— Ch. 1 · The Secession Crisis —
Tennessee in the American Civil War.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
On the 9th of February 1861, a secret circular circulated among pro-slavery Tennesseans urging them to organize Southern Rights Anti-Coercion Societies. The document signed by Wm. Williams and others demanded that men devote their entire energies to the work from that hour until the election closed. They instructed readers not to wait for general meetings but to appoint committees in each Civil District immediately. This propaganda campaign aimed to convince voters that the secessionist movement was overwhelming when it was actually fragile. In February 1861, 54 percent of Tennessee voters rejected sending delegates to a convention on secession. The vote count reached 69,675 against the proposal compared to 57,798 in favor. Unionists displayed the American flag in every section of Nashville with zeal equal to the late 1860 presidential campaign. A crowd gathered around a bagpipe player playing Yankee Doodle on the corner across from the newspaper office. Ex-mayor John Hugh Smith gave a speech that received loud cheers from the assembled citizens. Governor Isham G. Harris convened an emergency session of the General Assembly in January 1861 to discuss the crisis. He described the secession of Southern states as caused by long continued agitation over slavery. Harris identified grievances with the Republican Party including high taxes on slave labor and the Underground Railroad. Despite these tensions, most Tennesseans showed little enthusiasm for breaking away from the nation they had shared struggles with for so long.
Rivers And Strategy
In February 1862, Ulysses S. Grant and the United States Navy captured control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. These waterways served as major military highways during the age of steamboats. Union gunboats had been scanning Confederate fort-building on the twin rivers for months before the campaign began. The idea of using the rivers to breach the Confederate defense line was well known by the end of 1861. Capture of Memphis and Nashville gave the Union control of the Western and Middle sections of the state. Control was confirmed at the battle of Murfreesboro in early January 1863. Andrew Johnson, an East Tennessean from Greeneville, was appointed military governor after Nashville fell. This marked the first time a Confederate state capital had fallen to Union forces. During this period, the military government abolished slavery though its legality remained questionable. The Confederates continued to hold East Tennessee despite strong Unionist sentiment there. Exceptions included strongly pro-Confederate Sullivan and Rhea Counties. The Battle of Shiloh occurred in April 1862 when Grant held off a Confederate counterattack. His area commander Henry Halleck received a promotion to General-in-Chief following these victories. The Tullahoma campaign led by William Rosecrans drove Confederates from Middle Tennessee with few casualties.