University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2006 From Death, Life: An Economic and Demographic History of Civil War Era Knoxville and East Tennessee Steven Bradley Davis University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Steven Bradley, "From Death, Life: An Economic and Demographic History of Civil War Era Knoxville and East Tennessee. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2006. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4628 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Steven Bradley Davis entitled "From Death, Life: An Economic and Demographic History of Civil War Era Knoxville and East Tennessee." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in History. Stephen V. Ash, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: William Bruce Wheeler, Ernest Freeberg Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Steven Bradley Davis entitled "From Death, Life: An Economic and Demographic History of Civil War Era Knoxville and East Tennessee." I have examined the final paper copy of this thesis for formand content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in History. Stephen V. Ash, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Dean of Graduate Studies From Death, Life: An Economic and Demographic History of Civil War Era Knoxville and East Tennessee A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Steven Bradley Davis August 2006 11 Dedication This work is dedicated to the men and women of Civil War Era Knoxvilleand East Tennessee who foughtso hard, and sufferedso intensely, in defense of their homeland. May this humble thesis serve to perpetuate their memory, fortheirs is a story too seldom told. 111 Acknowledgements There are so many people deserving of my thanks that it may take me several pages to acknowledge them. But I fully intend to do so, for without them, I could not have completed this thesis. I would firstlike to thankGod for his love, guidance, and willingness to subject me to constructive discipline. Thank you for always remembering me, Lord, even in those moments when I forget about you. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Stephen V. Ash, forhis time and support. His insistence that I do my very best work, regardless of how long it took, was critical to the success of this project. I would also like to thank Dr. Ernest Freeberg and Dr. William Bruce Wheeler fortheir patience and guidance, and Dr. Kathleen Brosnanfor encouraging me to return to graduate school aftera brief hiatus. Thank you all! I would like to thank my father, Woody Davis, for his unwavering support. If ever I am able to believe in myself andmy abilities as much as he does, I will be well on my way to success. Truly he is an inspiration in my life and a man among men; in the event that I am fortunateenough to have children of my own, I will do well to emulate him in every way. Thank you, Dad. I love you! I would like to thank my mother, Linda Davis, for her patience and empathy during fourvery difficultyears. She was always willing to listen, and helped me through many a dark hour. Like my father, my mother is truly an inspiration in my life; she has always been there to prop me up, and forthat I am grateful in ways that cannot be expressed in mere words. Thank you, Mom. I love you! IV I would like to thank my brother Brian Davis, for being my best friend. Like my mother and father, he listened patiently while I vented my frustrations, offered advice when he thought it useful, and did his best to distract me when the troubles of graduate school became overwhelming. He also taught me a valuable lesson that I will remember forthe rest of my life: if one is to do their best, one must firstrealize that it is acceptable to fail. Thank you, Bubba. I love you! I would like to thank my friend Rod Jones, without whom graduate school would have been infinitely more difficult (and a great deal less entertaining). He, more so than anyone else, understands the difficulties that plagued me on this long journey, forhe traveled a similar path and experienced similar hardships. And yet, through it all, he remained upbeat, and was a constant source of encouragement. Thank you, Rod. I am proud to count you as a friend! I would like to thank my friend Erin Lawrimore forserving as my unofficial editor, sounding board, and source of much-needed distraction. Her unceasing good­ cheer, even in the faceof my rampant negativity, pulled me back fromthe edge more times than I care to count. She is a true friend, and one without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you, Erin. You were right--everything turned out alright in the end! I would like to thank my friendand college Cinnamon Brown for befriending me during our first. difficult semester of graduate school; my friend and colleague Casey Cobb, who proved to be a constant source of entertainment and encouragement; my friendand colleague, Mark Boulton, for convincing me to put down my books and have some fun once in awhile; my friendand colleague, Troy Kickler, for introducing me to a V new way of thinkingabout the world; my friendand colleague, Angela Frye Keaton ( and her husband, Kevin Keaton), for home-cooked meals, mountain dancing, and untiring support; my friend and colleague, Will Bolt, for his unceasing good humor and his staunch protectionist politics; and my friend Kira Dietz, who understands the correlation between good food, good beer, good music, and good conversation as well as anyone I have ever known. To all of you, I owe a debt of gratitude! If I have overlooked anyone, please forgiveme. Knowthat I amgrateful to you, and that I will make a point of thanking you in person. Vl Abstract This thesis seeks to understand the economic/demographic impact of the American Civil War on Knoxville, Tennessee and the greater East Tennessee region. It is the contention of this work that the Civil War served as an economic/demographic catalyst, accelerating (although certainly not completing) the process by which both city and region were transformedfrom a rural, pre-modem economy based predominantly on subsistence agriculture to a more modem, industrializing economy based on manufacturing, resource extraction, and limited commercial farming. Vll Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One-"None Live So Far From Market as Those Who Have Nothing to Sell": Economic and Demographic Change in Nineteenth-Century East Tennessee 18 Chapter Two-"Secession ... has been the ruin of this place": East Tennessee and the Confederate Occupation 50 Chapter Three-"The Rebels robbed them, the Federals Devoured them": Union Occupation, Combat, and Demographic Collapse in East Tennessee 81 Conclusion 124 Works Cited 138 Vita 146 1 Introduction On an oppressively hot day in August 183 8, Henry Ruffner, a Presbyterian minister from Lexington, Virginia, guided his horse up a dusty dirt road and into the center of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. Ruffner was, by his own admission, excited to be visiting the "chief town of East Tennessee," and hoped that it would compare favorablywith the bustling industrial/commercial centers of the Midwest and Northeast. But his hopes were quickly dashed. So faras he could tell, forhis visit was cut short by an "unusually severe " malaria epidemic, Knoxville was little more than an isolated hamlet, consisting of a small college, a handfulof industries (mostly grain mills), and "something more than three hundred houses scattered over the hilly ground." What few residents that he encountered were, in his estimation, "moral, sociable and hospitable, with all the essentials of true politeness "; but then, they were also lacking in the "refinementof mind and manners ... found in some older towns." And so, convinced that Knoxville had little to offer the visitor, either now or in the immediate future, a disappointed Ruffner got back on his horse, turnednortheast towards Virginia, and disappeared into the countryside. Considering his lack of enthusiasm forthe town,one might easily conclude that he had no intention of ever returning.1 Ruffner's commentary expresses the thoughts of one man, but it is probably representative. Antebellum Knoxville would have impressed fewnineteenth-century 1 Eugene L. Schwaab and Jaqueline Bull, Travels in the Old South: Selected From Periodicals of the Times (Lexington, 1973), 358-59; Samuel Joseph Platt and Mary Louise Ogden, Medical Men and Institutions of Knox County,Tennessee (Knoxville, 1969), 78; Digby Gordon Seymour, Divided Loyalties: Fort Sanders and the Civil War in East Tennessee (Knoxville, 1963), 10. 2 visitors, particularlythose who, like Ruffner, had traveled extensively.2 The firstthing one would have noticed on entering the town was its shabbiness. Residents tossed food scraps and human waste into the narrow, muddy streets, creating a noxious stew attractive to swine, rats, dogs, and clouds of emerald-green blowflies.