page_title: East Tennessee bridge burnings
hierarchical_section_title: East Tennessee bridge burnings
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraving from Harper's Weekly showing members of the East Tennessee bridge-burning conspiracy swearing allegiance to the U.S. flag. Originally entitled: "A Thrilling scene in east Tennessee—Colonel Fry and the Union men swearing by the flag." Wood engraving.
context_page_description: The East Tennessee bridge burnings were a series of guerrilla operations carried out during the American Civil War by Union sympathizers 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 then in southeastern Kentucky. The conspirators managed to destroy five of the nine targeted bridges, but the Union Army failed to move, and would 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.
context_section_description: The East Tennessee bridge burnings were a series of guerrilla operations carried out during the American Civil War by Union sympathizers in Confederate-held East Tennessee in 1861. The operations, planned by Carter County minister William B. Carter (1820–1902) 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 then in southeastern Kentucky. The conspirators managed to destroy five of the nine targeted bridges, but the Union Army failed to move, and would 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.
caption: Cover of Harper's Weekly, showing the bridge-burning conspirators swearing allegiance to the American flag
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