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Tennessee in the American Civil War

January 01, 1970

This article is about the Confederate state of Tennessee between 1861 and 1865. For the ships, see CSS Tennessee. For other uses, see Tennessee (disambiguation).

The American Civil War significantly affected Tennessee, with every county witnessing combat. During the War, Tennessee was a Confederate state, and the last state to officially secede from the Union to join the Confederacy. Tennessee had been threatening to secede since before the Confederacy was even formed, but didn’t officially do so until after the fall of Fort Sumter when public opinion throughout the state drastically shifted. Tennessee seceded in protest to President Lincoln's April 15 Proclamation calling forth 75,000 members of state militias to suppress the rebellion.[4] Although Tennessee provided a large number of troops for the Confederacy, it would also provide more soldiers for the Union Army than any other state within the Confederacy.

Tennessee
Nickname(s): The Volunteer State

Proposed flag (de facto)[a]

Great Seal


Map of the Confederate States
CapitalNashville
Largest cityMemphis
Admitted to the ConfederacyJuly 2, 1861 (11th)
Population
  • 1,109,801 total
  •  • 834,082 (75.15%) free
  •  • 275,719 (24.85%) slave
Forces supplied
  • - Confederate soldiers: 135,000[1]
    - Union soldiers: 51,000 (31,000 white; 20,000 black)[2][3] total
GovernorIsham G. Harris (1861–1862)
SenatorsLandon Carter Haynes
Gustavus Adolphus Henry
RepresentativesList
Restored to the UnionJuly 24, 1866

In February 1862, some of the war's first serious fighting took place along the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, recognized as major military highways, and mountain passes such as Cumberland Gap were keenly competed-for by both sides. The Battle of Shiloh and the fighting along the Mississippi brought glory to the then little-known Ulysses S. Grant, while his area commander Henry Halleck was rewarded with a promotion to General-in-Chief. The Tullahoma campaign, led by William Rosecrans, drove the Confederates from Middle Tennessee so quickly that they did not take many casualties, and were strong enough to defeat Rosecrans soon afterward. At Nashville in December 1864, George Thomas routed the Army of Tennessee under John Bell Hood, the last major battle fought in the state.

In 1862, Lincoln chose to use his power as commander in chief to appoint Andrew Johnson as the military governor of Tennessee.[5] Two years later, Lincoln selected him as a Southerner to balance the ticket in the 1864 general election. On Lincoln's assassination, Johnson was sworn in as president.

Origins edit

Pro-Union and anti-Republican sentiment before the attack on Fort Sumter edit

 
John Bell (1796–1869), 1860 Constitutional Union Party presidential candidate

Initially, most Tennesseans showed little enthusiasm for breaking away from a nation whose struggles it had shared for so long. In 1860, they had voted by a slim margin for the Constitutional Unionist John Bell, a native son and moderate who continued to search for a way out of the crisis.

A vocal minority of Tennesseans spoke critically of the Northern states and the Lincoln presidency. "The people of the South are preparing for their next highest duty– resistance to coercion or invasion," wrote the Nashville Daily Gazette on January 5, 1861. The newspaper expressed the view that Florida, Georgia, and Alabama were exercising the highest right of all by taking control of all forts and other military establishments within the area– the right to self-defense.[6] A pro-secessionist proposal was made in the Memphis Appeal to build a fort at Randolph, Tennessee, on the Mississippi River.[7]

Governor Isham G. Harris convened an emergency session of the Tennessee General Assembly in January 1861. During his speech before the legislative body on January 7, he described the secession of the Southern states as a crisis caused by "long continued agitation of the slavery question" and "actual and threatened aggressions of the Northern States ... upon the well-defined constitutions rights of the Southern citizen." He also expressed alarm at the growth of the "purely sectional" Republican Party, which he stated was bound together by the "uncompromising hostility to the rights and institutions of the fifteen Southern states." He identified numerous grievances with the Republican Party, blaming them for inducing slaves to run off by means of the Underground Railroad, John Brown's raids, and high taxes on slave labor.[8]

Harris agreed with the idea of popular sovereignty, that only the people within a state can determine whether or not slavery could exist within the boundaries of that state. Furthermore, he regarded laws passed by Congress that made U.S. territories non-slave states as taking territories away from the American people and making them solely for the North, territories from which "Southern men unable to live under a government which may by law recognize the free negro as his equal" were excluded. Governor Harris proposed holding a State Convention. A series of resolutions were presented in the Tennessee House of Representatives by William H. Wisener against the proposal. He declared passing any law reorganizing and arming the state militia to be inexpedient.

The centrality of the question of slavery to the secession movement was not doubted by people at the time of the Civil War, nor was it ignored by the contemporary press. Especially in the case of the pro-slavery papers, this question of the possibility of the eventual granting of equal rights for people of color was not couched in diplomatic phraseology:

The election, be it remembered, takes place on the 9th, and the Delegates meet in Convention on the 25th instant. If you desire to wait until you are tied hand and foot then vote for the men who advocate the 'watch and wait' policy. If you think you have rights and are the superiors of the black man then vote for the men who will not sell you out, body and soul to the Yankee Republicans - for men who would rather see Tennessee independent out of the Union, then in the Union subjugated. [emphasis in original][9]

On February 3, 1861, the pro-Union Knoxville Whig published a "Secret Circular" that had mistakenly been sent by its authors to a pro-Union Tennessee U.S. Postmaster. In it was revealed a comprehensive plan by pro-slavery Tennesseans and others to launch a propaganda campaign to convince Tennesseans that the strength of the pro-secessionist movement was overwhelming:

Dear Sir — Our earnest solicitude for the success of the Great Southern Rights movement to secure an immediate release from the overwhelming dangers that imperil our political and social safety, will we trust, be a sufficient apology for the results which we beg to impose on you. The sentiment of the Southern heart is overwhelming in favor of the movement. Light only is wanted that men many see their way clearly and the prayer of every true patriot will eventually be realized. Tennessee will be a unit. Although the time be so very short, this object may yet be accomplished, if a few men only, (the more the better, however) in each county, will devote their entire energies to it during the canvass for Delegates. We earnestly beg your attention, therefore, to the following suggestions:

  1. Be sure to have your best men in the field, WITHOUT REGARD TO PAST POLITICAL OPINIONS.
  2. Be sure that no submissionist, under whatever pretext of compromising our rights, or of waiting beyond the 4th of March for new guarantees, impose himself on you. Our only hope of peace and safety consists in decided action before the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln.
  3. Do not wait for general meetings of citizens, but get together immediately a few active, intelligent, discreet but thoroughgoing, uncompromising, true-hearted, "Southern-Rights Anti-Coercion" friends and appoint Committees and Canvassers, who are willing to devote themselves entirely and unceasingly to the great and perilous work, from this hour up to the close of the election.
  4. Appoint Committees, also, for each Civil District, of men known to coincide with you and ourselves in sentiment.
  5. Organize, forthwith, Southern Rights Anti-Coercion Societies.
  6. We will send during the canvass, the UNION AND AMERICAN and GAZETTE, to supply your County. These we confidently trust you will send immediately to the District Committees, who on the hour of delivery, start out on the work of distribution, and this though there be but half a dozen copies for each district. Do not, we beg of you, wait for persons to call for documents, of papers to read and CIRCULATE.
  7. Write as many letters to your friends [as] possible, and urge them by every consideration of patriotism, to work, work, work.

