Mountain rebels : East Tennessee Confederates and the Civil War, 1860-1870 / W. Todd Groce.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Groce, W. Todd.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tennessee, East--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

Tennessee, East.

East Tennessee.

History.

Physical Description:

xviii, 218 pages : maps, portraits ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, [1999]

Summary:

Abastion of Union support during the Civil War, East Tennessee was also home to Confederate sympathizers who took up the Southern cause until the bitter end. Yet historians have viewed these mountain rebels as scarcely different from other Confederates or as an aberration in the region's Unionism. Often they are simply ignored.

W. Todd Groce corrects this distorted view of East Tennessee's antebellum development and wartime struggle. He paints a clearer picture of the region's Confederates than has previously been available, examining why they chose secession over union and revealing why they have become so invisible to us today. Drawing extensively on primary sources -- newspapers, diaries, government reports -- Groce allows the voices of these mountain rebels finally to be heard.

Groce explains the economic forces and the family and political ties to the Deep South that motivated the East Tennessee Confederates reluctantly to join the fight for Southern independence. Caught in a war they neither sought nor started, they were trapped between an unfriendly administration in Richmond and a hostile Union majority in their midst. When the fighting was over and they returned home to face their vengeful Unionist neighbors, many were forced to flee, contributing to the postwar economic decline of the region.

Placing the story in a broad context, Groce provides an overview of the region's economy and explains the social origins of secessionist sympathies. He also presents a collective profile of one hundred high-ranking Confederate officers from East Tennessee to show how they were representative of the rising commercial and financial leadership in the region.

Mountain Rebelsintertwines economic, political, military, and social history to present a poignant tale of defeat, suffering, and banishment. By piecing together this previously untold story, it fills a void in Southern history, Civil War history, and Appalachian studies.

Contents:

Land that can flow with milk and honey

They made me a Rebel

The social origins of East Tennessee's Confederate leadership

East Tennesseans are willing to fight

A damned stinking cotton oligarchy

How I wish we could have peace

We are certainly now treading on a volcano

Epilogue: they never hoped to do great things.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [199]-210) and index.

ISBN:

1572330570

OCLC:

40912559