UNIONISTS IN EASTERN WEST TENNESSEE 1861-1865 by Peggy Scott Holley Austin, TX [email protected] Copyright©2004, Peggy Scott Holley In 1861, Governor Isham Harris announced that Tennessee would refuse to raise a single soldier for President Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops to preserve the Union and instead promised to raise 50,000 men to oppose it. 1 During the Civil War, however, nearly 50,000 Tennesseans, 2 served in the Union Army, clearly indicating that many in Tennessee agreed with Lincoln rather than Harris. A large portion of these soldiers came from the Appalachian counties in East Tennessee where Unionists outnumbered Secessionists. They receive, understandably, the most attention in the literature. 3 Although the lowland counties of West Tennessee generally favored secession, 4 several counties on the western side of the Tennessee River contained considerable numbers of loyalists. These counties contributed two regiments and parts of several other regiments to Union forces. 5 Evidence for the existence of this pool of West Tennessee loyalists surfaced in the events preceding the statewide election on separation from the Union in June 1861. It took strong convictions and courage for loyalists to express their opinion in the section of Tennessee most in favor of withdrawal from the Union. Secessionists exerted pressure on voters to either vote for separation or to abstain from voting. They prevented Weakley County’s Emerson Etheridge, the most prominent loyalist politician in the eastern counties, from speaking in Henry County during pre-election campaigning. A pistol fight broke up the meeting and ended with four wounded and one killed. 6 Mr. Horton of near Paris (Henry County) maintained that rebels in his area prevented men from voting for the Union so he stayed home giving the excuse that he “couldn’t spare time.”7 Nathaniel Brewer, a yeoman farmer in Carroll County, recalled a “general report” that “every Union man that offered to vote would be shot” and that he 1 U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), series. 3, volume I, page 81, Isham G. Harris to Simon Cameron, April 17, 1861. Hereafter: OR 3, I, 81. 2 Tennesseans in the Civil War: A Military History of Confederate and Union Units with Available Rosters of Personnel (Nashville: Civil War Centennial Commission, 1964), II, 453-608. Approximately 45,000 names of men in Tennessee Federal units are listed. This includes re-enlistments but does not include men who joined northern regiments or Home Guard organizations. 3 Richard Nelson Current, Lincoln’s Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 29-60. This standard work on southern Unionism barely mentions West Tennessee. 4 Ibid , 29. 5 Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers of Tennessee (National Archives Microfilm Publication M395 RG094 rolls 50-69). The muster rolls of the 6th and 7 th TN Cavalries show recruitment primarily in Weakley, Carroll, Henderson, Decatur, McNairy and Hardin Counties. 6 Gideon J. Pillow to L. P. Walker, April 24, 1861, OR 3, LII, (2), 69. 7 Charles C. Nott, Sketches of the War: A Series of Letters to the North Moore Street School of New York (New York: Charles T. Evans, 1863; reprint, Paris, TN: The Guild Bindery Press), 67. 1 “believed it.” Rebel soldiers from Union City “guarded” the polls in Brewer’s district. 8 The decision to vote against secession often involved consequences. In order to prevent loyalists from casting secret ballots, some newspapers, including the Memphis Daily Appeal , encouraged those voting for secession to leave their ballots unfolded in order that Unionists could be identified. 9 In spite of the fact that he thought he would be hanged, War of 1812 veteran John Drewry defiantly read a statement at the polling place in Dresden, Weakley County accusing secessionists of “fraud, perjury and oppression” before handing the sheriff his vote for “no separation and no representation.”10 In spite of the risk involved, a slight majority of voters in Weakley, Carroll, Henderson, Decatur and Hardin Counties, and a significant minority in Benton, Gibson, Henry and McNairy Counties, voted “No Separation” in an election where other West Tennessee counties chose “Separation” by large majorities. 11 On the surface these Unionists seem much like their rebel neighbors. A comparison of the families of 398 Union and 390 Confederate soldiers (336 and 316 households) in one of the eastern counties (Carroll County), confirms this impression. Most soldiers on both sides were born in Tennessee to parents born in the South. Almost the same number of men owned farms or lived on family owned farms (211 Union, 207 Confederate). Sixteen Union soldiers practiced a profession (doctor, lawyer, teacher, minister) or lived in a professional family compared to nineteen Confederate soldiers. Nineteen Union enlistees worked at non-professional occupations (other than farmer), compared to twenty-five Confederate soldiers. Even the number of soldiers who lived in households headed by women almost matched (20-25). 