[...] We can, we must, carry our State. Our hearts would link within us, at the bare thought of the degradations and infamy of abandoning our more Southern brethren united to us by all the views so sympathy and interest, and of being chained to the car of Black Republican States, who would themselves despise us for our submission; and worse than all, by moral influences alone, if not by force of legal enactment destroy our entire social fabric, and all real independence of thought and action. Your own good judgment will suggest many things we can not now allude to. [emphasis added]
Very Respectfully,
[Signed]Wm. Williams, Chm'n./S. C. Goethall [?], Sec'y,/Andrew Cheatham/J. R. Baus [?]/R. H. Williamson/G. W. Cunningham/H. M. Cheatham, W. S. Peppin
States Central Southern Rights Anti-Coercion Committee[10]

In Memphis, Unionists held two torchlight processions to honor their cause. The secessionists replied with their own demonstrations and a celebratory ball.[11][12] That week, on February 9, the state of Tennessee was to vote on whether or not to send delegates to a State Convention that would decide on secession.[13] The General Assembly convened by Governor Isham Harris did not believe it had the authority to call a State Convention without a vote of the people.[14]

In February 1861, 54 percent of the state's voters voted against sending delegates to a secession convention, defeating the proposal for a State Convention by a vote of 69,675 to 57,798. If a State Convention had been held, it would have been very heavily pro-Union. 88,803 votes were cast for Unionist candidates and 22,749 votes were cast for Secession candidates.[15] That day the American flag was displayed in "every section of the city," with zeal equal to that which existed during the late 1860 presidential campaign, wrote the Nashville Daily Gazette. The proponents of the slavocracy were embarrassed, demoralized and politically disoriented but not willing to admit defeat: "Whatever may be the result of the difficulties which at present agitate our country - whether we are to be united in our common destiny or whether two Republics shall take the place of that which has stood for nearly a century, the admired of all nations we will still bow with reverence to the sight of the stars and stripes, and recognize it as the standard around which the sons of liberty can rally [...]. And if the remonstrances of the people of the South-pleading and begging for redress for years-does not in this critical moment, arouse her brethren of the North to a sense of justice and right, and honor demands a separation, we would still have the same claims upon the 'colors of Washington, great son of the South, and of Virginia, mother of the States.' Let us not abandon the stars and stripes under which Southern men have so often been led to victory."[16] "On the corner across from the newspaper office, a crowd had gathered around a bagpipe player playing Yankee Doodle, after which ex-mayor John Hugh Smith gave a speech that was received with loud cheers.[17]

In a letter to Democratic senator Andrew Johnson, the publisher of the Clarksville (TN) Jeffersonian, C.O. Faxon,[18] surmised that the margin by which the "No Convention" vote won would have been even greater, had Union men not been afraid that if a State Convention were not called then, then Isham Harris would have again called for a State Convention when more state legislators were "infected with the secession epidemic" [...] " Gov Harris is Check mated [sic]. The Union maj[ority] in the State will almost defy computation [.] So far as heard from the disunionist have carried by a single precinct. The Union and American [Nashville, TN pro-secessionist paper[19]] Stands rebuked and damned before the people of the State"[20]

On March 7, the Memphis Daily Appeal wrote that the abolitionists were attempting to deprive the South of territories won during the U.S.-Mexican War. It pointed out that the slave states had furnished twice as many volunteers as the free states and territories, though it did not note that slave states were the ones who most supported the war.[21]

On March 19, the editors of the Clarksville Chronicle endorsed a pro-Union candidate for state senator in Robertson, Montgomery, and Stewart counties.[22]

On April 2, the Memphis Daily Appeal ran a satirical obituary for Uncle Sam, proclaiming him to have died of "irrepressible conflict disease," after having met Abraham Lincoln.[23] One Robertson County slave owner complained that she could not rent her slaves out for "half [of what] they were worth" because "the negros think when Lincoln takes his last, they will all be free."[24]

Reaction to the attack on Fort Sumter edit

With the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, followed by Lincoln's April 15 call for 75,000 volunteers to put the seceded states back into line, public sentiment turned dramatically against the Union.

Historian Daniel Crofts thus reports:

Unionists of all descriptions, both those who became Confederates and those who did not, considered the proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand troops "disastrous." Having consulted personally with Lincoln in March, Congressman Horace Maynard, the unconditional Unionist and future Republican from East Tennessee, felt assured that the administration would pursue a peaceful policy. Soon after April 15, a dismayed Maynard reported that "the President's extraordinary proclamation" had unleashed "a tornado of excitement that seems likely to sweep us all away." Men who had "heretofore been cool, firm and Union loving" had become "perfectly wild" and were "aroused to a frenzy of passion." For what purpose, they asked, could such an army be wanted "but to invade, overrun and subjugate the Southern states." The growing war spirit in the North further convinced southerners that they would have to "fight for our hearthstones and the security of home." [25]

In May 1861, the governor of Tennessee Isham G. Harris defied the United States Government by beginning military mobilization, submitting a ordinance of secession to the General Assembly, and made direct overtures to the Confederate government all before the state officially seceded.[26]

Tennessee secedes edit

 
Results of the June 8, 1861, referendum by county. Redder counties voted more for secession, and bluer counties voted more against secession. Counties in black have no data.

In the June 8, 1861, referendum, East Tennessee held firm against separation, while West Tennessee returned an equally heavy majority in favor. The deciding vote came in Middle Tennessee, which went from 51 percent against secession in February to 88 percent in favor in June. The voting was accused of being fraudulent; in some counties in East Tennessee Unionists threatened violence against those voting for secession, while in other places soldiers remained at the polls to hiss at those with a Unionist ballot.[27]

Having ratified by popular vote its connection with the fledgling Confederacy, Tennessee became the last state to declare formally its withdrawal from the Union.

Major campaigns edit

1862 edit

Control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers was important in gaining control of Tennessee during the age of steamboats. Tennessee relied on northbound riverboats to receive staple commodities from the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys.[28] The idea of using the rivers to breach the Confederate defense line in the West was well known by the end of 1861; Union gunboats had been scanning Confederate fort-building on the twin rivers for months before the campaign.[29] Ulysses S. Grant and the United States Navy captured control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers in February 1862 and held off the Confederate counterattack at Shiloh in April of the same year.

Capture of Memphis and Nashville gave the Union control of the Western and Middle sections. Control was confirmed at the battle of Murfreesboro in early January 1863. After Nashville was captured (the first Confederate state capitol to fall) Andrew Johnson, an East Tennessean from Greeneville, was appointed military governor of the state by Lincoln. During this time, the military government abolished slavery (but with questionable legality). The Confederates continued to hold East Tennessee despite the strength of Unionist sentiment there, with the exception of strongly pro-Confederate Sullivan and Rhea Counties.

1863 edit

After winning a victory at Chickamauga in September 1863, the Confederates besieged Chattanooga but were finally driven off by Grant in November. Many of the Confederate defeats can be attributed to the poor leadership of General Braxton Bragg, who led the Army of Tennessee from Shiloh to the Confederate defeat in the Chattanooga campaign. Historian Thomas Connelly concludes that although Bragg was an able planner and a skillful organizer, he failed repeatedly in operations, in part because he was unable to collaborate effectively with his subordinates.[30]

1864 edit

The last major battles came when General John Bell Hood led the Confederates north in November 1864. He was checked at Franklin, and his army was virtually destroyed by George Thomas's greatly superior forces at Nashville in December.

