Our brigade moved back from Anderson County to the vicinity of Jacksborough. McNairy's Battalion camped six miles south of town on the Clinton road.
REVOLT OF THE UNIONISTS IN EAST TENNESSEE.
East Tennessee was now ablaze with excitement on account of the uprising and open rebellion of the Union men. They were flying to arms in squads of from fifty to five hundred. Several bridges along the East Tennessee and Georgia, and Virginia and Tennessee Railroads were burned last night.
It appears that William Blunt Carter,1 of East Tennessee, was the prime mover and chief instigator of the revolt and bridge burning above named, and the following communication will show the beginning corner of his plans:
HEADQUARTERS CAMP DICK ROBINSON,
September 30, 1861.
Major-General George B. McClellan, Commanding Department of the Potomac:
GENERAL: I have just had a conversation with Mr. W. B. Carter, of Tennessee, on the subject of the destruction of the Grand Trunk Railroad through that State.
He assures me that he can have it done if the Government will intrust him with a small sum of money to give confidence to the persons to be employed to do it. It would be one of the most important services that could be done for the country, and I most earnestly hope you will use your influence with the authorities in furtherance of his plans, which he will submit to you, together with the reasons for doing the work. I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant,
Geo. H. THOMAS,
Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding.2
Suffice it to say that he received satisfactory encouragement from the Federal Government, and, setting out on his mission about the middle of October, Carter arrived in the neighborhood of Montgomery, Morgan County, Tennessee, on the 22d, and under that date he wrote to General Thomas thus:
I reached here at 2 P. M. to-day. I am in six miles of company of rebel cavalry.
The rebels continue to arrest and imprison our people.
You will please furnish the bearers with as much lead, rifle powder, and as many caps as they can bring for Scott and Morgan Counties. You need not fear to trust these people. They will open the war for you by routing these small bodies of marauding cavalry.
I find our people have suffered beyond all forbearance. Hasten on to our aid. To-morrow night I hope to be near our railroad.
You shall hear from me again soon.3
On the 27th, near Kingston, Roane County, he wrote again to Thomas as follows:
I am now within a few miles of our railroad, but I have not yet had time to obtain all the information I must have before I decide on the course best for me to adopt. If I can get half a dozen brave men to “take the bull by the horns” we can whip them completely and save the railroad.
If I cannot get such leaders we will make a desperate attempt to destroy all the bridges, and I firmly believe I will be successful.
The Union men of East Tennessee are longing and praying for the hour when they can break their fetters.
Men and women weep for joy when I merely hint to them that the day of our deliverance is at hand. . . .
I beg you to hasten on to our help, as we are about to create a great diversion in General McClellan's favor.
You must bring some small arms with you. I am satisfied that you will have to take the road by Monticello and Jamestown, unless you come by Cumberland Gap.4
Having succeeded in maturing his plans, the execution of which resulted in the bridge burning, as previously mentioned. Mr. W. B. Carter set out on his return November with, and arrived at his brother's headquarters at “Camp Calvert," near London, Kentucky, on the 16th, and on the same day his brother, Colonel S. P. Carter (afterward General) sent the following report to General Thomas, whose headquarters had been moved forward from Camp Dick Robinson to Crab Orchard:
My brother William has just arrived from East Tennessee. He reports that on Friday night, 8th instant, of last week, he succeeded in having burned at least six, and perhaps eight bridges on the railroad, viz. : Union bridge, in Sullivan County, near the Virginia line, Lick Creek bridge, in Green County, Strawberry plains, in Jefferson County, fifteen miles east of Knoxville, partially destroyed, Hiawassee bridge seventy miles south-west of Knoxville, and on the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, two bridges over the Chickamauga, one between Cleveland and Chattanooga, and the other between Chattanooga and Dalton, Georgia. These bridges are certainly destroyed. The Long Island bridge, at Bridgeport, on Tennessee River, and a bridge below Dalton, on the Western and Atlantic road, are probably destroyed.5
Only five bridges were burned, as the following dispatch from Colonel W. B. Wood, Sixteenth Alabama, who had been for some time guarding the railroad as best he could with the small force at his command, will show:
KNOXVILLE, November 11, 1861.
Adjutant-General Cooper, Richmond:
Three bridges burned between Bristol and Chattanooga, two on Georgia road. Five hundred Union men now threatening Strawberry Plains. Fifteen hundred assembling in Hamilton County, and a general uprising in all the counties. I have about one thousand men under my command.
