreet's advance in November. Sanders was actually serving as a brigadier general when he was mortally wounded on Nov. 18, dying the next day. The US Senate had not yet confirmed his promotion. Fort Loudon was renamed Fort Sanders in his honor, and it successfully held off Longstreet's assault on Nov. 29.
The Knoxville campaign influenced major events to its southwest, helping the Army of the Cumberland recover from its defeat at Chickamauga and win the Battle of Chattanooga.