Battles in Tennessee edit

 
Bombardment and Capture of Fort Henry, Tenn. by Currier & Ives
 
Battle of Nashville by Kurz & Allison

Notable Confederate leaders from Tennessee edit

Notable Union leaders from Tennessee edit

Government and politics edit

Fear of subversion was widespread throughout the state. In West and Middle Tennessee it was fear of pro-Union activism, which was countered proactively by numerous local Committees of Safety and Vigilance from 1860 to 1862. They emerged as early as the 1860 Presidential election, and when the war began activists developed an aggressive program to detect and suppress Unionists. The committees set up a spy system, intercepted mail, inspected luggage, forced the enlistment of men into the Confederate Army, confiscated private property, and whenever it seemed necessary lynched enemies of the Confederacy. The committees were disbanded by the Union Army when it took control in 1862.[31]

Unionism and East Tennessee edit

Area of Tennessee Slave percentage of
total population
East Tennessee 9%
Middle Tennessee 29%
West Tennessee 34%

East Tennessee was a stronghold of Unionism; most slaves were house servants—luxuries—rather than the base of plantation operations. East Tennesseans feared that they would become second-class citizens in a country with a slave-owning aristocracy.[32] The dominant mood strongly opposed secession.[33] Tennesseans representing twenty-six East Tennessee counties met twice in Greeneville and Knoxville and agreed to secede from Tennessee (see East Tennessee Convention of 1861.) They petitioned the state legislature in Nashville, which denied their request to secede and sent Confederate troops under Felix Zollicoffer to occupy East Tennessee and prevent secession. The region thus came under Confederate control from 1861 to 1863. Nevertheless, East Tennessee supplied significant numbers of troops to the Federal army. (See also Nickajack.) Many East Tennesseans engaged in guerrilla warfare against state authorities by burning bridges, cutting telegraph wires, and spying for the North.[34] East Tennessee became an early base for the Republican Party in the South. Strong support for the Union challenged the Confederate commanders who controlled East Tennessee for most of the war. Generals Felix K. Zollicoffer, Edmund Kirby Smith, and Sam Jones oscillated between harsh measures and conciliatory gestures to gain support but had little success whether they arrested hundreds of Unionist leaders or allowed men to escape the Confederate draft. Union forces finally captured the region in 1863.[35] General William Sherman's famous March to the Sea saw him personally escorted by the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment, which consisted entirely of Unionist southerners. Despite its name, the regiment consisted largely of men from Tennessee.

Economy edit

Refugees poured into Nashville during the war, because jobs were plentiful in the depots, warehouses, and hospitals serving the war effort, and furthermore, the city was a much safer place than the countryside. Unionists and Confederate sympathizers both flooded in, as did free blacks and escaped slaves, and businessmen from the North.[36] There was little heavy industry in the South but the Western Iron District in Middle Tennessee was the largest iron producer in the Confederacy in 1861. One of the largest operations was the Cumberland Iron Works, which the Confederate War Department tried and failed to protect.[37] Memphis and Nashville, with very large transient populations, had flourishing red light districts. Union wartime regulations forced prostitutes to purchase licenses and pass medical exams, primarily to protect soldiers from venereal disease. Their trade was deregulated once military control ended.[38]

Aftermath edit

In January 1865, a convention tasked with choosing delegates for a proposed constitutional convention decided it had the power to propose amendments to the Tennessee state constitution and present them for ratification in an election. Dominated by pro-Union forces allied with Military Governor Andrew Johnson, the convention proposed two constitutional amendments, one abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude unless imposed as punishment for a crime, and one repudiating the state's allegiance with the Confederate States of America. Both amendments were passed by voters on February 22, 1865.[39][40][41] (A new proposed constitutional amendment that will go before the voters in 2022 will abolish slavery as a punishment for crime and remove it from the state constitution.)[42]

After the war, the state legislature ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866, and was the first state readmitted to the Union on July 24, 1866. Because it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, Tennessee was the only state that seceded from the Union that did not have a military governor during Reconstruction, nor was it part of any of the Reconstruction military districts. This did not placate those unhappy with the Confederate defeat. Many white Tennesseans resisted efforts to expand suffrage and other civil rights to the freedmen.

For generations, white Tennesseans had been raised to believe that slavery was justified. Some could not accept that their former slaves were now equal under the law. When the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of African American suffrage in 1867, the reaction became stronger. The Nashville Republican Banner on January 4, 1868, published an editorial calling for a revolutionary movement of white Southerners to unseat the one-party state rule imposed by the Republican Party and restore the legal inferiority of the region's black population.

"In this State, reconstruction has perfected itself and done its worst. It has organized a government which is as complete a closed corporation as may be found; it has placed the black man over the white as the agent and prime-move of domination; it has constructed a system of machinery by which all free guarantees, privileges and opportunities are removed from the people.... The impossibility of casting a free vote in Tennessee short of a revolutionary movement ... is an undoubted fact."

The Banner urged its readers to ignore the presidential election and direct their energy into building "a local movement here at home" to end Republican rule.[43]

According to the 1860 census, African Americans made up only 25% of Tennessee's population, which meant they could not dominate politics. Only a few African Americans served in the Tennessee legislature during Reconstruction, and not many more as state and city officers. However, the Nashville Banner may have been reacting to increased participation by African Americans on that city's council, where they held about one-third of the seats.[44] Tennessee has strong Confederate memories, which focused on the Lost Cause theme of heroic defense of traditional liberties. [45]

See also edit

References edit

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ "Despite . . . inaction of the Tennessee legislature, the flag recommended by Senator [Tazewell B.] Newman did see some limited use" (Cannon 2005, pp. 46-47).

