Tennessee in the Civil War
Encyclopedia
To a large extent, the American Civil War
was fought in cities and farms of Tennessee
; only Virginia saw more battles. Tennessee was the last of the Southern states
to declare secession
from the Union
, but saw more than its share of the devastation resulting from years of warring armies criss-crossing the state. Its rivers were key arteries to the Deep South
, and, from the early days of the war, Union efforts focused on securing control of those transportation routes, as well as major roads and mountain passes such as the Cumberland Gap
.
A large number of important battles occurred in Tennessee, including the vicious fighting at the Battle of Shiloh
, which at the time was the deadliest battle in American history (it was later surpassed by a number of other engagements). Other large battles in Tennessee included Stones River
, Chattanooga, Nashville
, and Franklin
.
Although the state became a part of the Confederacy, pockets of strong pro-Union sentiments remained throughout the war, particularly in the mountains in East Tennessee
. The Vice President of the United States
, Andrew Johnson
, was a Tennessee Union loyalist, as were a number of congressmen and state politicians. On the Confederate side, significant leaders included noted cavalryman Nathan B. Forrest and corps commanders Leonidas Polk
and Benjamin F. Cheatham
, as well as Governor Isham Harris.
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. A pro-secessionist proposal was made in the Memphis Appeal to build a fort at Randolph, Tennessee
, on the Mississippi River
.
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.
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.
In Memphis, Unionists held two torchlight processions to honor their cause. The secessionists replied with their own demonstrations and a celebratory ball. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
In a letter to Democratic senator Andrew Johnson
, his servant C.O. Faxon 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."
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.
On March 19, the editors of the Clarksville Chronicle endorsed a pro-Union candidate for state senator in Robertson, Montgomery, and Stewart counties.
On April 12, 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. 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."
on April 12, 1861, followed by President Abraham Lincoln
’s (February 12, 1809-April 14, 1865) 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:
Governor Isham Harris began military mobilization, submitted an ordinance
of secession
to the General Assembly
, and made direct overtures to the Confederate
government.
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.
Having ratified by popular vote its connection with the fledgling Confederacy
, Tennessee became the last state to formally declare its withdrawal from the Union.
to occupy East Tennessee and prevent secession.
East Tennessee thus came under Confederate control, 1861-63. Neverthelless it 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. 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.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
Many battles were fought in the state, most of them victories by the larger Union forces.
and Tennessee River
s was important in gaining control of Tennessee during the age of steamboat
s. Tennessee relied on northbound riverboats to receive staple commodities from the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys. 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. 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.
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 capital 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.
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 strategic vision of the incompetent General Braxton Bragg
, who led the Army of Tennessee
from Shiloh to the Confederate defeat at Chattanooga.
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.
There was little heavy industry in the South but the Western Iron District in Middle Tennessee was the largest iron producer in Confederacy in 1861. One of the largest operations was the Cumberland Iron Works, which the Confederate War Department tried and failed to protect.
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.
Blountville
Blue Springs
Brentwood
Bull's Gap
Campbell's Station
First Chattanooga
Second Chattanooga
Chattanooga
Collierville
Columbia
Danbridge
Dover
Fair Garden
Fort Donelson
Fort Henry
Fort Pillow
Fort Sanders
First Franklin
Second Franklin
Hartville
Hatchie's Bridge
Hoover's Gap
Island Number Ten
Jackson
Johnsonville
First Memphis
Second Memphis
Mossy Creek
First Murfreesboro
Third Murfreesboro
Nashville
Parker's Cross Roads
Shiloh
Spring Hill
Stones River
Thompson's Station
Vaught's Hill
Wauhatchie
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. 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 believed 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.
According to the 1860 census, African Americans comprised 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.
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
was fought in cities and farms of Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
; only Virginia saw more battles. Tennessee was the last of the Southern states
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
to declare secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
from the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
, but saw more than its share of the devastation resulting from years of warring armies criss-crossing the state. Its rivers were key arteries to the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
, and, from the early days of the war, Union efforts focused on securing control of those transportation routes, as well as major roads and mountain passes such as the Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, also known as the Cumberland Water Gap, at the juncture of the U.S. states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia...
.
A large number of important battles occurred in Tennessee, including the vicious fighting at the Battle of Shiloh
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...
, which at the time was the deadliest battle in American history (it was later surpassed by a number of other engagements). Other large battles in Tennessee included Stones River
Battle of Stones River
The Battle of Stones River or Second Battle of Murfreesboro , was fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War...
