Daniel Stover

Stover was one of the leaders of the East Tennessee bridge burnings, a guerrilla warfare action of the American Civil War that was intended to clear the way for federal occupation of the region, which generally opposed secession.

[2] During the first autumn of the American Civil War, Stover participated in a guerrilla warfare action called the East Tennessee bridge burnings.

[3] The November 8, 1861 bridge burning was carried out with the approval of Union leaders, including Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, and was supposed to clear the way for the occupation of East Tennessee by federal forces.

These men coming from different directions met near Elizabethton and the nature of the enterprise was explained to them by Col. Stover, and they were informed by him that in addition to the honor attached to doing so great a service for the country they were to be paid by the Federal Government.

He explained to them also that Gen. Thomas with his army was then, as he believed, on the borders of East Tennessee, and immediately upon the burning of the bridges, so that Confederate troops could not be hurried in by rail, the Federal army would advance rapidly into East Tennessee, finish the destruction of the railroad and protect the bridge burners and all other loyal people.After Stover and twenty-odd men under his command overwhelmed the Confederate guards, they lit up with strategically significant bridge, which carried trains of the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad, by ignition of turpentine and pine knots.

[6] However, the United States Army did not come marching in to East Tennessee, and Confederate Secretary of War Judah Benjamin ordered that any captured bridge burners be put to death.