Citations edit

  1. ^ Tennessee: Third Addition. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  2. ^ Tennessee Encyclopedia: Civil War. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  3. ^ Lovett, Bobby L. Blacks In The Union Army Of Tennessee (1861-1866). tnstate.edu. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  4. ^ "The Civil War: The Senate's Story". United States Senate.
  5. ^ Gordon-Reed, pp. 69–70.
  6. ^ "The Effect" (PDF). Nashville Daily Gazette. January 5, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  7. ^ "Pro-secessionist proposal to construct a fort at Randolph, Tennessee, on the Mississippi River" (PDF). Memphis Appeal. January 20, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  8. ^ White, Robert D. "Messages of the Governors of Tennessee, 1859-1869, Vol. 5, pp.255-269; Excerpts from Governor Isham G. Harris' Legislative Message" (PDF). Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  9. ^ "The Tennessee Convention" (PDF). Nashville Daily Gazette. February 2, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  10. ^ "Read the Treasonous Circular!" (PDF). Knoxville Whig. February 3, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  11. ^ "Another Political Demonstration—Minute Men Torchlight Procession" (PDF). Memphis "Daily Argus". February 8, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  12. ^ "Secession Demonstration and Ball in Memphis" (PDF). Memphis "Appeal". February 9, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  13. ^ "TENNESSEANS, DECIDE FOR TENNESSEE" (PDF). Memphis Daily Argus. February 8, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  14. ^ "THE CONVENTION" (PDF). Memphis Daily Argus. February 9, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  15. ^ White, Robert D. "Messages of the Governors of Tennessee, op cit. p.272: The vote against secession, and against 'Convention' or 'No Convention'" (PDF). Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  16. ^ "Display of Flags" (PDF). Nashville Daily Gazette. February 9, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  17. ^ "Jovial" (PDF). Nashville Daily Gazette. February 10, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  18. ^ "About Clarksville Jeffersonian. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1861-186?". Chronicling America - Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  19. ^ "Vote early for Convention and for Anti-Coercion men.; The Crisis". Chronicling America. Gallatin (TN) Examiner, republished in Nashville Union and Examiner. February 8, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  20. ^ Faxon, C.O. (February 11, 1861). "The Papers of Andrew Johnson, Vol. 4, p. 274: The great news from Tennessee..." (PDF). Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  21. ^ "Abolitionist attempts to divest the South of the territory acquired by the Mexican War" (PDF). Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook. Memphis Daily Appeal. March 7, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  22. ^ "Pro-Union candidate for State Senate endorsed for Robertson, Stewart and Montgomery counties" (PDF). Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook. Letter to Editor, signed "UNION NOW AND FOREVER"; Clarksville Chronicle. March 22, 1861. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  23. ^ Gaznog, Louis (April 2, 1861). "Obituary for Uncle Sam; a pro-secession argument in Memphis" (PDF). Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook. Memphis Daily Appeal. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  24. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 29, 2008. Retrieved September 8, 2007.
  25. ^ Daniel W. Crofts, Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis (1989), p.334.
  26. ^ Philip Thomason and Doug Cubbison. Historic and Historic Archaeological Resources of the American Civil War in Tennessee, 1861-1865, NPS, 1998.
  27. ^ Fisher, Noel C. (1997). War at every door : partisan politics and guerrilla violence in East Tennessee, 1860-1869. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 33–37. ISBN 0-8078-6144-8. OCLC 44960992.
  28. ^ Cooling, Benjamin (1987). Forts Henry and Donelson: The Key to the Confederate Heartland. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-87049-538-0.
  29. ^ Cooling, Benjamin (1987). Forts Henry and Donelson: The Key to the Confederate Heartland. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press. pp. 65, 66. ISBN 0-87049-538-0.
  30. ^ Thomas Connelly, Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862–1865 (1971)
  31. ^ James B. Jones, Jr., "'The Reign of Terror of the Safety Committee Has Passed Away Forever': A History of Committees of Safety and Vigilance in West and Middle Tennessee, 1860–1862," West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, 2009, Vol. 63, pp 1-28
  32. ^ Fisher, Noel C. (1997). War at every door : partisan politics and guerrilla violence in East Tennessee, 1860-1869. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 30–32. ISBN 0-8078-6144-8. OCLC 44960992.
  33. ^ Thomas B. Alexander, "Whiggery and Reconstruction in Tennessee," The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 16, No. 3 (August, 1950), pp. 291-305 in JSTOR
  34. ^ Carroll Van West, ed., Tennessee History: the Land, the People, and the Culture. James McDonough "Tennessee in the Civil War" 1998. p 155
  35. ^ Noel Fisher, "'The leniency shown them has been unavailing': The Confederate occupation of East Tennessee," Civil War History, Dec 1994, Vol. 40 Issue 4, pp 275-91
  36. ^ Durham, 1985; Durham 1987
  37. ^ Michael Thomas Gavin, "War Comes to Iron Country: Middle Tennessee's Defense Industry during the Civil War," West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, 2009, Vol. 63, pp 82-108
  38. ^ Jeannine Cole, "'Upon the Stage of Disorder:' Legalized Prostitution in Memphis and Nashville, 1863–1865," Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Spring 2009, Vol. 68 Issue 1, pp 40-65
  39. ^ "The 1865 Constitutional Amendments and the Return of Civil Government in Tennessee". tba.org. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  40. ^ "Freedmen and Southern Society Project: Chronology of Emancipation". www.history.umd.edu. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
  41. ^ "TSLA::This Honorable Body: African American Legislators in 19th Century Tennessee". state.tn.us. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
  42. ^ "Tennessee Senate OKs bid to remove 'slavery' as punishment". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
  43. ^ cited in Harcourt 2005.
  44. ^ W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880, New York: Oxford University Press, 1935; reprint New York: Free Press,1998, p.575.
  45. ^ James B. Williams, "The Tennessee Civil War Centennial Commission: Looking to the Past as Tennessee Plans for the Future," Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Winter 2008, Vol. 67 Issue 4, pp 270-345

Sources edit

Further reading edit

  • Alexander, Thomas B. Political Reconstruction in Tennessee (1968)
  • Ash, Stephen V. Middle Tennessee society transformed, 1860–1870: war and peace in the Upper South (2006)
  • Connelly, Thomas L. Civil War Tennessee: battles and leaders (1979) 106pp
  • Connelly, Thomas L. Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee, 1861–1862 (2 vol 1967–70); a Confederate army
  • Cooling, Benjamin Franklin. Fort Donelson's Legacy: War and Society in Kentucky and Tennessee, 1862–1863 (1997)
  • Cottrell, Steve. Civil War in Tennessee (2001) 142pp
  • Daniel, Larry J. Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War (1998) excerpt and text search
  • Durham, Walter T. Nashville: The Occupied City, 1862–1863 (1985)
  • Durham, Walter T. Reluctant Partners: Nashville and the Union, 1863–1865 (1987)
  • Engle, Stephen D. Don Carlos Buell: Most Promising of All (1999)
  • Engle, Stephen D. Struggle for the Heartland: The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth (2001)
  • Fisher, Noel C. War at Every Door: Partisan Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee, 1860–1869 (2000)
  • Frisby, Derek W. Campaigns in Mississippi and Tennessee, February-December 1864 Center of Military History (2014) 67pp
  • Groom, Winston. Shiloh, 1862: The First Great and Terrible Battle of the Civil War (2011)
  • Jones, James B., ed. Tennessee in the Civil War: Selected Contemporary Accounts (2011) 286 pp
  • Lepa, Jack H. The Civil War in Tennessee, 1862–1863 (2007)
  • McCaslin, Richard B., ed. Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War (2006)
  • McKenzie, Robert Tracy. Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War (2009) on Knoxville
  • McKenzie, Robert Tracy. One South or Many? Plantation Belt and Upcountry in Civil War-Era Tennessee (1994) uses longitudinal census data to demonstrate similar economic and social trends among Tennessee's three regions excerpt and text search
  • Maslowski Peter. Treason Must Be Made Odious: Military Occupation and Wartime Reconstruction in Nashville, Tennessee, 1862–65 (1978).
  • Sheeler, J. Reuben. "Secession and The Unionist Revolt," Journal of Negro History, 29#2 (1944), pp. 175–185 in JSTOR, covers east Tennessee
  • Woodworth, Stephen E. Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West (1990)
  • Woodworth, Stephen E. Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West (2011)
  • Woodworth, Stephen E. Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns (1998) * Temple, Oliver P. East Tennessee and the civil war (1899) 588pp online edition excerpt and text search
  • Vaughan, Virginia C. Tennessee County History Series: Weakley County (1983, Memphis State University Press)

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tennessee in the American Civil War.
  • Follow day-by-day events during Tennessee's Civil War sesquicentennial (2011–2015)
  • National Park Service map showing Civil War Sites in Tennessee
  • The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864 (extensive site)
  • Bibliography of Tennessee Civil War Unit Histories at the Tennessee State Library and Archives


Preceded by List of C.S. states by date of admission to the Confederacy
Admitted on July 2, 1861 (11th) 		Succeeded by