, Chattanooga, Nashville
Battle of Nashville
The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. It was fought at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15–16, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Tennessee under...
, and Franklin
Battle of Franklin
Battle of Franklin may refer to three battles of the American Civil War:* Battle of Franklin , a major battle fought November 30, 1864, at Franklin, Tennessee as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign...
.
Although the state became a part of the Confederacy, pockets of strong pro-Union sentiments remained throughout the war, particularly in the mountains in East Tennessee
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...
. The Vice President of the United States
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
, Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
, was a Tennessee Union loyalist, as were a number of congressmen and state politicians. On the Confederate side, significant leaders included noted cavalryman Nathan B. Forrest and corps commanders Leonidas Polk
Leonidas Polk
Leonidas Polk was a Confederate general in the American Civil War who was once a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk...
and Benjamin F. Cheatham
Benjamin F. Cheatham
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham , known also as Frank, was a Tennessee aristocrat, California gold miner, and a General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, serving in many battles of the Western Theater.-Early years:Cheatham was born in Nashville, Tennessee on a plantation...
, as well as Governor Isham Harris.
Pro-Union and anti-Republican sentiment before the attack on Fort Sumter
Constitutional Union Party (United States)
The Constitutional Union Party was a political party in the United States created in 1860. It was made up of conservative former Whigs who wanted to avoid disunion over the slavery issue...
John Bell
John Bell (Tennessee politician)
John Bell was a U.S. politician, attorney, and plantation owner. A wealthy slaveholder from Tennessee, Bell served in the United States Congress in both the House of Representatives and Senate. He began his career as a Democrat, he eventually fell out with Andrew Jackson and became a Whig...
, 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. A pro-secessionist proposal was made in the Memphis Appeal to build a fort at Randolph, Tennessee
Randolph, Tennessee
Randolph is an unincorporated rural community in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States, located on the banks of the Mississippi River. Randolph was founded in the 1820s and in 1827, the Randolph Post office was established. In the 1830s, the town became an early center of river commerce in West...
, on the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
.
Governor Isham G. Harris
Isham G. Harris
Isham Green Harris was an American politician. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1857 to 1862 and as a U.S. Senator from 1877 until his death....
convened an emergency session of the Tennessee General Assembly
Tennessee General Assembly
The Tennessee General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional structure:According to the Tennessee State Constitution of 1870, the General Assembly is a bicameral legislature and consists of a Senate of thirty-three members and a House of Representatives of...
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
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
, John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
's raids, and high taxes on slave labor.
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
Tennessee House of Representatives
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional requirements:...
by William H. Wisener against the proposal. He declared passing any law reorganizing and arming the state militia to be inexpedient.
In Memphis, Unionists held two torchlight processions to honor their cause. The secessionists replied with their own demonstrations and a celebratory ball. 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. 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.
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. 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. On the corner across from the newspaper office, a crowd had gathered around a bagpipe player playing Yankee Doodle
Yankee Doodle
"Yankee Doodle" is a well-known Anglo-American song, the origin of which dates back to the Seven Years' War. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the state anthem of Connecticut...
, after which ex-mayor John Hugh Smith gave a speech that was received with loud cheers.
In a letter to Democratic senator Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
, his servant C.O. Faxon 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."
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.
On March 19, the editors of the Clarksville Chronicle endorsed a pro-Union candidate for state senator in Robertson, Montgomery, and Stewart counties.
On April 12, the Memphis Daily Appeal ran a satirical obituary for Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...
, proclaiming him to have died of "irrepressible conflict disease," after having met Abraham Lincoln. 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."
Reaction to the attack on Fort Sumter
With the attack on Fort SumterFort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
on April 12, 1861, followed by President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
’s (February 12, 1809-April 14, 1865) 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 MaynardHorace MaynardHorace Maynard was an American educator, attorney, politician and diplomat active primarily in the second half of the 19th century...
, 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."
Governor Isham Harris began military mobilization, submitted an ordinance
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
of secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
to the General Assembly
Tennessee General Assembly
The Tennessee General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional structure:According to the Tennessee State Constitution of 1870, the General Assembly is a bicameral legislature and consists of a Senate of thirty-three members and a House of Representatives of...
, and made direct overtures to the Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
government.
Tennessee secedes
In a June 8, 1861 referendum, East Tennessee held firm against separation, while West TennesseeWest Tennessee
West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the State of Tennessee. Of the three, it is the one that is most sharply defined geographically. Its boundaries are the Mississippi River on the west and the Tennessee River on the east...
returned an equally heavy majority in favor. The deciding vote came in Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....
