Carter, Samuel Powhatan

Carter, Samuel Powhatan (pou"utăn', pouhăt'un) [key], 1819–91, American naval officer and Union general in the Civil War, b. Elizabethton, Tenn., grad. Annapolis, 1846. In the Civil War he was transferred from the navy to the War Dept., sent to organize Union troops in East Tennessee, made brigadier general of volunteers (May, 1862), and given command of a cavalry division in the Army of the Ohio. Discharged from service as brevet major general (1866), he returned to the navy. In 1882 he was made a rear admiral on the retired list. Carter is said to have been the only American who was both a major general and a rear admiral.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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