left the capital with $2,500 for expenses
and a firm commitment from Lincoln for
a Federal invasion of East Tennessee.
Accompanied by Union Captains William
Cross and David Fry, Carter quickly
recruited 11 other cohorts for the raid. He
selected local Unionist A.M. Cate to lead
an attack on four bridges in southeast Ten-
nessee and Robert W. Ragan and James D.
Keener to strike the strategically vital
bridge across the Tennessee River at
Bridgeport, Alabama. Other groups would
hit bridges between Chattanooga and
Knoxville.
On the appointed night, the bridge burn-
ers set out. Ragan and Kenner were unable
to burn the Bridgeport span, which was
swarming with Confederate defenders, but
Cate and his men managed to burn four
bridges across the Hiwassee River around
Charleston and Cleveland, Tennessee. In
Marion County, 30 miles north of Bridge-
port, Cate’s brother, W.T. Cate, managed
with his henchmen to set fire to bridges east
of Chattanooga on the Western & Atlantic
and East Tennessee & Georgia Railroads.
Fifteen miles northeast of Knoxville,
another Unionist, William C. Pickens, led
a group of a dozen sympathizers in an
assault on an East Tennessee & Virginia
Railroad bridge crossing the Holston River
at Strawberry Plains. Carrying a lighted
torch, Pickens crept along the riverbank.
He was just about to fire the bridge when
a bullet smashed into his thigh. James Kee-
lan, the lone watchman, grabbed Pickens
and held on for dear life while other Union-
ists stabbed wildly at the pair, accidentally
wounding Pickens in the process. Keelan,
wounded by gunfire, staggered off to sum-
mon help while the frustrated Pickens, who
had dropped the group’s only set of
matches during the struggle, limped away
under cover of darkness.
In upper East Tennessee, Captain David
Fry and Daniel Stover (Senator Andrew
Johnson’s son-in-law) led separate assaults
on bridges in Greene and Sullivan Coun-
ties. While the bridges burned, separate
groups of Unionists skirmished with Con-
federate forces at Strawberry Plains, Union
Depot, and Carter Depot. As late as twoweeks later, Confederate regulars were
flushing out loyalists in mountain coves
along the Doe River.
News of the night’s destruction swept
quickly across the South. Colonel W.B.
Wood, the Confederate commander at
Knoxville, informed General Samuel
Cooper on November 11, “My fears
expressed to you by letters and dispatches
of 4th and 5th instant have been realized by
the destruction of no less than five railroad
bridges—two on the East Tennessee and
Virginia road, one on the East Tennessee
and Georgia road and two on the Western
and Atlantic road. The indications were
apparent to me but I was powerless to avert
it. The whole country is now in a state of
rebellion. A thousand men are within six
miles of Strawberry Plains bridge and an
attack is contemplated to-morrow. I have
sent Col. Powel there with 200 infantry,
one company cavalry and about 100 citi-
zens armed with shotguns and country
rifles. Five hundred Unionists left Hamil-
ton County today we suppose to attack
Loudon bridge. I have Major Campbell
there with 200 infantry and one companycavalry. I have about the same force at this
point and a cavalry company at Watauga
bridge. The slow course of civil law in pun-
ishing such incendiaries it seems to me will
not have the salutary effect which is desir-
able. I learn from two gentlemen just
arrived that another camp is being formed
about ten miles from here in Sevier County
and already 300 are in camp. They are
being reinforced from Blount, Roane, John-
son, Greene, Carter and other counties. I
need not say that great alarm is felt by the
few Southern men. They are finding places
of safety for their families and would gladly
enlist if we had arms to furnish them.”
Panic swept across East Tennessee while
Confederate officials rushed reinforcements
into the area from Richmond, Memphis,
and Mobile. The Confederate commander
in the district, Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer,
who had worked hard to protect Unionists’
personal and property rights, felt betrayed
by the night’s events. “The leniency shown
them has been unavailing,” he said. “They
have acted with base duplicity and should
no longer be trusted.” He instructed Wood
to disarm all suspected Union sympathizers
and throw them in jail.
In a November 20 telegram, Wood
assured Confederate Secretary of War
Judah Benjamin, “The rebellion in East
Tennessee has been put down in some of
the counties, and will be effectually sup-
pressed in less than two weeks in all the
counties. We have now in custody some of
their leaders, Judge Patterson, the son-in-
law of Andrew Johnson, Col. Pickens, the
senator from Sevier, and others of influence
and some distinction in their counties. They
really deserve the gallows, and, if consis-
tent with the laws, ought speedily to receive
their deserts.”
Benjamin responded, “Your report of the
20th instant is received, and I now proceed
to give you the desired instruction in rela-
tion to the prisoners of war taken by you
among the traitors of East Tennessee. First.
All such as can be identified in having been
engaged in bridge-burning are to be tried
summarily by drum-head court martial,
and, if found guilty, executed on the spot by
hanging in the vicinity of the burnedEast Tennessee Unionists set fire to a railroad
trestle on “the Night of the Burning Bridges,”
November 8, 1861. Arsonists struck from Bridge-
port, Alabama, to Strawberry Plains, Tennessee,
causing a wave of panic to sweep across the
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