, which went from 51 percent against secession in February to 88 percent in favor in June.
Having ratified by popular vote its connection with the fledgling Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, Tennessee became the last state to formally declare its withdrawal from the Union.
East Tennessee
East Tennessee was a stronghold of Unionism; most slaves were house servants--luxuries--rather than the base of plantation operations. Dominant mood strongly opposed secession. Tennesseans representing twenty-six East Tennessee counties met twice in Greeneville and Knoxville and agreed to secede from Tennessee. They petitioned the state legislature in Nashville, which denied their request to secede and sent Confederate troops under Felix ZollicofferFelix Zollicoffer
Felix Kirk Zollicoffer was a newspaperman, three-term United States Congressman from Tennessee, officer in the United States Army, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War...
to occupy East Tennessee and prevent secession.
East Tennessee thus came under Confederate control, 1861-63. Neverthelless it supplied significant numbers of troops to the Federal army. (See also Nickajack
Nickajack
Nickajack was the name of a proposed neutral state of Unionist areas of North Alabama and East Tennessee. In the period leading up to the American Civil War there was much talk of secession made by the politicians representing wealthy plantation owners in the Black Belt. Hill country residents were...
). Many East Tennesseans engaged in guerrilla warfare against state authorities by burning bridges, cutting telegraph wires, and spying for the North. 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
Edmund Kirby Smith
Edmund Kirby Smith was a career United States Army officer and educator. He served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, notable for his command of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy after the fall of Vicksburg.After the conflict ended Smith...
, and Sam Jones
Sam Jones
-Music & Entertainment:* Samuel Jones , U.S. bassist, cellist, and composer* Samuel Jones , U.S. composer, conductor* Sam Jones , character in Doctor Who spin-off novels* Sam J...
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.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
Battles
Twin Rivers Campaign of 1862
Control of the CumberlandCumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
and Tennessee River
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...
s was important in gaining control of Tennessee during the age of steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s. Tennessee relied on northbound riverboats to receive staple commodities from the Cumberland and Tennessee valleys. 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. Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
and the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
captured control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers in February 1862 and held off the Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
counterattack at Shiloh
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...
in April of the same year.
Capture of Memphis
Capture of MemphisMemphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
and Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
gave the Union control of the Western and Middle sections
Grand Divisions (Tennessee)
The Grand Divisions are geographic, cultural, and legally recognized regions, each constituting roughly one-third of the State of Tennessee. The Grand Divisions are represented prominently by the three stars on the flag of Tennessee...
. Control was confirmed at the battle of Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...
in early January 1863.
After Nashville was captured (the first Confederate state capital to fall) Andrew Johnson, an East Tennessean from Greeneville
Greeneville, Tennessee
Greeneville is a town in Greene County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 15,198 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Greene County. The town was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene. It is the only town with this spelling in the United States, although there...
, was appointed military governor of the state by Lincoln. During this time, the military government abolished slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
(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
Rhea County, Tennessee
Rhea County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 28,400. Its county seat is Dayton.-Geography:According to the U.S...
Counties.
1863
After winning a decisive victory at ChickamaugaChickamauga
Chickamauga may refer to:* Chickamauga Indian* Chickamauga Wars , battles between Cherokee and Anglo-American pioneer settlers; also related to the American Revolutionary War* Chickamauga, Georgia...
in September 1863, the Confederates besieged Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
but were finally driven off by Grant in November. Many of the Confederate defeats can be attributed to the poor strategic vision of the incompetent General Braxton Bragg
Braxton Bragg
Braxton Bragg was a career United States Army officer, and then a general in the Confederate States Army—a principal commander in the Western Theater of the American Civil War and later the military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.Bragg, a native of North Carolina, was...
, who led the Army of Tennessee
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
from Shiloh to the Confederate defeat at Chattanooga.
1864
The last major battles came when the General John Bell HoodJohn Bell Hood
John Bell Hood was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Hood had a reputation for bravery and aggressiveness that sometimes bordered on recklessness...
led the Confederates north in November 1864. He was checked at Franklin
Franklin, Tennessee
Franklin is a city within and the county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 62,487 as of the 2010 census Franklin is located approximately south of downtown Nashville.-History:...
, and his army was virtually destroyed by George Thomas
George Henry Thomas
George Henry Thomas was a career United States Army officer and a Union General during the American Civil War, one of the principal commanders in the Western Theater....
's greatly superior forces at Nashville in December.
