William B. Carter

Rev. William Blount Carter (September 11, 1820 – July 21, 1902) was a farmer, an American Presbyterian minister, and the mastermind of the East Tennessee Bridge Burnings, a guerrilla-warfare action of the American Civil War. Per one history, "Whatever else may be said about the burning of the bridges of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad in November, 1861, there can be no doubt whatever that the plan was conceived by the Rev. William B. Carter, of Elizabethton, Tenn., and it was through his influence that Mr. Lincoln and the War Department sanctioned it and pledged the cooperation of the Government in the execution of his plans." Carter was otherwise known as a "highly educated, cultured Christian gentleman, a minister of the Presbyterian church, and highly respected by all who knew him."