Angela Combs

Smith

Tennessee History 2030

December 8, 2004

Cameron Judd’s “The Bridget Burners”

(Book Summary)

Judd’s “The Bridge Burners” is concentrated and centered mostly in the eastern

portion of Tennessee around the time period in the year 1861 when the state decided to

secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. Tensions were high among the people

of Tennessee and the state was literally divided in that there were many supporters for

both sides. When the ordeal was first put to vote, Tennessee decided to remain in the

Union and a majority of the votes for the Union came from the eastern section of

Tennessee. However, the same issue was put to the test again when many started to feel

threatened by Lincoln’s impending army and the state was swayed to join the

Confederate States of America under its president- Jefferson Davis.

Although the state had officially become a part of the Confederacy, there were

still many Unionists, or “Lincolnites” as they were coined, in Tennessee. A man named

Rev. William Carter from Tennessee had a plan to deter the Confederates and cause

serious damage to their advancements. Seeing as how the railroad system was a new and

improved way to transport anything from food, livestock, and people, it was also to be

used to carry Confederate soldiers and ammunition. The eastern half of Tennessee just

happened to be a main center for trains and commerce and without this central

standpoint, the South would therefore be cut off from reaching place in Virginia as well

as Georgia and other states. If the main train bridges were burned, it could severely
devastate the Confederate commute and allow time for the federal army to assist in taking

back the eastern half of Tennessee back into the Union. This was the general idea of

William Carter and he posed this idea to Abraham Lincoln himself who also favored the

idea and approved support of it. Lincoln agreed to furnish money to those who aided in

the burning of the bridges and promised to send in reinforcements.

Through much deliberation and careful planning among most of the men who

took part in the burning of the bridges that took place on November 8, 1961. Col. Daniel

Stover, the son-in-law of Andrew Johnson, led the attack of the Zollicoffer Bridge

because it did not seem to be heavily guarded and successfully burned it. Other successes

included the Hiwassee River bridge led by the Cate brothers, and the Lick Creek bridge

led by David Fry.

However, the one main disappointment to the Unionists, other than the bridges

they could not attack because of heavy guard, was the incident at the bridge at Strawberry

Plains. This incident has two very different stories- one from the Unionists and one from

the Confederates. According to the Unionists, William C. Pickens caused a commotion

by striking a match and then dropped the matches in the darkness when he was attacked

by the Confederate guard James Keelan and one of Pickens’s men accidentally attacked

Pickens with a knife instead of Keelan. Keelan ran off for help and then the bridge

burners were forced to go home because no one had any matches to set the bridge afire.

On the other hand, the Confederates say that Keelan was a very brave man and fearlessly

fought down a countless number of Unionists and claim that Keelan was the one with the

knife instead of the Unionist. Keelan was glorified by the Confederates and was made an

example for how all Confederate soldiers should be.

 The burning of the bridges did not come without consequences, however. The

federal help that Lincoln had promised never showed up to redeem the Unionists in East

Tennessee and the Confederates began putting Unionists in jail as prisoners of war and

searched relentlessly for those accountable for the bridge burnings. The punishment for

those found guilty of burning bridges was an immediate death by execution by hanging

from a noose. All in all, five men were hung for the parts they played in the burning of

the bridge at Lick Creek.

I would consider Judd’s book “The Bridge Burners” a good book to read and I

would recommend it to others. It effectively shows the interpersonal ordeals of the

people of eastern Tennessee during the time of the Civil War and the struggle over

Unionist and Confederate values. It also portrays the risks that people were willing to

take in order to stay unified with the original mother country.