LOYALTY OF EAST TENNESSEE
While we have attempted to show the untenable position of those who
maintain that the majority of the people of Tennessee were opposed to
separation and it was only a _coup d’état_ of Governor Harris that
carried the State into the Confederacy, it is, however, true that a
great number of her inhabitants did resist withdrawal and remain
openly loyal. This was especially the case with East Tennessee. Her
persistent loyalty is a striking illustration of the physical
conditions and causes which lay behind the Civil War. Tennessee had
been settled by a common stock of pioneers from North Carolina. Many
of these, attracted by the beautiful scenery and genial climate, had
found homes east of the Cumberland Mountains, while others had crossed
the mountains and taken possession of the rich tablelands and the
alluvial bottoms of Middle and West Tennessee. When the State was
admitted into the Union, in 1796, her population was homogeneous. The
institution of slavery existed in all sections of the State.
In West and Middle Tennessee, where the soil and climate were suitable
for raising cotton, slave labor was very profitable. In East
Tennessee, the poor upland farms scarcely yielded a return to white
labor. As the result of this difference in natural conditions, slavery
flourished in West and Middle Tennessee, but in East Tennessee, by
1860, it had become almost extinct, except upon the rich plantations
that bordered the Tennessee River. The efforts to form a Confederacy
based upon slavery found, therefore, no support among the inhabitants
of East Tennessee. Their interests and sympathy were with the free
States of the North, and they rejected by a vote of two to one every
proposal looking toward separation.
In the eyes of the nation, Andrew Johnson stood as the representative
of East Tennessee loyalty. Upon the floor of the United States Senate
he denounced the withdrawal of the Southern members as treason, and
refused to vacate his own seat even after Tennessee had been
proclaimed by Jefferson Davis a part of the Confederacy.
Next to Johnson, the most prominent Union man was W. G. Brownlow, the
editor of the _Knoxville Whig_. Mr. Brownlow is in many respects the
most unique figure in the history of Tennessee. He commenced life as a
carpenter’s apprentice, but after serving his apprenticeship he
entered the Methodist ministry and travelled as a circuit rider for
ten years without intermission. His love of controversy led him into
most of the political and religious discussions of the day, and gained
for him the name of the “Fighting Parson.” About 1835 he became the
editor and publisher of a Whig newspaper, which rapidly gained a
larger circulation than any other political paper in the State.
In the presidential election of 1860 Mr. Brownlow supported Bell and
Everett. After the election his voice was on the side of peaceful
acquiescence in the results. In vigorous editorials he denounced the
sentiments expressed in the message of Governor Harris to the extra
session of the Legislature. After the passage of the Convention Bill
he joined several prominent citizens in issuing a call for an “East
Tennessee Convention.” Every county in East Tennessee except two
responded to the call. The Convention assembled at Knoxville, on the
13th of May, 1861. The delegates present numbered four hundred and
sixty-nine, and represented twenty-eight counties. Hon. Thos. A. R.
Nelson was elected chairman. On motion, he appointed a committee to
prepare and report business for the Convention.
This committee drew up an address to the people, which was in part as
follows:[7]
“Our country is at this moment in a most deplorable
condition. The Constitution of the United States has been
openly contravened and set at defiance, while that of our
own State has shared no better fate, and by the sworn
representatives of the people has been utterly disregarded.
In this calamitous state of affairs, when the liberties of
the people are so imperilled and their most valued rights
endangered, it behooves them, in their primary meetings and
in all their other accustomed modes, to assemble, consult
calmly as to their safety, and with firmness to give
expressions to their opinions and convictions of right.
