and everything that might help the Confed-
eracy. To deal with Confederate guerrillas,
executions and the destruction and confis-
cation of property were allowed. In Ken-
tucky, Union Maj. Gen. Stephen G. Bur-
bridge executed four Confederate prisoners
for every Union soldier or citizen killed by
bushwhackers—a name originally used
only to describe Confederate guerrillas.
When Union Colonel William Weer of the
Army of the Frontier was in Carrollton,
Arkansas, he issued a draconian order on
April 4, 1863: “It having come to the
knowledge of the colonel commanding that
the forage trains of this command are
repeatedly fired into on Osage Fork of
Kings River by lawless men, who secrete
themselves in the bushes and are encour-
aged and entertained by the inhabitants in
that vicinity, you are therefore instructed to
proceed to said neighborhood with the
wagons placed in your charge, destroy every
house and farm etc. owned by secessionists,
together with their property that cannot be
made available to the army; kill every bush-
whacker you find; bring away the women
and children to this place, with provision
enough to support them, and report to these
headquarters upon your return.”
Pro-Union Southerners who organized
guerrilla bands had a variety of objectives.Among them were controlling their com-
munity politically and economically;
harassing and defending themselves from
representatives of the Confederacy; assist-
ing the Union Army; and resisting attacks
from neighbors who supported the Con-
federacy. Vicious, neighbor-against-neigh-
bor guerrilla activity was worst in
Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee,
and Virginia/West Virginia.
In Tennessee and the adjacent areas of
Kentucky, the Cumberland Mountains pro-
vided ideal conditions for guerrilla warfare.
The section’s isolated territory, much of it
rough and inaccessible, made it suitable ter-
rain for irregular warfare. Moreover, resi-
dents there clung to traditions that encour-
aged the growth of guerrilla bands—
retribution, family feuds, class conflicts,
vigilantism, and backwoods opposition to
authority. Some Unionist guerrilla bands
were composed of draftees who had
deserted from the Confederate Army, men
trying to avoid being conscripted into the
army, and genuine outlaws whose objec-
tive was simply to prey on others. Roam-
ing bands took advantage of the war to
steal and rob. Acts of murder, arson, tor-
ture, intimidation, robbery, and pillage
were so prevalent in some places that those
loyal to the Confederacy simply fled tomore congenial surroundings.
Throughout the war, both the Union and
Confederate armies were negatively
affected by guerrilla groups. A full-scale
guerrilla war that began before 1861 con-
tinued to fester in Missouri. West Virginia
authorized guerrilla groups organized to
fight Confederate guerrilla groups to oper-
ate as state troops. But regular Union
troops and Unionist guerrillas were only
able to prevent loyal West Virginians from
having to flee their homes and guard
against any major damage to the vital Bal-
timore & Ohio Railroad.
In August 1861, the Confederate Con-
gress passed an Alien Enemies Act that gave
people 40 days to swear allegiance to the
Confederacy or else leave the South. Fail-
ure to do so subjected one to arrest and
expulsion. A Sequestration Act called for
the property of disloyal Southerners to be
confiscated and sold at a public auction.
Many East Tennesseans lost their homes
and property as a result of the act, leading
to the most serious and determined act of
pro-Union sabotage of the war. It would
become known as “the Night of the Burn-
ing Bridges.”
Unionist East Tennessee was important
to the Union war effort because the rail-
roads that ran through it were linked to the
rest of the Confederacy. In 1861, William
Blount Carter, a Unionist Presbyterian min-
ister in Tennessee whose brother was a
Union general, proposed to Union Brig.
Gen. George H. Thomas that Unionists
burn down nine bridges in East Tennessee
to destroy the rail and telegraph connec-
tions between Virginia and Georgia. The
plan called for Unionists to set fire to the
bridges on the night of November 8. The
burning of the bridges would be followed
by an uprising of armed Unionists against
the Confederacy and Thomas’s troops
invading and liberating East Tennessee
from their camps in Kentucky.
After meeting with Thomas, Carter trav-
eled to Washington to outline his scheme
for President Lincoln, Secretary of State
William Henry Seward, and Maj. Gen.
George McClellan, the army commander.
Lincoln approved the venture, and CarterPro-Union guerrillas steal horses from their fellow Southerners during a nighttime raid on a farm. Such
raids were motivated, in part, by attacks by Confederate Army units or pro-slavery neighbors.Q-Spr16 Southerner v Southerner *Ads_Layout 1 1/14/16 12:34 PM Page 10