Some news! Delta let us change our flight so we're now going into Charlotte, not Atlanta. Any suggestions of small, cute towns between Savannah & Pensacola. This will be a long drive for us (preferably off Interstates) so we might need to break it up. So far we're:

Arrive Asheville evening of day1.
Smokies, 3 days
Charleston 2-3 days
Savannah 1 day
** in between stopover? Small sleepy place for a few hours leg stretch?**
Pensacola/ panhandle 2-3 days
New Orleans 3 days

You are arriving a bit to the east. You need to go "clockwise" in my opinion.
You can begin in Charleston--it is 3 hours from Charlotte. Savannah, Florida panhandle, NOLA, then back northeast to Birmingham, Atlanta, Knoxville, through the Smokies, Asheville, and back to Charlotte.
Asheville is 2 hours from Charlotte.

I think the OP's return flight is out of New Orleans, which is why she is heading "counter-clockwise".

I wondered about that, but couldn't find it. Ha, I even commented on that above too!

To avoid a drop off fee in New Orleans you can take the Amtrak Crescent out of Charlotte at 2:45 AM and arrive in New Orleans about 18 hours later.