On December 4, Longstreet retreated from Knoxville and headed northeast towards Rogersville, Tennessee. Union General John G. Parke pursued the Confederate retreat into Tennessee. That night the Confederates arrived at Blain's Crossroads, eighteen miles to the west of Rogersville. The successful Union commander at Knoxville, General Burnside, had been officially replaced before the Siege of Knoxville, but his replacement, Major-General John G. Foster, had been stuck outside the town during the siege. On December 10 he arrived and took command of the Union forces.