Samuel P . Carter Samuel Perry " Powhatan " Carter ( August 6 , 1819 – May 26 , 1891 ) was a United States naval officer who served in the Union Army as a brevet major general during the American Civil War and became a rear admiral in the postbellum United States Navy . He was the first and thus far only United States officer to have been commissioned both a general officer and a Naval flag officer . " C . f . " : Joseph D . Stewart , Major General , ( United States Marine Corps ) and Vice Admiral ( United States Maritime Service ) , the USMS being a civilian agency . Early life and career . Carter was born in Elizabethton , Tennessee , the eldest son of Alfred Moore Carter , a direct descendant of the early settlers for whom Carter County is named . His mother was Evalina Belmont Perry . Although later known as Samuel Powhatan Carter , Samuel ' s middle name was Perry . He had two brothers , William Blount Carter and James Patton Taylor Carter . Samuel Carter attended Washington College and Princeton University before enlisting in the U . S . Navy in February 1840 . Serving as a midshipman , Carter ' s five years of service included duty in the Pacific and Great Lakes region before transferring to the United States Naval Academy . He graduated in the class of 1846 , later seeing action during the Mexican - American War aboard the USS " Ohio " at the Battle of Veracruz . Stationed at the United States Naval Observatory for several years following the war , Carter became an assistant professor of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy for three years , from 1850 to 1853 . After another tour of duty with the Pacific and Brazil Squadron s , he served in various duties before winning promotion to lieutenant in April 1855 . The following year , Carter was present aboard the USS " San Jacinto " during the bombardment of Chinese coastal fortifications before returning to the United States to be appointed to the staff at the U . S . Naval Academy , remaining at this tour of duty until 1860 . Civil War . In early 1861 , after receiving a letter from Carter assuring his loyalty to the Union should a civil war break out , Tennessee senator Andrew Johnson used his influence in the War Department for Carter to be detached from the Navy . Carter was ordered to organize and enlist Unionists within his native East Tennessee , where the majority of the population remained loyal . When Confederate occupation of the region prevented this , Carter raised a brigade of infantry from among the hundreds of East Tennesseans fleeing to Kentucky . During this time he adopted " Powhatan " as a code name when corresponding secretly with Unionists who remained behind Confederate lines . Carter ' s younger brother , William B . Carter ( 1820 – 1902 ) , planned and coordinated the East Tennessee bridge - burning conspiracy in late 1861 . Carter was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers without resigning from the Navy . He led an infantry brigade at the Battle of Mill Springs on January 19 , 1862 , and participated in operations under Brigadier General George W . Morgan that resulted in the occupation of Cumberland Gap on June 17 , 1862 . Carter ' s hope that Morgan would then invade and occupy East Tennessee was dashed when Morgan was forced to retreat in the face of a Confederate move into Kentucky — Braxton Bragg ' s Perryville Campaign . Following Bragg ' s defeat and retreat to Middle Tennessee , Carter successfully lobbied his superiors for permission to conduct a raid into East Tennessee . Carter ' s plan was to cripple the vital East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad . This would support the operations of Major General William S . Rosecrans in Middle Tennessee , and test the route through the mountains as a potential path of invasion . The result was the first long - range , large - scale Federal cavalry raid of the war . With a force of just under 1 , 000 men Carter moved through the rugged mountains of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee during the last week of 1862 . On December 30 he destroyed railroad and wagon bridges at Union and Carter ' s Depot , Tennessee . He repeatedly defeated the Confederate forces in his path , captured a moving train , destroyed tens of thousands of dollars of military stores , and returned safely to Kentucky on January 2 , 1863 . Plans to follow the raid with an invasion and occupation of East Tennessee , a move urged by Lincoln , were canceled when Carter reported the route impracticable for a large force . In July 1863 , Carter was placed in command of the XXIII Corps cavalry division and continued campaigning across Tennessee throughout the year , engaging Confederate forces during the Battle of Blue Springs of the Knoxville Campaign . By 1865 , Carter was in North Carolina and commanding the left wing of the Union forces at the Battle of Wyse Fork . He was promoted to brevet major general of volunteers on March 13 , 1865 , briefly commanding the XXIII Corps before being mustered out of volunteer service in January 1866 . While Carter was serving in the Union Army , the U . S . Navy promoted him to lieutenant commander in 1863 , then to commander in 1865 . Postbellum career . Returning to naval service , Carter was appointed a commander due to his military record during the Civil War . Rejoining the Pacific Squadron , he commanded the USS " Monocacy " . He was promoted to captain in October 1870 , served as commandant of midshipman in the Naval Academy until 1873 , and returned to sea duty in Europe before being named a member of the Lighthouse Board in 1877 . After the Civil War , Carter became a Veteran Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States ( MOLLUS ) - a military society comprised of Union officers and their descendants . In 1877 , Carter married Martha Custis Williams ( 1827 – 1899 ) , a descendant of Martha Custis Washington . Promoted to commodore in November 1878 , Carter retired in August 1882 , shortly before being promoted to rear admiral in May 1881 . He lived in retirement until his death in Washington , D . C . Carter is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery . Fellow officers remembered Carter as " tall , handsome and dignified , graceful in carriage and very affable . . . a ' soldierly Christian ' of sincere piety and undoubted courage . " A Tennessee Historical Marker located on West Elk Avenue in front of the S . P . Carter home in downtown Elizabethton , Tennessee , commemorates his life and naval career .