University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-1998 Rebel Salvation: The Story of Confederate Pardons Kathleen Rosa Zebley University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Zebley, Kathleen Rosa, "Rebel Salvation: The Story of Confederate Pardons. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1998. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3629 This Dissertation 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 Doctoral Dissertations 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 dissertation written by Kathleen Rosa Zebley entitled "Rebel Salvation: The Story of Confederate Pardons." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in History. Paul H. Bergeron, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Stephen V. Ash, William Bruce Wheeler, John Muldowny 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 dissertation written by Kathleen Rosa Zebley entitled "Rebel Salvation: The Story of Confederate Pardons." I have examined the final copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy, witha major in History. Accepted for the Council: Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of The Graduate School REBEL SALVATION: THE STORY OF CONFEDERATE PARDONS A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Kathleen Rosa Zebley December 1998 11 Copyright @KathleenRosa Zebley. 1998 All rights reserved lll DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents Mr. andMrs. Charles J. Zebley whose love and encouragement enabled me to achieve my goals. IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS While at the University of Tennessee, I have had the great fortune to meet wonderful people that I now consider to be dear friends. All have given me encouragement during these graduate school years, and their humor and counsel have been of inestimable value. I cannot imagine enduring this rigorous process of researching and writing a dissertation without the steadfast friendship of Jonathan and Jennifer Bass, Clint and Lisa Clifft, Jenny Heyl, Dr. Vejas G. Liulevicius, Susan R. McMillan, Andrew S. Moore, and Mark and Jane Williams. During my first year at UT, I had the honor and privilege to work as a research assistant for Dr. Milton M. Klein in the Office of the University Historian. Dr. Klein taught me a great deal about researching and writing history and continues to be a mentor and an example of a dedicated teacher and historian. The folks at the Office of Admission and Records helped to make this past year of graduate school an enjoyable one. The Registrar, Mr. Alfred Crews, and my supervisor, Mrs. Tammy Murphy, were kind enough to give me a graduate assistantship which allowed me the time to write the dissertation. I would also like to thank the History department for giving me valuable opportunities to teach and work with students, first as a graduate teaching assistant and later as a teaching associate. When I started to travel the highways in search of manuscript collectionsat various libraries, the History department awarded me a Bemadotte Schmitt Research Award which greatly helped to defray my expenses. I would also like to thank the North Caroliniana Society for the award of an ArchieK. Davis Research Fellowshipwhich allowed me to mine the extensive collections at variouslibraries in North Carolina. v The staff at the University of Tennessee's Special Collections offered many ideas and much assistance when I began my research on Civil War and Reconstruction in Tennessee. Their knowledge and helpfulness made my tasks much easier and enjoyable. I would also like to thank the staffs of the SouthernHistorical Collection at the University of North Carolina, ChapelHill, the Special Collections Library at Duke University, and the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh. All of these people were very friendly, professional, and took pleasure in sharing the richness of their collections with me. Much of my time was spent with the kind people who work in the Andrew Johnson PapersProject. Marion 0. Smith (who meticulously cataloged every ex­ Rebel who filed a pardon application), Patricia Cable, Glenna Schroeder-Lein, and Richard Zuczek were gracious enough to share their knowledge about various sources with me and took an interestin my progress. From the moment I stepped foot in the History department, Dr. Paul H. Bergeron has been an integral part of my graduate school experience at the university. He has imparted much wisdom, humor, and direction as we plotted my coursework and later, throughout the stages of the dissertation. He has always had great interest and faith in the topic and in my capabilities. Furthermore, he granted me the independence to venture out into the "wilderness" and gently redirected me when I wandered offtrack. Dr. Steven V. Ash, Dr. John Muldowny, and Dr. W. Bruce Wheeler generously devoted their time and expertise to reading this manuscript. In addition to their duties as committee members, each one offered suggestions and advice on teaching and researching which did much to influence my ownVIews. VI The greatest debt is owed to my family. My sisters Angele and Julie Ann have been supportive and always believed I could accomplish my goals. My grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Hoffpauir, took great interest in my education and offered many encouraging words and prayers. Truly, I have been blessed to have such a wonderful family. I could not have achieved any of this without the love of my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles J. Zebley. They were patient, understanding, and never wavered in their belief in me. Their emotional and financial support helped nie to earn my doctorate. The dedication of this dissertation to them is meant as a gesture of love and thanks for all they have done for me. Vll ABSTRACT On May 29, 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of Pardon and Amnesty and outlined the manner in which the provisional government of North Carolina would be organized. While the President's proclamation of amnesty absolved the majority of Confederates for their activities against the United States, fourteen classes, such as minor Confederate officeholders, high-ranking Confederate civil and military officials, men indicted for treason and those owning more than $20,000 worth of property in 1860, had to compose a pardon petition, swear an oath of allegiance, and forward the documents to their respective state governors who sent the documents to Washington. This study is the firstto mine and analyze the 850 pardon petitions filed by men in Tennessee and Western North Carolina in order to understand the factors which motivated men of varying social, educational, and economic backgrounds to link their futures with the Confederacy. Furthermore, these pardon petitions offer an immediate commentary on the mood of defeated Southerners and their anxieties as they waited for the terms of peace from the North. An analysis of the pardon documents explores the process of Reconstruction on a state and local level and emphasizes the role state governors played in executing the President's policy. In addition, the dissertation offers a corrective to those historians who have concentrated on the wealthy andelite southerners who applied for pardon, while ignoring a substantial number of number of men who aided the Confederacy by holding office, donating goods to the Rebel army, or who required a pardon to escape a trial for treason. Vlll President Johnson pardoned the overwhelmingmajority of ex-Confederates who applied, much to the chagrin of Congress. As Southerners exercised their right to vote and hold office, many elected ex-Rebels to local, state, and national offices. Alarmedat the defiance and recalcitrance, Congress decided that the President's plan wasa failure and that a different programhad to be instituted lX PREFACE While previous historians have occupied themselves with the study of Andrew Johnson's presidency or the competing visions of Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction, the subject of pardon and amnesty after the Civil War has remained uncharted territory. The only book on the topic, Pardon and Amnesty under Lincoln and Johnson, was written by JonathanT. Dorris in 1953. In it, Dorris confined his study to the principal civil and military leaders of the Confederacy, without systematically analyzing the thousands of pardon petitions filed by those Rebels who had served the Confederacy as postmasters,tax collectors, or as privates in the army. Since a body of secondary literature on this subject does not exist, the principal source for this dissertation is theAmnesty Papers of theNational Archives. After examining 850 pardon petitions from Tennessee and WesternNorth Carolina, one canbegan to grasp the motivations that prompted many to support the effort for southern independence and the anxieties that gripped the late Rebels as they awaited the terms of reconciliation from the North. This dissertation seeks to fill the yawning gap in the historyof Reconstruction by mining hundreds of pardon applications from a cross-section of Rebels. These petitions written to the President recall the chaotic times before and after secession, the violence and inhumanity that characterized the war andrelations on the homefront, and the poverty and destructionthat paralyzed the South in the summer and fall of 1865.