East Tennessee bridge burnings

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. 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. ==Planning==

Camp Dick Robinson 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. 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. Recruiting The nine bridges targeted were, from northeast to southwest: the bridge over the Holston River at Union (modern Bluff City); the bridge over the Watauga River at Carter's Depot (modern Watauga); the bridge over Lick Creek near Mosheim; the bridge over the Holston at Strawberry Plains; the bridge over the Tennessee River at Loudon; the bridge over the Hiwassee River at Charleston; two bridges over Chickamauga Creek in the vicinity of Chattanooga; and the bridge over the Tennessee at Bridgeport, Alabama. All were on the ET&V or ET&G lines with the exception of the Bridgeport bridge, which was on the Memphis and Charleston, and one of the Chickamauga Creek bridges, which was on the Western and Atlantic. In mid-October 1861, Carter set up a "command post" in Kingston, Tennessee. Captains David Fry and William Cross, two officers who had been assigned to the operation, were tasked with burning the Lick Creek and Loudon bridges, respectively (although Cross's role has never been fully verified). Carter recruited Alfred Cate of Hamilton County to oversee the destruction of the bridges in southeast Tennessee, and he assigned the Union and Watauga bridges to Daniel Stover, a son-in-law of Andrew Johnson. For the Strawberry Plains bridge, he recruited former Sevier County sheriff William C. Pickens. Each of Carter's "lieutenants" in turn recruited reliable men to assist them. Cate assigned R.B. Rogan and James Keener to the Bridgeport bridge; William T. Cate (his brother) and W. H. Crowder to the Chickamauga Creek bridges; and Cate personally led the attack on the Hiwassee bridge, with the assistance of Thomas Cate (another brother), Adam Thomas, and Jesse and Eli Cleveland. Fry chose Greene Countians Jacob and Thomas Harmon, Jacob Hensie, Alex Haun, and Harrison and Hugh Self. Pickens recruited several fellow Sevier Countians, among them David Ray, James Montgomery, and Elijah Gamble. ==Attacks==

While Carter recruited conspirators, Union forces at Camp Dick Robinson prepared to march south to Knoxville. A raid into Kentucky by Zollicoffer, though repulsed, changed the timing of the invasion, and following Confederate excursions into the western part of the state, Sherman became concerned that his line was stretched too thin. Thomas arrived at Crab Orchard, Kentucky, about from Cumberland Gap, on October 31 and pleaded with Sherman to give the go-ahead. Sherman was unconvinced and called off the invasion on November 7. The bridge burners, unaware of the shift in strategy in Kentucky, proceeded with their plans on the night of November 8. The Chickamauga Creek and Hiwassee bridges were poorly guarded, and Cate and his men burned them with minimal effort. The Bridgeport, Loudon, and Watauga bridges were heavily guarded by Confederate soldiers, and conspirators abandoned their attempts to destroy them. The Lick Creek and Union bridges were guarded only by one or two sentries each, whom the conspirators easily overpowered before setting fire to the bridges. At the Strawberry Plains bridge, Pickens and his crew encountered a lone Confederate guard, James Keeling (also spelled Keelan in some sources). When Pickens attempted to light a torch, Keeling spotted him, and attacked. In the ensuing melee, both Keeling and Pickens were badly wounded. Keeling fled, leaving the bridge exposed, but Pickens had lost the group's matches in the chaos and darkness. Unable to light a fire, the group aborted their mission and returned to Sevier County. ==Aftermath==

Confederate response News of the bridge burnings thrust East Tennessee's Confederate leaders into what Knoxville attorney Oliver Perry Temple described as a "wild and unreasonable panic." Several were found guilty, and five were hanged. For those who had not participating in the burnings but had otherwise been identified as part of the organized Unionists, Benjamin ordered, "All such as have not been engaged are to be treated as prisoners of war" and were to be transported and held as such. Among the detained Unionists were several Lick Creek bridge conspirators, identified by one of the Confederate sentries they had captured and freed. ==Legacy==

, dedicated to the Lick Creek bridge burners Having sworn an oath of secrecy, William Carter never revealed the names of anyone involved in the bridge-burning conspiracy, not even after the war had been over for decades. Novelist William E. Barton published a fictional version of the bridge-burning conspiracy in the late 1890s. In 2002, a granite monument was erected near Mosheim to honor the five Pottertown bridge burners who were hanged by Confederate authorities for their role in destroying the Lick Creek bridge. The monument stands near Harmon Cemetery, where two of the bridge burners, Jacob and Henry Harmon, are buried. A nearby road, connecting Pottertown Road with U.S. Route 11, has been named "Bridge Burners Boulevard." ==See also==