Carter's Raid: An Episode of the Civil War in East Tennessee

During the Civil War, fully two-thirds of East Tennessee's citizens remained loyal to the Union. When their state was declared "an independent nation" and then negotiated a military alliance with the Confederate government, it was against the will of the majority of East Tennesseans.

Samuel P. Carter of Elizabethton, the daring "sailor on horseback" and a naval officer, led the Yankee cavalry in a raid from Kentucky into East Tennessee -- into his own backyard. This was part of a long-term effort by the Federal government to utilize the loyalty of East Tennesseans to destroy the Southern rebellion.

The author relates an exciting story of "the first long-distance raid staged by the Union cavalry" in this chronicle of a significant and often overlooked turning point in the Civil War.

William Garrett Piston teaches courses in Civil War and American military history at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.