Although Tennessee voted to secede from the Union in June 1861, East Tennessee remained staunchly loyal, and Carter County residents voted against secession by 1,343 to 86. Samuel P. Carter, who lived in Elizabethton and was born on August 6, 1819, became the only officer in American history to wear two stars in both the navy and the army. He began serving in the navy as a midshipman in 1840, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1846, and was at sea when the Civil War began. Andrew Johnson then had him detailed to Tennessee for special duty to recruit soldiers for the U.S. Army, and he received a general's commission. Before the end of 1861, he led a cavalry raid across the mountains to destroy bridges on the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad, giving hope to East Tennessee Unionists and disheartening Confederate supporters. In the summer of 1863, he commanded the Union army's XXIII Corps cavalry during the Knoxville Campaign, and his October victory at the Battle of Blue Springs contributed to the success of the Union advance in the region. He was brevetted to the rank of major general in May 1865. After the war, he left the army and resumed his naval career, commanding USS Monocacy, and before retiring in 1882 he was promoted to rear admiral. He died in Washington, D.C., on May 26, 1891.