Did you know...during the civil war the Union Army, commanded by General Burnside, occupied Knoxville, TN with little opposition from the local populace. The Confederacy never had effective control of large areas of East Tennessee. Most people assume Tennessee was a Confederate State, while Tennessee did join the Confederacy, it did so reluctantly. In fact on the same day that Mississippi left the Union, the voters of Tennessee voted 80 percent against secession. There had been little slavery practiced in East Tennessee because of moral opposition and the limited agriculture in the Mountain regions. The two sides, Unionist and secessionist, stood at a stalemate until the bombardment of Ft. Sumter in early April 1861. While some favored immediate secession, others held that secession was unconstitutional. A larger number futilely hoped for some sort of settlement based on a constitutional compromise regarding the question of slavery. Even after the outbreak of war, Tennessee, like Missouri and Kentucky to its north, hoped that it could remain neutral.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 03:16:59 +0000
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