The 2nd Tennessee was a Civil War (Union) volunteer infantry regiment formed August 20, 1861 at Camp Dick Robinson, Kentucky. Nearly all of the men were from East Tennessee. Colonel James P. T. Carter was in command. The regiment was at Wildcat, Mill Springs and Stones River, but saw little action. In the fall of 1862 it was at Cumberland Gap. The regiment was converted to a mounted infantry in June, 1863 and was one of the regiments in pursuit of Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio in July, 1863. Returning to Tennessee, the unit helped recapture Cumberland Gap and was heavily engaged at the Battle of Blue Springs on October 10, 1863. A month later on November 6, two thirds of the regiment was captured in a rout at the Battle of Rogersville in Hawkins County, Tennessee. About two thirds of those captured died at either Belle Isle or Andersonville prison camps before the end of the war. What remained of the regiment after Rogersville was assigned to duty in and around Knoxville and Cumberland Gap until it was formally mustered out on August 3, 1865.