“We, therefore, the delegates here assembled, representing
and reflecting, as we verily believe, the opinions and
wishes of a large majority of the people of East Tennessee,
do resolve and declare:
“That the evils which now afflict our beloved country, in
our opinion, are the legitimate offspring of the ruinous and
heretical doctrine of secession; and that the people of East
Tennessee have ever been, and we believe still are, opposed
to it by a very large majority. That while the country is
now upon the very threshold of a most ruinous and desolating
Civil War, it may with truth be said, and we protest before
God, that the people, so far as we can see, have done
nothing to produce it. That the people of Tennessee, when
the question was submitted to them in February last, decided
by an overwhelming majority that the relations of the State
towards the Federal Government should not be changed;
thereby expressing their preference for the Union and the
Constitution under which they had lived prosperously and
happily, and ignoring in the most emphatic manner the idea
that they had been oppressed by the General Government in
any of its acts, legislative, executive, or judicial.
“That in view of a so decided expression of the will of the
people, in whom all power is inherent and on whose authority
all free governments are founded, and in the honest
conviction that nothing has transpired since that time which
should change that deliberate judgment of the people, we
have contemplated with peculiar emotions the pertinacity
with which those in authority have labored to over-ride the
judgment of the people and to bring about the very result
which the people themselves had so overwhelmingly condemned.
“That the Legislative Assembly is but the creature of the
Constitution of the State, and has no power to enact any
laws or to perform any act of sovereignty, except such as
may be authorized by that instrument: and believing, as we
do, that in their recent legislation, the General Assembly
have disregarded the rights of the people and transcended
their own legitimate powers, we feel constrained, and we
invoke the people throughout the State, as they value their
liberties, to visit that hasty, unconsiderate, and
unconstitutional legislation with a decided rebuke, by
voting on the eighth day of next month against both the Act
of Secession and that of Union with the Confederate States.
“That the Legislature of the State, without having first
obtained the consent of the people, had no authority to
enter a ‘Military League’ with the ‘Confederate States’
against the General Government, and by so doing to put the
State of Tennessee in hostile array against the Government
of which it then was and still is a member. Such legislation
is in advance of the expressed will of the people to change
their governmental relations, was an act of usurpation, and
should be visited with the severest condemnation of the
people.”
This report was unanimously adopted by the Convention and ordered to
be printed, so that it might be circulated among the voters of the
State. Before the Convention adjourned it was addressed by Andrew
Johnson. According to a contemporary report, “he spoke for three hours
and commanded earnest attention throughout his entire speech.”
In the election of June 8th, the vote of East Tennessee stood: 14,780,
separation; 39,923, no separation; 14,601, representation; 32,962, no
representation.
Nine days after the election, a second Convention of Union men
assembled at Greenville. Two hundred and ninety-nine delegates were
present. Many of them were in favor of forming at once a Provisional
Government and organizing an army, but after a heated discussion more
moderate counsel prevailed. A Declaration of Grievances was drawn up
by the same committee that had prepared the address to the people
adopted by the Knoxville Convention. A new committee was appointed to
prepare and present a memorial to the State Legislature, asking its
consent to the formation of a new State to be composed of East
Tennessee and such counties in Middle Tennessee as desired to
coöperate to that end. But before this committee had an opportunity to
present the memorial to the Legislature the Confederate Government had
put it beyond the power of Tennessee to act in the matter by
organizing East Tennessee into a military department, and placing
General Zolicoffer in supreme command. His presence in Knoxville with
several regiments of soldiers prevented any further steps towards the
formation of a new State hostile to the Confederacy.
There was at first no disposition on the part of the Confederate
authorities to deal harshly with the loyal inhabitants of East
Tennessee, or to coerce them into the Confederate army. They were
allowed to remain undisturbed in their ordinary occupations. The
general leniency with which they were treated is shown by the fact
that Mr. Brownlow was allowed to continue the publication of the
_Knoxville Whig_, although every issue contained editorials denouncing
the action of Governor Harris and the Legislature as treason and
rebellion. This peaceful policy was rudely disturbed by an act of the
Union men themselves. On the night of the eighth of November, an
organized conspiracy was partially carried out by the bands of Union
men, to burn the bridges of the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia
Railway. The bridges over the Hiwassee River, Lick Creek, and three
other streams were destroyed. That one over the Holston River at
Strawberry Plains was saved by the bravery of the watchmen.
