Col. Daniel Stover, USA

Son-in-law of President Andrew Johnson. He is mentioned in The Thrilling Adventures of Daniel Ellis, the Great Union Guide of East Tennessee (New York, 1867).

http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=714

Three children, two daughters, one son: Lily Stover (11- May 1855 – 5 November 1892); Sarah Drake Stover (27 June 1857 – 22 March 1886); Andrew Johnson Stover (6 March 1860 – 25 January 1923)

n 1861, Stover was among the first Union supporters in his region who volunteered for a brigade known as the “The Bridge Burners,” which identified and destroyed the bridges which were primarily used to transfer Confederate supplies. On 8 November 1861, he led the burning of the Holston River. For this he was hunted down, targeted for capture by Confederate troops. This forced Stover and his men to seek refuge in the caves of the nearby mountains during the subsequent winter months and he contracted tuberculosis. Most of the other men were among the working poor with families unable to provide their own sustenance. Mary Stover directed that her farm’s livestock be slaughtered to keep the families fed. Not wanting to tip off the Confederates searching for the militia in the mountains, however, often inhibited her from smuggling the food baskets she and her mother prepared for them. Many often starved or froze to death in the mountains, a fact which weighed heavily on her.