36°N 86°W / 36°N 86°W / 36; -86

January 01, 1970
tennessee, american, civil, this, article, about, confederate, state, tennessee, between, 1861, 1865, ships, tennessee, other, uses, tennessee, disambiguation, american, civil, significantly, affected, tennessee, with, every, county, witnessing, combat, during. This article is about the Confederate state of Tennessee between 1861 and 1865 For the ships see CSS Tennessee For other uses see Tennessee disambiguation The American Civil War significantly affected Tennessee with every county witnessing combat During the War Tennessee was a Confederate state and the last state to officially secede from the Union to join the Confederacy Tennessee had been threatening to secede since before the Confederacy was even formed but didn t officially do so until after the fall of Fort Sumter when public opinion throughout the state drastically shifted Tennessee seceded in protest to President Lincoln s April 15 Proclamation calling forth 75 000 members of state militias to suppress the rebellion 4 Although Tennessee provided a large number of troops for the Confederacy it would also provide more soldiers for the Union Army than any other state within the Confederacy TennesseeNickname s The Volunteer StateProposed flag de facto a Great Seal Map of the Confederate StatesCapitalNashvilleLargest cityMemphisAdmitted to the ConfederacyJuly 2 1861 11th Population1 109 801 total 834 082 75 15 free 275 719 24 85 slaveForces supplied Confederate soldiers 135 000 1 Union soldiers 51 000 31 000 white 20 000 black 2 3 totalGovernorIsham G Harris 1861 1862 SenatorsLandon Carter HaynesGustavus Adolphus HenryRepresentativesListRestored to the UnionJuly 24 1866 In February 1862 some of the war s first serious fighting took place along the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers recognized as major military highways and mountain passes such as Cumberland Gap were keenly competed for by both sides The Battle of Shiloh and the fighting along the Mississippi brought glory to the then little known Ulysses S Grant while his area commander Henry Halleck was rewarded with a promotion to General in Chief The Tullahoma campaign led by William Rosecrans drove the Confederates from Middle Tennessee so quickly that they did not take many casualties and were strong enough to defeat Rosecrans soon afterward At Nashville in December 1864 George Thomas routed the Army of Tennessee under John Bell Hood the last major battle fought in the state In 1862 Lincoln chose to use his power as commander in chief to appoint Andrew Johnson as the military governor of Tennessee 5 Two years later Lincoln selected him as a Southerner to balance the ticket in the 1864 general election On Lincoln s assassination Johnson was sworn in as president Contents 1 Origins 1 1 Pro Union and anti Republican sentiment before the attack on Fort Sumter 1 2 Reaction to the attack on Fort Sumter 1 3 Tennessee secedes 2 Major campaigns 2 1 1862 2 2 1863 2 3 1864 3 Battles in Tennessee 4 Notable Confederate leaders from Tennessee 5 Notable Union leaders from Tennessee 6 Government and politics 6 1 Unionism and East Tennessee 7 Economy 8 Aftermath 9 See also 10 References 10 1 Footnotes 10 2 Citations 10 3 Sources 11 Further reading 12 External linksOrigins editPro Union and anti Republican sentiment before the attack on Fort Sumter edit nbsp John Bell 1796 1869 1860 Constitutional Union Party presidential candidate Initially most Tennesseans showed little enthusiasm for breaking away from a nation whose struggles it had shared for so long In 1860 they had voted by a slim margin for the Constitutional Unionist John Bell a native son and moderate who continued to search for a way out of the crisis A vocal minority of Tennesseans spoke critically of the Northern states and the Lincoln presidency The people of the South are preparing for their next highest duty resistance to coercion or invasion wrote the Nashville Daily Gazette on January 5 1861 The newspaper expressed the view that Florida Georgia and Alabama were exercising the highest right of all by taking control of all forts and other military establishments within the area the right to self defense 6 A pro secessionist proposal was made in the Memphis Appeal to build a fort at Randolph Tennessee on the Mississippi River 7 Governor Isham G Harris convened an emergency session of the Tennessee General Assembly in January 1861 During his speech before the legislative body on January 7 he described the secession of the Southern states as a crisis caused by long continued agitation of the slavery question and actual and threatened aggressions of the Northern States upon the well defined constitutions rights of the Southern citizen He also expressed alarm at the growth of the purely sectional Republican Party which he stated was bound together by the uncompromising hostility to the rights and institutions of the fifteen Southern states He identified numerous grievances with the Republican Party blaming them for inducing slaves to run off by means of the Underground Railroad John Brown s raids and high taxes on slave labor 8 Harris agreed with the idea of popular sovereignty that only the people within a state can determine whether or not slavery could exist within the boundaries of that state Furthermore he regarded laws passed by Congress that made U S territories non slave states as taking territories away from the American people and making them solely for the North territories from which Southern men unable to live under a government which may by law recognize the free negro as his equal were excluded Governor Harris proposed holding a State Convention A series of resolutions were presented in the Tennessee House of Representatives by William H Wisener against the proposal He declared passing any law reorganizing and arming the state militia to be inexpedient The centrality of the question of slavery to the secession movement was not doubted by people at the time of the Civil War nor was it ignored by the contemporary press Especially in the case of the pro slavery papers this question of the possibility of the eventual granting of equal rights for people of color was not couched in diplomatic phraseology The election be it remembered takes place on the 9th and the Delegates meet in Convention on the 25th instant If you desire to wait until you are tied hand and foot then vote for the men who advocate the watch and wait policy If you think you have rights and are the superiors of the black man then vote for the men who will not sell you out body and soul to the Yankee Republicans for men who would rather see Tennessee independent out of the Union then in the Union subjugated emphasis in original 9 On February 3 1861 the pro Union Knoxville Whig published a Secret Circular that had mistakenly been sent by its authors to a pro Union Tennessee U S Postmaster In it was revealed a comprehensive plan by pro slavery Tennesseans and others to launch a propaganda campaign to convince Tennesseans that the strength of the pro secessionist movement was overwhelming Dear Sir Our earnest solicitude for the success of the Great Southern Rights movement to secure an immediate release from the overwhelming dangers that imperil our political and social safety will we trust be a sufficient apology for the results which we beg to impose on you The sentiment of the Southern heart is overwhelming in favor of the movement Light only is wanted that men many see their way clearly and the prayer of every true patriot will eventually be realized Tennessee will be a unit Although the time be so very short this object may yet be accomplished if a few men only the more the better however in each county will devote their entire energies to it during the canvass for Delegates We earnestly beg your attention therefore to the following suggestions Be sure to have your best men in the field WITHOUT REGARD TO PAST POLITICAL OPINIONS Be sure that no submissionist under whatever pretext of compromising our rights or of waiting beyond the 4th of March for new guarantees impose himself on you Our only hope of peace and safety consists in decided action before the inauguration of Mr Lincoln Do not wait for general meetings of citizens but get together immediately a few active intelligent discreet but thoroughgoing uncompromising true hearted Southern Rights Anti Coercion friends and appoint Committees and Canvassers who are willing to devote themselves entirely and unceasingly to the great and perilous work from this hour up to the close of the election Appoint Committees also for each Civil District of men known to coincide with you and ourselves in sentiment Organize forthwith Southern Rights Anti Coercion Societies We will send during the canvass the UNION AND AMERICAN and GAZETTE to supply your County These we confidently trust you will send immediately to the District Committees who on the hour of delivery start out on the work of distribution and this though there be but half a dozen copies for each district Do not we beg of you wait for persons to call for documents of papers to read and CIRCULATE Write as many letters to your friends as possible and urge them by every consideration of patriotism to work work work We can we must carry our State Our hearts would link within us at the bare thought of the degradations and infamy of abandoning our more Southern brethren united to us by all the views so sympathy and interest and of being chained to the car of Black Republican States who would themselves