This attempt at bridge-burning created the utmost alarm and
excitement. The East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railway was the
main artery which connected Richmond with the southwest. Thousand of
troops were being hurried over it daily in order to reach Richmond in
time to defend it from McClellan’s advances. The road traversed the
whole eastern part of the State, and on account of its extent could
not be properly patrolled. Extraordinary measures must thereupon be
resorted to, in order to keep open this important line of
communication, and protect the lives of the soldiers from the terrible
disaster which would have resulted from the secret destruction of the
bridges.
On the 25th of November, the Confederate Secretary of War, Mr.
Benjamin, sent the following orders to Colonel Wood, who was in
command of the troops at Knoxville:
“All such as can be identified in having been engaged in
bridge-burning are to be tried summarily by drum-head
court-martial, and if found guilty, executed on the spot by
hanging. It would be well to leave their bodies hanging in
the vicinity of the burned bridges.”
This order was vigorously executed. A number of persons suspected of
complicity in the bridge-burning were seized, and after a summary
trial were executed in the manner suggested by the Secretary of War.
Martial law was proclaimed, and the meetings of Union men forcibly
dispersed.
As a result of these measures there now began a general exodus of the
able-bodied Union men. In small bands they crossed over the mountains
into Kentucky. Many of them joined the Federal army, and rendered
valuable service. Others formed camps safely within the Union lines,
and quietly awaited the termination of the war. Their most prominent
leaders made tours of the Northern cities, and raised funds for their
support. Boston alone contributed over one hundred thousand dollars to
this purpose.[8] Vast crowds listened to the eloquent appeals of these
exiled loyalists, and the impression became general in the North that
the Southern authorities were treating the loyal mountaineers of East
Tennessee with the most savage cruelty. Edward Everett, in a brilliant
oration, compared them with followers of William Tell and the
slaughtered saints of Piedmont.
The sacrifices and sufferings of the loyal inhabitants of East
Tennessee were indeed very great, but there is no evidence that they
were treated by the Confederacy in any manner not necessary and
justified by the usages of war. After the failure of its conciliatory
policy, the Confederacy either had to permit the erection of a hostile
State within the heart of its territory, or coerce the loyalists into
submission. It naturally adopted the latter alternative. It is
frequently stated that in thus adopting coercive methods it acted
inconsistently with the principles under which it withdrew from the
Union. Mr. Everett, in the same speech quoted above, said: “One would
suppose that under the usurped rule of men who profess to go to war
for self-government and State rights, the people of East Tennessee, if
for any reason they saw fit to do so, had a right to burn their own
bridges.”
The absurdity of such statements lies in the fact that they confuse
the denial of coercive powers to federal government, with the denial
of coercive powers to all government. The first is State rights, but
the second is anarchy. It was in perfect harmony with the Southern
theory of State sovereignty, that Tennessee should use any means it
saw fit, to force its citizens into obedience to its laws. The
Confederate army acted as the agent of the State in quelling
insurrection and rebellion in East Tennessee.
After the intense excitement created by the bridge-burning had
somewhat subsided, the Confederate and State authorities again
manifested a desire to win over, or at least conciliate, the Union
element. The commander at Knoxville issued a proclamation to the
“Disaffected People of East Tennessee,” and assured “all those
interested who have fled to the enemy’s lines, and who are actually in
their army, that he will welcome their return to their homes and their
friends; they are offered amnesty and protection, if they come to lay
down their arms, and act as loyal citizens.” But these conciliatory
measures again met with failure, as it soon became necessary to
enforce the military drafts, which aroused the greatest opposition. In
the summer of 1863, East Tennessee became the theatre of active war.
Its history for the next three years is to be found in the military
annals of the State.
[7] Hume’s, _Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee_.
[8] See Everett’s “Account of the Fund for the Relief of
East Tennessee.”