After Tennessee left the Union in June 1861, Greene County was sharply divided, and several Unionists in the nearby pottery-making community of Pottertown joined a plan to cripple the Confederate-controlled rail system by burning railroad bridges. The Rev. William Blount Carter devised the plan, President Abraham Lincoln approved it and promised Federal protection for the bridge burners’ families, and Capt. David Fry of Company F, 2nd Tennessee Infantry (U.S.) came from Kentucky with orders to burn the bridges. With Fry’s help, Carter finalized a scheme to burn all major railroad bridges in East Tennessee in one night. On November 8, 1861, local Unionists gathered at the home of potter Jacob Harmon, Jr. and were sworn into Fry’s command, and about sixty men then went to the Lick Creek railroad bridge, captured Confederate pickets, burned the bridge, and released the Confederates. Confederates later captured several men associated with the bridge burning and hanged Christopher Alexander Haun, Henry Fry, Jacob Harmon Jr., Henry Harmon, and Matt Hinshaw, while Confederate President Jefferson Davis commuted Harrison Self’s sentence.