12 Further investigation, however, reveals economic and social differences that may have influenced, consciously or unconsciously, the decision of some to support the Federal Government. Although Carroll County contributed about the same number of landless men to each side (110 C.S.A., 125 U.S.A.), the majority of the Union soldiers’ families remained on the lower end of the economic scale. Over three-fourths owned no real estate or had real estate valued at $1000 or less compared with nearly half of Confederate families whose real estate was valued at $1001 or more. The census value of Confederate real estate averaged $2,427 while that of Unionists a mere $812. Only one Union soldier owned real estate worth $10,000 or more ($10,110) while twelve Confederate soldiers’ families held land worth from $10,000 to $25,000. In this county, at least, landless individuals joined both armies. Small farm owners usually fought with the Union while the majority of the medium and large landowners supported the South (Table 1). 13 Personal property assessment for Confederate soldiers’ families in Carroll County also outstripped Unionists. The value of slaves accounted for much of the difference (Table 2). About 25% of the families of Confederate soldiers (80 owners, 2,441 slaves) owned workers compared to only 5% of Unionist soldiers (16 owners, 75 slaves). The average personal property 8 “Nathaniel Brewer,” Southern Claims Commission Disallowed Claims, 1871-1880 (National Archives Microfiche Publication M140 RG 233), Fiche #881 9 Memphis Daily Appeal , 12 May 1861; Nashville Union and American , 11 May 1861. 10 John Drewry speech, June 8, 1861 Dresden, Tennessee. 11 Goodspeed’s General History of Tennesse, reprint from Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, 1887 (Nashville: Charles and Randy Elder Booksellers, 1973), 534. These counties were part of a larger area of Union sentiment that included Wayne County in Middle Tennessee and Northern Alabama. 12 Comparison of the families of Confederate and Union soldiers in Carroll County, Tennessee by the author using the real estate, personal property figures and Slave Schedules in the 1860 census. Hereafter, Comparison by author. 13 Ibid . 2 value of $4609 for rebels, as compared to only $857 for loyalists, reflects those percentages. 14 The most loyal districts of the county contained only 901 slaves while the unquestionably Confederate districts held 2912, or over three times as many. 15 For example, when former Pvt. William M. Robinson of the 7 th Tennessee Cavalry U.S.A. answered his Civil War questionnaire in the early 1900s he could recall few men in his neighborhood (18 th district) who owned slaves. 16 His memory served him well. The 1860 Slave Schedule listed only 13 slaves in the 18 th , a district that contributed at least 39 men to Union regiments but only one known soldier to the Confederacy. 17 (See Figure 1, next page.) Table 1 - Value of Real Estate (Carroll Co. 1860 Census) Value Numbers of Soldiers’ Families CSA Union Number % Number % Landless 106 34.8 125 37.2 $0-$500 14 4.4 67 19.9 $501-$1,000 37 11.7 66 19.6 $1,001-$2,000 45 14.2 41 12.2 $2,001-$3,000 32 10.8 25 7.4 $3,001-$4,000 15 4.7 6 1.8 $4,001-$5,000 23 7.3 1 0.3 $5,001-$10,000 23 7.9 4 1.2 $10,001-$25,000 12 4.1 1 0.3 Table 2 - Value of Personal Property (Carroll Co. 1860 Census) Value Numbers of Soldiers’ Families CSA Union Number % Number % $0-$1,000 163 51.6 283 84.2 $1,001-$5,000 68 21.5 45 13.4 $5,001-$10,000 38 12.0 4 1.2 $10,001-$15,000 19 6.0 3 0.9 $15,001-$20,000 12 3.8 1 0.3 $20,001-$25,000 10 3.2 0 0.0 $25,001-$30,000 0 0.0 0 0.0 $30,001-$50,000 6 1.9 0 0.0 14 In a similar study in Washington County, TN, Union soldiers average $269 in personal property while Confederates averaged $3,759. Richard Nelson Current, Lincoln’s Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy , 135. 15 Comparison by author. See Footnote 12 , p. 2. 16 The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires , (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press), vol. 1, 1985, 110. Hereafter TCWVQ . 17 Comparison by author. See Footnote 12 , p. 2. 3 LEGEND More CSA soldiers than USA More USA soldiers than CSA Dist 4 USA 0 Dist 3 CSA 18 USA 0 Slaves 406 Dist 9 Dist 10 Dist 17 CSA 29 USA 2 USA 3 USA 30 Slaves 155 CSA 16 CSA 21 CSA 22 Slaves 265 Slaves 198 Slaves 68 Dist 19 Dist 2 USA 13 USA 8 CSA 13 CSA 38 Slaves 285 Dist 16 Slaves 386 USA 34 Dist 11 CSA 14 USA 32 Slaves 174 CSA 55 Dist 5 Slaves 356 USA 6 CSA 21 Dist 18 Slaves 669 Dist 8 USA 39 USA 31 CSA 1 Dist 12 CSA 5 Dist 15 Slaves 13 Slaves* USA 19 USA 27 CSA 9 CSA 8 Slaves 198 Slaves 81 Dist 1 USA 4 CSA 29 Dist 7 Dist 13 Dist 6 USA 29 USA 30 Slaves 477 Dist 14 USA 36 CSA 1 CSA 13 CSA 18 USA 52 Slaves* Slaves 151 Slaves 77 CSA 3 Slaves 76 *63 slaves in Districts 7 and 8 combined Figure 1 – Distribution of Soldiers and Slaves in Carroll Co.