Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil WarAt the start of the Civil War, Knoxville, Tennessee, with a population of just over 4,000, was considered a prosperous metropolis little reliant on slavery. Although the surrounding countryside was predominantly Unionist in sympathy, Knoxville itself was split down the middle, with Union and Confederate supporters even holding simultaneous political rallies at opposite ends of the town's main street. Following Tennessee's secession, Knoxville soon became famous (or infamous) as a stronghold of stalwart Unionism, thanks to the efforts of a small cadre who persisted in openly denouncing the Confederacy. Throughout the course of the Civil War, Knoxville endured military occupation for all but three days, hosting Confederate troops during the first half of the conflict and Union forces throughout the remainder, with the transition punctuated by an extended siege and bloody battle during which nearly forty thousand soldiers fought over the town. In Lincolnites and Rebels, Robert Tracy McKenzie tells the story of Civil War Knoxville-a perpetually occupied, bitterly divided Southern town where neighbor fought against neighbor. Mining a treasure-trove of manuscript collections and civil and military records, McKenzie reveals the complex ways in which allegiance altered the daily routine of a town gripped in a civil war within the Civil War and explores the agonizing personal decisions that war made inescapable. Following the course of events leading up to the war, occupation by Confederate and then Union soldiers, and the troubled peace that followed the war, Lincolnites and Rebels details in microcosm the conflict and paints a complex portrait of a border state, neither wholly North nor South. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 55
Page 22
... Virginia Railroad , a line chartered in 1848 to run from Knoxville to Bristol , where it would in turn link with the Virginia and Tennes- see Railroad , 130 miles to the northeast . When the East Tennessee and Virginia was completed in ...
... Virginia Railroad , a line chartered in 1848 to run from Knoxville to Bristol , where it would in turn link with the Virginia and Tennes- see Railroad , 130 miles to the northeast . When the East Tennessee and Virginia was completed in ...
Page 78
... Virginia . The figure was prob- ably a bit high , but given Knoxville's position astride the major railroad route between Virginia and the western Confederacy , his estimate was probably not far off . The Parson probably felt as if he ...
... Virginia . The figure was prob- ably a bit high , but given Knoxville's position astride the major railroad route between Virginia and the western Confederacy , his estimate was probably not far off . The Parson probably felt as if he ...
Page 235
... Virginia , 1999 ) , p . 99 . Major works focusing on the Civil War in some portion of southern Appalachia include Mar- tin Crawford , Ashe County's Civil War : Community and Society in the Appalachian South ( Charlottesville ...
... Virginia , 1999 ) , p . 99 . Major works focusing on the Civil War in some portion of southern Appalachia include Mar- tin Crawford , Ashe County's Civil War : Community and Society in the Appalachian South ( Charlottesville ...
Other editions - View all
Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War Robert Tracy McKenzie Limited preview - 2006 |
Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War Robert Tracy McKenzie Limited preview - 2006 |
Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War Robert Tracy McKenzie Limited preview - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Appalachian April August Baxter Bragg Burnside Burnside's Civil claimed commander Confederacy Confederate Constitutional County Public Library December Democrats District East Tennessee East Tennessee Historical editor election entry February Federal Heiskell Historical Society's Publications Horace Maynard J. G. M. Ramsey James Longstreet January Johnson Papers June Knox County Knox County Public Knoxville Register Knoxville Whig Knoxville's Loyal Mountaineers loyalists loyalty March McAdoo Diary McClung Historical Collection military NARA Nashville Nelson nessee northern November October officer Oliver Temple Parson Brownlow party percent political president Provost Marshal railroad Records region Republican secession secessionists September 1863 slavery slaves South southern Special Collections Tennesseans Tennessee Historical Society's Tennessee Libraries Tennessee Press Tennessee's Thomas A. R. Nelson town town's townspeople troops Union army Union soldiers Unionists University of Tennessee University Press Violent Rebel W. G. Brownlow William G William Gannaway Brownlow William McAdoo Yankee York Zollicoffer