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East Tennessee bridge burnings
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East Tennessee bridge burnings
The East Tennessee bridge burnings was a series of guerrilla operations carried out during the American Civil War by Southern Unionists in Confederate-held East Tennessee in 1861. The operations, planned by Carter County minister William B. Carter and authorized by President Abraham Lincoln, called for the destruction of nine strategic railroad bridges, followed by an invasion of the area by Union Army forces stationed in southeastern Kentucky. The conspirators managed to destroy five of the nine targeted bridges, but the Union Army failed to move; the army did not invade East Tennessee until 1863, nearly two years after the incident.
The destruction of the bridges, all of which were quickly rebuilt, had almost no military impact. However, the attacks caused a shift in the way the Confederate authorities regarded East Tennessee's Union sympathizers. Parts of the area were placed under martial law, and dozens of known Unionists were arrested and jailed. Several suspected bridge burners were tried and convicted, being sentenced to death. This in turn brought increased pressure on Lincoln to send Union troops to occupy East Tennessee.
A pro-Union newspaper publisher, William G. "Parson" Brownlow, used the arrests and hangings as propaganda in his 1862 anti-secession diatribe, Sketches of the Rise, Progress and Decline of Secession.
As secessionist sentiment raged through the South in late 1860 and early 1861, a majority of East Tennesseans, like many in the Appalachian highlands, stubbornly remained loyal to the Union. Slavery was not very important to the East Tennessee economy, and the region had been at odds with the state government for decades over a lack of state appropriations for internal improvements. Furthermore, the Whig Party and its successors dominated large parts of East Tennessee, and its adherents viewed with suspicion the actions of the predominantly-Democratic Southern legislatures.
Tennessee as a whole voted to secede from the Union in a referendum held on June 8, 1861, but nearly two-thirds of East Tennesseans rejected the referendum and remained sympathetic to the Union. At the Greeneville session (June 17–20) of the East Tennessee Convention, the region's Unionist leaders condemned secession and petitioned the Tennessee General Assembly to allow East Tennessee to become a separate state and remain in the Union. The legislature rejected the petition, and Governor Isham G. Harris ordered Confederate forces under General Felix Zollicoffer into East Tennessee.
The East Tennessee and Georgia (ET&G) and East Tennessee and Virginia (ET&V) railroads were vital to the Confederacy since they provided a connection between Virginia and the Deep South that did not require going around the bulk of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Both Union and Confederate leaders realized the railroads' importance. In July 1861, Confederate politician and East Tennessee native Landon Carter Haynes warned of the railroads' vulnerability, stating that at any moment he was "looking to hear that the bridges have been burned and the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad torn up."
Shortly after the General Assembly rejected the Greeneville petition, Reverend William Blount Carter, a delegate of the Greeneville session, travelled to Camp Dick Robinson in Kentucky, where many of East Tennessee's Unionists had fled to enlist in the Union Army. He met with generals George H. Thomas and William T. Sherman, and his brother, Samuel P. Carter, a U.S. Navy officer who had been appointed a general in the Union Army. William Carter revealed his plan to destroy the region's main railroad bridges to pave the way for a Union invasion. Thomas liked the plan, and although Sherman was initially skeptical, he agreed after a short discussion.
Carrying a letter from Thomas, Carter travelled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Abraham Lincoln, Commanding General George B. McClellan, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. Lincoln, under immense pressure from Senator Andrew Johnson and Congressman Horace Maynard to provide some sort of aid to East Tennessee's Unionists, agreed with the plan. He allotted $2,500 for the operation, and Carter returned to Camp Dick Robinson to begin making arrangements.
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East Tennessee bridge burnings
The East Tennessee bridge burnings was a series of guerrilla operations carried out during the American Civil War by Southern Unionists in Confederate-held East Tennessee in 1861. The operations, planned by Carter County minister William B. Carter and authorized by President Abraham Lincoln, called for the destruction of nine strategic railroad bridges, followed by an invasion of the area by Union Army forces stationed in southeastern Kentucky. The conspirators managed to destroy five of the nine targeted bridges, but the Union Army failed to move; the army did not invade East Tennessee until 1863, nearly two years after the incident.
The destruction of the bridges, all of which were quickly rebuilt, had almost no military impact. However, the attacks caused a shift in the way the Confederate authorities regarded East Tennessee's Union sympathizers. Parts of the area were placed under martial law, and dozens of known Unionists were arrested and jailed. Several suspected bridge burners were tried and convicted, being sentenced to death. This in turn brought increased pressure on Lincoln to send Union troops to occupy East Tennessee.
A pro-Union newspaper publisher, William G. "Parson" Brownlow, used the arrests and hangings as propaganda in his 1862 anti-secession diatribe, Sketches of the Rise, Progress and Decline of Secession.
As secessionist sentiment raged through the South in late 1860 and early 1861, a majority of East Tennesseans, like many in the Appalachian highlands, stubbornly remained loyal to the Union. Slavery was not very important to the East Tennessee economy, and the region had been at odds with the state government for decades over a lack of state appropriations for internal improvements. Furthermore, the Whig Party and its successors dominated large parts of East Tennessee, and its adherents viewed with suspicion the actions of the predominantly-Democratic Southern legislatures.
Tennessee as a whole voted to secede from the Union in a referendum held on June 8, 1861, but nearly two-thirds of East Tennesseans rejected the referendum and remained sympathetic to the Union. At the Greeneville session (June 17–20) of the East Tennessee Convention, the region's Unionist leaders condemned secession and petitioned the Tennessee General Assembly to allow East Tennessee to become a separate state and remain in the Union. The legislature rejected the petition, and Governor Isham G. Harris ordered Confederate forces under General Felix Zollicoffer into East Tennessee.
The East Tennessee and Georgia (ET&G) and East Tennessee and Virginia (ET&V) railroads were vital to the Confederacy since they provided a connection between Virginia and the Deep South that did not require going around the bulk of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Both Union and Confederate leaders realized the railroads' importance. In July 1861, Confederate politician and East Tennessee native Landon Carter Haynes warned of the railroads' vulnerability, stating that at any moment he was "looking to hear that the bridges have been burned and the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad torn up."
Shortly after the General Assembly rejected the Greeneville petition, Reverend William Blount Carter, a delegate of the Greeneville session, travelled to Camp Dick Robinson in Kentucky, where many of East Tennessee's Unionists had fled to enlist in the Union Army. He met with generals George H. Thomas and William T. Sherman, and his brother, Samuel P. Carter, a U.S. Navy officer who had been appointed a general in the Union Army. William Carter revealed his plan to destroy the region's main railroad bridges to pave the way for a Union invasion. Thomas liked the plan, and although Sherman was initially skeptical, he agreed after a short discussion.
Carrying a letter from Thomas, Carter travelled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Abraham Lincoln, Commanding General George B. McClellan, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. Lincoln, under immense pressure from Senator Andrew Johnson and Congressman Horace Maynard to provide some sort of aid to East Tennessee's Unionists, agreed with the plan. He allotted $2,500 for the operation, and Carter returned to Camp Dick Robinson to begin making arrangements.
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