Book Review: "The Bridge Burners: A True Adventure of East Tennessee's
Underground Civil War"

by Cameron Judd

September 2007

• Type: Non-Fiction
• Author: Cameron Judd
• Published: The Overmountain Press 1995
• Subject: 1861 Bridge Burnings by East Tennessee Union Supporters
• About the Author: From the back cover: "A native Tennessean, Cameron Judd lives between Greeneville and Jonesborough, Tennessee, with his wife, Rhonda, and three children Matt, Laura and Bonnie. A full-time author, he has written more than twenty published novels of the American frontier. The Bridge Burners, his first work of nonfiction, is based largely on research done in preparation for his historical novel The Shadow Warriors. Two of Judd's novels have made him a national finalist in the Annual Spur Awards of Western Writers of America. Also, a newspaper editor and writer, he twice won state-level awards in investigative reporting. Among Judd's works of fiction are The Overmountain Men, Crockett of Tennessee and Passage to Natchez.

If you are unfamiliar with East Tennessee and Western North Carolina history you may think of these areas as solid parts of the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War. However, there were many supporters of the Union in both of these areas. In June of 1861 Tennessee voted to secede from the Union but the voters in the eastern part of the state voted 2 to 1 against secession.

"In East Tennessee there would be a civil war within the Civil War. The differentiation between citizen and soldier, regular and guerrilla, would grow thin. And on this divided stage, the thrilling and ultimately tragic drama of the bridge burners would be played out"
     ~ "The Bridge Burners" by Cameron Judd page 8

Cameron Judd tells the story of the East Tennessee Unionists' plan to burn railroad bridges vital to the Confederate movement of soldiers and supplies from the Deep South into Virginia. Led by Samuel P. Carter, his brother James P.T. Carter and a third brother William Blount Carter the plan included a follow-up invasion by the Union army after the bridges were burned.

Judd's book is a great introduction to this story and it may change the way you think about Tennessee's role in the Civil War.

Other recommended books by Cameron Judd :

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