despise us for our submission and worse than all by moral influences alone if not by force of legal enactment destroy our entire social fabric and all real independence of thought and action Your own good judgment will suggest many things we can not now allude to emphasis added Very Respectfully Signed Wm Williams Chm n S C Goethall Sec y Andrew Cheatham J R Baus R H Williamson G W Cunningham H M Cheatham W S Peppin States Central Southern Rights Anti Coercion Committee 10 In Memphis Unionists held two torchlight processions to honor their cause The secessionists replied with their own demonstrations and a celebratory ball 11 12 That week on February 9 the state of Tennessee was to vote on whether or not to send delegates to a State Convention that would decide on secession 13 The General Assembly convened by Governor Isham Harris did not believe it had the authority to call a State Convention without a vote of the people 14 In February 1861 54 percent of the state s voters voted against sending delegates to a secession convention defeating the proposal for a State Convention by a vote of 69 675 to 57 798 If a State Convention had been held it would have been very heavily pro Union 88 803 votes were cast for Unionist candidates and 22 749 votes were cast for Secession candidates 15 That day the American flag was displayed in every section of the city with zeal equal to that which existed during the late 1860 presidential campaign wrote the Nashville Daily Gazette The proponents of the slavocracy were embarrassed demoralized and politically disoriented but not willing to admit defeat Whatever may be the result of the difficulties which at present agitate our country whether we are to be united in our common destiny or whether two Republics shall take the place of that which has stood for nearly a century the admired of all nations we will still bow with reverence to the sight of the stars and stripes and recognize it as the standard around which the sons of liberty can rally And if the remonstrances of the people of the South pleading and begging for redress for years does not in this critical moment arouse her brethren of the North to a sense of justice and right and honor demands a separation we would still have the same claims upon the colors of Washington great son of the South and of Virginia mother of the States Let us not abandon the stars and stripes under which Southern men have so often been led to victory 16 On the corner across from the newspaper office a crowd had gathered around a bagpipe player playing Yankee Doodle after which ex mayor John Hugh Smith gave a speech that was received with loud cheers 17 In a letter to Democratic senator Andrew Johnson the publisher of the Clarksville TN Jeffersonian C O Faxon 18 surmised that the margin by which the No Convention vote won would have been even greater had Union men not been afraid that if a State Convention were not called then then Isham Harris would have again called for a State Convention when more state legislators were infected with the secession epidemic Gov Harris is Check mated sic The Union maj ority in the State will almost defy computation So far as heard from the disunionist have carried by a single precinct The Union and American Nashville TN pro secessionist paper 19 Stands rebuked and damned before the people of the State 20 On March 7 the Memphis Daily Appeal wrote that the abolitionists were attempting to deprive the South of territories won during the U S Mexican War It pointed out that the slave states had furnished twice as many volunteers as the free states and territories though it did not note that slave states were the ones who most supported the war 21 On March 19 the editors of the Clarksville Chronicle endorsed a pro Union candidate for state senator in Robertson Montgomery and Stewart counties 22 On April 2 the Memphis Daily Appeal ran a satirical obituary for Uncle Sam proclaiming him to have died of irrepressible conflict disease after having met Abraham Lincoln 23 One Robertson County slave owner complained that she could not rent her slaves out for half of what they were worth because the negros think when Lincoln takes his last they will all be free 24 Reaction to the attack on Fort Sumter edit With the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12 1861 followed by Lincoln s April 15 call for 75 000 volunteers to put the seceded states back into line public sentiment turned dramatically against the Union Historian Daniel Crofts thus reports Unionists of all descriptions both those who became Confederates and those who did not considered the proclamation calling for seventy five thousand troops disastrous Having consulted personally with Lincoln in March Congressman Horace Maynard the unconditional Unionist and future Republican from East Tennessee felt assured that the administration would pursue a peaceful policy Soon after April 15 a dismayed Maynard reported that the President s extraordinary proclamation had unleashed a tornado of excitement that seems likely to sweep us all away Men who had heretofore been cool firm and Union loving had become perfectly wild and were aroused to a frenzy of passion For what purpose they asked could such an army be wanted but to invade overrun and subjugate the Southern states The growing war spirit in the North further convinced southerners that they would have to fight for our hearthstones and the security of home 25 In May 1861 the governor of Tennessee Isham G Harris defied the United States Government by beginning military mobilization submitting a ordinance of secession to the General Assembly and made direct overtures to the Confederate government all before the state officially seceded 26 Tennessee secedes edit nbsp Results of the June 8 1861 referendum by county Redder counties voted more for secession and bluer counties voted more against secession Counties in black have no data In the June 8 1861 referendum East Tennessee held firm against separation while West Tennessee returned an equally heavy majority in favor The deciding vote came in Middle Tennessee which went from 51 percent against secession in February to 88 percent in favor in June The voting was accused of being fraudulent in some counties in East Tennessee Unionists threatened violence against those voting for secession while in other places soldiers remained at the polls to hiss at those with a Unionist ballot 27 Having ratified by popular vote its connection with the fledgling Confederacy Tennessee became the last state to declare formally its withdrawal from the Union Major campaigns edit1862 edit Control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers was important in gaining control of Tennessee during the age of steamboats Tennessee relied on northbound riverboats to receive staple commodities from the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys 28 The idea of using the rivers to breach the Confederate defense line in the West was well known by the end of 1861 Union gunboats had been scanning Confederate fort building on the twin rivers for months before the campaign 29 Ulysses S Grant and the United States Navy captured control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers in February 1862 and held off the Confederate counterattack at Shiloh in April of the same year Capture of Memphis and Nashville gave the Union control of the Western and Middle sections Control was confirmed at the battle of Murfreesboro in early January 1863 After Nashville was captured the first Confederate state capitol to fall Andrew Johnson an East Tennessean from Greeneville was appointed military governor of the state by Lincoln During this time the military government abolished slavery but with questionable legality The Confederates continued to hold East Tennessee despite the strength of Unionist sentiment there with the exception of strongly pro Confederate Sullivan and Rhea Counties 1863 edit After winning a victory at Chickamauga in September 1863 the Confederates besieged Chattanooga but were finally driven off by Grant in November Many of the Confederate defeats can be attributed to the poor leadership of General Braxton Bragg who led the Army of Tennessee from Shiloh to the Confederate defeat in the Chattanooga campaign Historian Thomas Connelly concludes that although Bragg was an able planner and a skillful organizer he failed repeatedly in operations in part because he was unable to collaborate effectively with his subordinates 30 1864 edit The last major battles came when General John Bell Hood led the Confederates north in November 1864 He was checked at Franklin and his army was virtually destroyed by George Thomas s greatly superior forces at Nashville in December Battles in Tennessee edit nbsp Bombardment and Capture of Fort Henry Tenn by Currier amp Ives nbsp Battle of Nashville by Kurz amp Allison Anthony s Hill Bean s Station Blountville Blue Springs Brentwood Britton s Lane Brown s Ferry Bull s Gap Campbell s Station First Battle of Chattanooga Second Battle of Chattanooga Third Battle of Chattanooga Collierville Columbia Dandridge Dover Fair Garden Farmington Fort Donelson Fort Henry Fort Pillow Fort Sanders a k a Fort Loudon First Battle of Franklin Second Battle of Franklin Hartsville Hatchie s Bridge a k a Davis Bridge or Matamoro Hoover s Gap Island Number Ten Jackson Johnsonville Lebanon Lexington Liberty Gap First Battle of Memphis Second Battle of Memphis Morristown Mossy Creek First Battle of Murfreesboro Third Battle of Murfreesboro Nashville