On November 8th, an organized plan was partially carried out, by parties of Union men, to burn the bridges of the two railways from Knoxville, one eastward to the Virginia line and the other westward to Chattanooga, and Dalton, Georgia. The bridges over the Hiwassee River, Lick Creek, Greene County, and three other streams, were destroyed. That over the Holston River at Strawberry Plains, Jefferson County, was saved by the bravery of its watchman. These violences created great excitement and alarm. They were the first overt acts of resistance from among the people to the power by which they were subjected; and were committed, no doubt, not in a spirit of mere wanton mischief, but of war upon an enemy and for the purpose of seriously interrupting the military communications of the Southern Confederacy. Some political friends of the destructive workers justified the burnings as acts of war. Others, while not dissenting from that opinion, yet thought them inexpedient,--hurtful to public convenience, and as a military movement, conducive to no important practical results, because unsupported by a sufficient armed force from outside the region. The Confederate States authorities had apprehended an outbreak of the slumbering discontent of the people; but they could not at first measure the import of this particular aggression. They were therefore liable to suppose it was the forerunner of a general uprising against them, which would be sustained by United States soldiers from Kentucky. The circulation of the news concerning it was quick and general and bred universal agitation, especially among friends of the Confederacy. Citizens gathered in towns and soldiers in camps, to hear declamations. Everywhere, these assaults and the danger of others, were their topics of conversation. Telegrams flew on the wires and letters went by mail to Knoxville, increasing the alarm. A dispatch from Charleston, Tenn., said, “Seventy-five Union soldiers were to-day near Harrison. They had knapsacks.” And again, “Jeff Mathes is within twelve miles of this place: has one hundred men.” From Chattanooga: “About nine hundred men, part of them from Bradley County, leave Clift’s in this county to-day in squads, either to organize for operations against this place and Loudon bridge, or to meet Union forces from Kentucky. The regiment is formidable.” A later message said, “They have formed a camp at Bower’s, near Smith’s Cross Roads. They may return to this place or to Loudon. They calculate to organize one thousand men.” From Athens it was written that “some fifteen hundred Lincoln men are under arms in Hamilton County, ostensibly for Jamestown. Their destination is more probably Loudon bridge.” The Major in command at Loudon, on the Tennessee River, thirty miles west of Knoxville, wrote: “The Union feeling in this county is exceedingly bitter, and all they want, in my opinion, to induce a general uprising, is encouragement from the Lincoln armies.