War at Every Door: Partisan Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee, 1860-1869 / Edition 1

by Noel C. Fisher

Overview

One of the most divided regions of the Confederacy, East Tennessee was the site of fierce Unionist resistance to secession, Confederate rule, and the Southern war effort. It was also the scene of unrelenting 'irregular,' or guerrilla, warfare between Union and Confederate supporters, a conflict that permanently altered the region's political, economic, and social landscape. In this study, Noel Fisher examines the military and political struggle for control of East Tennessee from the secession crisis through the early years of Reconstruction, focusing particularly on the military and political significance of the region's irregular activity. Fisher portrays in grim detail the brutality and ruthlessness employed not only by partisan bands but also by Confederate and Union troops under constant threat of guerrilla attack and government officials frustrated by unstinting dissent. He demonstrates that, generally, guerrillas were neither the romantic, daring figures of Civil War legend nor mere thieves and murderers, but rather were ordinary men and women who fought to live under a government of their choice and to drive out those who did not share their views.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807849880
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/03/2001
Series:	Civil War America
Edition description:	1
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	1490L (what's this?)

About the Author

Noel C. Fisher, who received his Ph.D. in history from The Ohio State University, is a freelance writer who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Read an Excerpt

The Switzerland of America

East Tennessee's position in the antebellum South was ambivalent. The mountain ranges that enclose this area on all sides cut East Tennessee off from ready communication with other regions, created a sense of isolation, and produced a set of distinct economic and cultural characteristics. East Tennessee was relatively poor in comparison with other parts of the Confederacy, and staple crop agriculture was largely absent. It relied little on slavery, and there are indications that by 1860 a free labor ideology had begun to take hold. At the same time, East Tennessee's rural structure was similar to that of other regions of the state, its manufacturing sector was still small, and its transportation systems provided links not with the North but rather with its Southern neighbors. Further, East Tennessee's political leaders, both Whig and Democrat, proudly identified themselves as Southerners, defended the institution of slavery, and supported Southern interests in Congress. East Tennessee's location in the Appalachians did not in itself separate it from the rest of the South. As John S. Inscoe and Kenneth Noe amply demonstrated, western North Carolina and southwest Virginia, Appalachian regions with economic structures similar to East Tennessee's, fully supported secession and supplied thousands of recruits to the Confederate army.[1]

The territory that became known as East Tennessee was not penetrated by Europeans until the late colonial period. Many of these early settlers came west from Virginia and North Carolina, while others drifted down the valleys from Pennsylvania. They gathered in four settlements on the Watauga, Nolichucky, and Holston Rivers and engaged in hunting, farming, trade with Native Americans, and land speculation. Their first years were chaotic and their future uncertain, for this land belonged to the Cherokee and by British regulations was closed to settlement. The white communities evaded British orders to withdraw behind the dividing line established by the Proclamation of 1763; they then attempted first to lease this area and then to purchase it outright. Many Cherokee resented the trespassers, however, and in 1776 tensions between the two groups erupted into war. The white settlers suffered considerable losses, but in 1777, aided by troops from North Carolina, they defeated the Cherokee and forced them to cede thousands of acres.[2]

The early settlements were also threatened by political disorder. Because surveys lagged behind settlement, it was unclear whether this territory belonged to Virginia or North Carolina. As a consequence, East Tennesseans lacked both legal and political institutions. To fill this political vacuum, in 1772 delegates established a new government, the Watauga Association, which consisted of a court of five members with both legislative and executive powers, a clerk, and a sheriff. It governed the settlements until 1776, when North Carolina formally annexed this region. The Watauga Association had many flaws, but it provided a measure of law and order, and East Tennessee's early historians proudly pointed to it as the first written constitution west of the Appalachian Mountains.[3]

The East Tennessee settlements were largely untouched by the first years of the Revolutionary War. But in 1780, after British forces had occupied much of North Carolina, the loyalist commander Major Patrick Ferguson demanded that the settlers on the frontier acknowledge British authority and threatened to raze their homes if they refused. In response, about one thousand volunteers from East Tennessee, North Carolina, and western Virginia marched across the mountains, overtook a loyalist force at King's Mountain, and nearly annihilated it. This victory, in conjunction with numerous American triumphs in the South in 1780 and 1781, ended the British threat. King's Mountain also established a powerful tradition of patriotism and national loyalty in East Tennessee.[4]

The conclusion of the Revolutionary War did not bring stability to East Tennessee. Despite its annexation of this region, North Carolina had been slow to incorporate the new settlements. The North Carolina legislature had established three counties, Washington, Greene, and Sullivan, with rudimentary governments, but the settlers still lacked effective representation in the state legislature, legal institutions, and security from Native American raids. This situation worsened in early 1784, when North Carolina ceded its western lands to the Confederation government, leaving the frontier settlements in a political limbo and depriving East Tennessee of government. Angry at their position, in late 1784 East Tennessee delegates again met in a convention, proclaimed their region the state of Franklin, organized a government, and applied to Congress for admission.