Parker s Cross Roads Plum Point Bend Riggins Hill Battle of Rogersville a k a Big Creek Shiloh Spring Hill Stones River a k a Second Battle of Murfreesboro Thompson s Station Vaught s Hill a k a Milton Wauhatchie a k a Brown s Berry Notable Confederate leaders from Tennessee edit nbsp C S Postmaster Gen John Henninger Reagan nbsp Lt Gen Nathan Bedford Forrest nbsp Lt Gen Leonidas Polk nbsp Lt Gen Benjamin F Cheatham nbsp Lt Gen Alexander P Stewart nbsp Maj Gen William B Bate nbsp Maj Gen John C Brown nbsp Sen Henry S Foote nbsp Gov Isham G Harris nbsp TN House of Rep amp Brig Gen Robert H Hatton nbsp Brigadier GeneralJohn C Moore nbsp Brigadier GeneralWilliam H Carroll nbsp Brigadier GeneralGeorge Maney nbsp Brigadier GeneralCharles M Shelley nbsp Brigadier GeneralWilliam Read Scurry nbsp Brigadier GeneralGideon J Pillow nbsp Brigadier GeneralRobert V Richardson nbsp Brigadier GeneralJames A Smith nbsp Brigadier GeneralPreston Smith nbsp Brigadier GeneralThomas B Smith nbsp Brigadier GeneralJohn C Vaughn nbsp Brigadier GeneralLucius M Walker nbsp Brigadier GeneralMarcus J Wright nbsp Brigadier GeneralFelix Zollicoffer nbsp Brigadier GeneralJoseph B Palmer nbsp Brigadier GeneralWilliam H Jackson nbsp Brigadier GeneralSamuel Benton nbsp Brigadier GeneralHenry B Davidson nbsp Brigadier GeneralWilliam P Hardeman nbsp Brigadier GeneralBenjamin McCulloch nbsp Brigadier GeneralJames C Tappan nbsp Brigadier GeneralLucius E Polk nbsp Lt ColonelJohn DeWitt Clinton AtkinsNotable Union leaders from Tennessee edit nbsp PresidentAndrew Johnson nbsp Bvt Maj Gen William S Harney nbsp Rear Adm amp Brig Gen Samuel P Carter nbsp Brigadier GeneralJames G Spears nbsp Brigadier GeneralWilliam B Campbell nbsp Brigadier GeneralAlvan C Gillem nbsp Bvt Brig Gen William Jay Smith nbsp ColonelFelix A Reeve nbsp Capt amp GuerrillaDaniel Ellis nbsp U S House of Rep amp Lt Col Isaac R Hawkins nbsp Rear AdmiralDavid G Farragut nbsp Rear AdmiralGeorge Balch nbsp War GovernorWilliam G Brownlow nbsp Surgeon amp U S House of Rep Andrew Jackson Clements nbsp Brig Gen amp Bvt Maj Gen Joseph Alexander Cooper nbsp LieutenantGeorge Lewis Gillespie Jr nbsp Lt Col Jacob Montgomery ThornburghGovernment and politics editFear of subversion was widespread throughout the state In West and Middle Tennessee it was fear of pro Union activism which was countered proactively by numerous local Committees of Safety and Vigilance from 1860 to 1862 They emerged as early as the 1860 Presidential election and when the war began activists developed an aggressive program to detect and suppress Unionists The committees set up a spy system intercepted mail inspected luggage forced the enlistment of men into the Confederate Army confiscated private property and whenever it seemed necessary lynched enemies of the Confederacy The committees were disbanded by the Union Army when it took control in 1862 31 Unionism and East Tennessee edit Area of Tennessee Slave percentage of total population East Tennessee 9 Middle Tennessee 29 West Tennessee 34 East Tennessee was a stronghold of Unionism most slaves were house servants luxuries rather than the base of plantation operations East Tennesseans feared that they would become second class citizens in a country with a slave owning aristocracy 32 The dominant mood strongly opposed secession 33 Tennesseans representing twenty six East Tennessee counties met twice in Greeneville and Knoxville and agreed to secede from Tennessee see East Tennessee Convention of 1861 They petitioned the state legislature in Nashville which denied their request to secede and sent Confederate troops under Felix Zollicoffer to occupy East Tennessee and prevent secession The region thus came under Confederate control from 1861 to 1863 Nevertheless East Tennessee supplied significant numbers of troops to the Federal army See also Nickajack Many East Tennesseans engaged in guerrilla warfare against state authorities by burning bridges cutting telegraph wires and spying for the North 34 East Tennessee became an early base for the Republican Party in the South Strong support for the Union challenged the Confederate commanders who controlled East Tennessee for most of the war Generals Felix K Zollicoffer Edmund Kirby Smith and Sam Jones oscillated between harsh measures and conciliatory gestures to gain support but had little success whether they arrested hundreds of Unionist leaders or allowed men to escape the Confederate draft Union forces finally captured the region in 1863 35 General William Sherman s famous March to the Sea saw him personally escorted by the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment which consisted entirely of Unionist southerners Despite its name the regiment consisted largely of men from Tennessee Economy editRefugees poured into Nashville during the war because jobs were plentiful in the depots warehouses and hospitals serving the war effort and furthermore the city was a much safer place than the countryside Unionists and Confederate sympathizers both flooded in as did free blacks and escaped slaves and businessmen from the North 36 There was little heavy industry in the South but the Western Iron District in Middle Tennessee was the largest iron producer in the Confederacy in 1861 One of the largest operations was the Cumberland Iron Works which the Confederate War Department tried and failed to protect 37 Memphis and Nashville with very large transient populations had flourishing red light districts Union wartime regulations forced prostitutes to purchase licenses and pass medical exams primarily to protect soldiers from venereal disease Their trade was deregulated once military control ended 38 Aftermath editIn January 1865 a convention tasked with choosing delegates for a proposed constitutional convention decided it had the power to propose amendments to the Tennessee state constitution and present them for ratification in an election Dominated by pro Union forces allied with Military Governor Andrew Johnson the convention proposed two constitutional amendments one abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude unless imposed as punishment for a crime and one repudiating the state s allegiance with the Confederate States of America Both amendments were passed by voters on February 22 1865 39 40 41 A new proposed constitutional amendment that will go before the voters in 2022 will abolish slavery as a punishment for crime and remove it from the state constitution 42 After the war the state legislature ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18 1866 and was the first state readmitted to the Union on July 24 1866 Because it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment Tennessee was the only state that seceded from the Union that did not have a military governor during Reconstruction nor was it part of any of the Reconstruction military districts This did not placate those unhappy with the Confederate defeat Many white Tennesseans resisted efforts to expand suffrage and other civil rights to the freedmen For generations white Tennesseans had been raised to believe that slavery was justified Some could not accept that their former slaves were now equal under the law When the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of African American suffrage in 1867 the reaction became stronger The Nashville Republican Banner on January 4 1868 published an editorial calling for a revolutionary movement of white Southerners to unseat the one party state rule imposed by the Republican Party and restore the legal inferiority of the region s black population In this State reconstruction has perfected itself and done its worst It has organized a government which is as complete a closed corporation as may be found it has placed the black man over the white as the agent and prime move of domination it has constructed a system of machinery by which all free guarantees privileges and opportunities are removed from the people The impossibility of casting a free vote in Tennessee short of a revolutionary movement is an undoubted fact The Banner urged its readers to ignore the presidential election and direct their energy into building a local movement here at home to end Republican rule 43 According to the 1860 census African Americans made up only 25 of Tennessee s population which meant they could not dominate politics Only a few African Americans served in the Tennessee legislature during Reconstruction and not many more as state and city officers However the Nashville Banner may have been reacting to increased participation by African Americans on that city s council where they held about one third of the seats 44 Tennessee has strong Confederate memories which focused on the Lost Cause theme of heroic defense of traditional liberties 45 See also edit nbsp American Civil War portal nbsp Tennessee portal List of Tennessee Confederate Civil War units List of Tennessee Union Civil War units Nashville in the Civil War Chattanooga in the American Civil War History of slavery in Tennessee 1861 Tennessee gubernatorial electionReferences editFootnotes edit Despite inaction of the Tennessee legislature the flag recommended by Senator Tazewell B Newman did see some limited use Cannon 2005 pp 46 47 Citations edit Tennessee Third Addition Retrieved January 31 2021 Tennessee Encyclopedia Civil War Retrieved January 29 2021 Lovett Bobby L Blacks In The Union Army Of Tennessee 1861 1866 tnstate edu Retrieved January 29 2021 The Civil War The Senate s Story United States Senate Gordon Reed pp 69 