THE GEOGRAPHY OF CIVIL WAR: CONFLICT AND LEGACY IN UPPER EAST TENNESSEE, 1861-1865 By Spurgeon C. King A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy DECEMBER 2009 UMI Number: 3391705 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dissertation Publishing UMI 3391705 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 THE GEOGRAPHY OF CIVIL WAR: CONFLICT AND LEGACY IN UPPER EAST TENNESSEE, 1861-1865 APPROVED: Graduate Committee: Carroll Van West, Ph.D., Major Professor Q^yJL~/M<*=^ C. Brendan Martin, Ph.D., Reader Antoinette Van Zelm, Ph.D., Reader o<. 3</a*y^yast^ar^ Amy LySayward, Ph.QC Chair of the History Department QW«foiX too*/ Michael D. Allen, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Graduate Studies ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Carroll Van West for his unfailing support and good humor, and for involving me early on in East Tennessee's civil war experience. Although burdened with a heavy schedule, Dr. West remains dedicated to his students, providing both academic and financial assistance. I could not have asked for a better mentor and chair of my dissertation committee. The other members of my dissertation committee, Dr.'s Robert E. Hunt, C. Brendan Martin, and Antoinette Van Zelm, provided great understanding and patience during the doctoral process, and I thank them for their expertise. The staffs at the Center for Historic Preservation and Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area were unfailing in their good-natured support over the years, and I appreciate all their efforts. Special thanks go to all my doctoral colleagues for their insights and companionship, particularly Brian Dempsey, my trusty office mate. I wish them all the best. Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Dolores, for convincing me to return to school and fulfill a dream I first articulated many years ago when I left the United States Navy. This dissertation is as much hers as it is mine. 1 ABSTRACT This dissertation, "The Geography of Civil War: Conflict and Legacy in Upper East Tennessee, 1861-1865," documents how geography shaped warfare in Upper East Tennessee during the American Civil War, and how contemporary terrain holds significant instructive potential for modern observers. East Tennessee's topography, which features a long valley with low ridges surrounded by high mountains, suggested logical points of attack and defense to Civil War commanders, depending on strategic and logistical requirements of each occupying army. Heavily forested terrain facilitated partisan and guerilla warfare, with nearby states providing sanctuary for irregular combatants. The region's single railroad, the East Tennessee and Virginia, assumed enormous logistical importance as the major means of supply for both armies, North and South. This dissertation shows how each side used the unique geography of East Tennessee under changing operational circumstances to pursue strategic ends, and suggests that natural terrain features influencing military decisions during the Civil War embody potential to inform contemporary observation today. East Tennessee's geography helped determine both strategy and tactics. The Great Valley, actually a series of smaller valleys separated by low ridges, is oriented along a northeast axis from Alabama all the way up to Virginia. Surrounded on all sides by high mountains, the Great Valley is accessed through mountain passes, which assumed major ii strategic importance for defense, particularly during the period of Confederate occupation from 1861 to 1863. When the Union army finally captured Knoxville in 1863 and fighting erupted throughout the region, mountain valleys became convenient avenues for flanking movements, while interior gaps in the ridges became points which cavalry could exploit to appear behind an enemy. Rivers, natural impediments to transportation, also fueled fertile farmlands filled with food and forage, sparking battles for possession of these vital resources. The Great Valley's most valuable strategic asset east of Knoxville, however, remained the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, which wound its way through the lesser valleys up to Bristol, and thence into Virginia. Throughout the war, much military activity revolved around defending or targeting the vital railroad lifeline. Geography stands not only as a legacy to the natural world, but to the workings of humankind, as well. And if geography shapes human actions at a defined period of time such as the Civil War, then it stands to reason that later generations can better understand past events through observation of the setting where those events occurred. By standing on the mountain at Bull's Gap, Tennessee, for example, one gets a sense of what it was like to charge up the mountainside, or, conversely, to defend against such a charge. Through an examination of terrain, one can better understand why commanders chose to locate railroad facilities north of the Gap, and how they orchestrated what came to be known as the first "railroad" war in history. Bull's Gap, which is featured in a separate appendix, is thus a good representative example of the military uses of geography, suggesting how a contemporary examination of topography can lead to a better understanding of Upper East Tennessee's civil war past. iii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF FIGURES v Chapter: 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. "STILL ALL WILL FALL ON ME 18 3. "A THOUSAND THANKS FOR THE LATE SUCCESS YOU HAVE GIVEN US" , 43 4. IN "THE MIDST OF FRIENDS" 71 5. "I HAD THE SATISFACTION TO FIND WE WERE UNEXPECTED GUESTS" 110 6. "ON ACCOUNT OF THE BURNING OF THE RR BRIDGES IN EAST TENNESSEE ALL THE FREIGHT HAS TO BE CARRIED AROUND THROUGH GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA" 145 BIBLIOGRAPHY 156 APPENDIX 1. OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE: THE GEOGRAPHIC LEGACY OF BULL'S GAP, TENNESSEE 163 IV LIST OF FIGURES 1. Approaching Bull's Gap, Hawkins County, Tennessee 164 2. Rail junction at Bull's Gap, Hawkins County, Tennessee 167 v 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This study examines how geography shaped warfare in Upper East Tennessee during the American Civil War, and how contemporary terrain continues to influence remembrance of the war. As military historian John Keegan famously noted, "Rivers, mountains, forest, swamp and plain, desert and plough, valley and plateau: these are the primary raw materials with which the military historian works. In constructing a narrative, in charting the movements of armies, the facts of geography stand first."1 Nowhere is this maxim truer than in Upper East Tennessee, where geography helped determine how war evolved in the region. The area's topography, which featured a long valley with low ridges surrounded by high mountains, suggested logical points of attack and defense depending on the strategic needs of each occupying army. Remote, heavily forested terrain, particularly in eastern counties, offered fertile ground for irregular warfare throughout four years of conflict. And the region's single railroad, continuing to wind its way through the region today, assumed enormous logistical importance as the 1 John Keegan, Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 8. 2 I use the general term "irregular" to denote both partisan, or officially sanctioned, warfare, and guerilla warfare, which was mostly unsanctioned. Where appropriate, "partisan" and "guerilla" denote specific types of sanctioned or unsanctioned military activity. "Upper" East Tennessee refers to counties generally east of Knoxville, while "East Tennessee" defines the entire Great Valley region east of the Cumberland Plateau from Chattanooga northeast to Bristol. 2 major means of supply for both armies, North and South. John Keegan further defined geography in terms of "permanently operating" and "contingent" factors, with "weather, climate, seasons, terrain, [and] vegetation," belonging in the first category, and "supply, provisioning, quartering, and equipment," in the second.3 In the case of East Tennessee's civil war, one might add railroads to the contingent category. According to Keegan, these factors "have clearly limited the scope, intensity and duration of warmaking in many periods of human history."4 But permanent and contingent geography alone is not the only determinant of a successful military operation. According to an American General Staff officer writing during World War II, good commanders understand "the relationship between terrain and operations" and make necessary adjustments so that men, weapons and supplies can deploy at peak efficiency.5 Commanders in East Tennessee were often unable to properly adjust human capabilities to terrain conditions, and their military operations suffered accordingly. During the Civil War, rugged terrain and extreme weather greatly impeded logistics and provisioning in Upper East Tennessee, particularly in border areas without rail access, a situation placing additional burdens on the area's single railroad running from Knoxville northeast up to the Virginia