Union sympathizers burned two railroad bridges across South Chickamauga Creek on Nov. 8, 1861, including one at this location where the greenway now ends near Lightfoot Mill Road.A century and a half ago tonight, two Ooltewah brothers were part of a plan to destroy bridges from Greeneville to Bridgeport, including two spans in East Chattanooga.
And when a wave of Union troops didn’t swoop into the region as the conspirators expected, several hundred East Tennesseeans from Soddy to Greeneville were rounded up by some of their own neighbors and sent to Confederate prisons.
Historians say the Nov. 8, 1861, uprising that has become known as the “Little Rebellion” illustrates the division in the Chattanooga area when North and South went to war.
“This is probably the most overt symbol of the divided sentiment,” said Jim Ogden, historian at the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park.
Daryl Black, executive director of the Chattanooga History Center, said merchants and lawyers in Chattanooga with business ties to the Deep South favored secession, but rural farmers in Hamilton County favored staying with the Union.