Carter's Raid

An Episode of the Civil War in East Tennessee

Plot

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. Recalling the exciting story of “the first long-distance raid staged by the Union cavalry,” this book chronicles a significant and often overlooked turning point in the Civil War.