Economy and society
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 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.There was little heavy industry in the South but the Western Iron District in Middle Tennessee was the largest iron producer in Confederacy in 1861. One of the largest operations was the Cumberland Iron Works, which the Confederate War Department tried and failed to protect.
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.
Wartime politics
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.Memory
Tennessee has strong Confederate memories (based in West Tennessee and Middle Tennessee), which focused on the Lost Cause theme of heroic defense of traditional liberties (and ignored slavery). To a lesser extent Tennesseans celebrate Unionist memories based in East Tennessee and among blacks.List
Bean's StationBlountville
Blue Springs
Battle of Blue Springs
The Battle of Blue Springs was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring on October 10, 1863, in Greene County, Tennessee.Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, commander of the Department of the Ohio, undertook an expedition into East Tennessee to clear the roads and passes to Virginia, and, if...
Brentwood
Battle of Brentwood
The Battle of Brentwood was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring on March 25, 1863, in Williamson County, Tennessee.Union Lt. Col. Edward Bloodgood held Brentwood, a station on the Nashville & Decatur Railroad, with 400 men on the morning of March 25, 1863, when Confederate Brig. Gen....
Bull's Gap
Battle of Bull's Gap
The Battle of Bull's Gap was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring from November 11 to November 13, 1864, in Hamblen County and Greene County, Tennessee....
Campbell's Station
Battle of Campbell's Station
The Battle of Campbell's Station was a battle of the Knoxville Campaign of the American Civil War, occurring on November 16, 1863, at Campbell's Station, , Knox County, Tennessee....
First Chattanooga
Second Chattanooga
Chattanooga
Collierville
Battle of Collierville
The Battle of Collierville was a battle of the American Civil War, in Shelby County, Tennessee. Four minor battles occurred in 1863 at Collierville, Tennessee, during a three-month period. The two largest battles occurred on October 11 and November 3, 1863. The battle on October 11 was the...
Columbia
Battle of Columbia
The Battle of Columbia was a series of military actions that took place November 24–29, 1864, in Maury County, Tennessee, as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of the American Civil War. It concluded the movement of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee from the...
Danbridge
Battle of Dandridge
The Battle of Dandridge, January 17, 1864, was a minor battle of the American Civil War that occurred in Jefferson County, Tennessee.Wanting to push the Confederates out of their winter headquarters and having received reports of good forage south of the French Broad River, Union forces under Maj....
Dover
Battle of Dover (1863)
The Battle of Dover, also known as the Second Battle of Fort Donelson, was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring on February 3, 1863, in Stewart County, Tennessee....
Fair Garden
Battle of Fair Garden
The Battle of Fair Garden was a minor battle of the American Civil War, occurring on January 27, 1864, in Sevier County, Tennessee.Following the Battle of Dandridge on January 16–17, Union cavalry moved to the south side of the French Broad River, where they disrupted Confederate foraging parties...
Fort Donelson
Battle of Fort Donelson
The Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 11 to February 16, 1862, in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The capture of the fort by Union forces opened the Cumberland River as an avenue for the invasion of the South. The success elevated Brig. Gen. Ulysses S...
Fort Henry
Battle of Fort Henry
The Battle of Fort Henry was fought on February 6, 1862, in western Tennessee, during the American Civil War. It was the first important victory for the Union and Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater....
Fort Pillow
Battle of Fort Pillow
The Battle of Fort Pillow, also known as the Fort Pillow Massacre, was fought on April 12, 1864, at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. The battle ended with a massacre of surrendered Federal black troops by soldiers under the command of...
Fort Sanders
Battle of Fort Sanders
The Battle of Fort Sanders was the decisive engagement of the Knoxville Campaign of the American Civil War, fought in Knoxville, Tennessee, on November 29, 1863. Assaults by Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet failed to break through the defensive lines of Union Maj. Gen...
First Franklin
Battle of Franklin I
The 1863 Battle of Franklin was fought April 10, 1863, in Williamson County, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. It was a minor engagement in about the same location as the more famous Battle of Franklin , part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign.-Battle:The 1863 engagement at Franklin was a...
Second Franklin
Battle of Franklin II
The Battle of Franklin was fought on November 30, 1864, at Franklin, Tennessee, as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of the American Civil War. It was one of the worst disasters of the war for the Confederate States Army. Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee conducted...
Hartville
Battle of Hartsville
The Battle of Hartsville was fought on December 7, 1862, in northern Tennessee at the opening of the Stones River Campaign the American Civil War.-Background:...