The premature bid for statehood proved disastrous. In response to North Carolina's opposition, Congress rejected petitions from Franklin for admission in both 1785 and 1786. North Carolina's governor then threatened to arrest the leaders of the Franklin movement and try them for treason. East Tennessee settlers split into pro- and anti-Franklin factions, the former headed by John Sevier and the latter by John Tipton, both wealthy land speculators and ambitious politicians. The two groups formed armed bands and struggled for control of political and judicial offices. The crisis peaked in 1788, when Tipton and his supporters arrested Sevier and took him to North Carolina for trial. The position of the Franklin government was further damaged by renewed war with the Cherokee in 1786-88. At the same time, the statehood movement spurred North Carolina to remedy its neglect of the frontier. In late 1784 North Carolina repealed the cession of its frontier lands, appointed a superior court judge and an Indian commissioner for the region, and established a militia. It also dropped its charges against Sevier and allowed him to return to East Tennessee. This combination of threats and improved government proved effective, and in 1789 the Franklin government collapsed. Nevertheless, the experience of Franklin and the desire for a separate East Tennessee state were not forgotten.[5]

From this point on, the fortunes of the East Tennessee settlers improved dramatically. In 1789 North Carolina again ceded its public lands to the new Federal government, opening huge tracts for sale and reviving hopes of self-government. In 1790 Congress organized East Tennessee and other frontier areas into the Southwest Territory, and President George Washington appointed William Blount, a wealthy land speculator and an early settler in East Tennessee, as governor. By 1795 the settlements in what would become East and Middle Tennessee had reached a sufficient population to apply for statehood, and in 1796 Congress, over Federalist objections, admitted the state of Tennessee. Rapid expansion followed political stability, and throughout the 1790s and early 1800s the Cherokee were repeatedly forced to cede land and move south to accommodate the region's rapidly growing white population. In 1817 and 1819 most Cherokee signed treaties giving up their remaining land in East Tennessee in exchange for territory across the Mississippi River, and in 1835 the few remaining families in the southeastern corner of East Tennessee were forcibly removed.[6]

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Switzerland of America
Chapter 2. Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water
Chapter 3. A State of Rebellion
Chapter 4. Hanging, Shooting, and Robbing
Chapter 5. An Enemy's Country
Chapter 6. Real or Supposed Danger
Chapter 7. Separation Is Best
Conclusion
Appendix A. Interpretations of East Tennessee Unionism
Appendix B. Unionist Informants and the Death of John Hunt Morgan
Appendix C. Vote on Secession in Tennessee, June 1861
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Author Biography: Noel C. Fisher, who received his Ph.D. in history from The Ohio State University, is a freelance writer who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

An important book. . . . A readable, informative study. . . . Ample reference material and statistics complement the text in a superb effort to integrate war and society from which we can learn much more about our Civil War—not necessarily the Civil War of 'Gettysburg' or even 'Gone with the Wind,' but perhaps a 'real civil war' within our traditionally understood conflict.—Civil War Courier



An important contribution to our understanding of the Civil War in a border area of the upper South.—Journal of American History



[Fisher's] presentation is balanced in a topic area where it is easy to become a partisan of one side to the controversy. His writing is clear, and his account is succinct and to the point. . . . A useful addition to the scholarship on the civilian experience in the South during the Civil War.—American Historical Review



Well researched and clearly written, Noel Fisher's work makes a solid contribution to understanding the meaning and nature of Civil War in the southern highlands.—Phillip S. Paludan, author of A People's Contest: The Union and Civil War, 1861-1865



Fisher is to be commended for bringing the war in east Tennessee to light. His text is well written and very well researched. . . . With broader knowledge of the situation in east Tennessee during and after the war (the fighting went on for two years after Appomattox), we see a clearer picture of how the war in east Tennessee affected the entire war effort on both sides.—Civil War News



No book so well demonstrates why we must go beyond traditional drum-and-bugle military history to understand the American Civil War. Noel Fisher shows how both Union and Confederate partisan irregulars preyed on the civilian population—and on each other—in wartime East Tennessee. War at Every Door is destined to become a classic.—Daniel W. Crofts, author of Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis



This book represents a major fresh perspective on the many faces of the Civil War, especially the relationship between conventional and partisan conflict. The war for East Tennessee was a 'war within a war' captured lucidly by this young military historian. It is Civil War history as it ought now to be written—across the spectrum of political, economic, social and military events and the people who made them.—B. Franklin Cooling, author of Fort Donelson's Legacy: War and Society in Kentucky and Tennessee, 1862-1863



Well researched and clearly written, this book will become the standard history of partisan warfare in east Tennessee.—Choice

Editorial Reviews

[Fisher's] presentation is balanced in a topic area where it is easy to become a partisan of one side to the controversy. His writing is clear, and his account is succinct and to the point. ("American Historical Review")

Ample reference material and statistics complement the text in a superb effort to integrate war and society from which we can learn much more about our Civil War--not necessarily the Civil War of 'Gettysburg' or even 'Gone with the Wind, ' but perhaps a 'real civil war' within our traditionally understood conflict. ("Civil War Courier")

An important contribution to our understanding of the Civil War in a border area of the upper South. ("Journal of American History")

Fisher is to be commended for bringing the war in east Tennessee to light. His text is well written and very well researched. ("Civil War News")

Well researched and clearly written, this book will become the standard history of partisan warfare in east Tennessee. ("Choice")

ÝFisher's¨ presentation is balanced in a topic area where it is easy to become a partisan of one side to the controversy. His writing is clear, and his account is succinct and to the point. ("American Historical Review")

From the Publisher

[Fisher's] presentation is balanced in a topic area where it is easy to become a partisan of one side to the controversy. His writing is clear, and his account is succinct and to the point.

American Historical Review

An important contribution to our understanding of the Civil War in a border area of the upper South.

Journal of American History

Fisher is to be commended for bringing the war in east Tennessee to light. His text is well written and very well researched.

Civil War News

Ample reference material and statistics complement the text in a superb effort to integrate war and society from which we can learn much more about our Civil War—not necessarily the Civil War of 'Gettysburg' or even 'Gone with the Wind, ' but perhaps a 'real civil war' within our traditionally understood conflict.

Civil War Courier

Well researched and clearly written, this book will become the standard history of partisan warfare in east Tennessee.

Choice