W. B. Wood,
Colonel.6
 |
| PRIVATE MONROE KNIGHT, Co. E, FIRST BATTALION. |
Mr. W. B. Carter happened to enter East Tennessee on his special mission just at the right time for it to be an easy matter for him to induce the Union men of that section to do his bidding. For when Zollicoffer fell back out of Kentucky the Unionists fully believed that the Federal army would be in their midst in a few days.
On the 20th Colonel W. B. Wood wrote to the Secretary of war thus:
The rebellion in East Tennessee has been put down in some of the counties, and will be effectually suppressed in less than two weeks in all the counties. Their camps in Sevier and Hamilton Counties have been broken up, and a large number of them made prisoners. Some are confined in jail at this place and others sent to Nashville. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The prisoners we have tell us that they had every assurance that the (Federal) army was already in the State, and would join them in a very few days; that the property of Southern men was to be confiscated and divided among those who would take up arms for Lincoln.8
In answer to an inquiry in reference to what he should do with his prisoners, Colonel Wood received the following from the Secretary of War:
All such as can be identified as 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. It would be well to leave their bodies hanging in the vicinity of the burned bridges.
All such as have not been so engaged are to be treated as prisoners of war, and sent with an armed guard to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and held in jail till the end of the war. Such as come in voluntarily, take the oath of allegiance and surrender their arms are alone to be treated with leniency.9
Some, I know not how many, were found guilty by a “drum-head court martial” and hung.
As a general thing these bands of traitors would disband and flee to the mountains on the approach of an armed force of Confederates, therefore it was a difficult matter to do any thing with them.
While W. B. Carter was in East Tennessee arousing a spirit of rebellion there, ex-Governor Andrew Johnson was with the Federal army at London, Kentucky, urging upon and pleading with Generals Schoepf and Thomas to move forward into East Tennessee. In fact, this “forward movement” had been so often urged by Johnson, Maynard, the Carters and others of East Tennessee, that it had become quite annoying to the Federal commanders, as the following correspondence will show.
On November 7th, General Thomas wrote thus to Johnson:
Your favor of the 6th instant is at hand. I have done all in my power to get troops and transportation and means to advance into East Tennessee. I believe General Sherman at (Louisville) has done the same.
Up to this time we have been unsuccessful. If the Tennesseans are not content and must go, then the risk of disaster will remain with them.
In conclusion I will add that I am here
ready to obey orders, and earnestly hope that the troops at London will see the
necessity of doing the same.10
At the same time Thomas addressed a letter to Schoepf as follows:
I find it necessary to reply to Governor Johnson's letter in the manner of the foregoing, which I send to you for your information. It is time that discontented persons should be silenced, both in and out of the service.
I hope you will therefore see the necessity of dealing decidedly with such people, and you have my authority and orders for doing
We must learn to abide our time, or we
shall never be successful.11
On the 8th, Schoepf replied to the above thus:
Yours of the 7th instant, with copy of letter to Governor Johnson, is before me, and it is with extreme satisfaction that I note the decided manner in which the case is laid down to Governor Johnson.
This outside pressure has become intolerable, and must be met with firmness, or the army may as well be disbanded.
With importunate citizens on one side and meddlesome reporters for papers on the other, I can scarce find time to attend to the appropriate duties of my position. By the way, cannot something be done to rid our camps of this latter class? I have really reached that point so that I am afraid to address my staff officer above a whisper in my own tent.12
Though, in place of a forward, the Federals made a retrograde, movement from London soon after the above correspondence.
On the 13th, General Schoepf set out from London to join General Thomas at Crab Orchard, with all the troops camped there, except the First and Second Tennessee and Third Kentucky (Colonel T. T. Garrard), which remained at (Second Tennessee.)13
If you will excuse me, dear reader, for the above
digression, I shall now return to Jacksborough and take up the movements of
Zollicoffer's Brigade.
1 A brother of General S. P. Carter, who commanded the Tennessee Federal Brigade.
2 Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., p. 284.
3 Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., p. 317.
4 Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., p. 320.
5 Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., p. 359.
7 See Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., pp. 234, 235, 538.
8 Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., p. 250.
9 Rebellon Records, Vol. VII., p. 701.
10 Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., pp. 342 and 343.
11 Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., p. 347.
12 Rebellion Records, Vol. IV., p. 347.
13 See Carter to H. Maynard, Rebellion Records, Vol. VII., p. 468.
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