Hatchie's Bridge
Battle of Hatchie's Bridge
The Battle of Hatchie's Bridge, also known as Davis's Bridge or Matamora, was fought on October 5, 1862, in Hardeman County and McNairy County, Tennessee, as the final engagement of the Iuka–Corinth Campaign of the American Civil War...
Hoover's Gap
Battle of Hoover's Gap
The Battle of Hoover's Gap was the principal battle fought in the Tullahoma Campaign of the American Civil War.-Background:...
Island Number Ten
Battle of Island Number Ten
The Battle of Island Number Ten was an engagement at the New Madrid or Kentucky Bend on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War, lasting from February 28 to April 8, 1862. The position, an island at the base of a tight double turn in the course of the river, was held by the Confederates...
Jackson
Battle of Jackson (TN)
The Battle of Jackson was fought on December 19, 1862, in Madison County, Tennessee, during the American Civil War.-Background:The engagement at Jackson occurred during Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's Expedition into West Tennessee, between December 11, 1862, and January 1, 1863....
Johnsonville
Battle of Johnsonville
The Battle of Johnsonville was fought November 4–5, 1864, in Benton County, Tennessee and Humphreys County, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest culminated a 23-day raid through western Tennessee by attacking the Union supply...
First Memphis
Battle of Memphis
The First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River immediately above the city of Memphis on June 6, 1862, during the American Civil War. The engagement was witnessed by many of the citizens of Memphis. It resulted in a crushing defeat for the Rebels, and marked the...
Second Memphis
Mossy Creek
Battle of Mossy Creek
The Battle of Mossy Creek was a minor battle of the American Civil War, occurring on December 29, 1863, in Jefferson County, Tennessee.Union Brig. Gen. Samuel D...
First Murfreesboro
Battle of Murfreesboro I
The First Battle of Murfreesboro was fought on July 13, 1862, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, as part of the American Civil War.-Background:...
Third Murfreesboro
Battle of Murfreesboro III
The Third Battle of Murfreesboro, also known as Wilkinson Pike or the Cedars, was fought December 5–7, 1864, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of the American Civil War.-Background:...
Nashville
Battle of Nashville
The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. It was fought at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15–16, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Tennessee under...
Parker's Cross Roads
Battle of Parker's Cross Roads
The Battle of Parker's Cross Roads was fought on December 31, 1862, in Henderson County, Tennessee, during the American Civil War.-Background:...
Shiloh
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...
Spring Hill
Battle of Spring Hill
The Battle of Spring Hill was fought November 29, 1864, at Spring Hill, Tennessee, as part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of the American Civil War. The Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood, attacked a Union force under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield as it...
Stones River
Battle of Stones River
The Battle of Stones River or Second Battle of Murfreesboro , was fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War...
Thompson's Station
Battle of Thompson's Station
The Battle of Thompson's Station was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring on March 5, 1863 in Williamson County, Tennessee.In a period of relative inactivity following the Battle of Stones River, a reinforced Union infantry brigade, under Col. John Coburn, left Franklin to reconnoiter...
Vaught's Hill
Battle of Vaught's Hill
-References:* *...
Wauhatchie
Battle of Wauhatchie
-References:* Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. The Civil War Dictionary. New York: McKay, 1988. ISBN 0-8129-1726-X. First published 1959 by McKay.* Cozzens, Peter. The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. ISBN 0-252-01922-9.* Korn, Jerry, and...
Reconstruction
After the war, Tennessee adopted a constitutional amendment forbidding human property February 22, 1865; ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States ConstitutionFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
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. 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 believed 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
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
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.
According to the 1860 census, African Americans comprised 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.
Further reading
- 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)
- 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
- Durham, Walter T. Nashville: The Occupied City, 1862-1863 (1985)
- Durham, Walter T. Reluctant Partners: Nashville and the Union, 1863-1865 (1987)
- Fisher, Noel C. War at Every Door: Partisan Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee, 1860-1869 (2000) excerpt and text search
- 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
- Temple, Oliver P. East Tennessee and the civil war (1899) 588pp online edition
Military studies
- 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
- Daniel, Larry J. Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War (1998) excerpt and text search
- 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)
- Groom, Winston. Shiloh, 1862: The First Great and Terrible Battle of the Civil War (2011)
- Lepa, Jack H. The Civil War in Tennessee, 1862-1863 (2007)
- 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) excerpt and text search
Primary sources
- Jones, James B., ed. Tennessee in the Civil War: Selected Contemporary Accounts (2011) 286 pp
- McCaslin, Richard B., ed. Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War (2006)