70 The Effect PDF Nashville Daily Gazette January 5 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 Pro secessionist proposal to construct a fort at Randolph Tennessee on the Mississippi River PDF Memphis Appeal January 20 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 White Robert D Messages of the Governors of Tennessee 1859 1869 Vol 5 pp 255 269 Excerpts from Governor Isham G Harris Legislative Message PDF Retrieved February 17 2014 The Tennessee Convention PDF Nashville Daily Gazette February 2 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 Read the Treasonous Circular PDF Knoxville Whig February 3 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 Another Political Demonstration Minute Men Torchlight Procession PDF Memphis Daily Argus February 8 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 Secession Demonstration and Ball in Memphis PDF Memphis Appeal February 9 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 TENNESSEANS DECIDE FOR TENNESSEE PDF Memphis Daily Argus February 8 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 THE CONVENTION PDF Memphis Daily Argus February 9 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 White Robert D Messages of the Governors of Tennessee op cit p 272 The vote against secession and against Convention or No Convention PDF Retrieved February 17 2014 Display of Flags PDF Nashville Daily Gazette February 9 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 Jovial PDF Nashville Daily Gazette February 10 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 About Clarksville Jeffersonian Clarksville Tenn 1861 186 Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers Library of Congress Retrieved February 17 2014 Vote early for Convention and for Anti Coercion men The Crisis Chronicling America Gallatin TN Examiner republished in Nashville Union and Examiner February 8 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 Faxon C O February 11 1861 The Papers of Andrew Johnson Vol 4 p 274 The great news from Tennessee PDF Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook Retrieved February 17 2014 Abolitionist attempts to divest the South of the territory acquired by the Mexican War PDF Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook Memphis Daily Appeal March 7 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 Pro Union candidate for State Senate endorsed for Robertson Stewart and Montgomery counties PDF Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook Letter to Editor signed UNION NOW AND FOREVER Clarksville Chronicle March 22 1861 Retrieved February 17 2014 Gaznog Louis April 2 1861 Obituary for Uncle Sam a pro secession argument in Memphis PDF Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook Memphis Daily Appeal Retrieved February 17 2014 The negros think when Old Lincoln takes his last they will all be free The letter of Martha Gilbert of Robertson County to Cave Johnson Couts PDF Archived from the original PDF on May 29 2008 Retrieved September 8 2007 Daniel W Crofts Reluctant Confederates Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis 1989 p 334 Philip Thomason and Doug Cubbison Historic and Historic Archaeological Resources of the American Civil War in Tennessee 1861 1865 NPS 1998 Fisher Noel C 1997 War at every door partisan politics and guerrilla violence in East Tennessee 1860 1869 Chapel Hill N C University of North Carolina Press pp 33 37 ISBN 0 8078 6144 8 OCLC 44960992 Cooling Benjamin 1987 Forts Henry and Donelson The Key to the Confederate Heartland Knoxville The University of Tennessee Press p 1 ISBN 0 87049 538 0 Cooling Benjamin 1987 Forts Henry and Donelson The Key to the Confederate Heartland Knoxville The University of Tennessee Press pp 65 66 ISBN 0 87049 538 0 Thomas Connelly Autumn of Glory The Army of Tennessee 1862 1865 1971 James B Jones Jr The Reign of Terror of the Safety Committee Has Passed Away Forever A History of Committees of Safety and Vigilance in West and Middle Tennessee 1860 1862 West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 2009 Vol 63 pp 1 28 Fisher Noel C 1997 War at every door partisan politics and guerrilla violence in East Tennessee 1860 1869 Chapel Hill N C University of North Carolina Press pp 30 32 ISBN 0 8078 6144 8 OCLC 44960992 Thomas B Alexander Whiggery and Reconstruction in Tennessee The Journal of Southern History Vol 16 No 3 August 1950 pp 291 305 in JSTOR Carroll Van West ed Tennessee History the Land the People and the Culture James McDonough Tennessee in the Civil War 1998 p 155 Noel Fisher The leniency shown them has been unavailing The Confederate occupation of East Tennessee Civil War History Dec 1994 Vol 40 Issue 4 pp 275 91 Durham 1985 Durham 1987 Michael Thomas Gavin War Comes to Iron Country Middle Tennessee s Defense Industry during the Civil War West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 2009 Vol 63 pp 82 108 Jeannine Cole Upon the Stage of Disorder Legalized Prostitution in Memphis and Nashville 1863 1865 Tennessee Historical Quarterly Spring 2009 Vol 68 Issue 1 pp 40 65 The 1865 Constitutional Amendments and the Return of Civil Government in Tennessee tba org Retrieved July 4 2020 Freedmen and Southern Society Project Chronology of Emancipation www history umd edu Retrieved April 3 2018 TSLA This Honorable Body African American Legislators in 19th Century Tennessee state tn us Retrieved April 3 2018 Tennessee Senate OKs bid to remove slavery as punishment ABC News Associated Press Retrieved July 4 2021 cited in Harcourt 2005 W E B Du Bois Black Reconstruction in America 1860 1880 New York Oxford University Press 1935 reprint New York Free Press 1998 p 575 James B Williams The Tennessee Civil War Centennial Commission Looking to the Past as Tennessee Plans for the Future Tennessee Historical Quarterly Winter 2008 Vol 67 Issue 4 pp 270 345 Sources edit Cannon Devereaux D Jr 2005 1st pub St Luke s Press 1988 The Flags of the Confederacy An Illustrated History Gretna Pelican Publishing Company ISBN 978 1 565 54109 2 Gordon Reed Annette 2011 Andrew Johnson The American Presidents Series New York Henry Holt and Company ISBN 978 0 8050 6948 8 Further reading editAlexander Thomas B Political Reconstruction in Tennessee 1968 Ash Stephen V Middle Tennessee society transformed 1860 1870 war and peace in the Upper South 2006 Connelly Thomas L Civil War Tennessee battles and leaders 1979 106pp Connelly Thomas L Army of the Heartland The Army of Tennessee 1861 1862 2 vol 1967 70 a Confederate army Cooling Benjamin Franklin Fort Donelson s Legacy War and Society in Kentucky and Tennessee 1862 1863 1997 Cottrell Steve Civil War in Tennessee 2001 142pp Daniel Larry J Shiloh The Battle That Changed the Civil War 1998 excerpt and text search Durham Walter T Nashville The Occupied City 1862 1863 1985 Durham Walter T Reluctant Partners Nashville and the Union 1863 1865 1987 Engle Stephen D Don Carlos Buell Most Promising of All 1999 Engle Stephen D Struggle for the Heartland The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth 2001 Fisher Noel C War at Every Door Partisan Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee 1860 1869 2000 excerpt and text search Frisby Derek W Campaigns in Mississippi and Tennessee February December 1864 Center of Military History 2014 67pp Groom Winston Shiloh 1862 The First Great and Terrible Battle of the Civil War 2011 Jones James B ed Tennessee in the Civil War Selected Contemporary Accounts 2011 286 pp Lepa Jack H The Civil War in Tennessee 1862 1863 2007 McCaslin Richard B ed Portraits of Conflict A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War 2006 McKenzie Robert Tracy Lincolnites and Rebels A Divided Town in the American Civil War 2009 on Knoxville excerpt and text search McKenzie Robert Tracy One South or Many Plantation Belt and Upcountry in Civil War Era Tennessee 1994 uses longitudinal census data to demonstrate similar economic and social trends among Tennessee s three regions excerpt and text search Maslowski Peter Treason Must Be Made Odious Military Occupation and Wartime Reconstruction in Nashville Tennessee 1862 65 1978 Sheeler J Reuben Secession and The Unionist Revolt Journal of Negro History 29 2 1944 pp 175 185 in JSTOR covers east Tennessee Woodworth Stephen E Jefferson Davis and His Generals The Failure of Confederate Command in the West 1990 Woodworth Stephen E Decision in the Heartland The Civil War in the West 2011 Woodworth Stephen E Six Armies in Tennessee The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns 1998 Temple Oliver P East Tennessee and the civil war 1899 588pp online edition excerpt and text search Vaughan Virginia C Tennessee County History Series Weakley County 1983 Memphis State University Press External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tennessee in the American Civil War Follow day by day events during Tennessee s Civil War sesquicentennial 2011 2015 National Park Service map showing Civil War Sites in Tennessee The Battle of Franklin November 30 1864 extensive site Bibliography of Tennessee Civil War Unit Histories at the Tennessee State Library and Archives The McGavock Confederate Cemetery at Franklin Preceded byNorth Carolina List of C S states by date of admission to the ConfederacyAdmitted on July 2 1861 11th Succeeded byMissouri 36 N 86 W 36 N 86 W 36 86 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tennessee in the American Civil War amp oldid 1221624249, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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