TS1_AHistoryOfTennessee

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State of Tennessee

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A History of Tennessee

The Land and Native People

ennessees great diversity in land, climate, rivers, and plant and animal lie is mirrored by a rich

and colorul past. Until the last 200 years o the approximately 12,000 years that this country has

been inhabited, the story o ennessee is the story o its native peoples. Te act that ennesseeand many o the places in it still carry Indian names serves as a lasting reminder o the signifcance

o its native inhabitants. Since much o ennessees appeal or settlers lay with the richness and

beauty o the land, it seems ftting to begin by considering some o the states generous natural gis.

ennessee divides naturally into three grand divisionsupland, oen mountainous, East

ennessee, Middle ennessee with its oothills and basin, and the low plain o West ennessee.

ravelers coming to the state rom the east encounter frst the loy Unaka and Smoky Mountains,

anked on their western slope by the Great Valley o East ennessee. Moving across the Valley

oor, they next ace the Cumberland Plateau, which historically attracted little settlement and

presented a barrier to westward migration. West o the Plateau, one descends into the CentralBasin o Middle ennesseea rolling, ertile countryside that drew hunters and settlers alike.

Te Central Basin is surrounded on all sides by the Highland Rim, the western ridge o which

drops into the ennessee River Valley. Across the river begin the low hills and alluvial plain o

West ennessee. Tese geographical grand divisions correspond to the distinctive political and

economic cultures o the states three regions.

ennessee possesses an advantageous climate or people and agriculture, with abundant rain-

all and a long, temperate growing season. Te area generally is ree rom the long droughts and

reezes o more extreme climes. Te three major rivers that ow around and across ennesseethe

Mississippi, ennessee and Cumberland Rivershave created watersheds which cover most othe state. Te ennessee River orms near Knoxville and ows in a southwesterly direction into

Alabama, then loops back north to the Kentucky border. Te Cumberland River drains northern

Middle ennessee, and West ennessee is covered by a network o sluggish streams, swamps and

lakes which ow directly into the Mississippi River. Tese rivers and their tributary streams have

Physiographic Map of Tennessee

0 25 50 75 100 Miles

Scale

Western Valley

Inner Basin

UnakaMountains

MississippiRiverValley

Eastern Highland Rim

Sequatchie Valley

WestTennesseePlain

WestT

enness

ee

Upla

nds

Coastal Plain

WesternHighland

Rim

CentralBasin Cumberland

Plateau

ValleyAndRidge

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played a signifcant role rom the earliest times by yielding fsh and mussels, by serving as major

transportation routes, and by creating the ertile bottom soils that attracted armers.

Fossil-laden rocks ound across ennessee

attest to the act that warm, shallow seas cov-ered the state in the distant past. Coal-bearing

strata o the Pennsylvanian period are present

throughout the Cumberland Plateau. Plant and

dinosaur ossils o the Cretaceous epoch occur

in the sandstones o West ennessee. Remains

o extinct mammoths, mastodons and giant

sloths, driven south by the advancing glaciers

o the Ice Age, can be ound in the Pleistocene

deposits o West and Middle ennessee.Te story o man in ennessee begins with

the last retreat o the Ice Age glaciers, when

a colder climate and orests o spruce and fr

prevailed in the region. Late Ice Age hunters

probably ollowed animal herds into this area

some 12,000-15,000 years ago. Tese nomadic Paleo-Indians camped in caves and rock shelters

and le behind their distinctive arrowheads and spear points. Tey may have used such Paleolithic

tools to hunt the mastodon and caribou that ranged across eastern ennessee. About 12,000 years

ago, the regions climate began to warm and the predominant vegetation changed rom conier toour modern deciduous orest. Abundant acorns, hickory, chestnut and beech mast attracted large

numbers o deer and elk. Warmer climate, the extinction o the large Ice Age mammals, and the

spread o deciduous orests worked together to transorm Indian society.

During what is known as the Archaic period, descendants o the Paleo-Indians began to set-

tle on river terraces, where they gathered wild plant ood and shellfsh in addition to hunting

game. Sometime between 3,000 and 900 B.C., natives took the crucial step o cultivating edible

plants such as squash and gourdsthe frst glimmerings o agriculture. Archaic Indians thereby

ensured a dependable ood supply and reed

themselves rom seasonal shortages o wild plantoods and game. With a more secure ood supply,

populations expanded rapidly and scattered bands

combined to orm larger villages.

Te next major stage o ennessee pre-history,

lasted almost 2,000 years and, is known as the

Woodland period. Tis era saw the introduction

o pottery, the beginnings o settled arming com-

munities, the construction o burial mounds and

the growing stratifcation o Indian society. NativeAmericans in ennessee made the transition rom

societies o hunters and gatherers to well-organized tribal, agricultural societies dwelling in large,

permanent towns.

Te peak o prehistoric cultural development in ennessee occurred during the Mississippian

period (900-1,600 A.D.). Cultivation o new and improved strains o corn and beans ueled another

Woodland Indians frst developed arming in Tennessee.

Early man hunted mastodon that roamed during the last Ice Age.


Early man hunted mastodon that roamed during the last Ice Age.


Tennessee Blue Book A History of Tennessee

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StateofTennessee

The Land and Native People Tennessee Blue Book

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NapoleonMozart

Shakespeare Columbus

Henry VIII - England

HistoricPeriod

Italian Renaissance

Mississippian

Period

Chartres Catheral

Fourth Crusade

First Crusade

Woodland

Period

Charlemagne

Old World Events ArchaeologicalPeriods

Fall of Rome

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0A.D.B.C.

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Jesus ChristHan Dynasty - China

Julius CaesarAlexander The Great

Roman Empire

Greek ParthenonBabylonian Empire

Founding of RomeKing Solomon

Rameses IITutankhamen

Trojan WarStonehenge

Shang Dynasty - China

Indus Civilization - Pakistan

Great Pyramid

Sumerian Civiliation

Bronze Age

Neolithic

Old World Domestication

of Plants And Animals

European upper paleolithic

Archaic

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large jump in population. An increase in territorial warare and the erection o ceremonial temples

and public structures attest to the growing role o chiefains and tribalism in Indian lie. Elaborate

pottery styles and an array o personal artiacts such as combs, pipes, and jewelry marked the

complex society o these last prehistoric inhabitants o ennessee.

Te rst European incursions into ennessee proved highly disruptive to the people living in

the region. In their utile search or gold and silver, Hernando de Sotos band in 1541 and two

later expeditions led by Juan Pardo encountered Native Americans. By introducing rearms and,

above all, deadly Old World diseases, these contacts hastened the decline o the tribes and theirreplacement by other tribes, notably the Cherokee. Te advent o the gun brought about major

changes in Native American hunting technique and warare. Indians grew increasingly dependent

on the colonial ur trade by supplying European traders with deer and beaver hides in exchange

or guns, rum and manuactured articles. Tis dependence, in turn, eroded the Indians traditional

sel-su cient way o lie and tied them ever closer to the ortunes o rival European powers.

Struggle for the Frontier

During the 150 years ollowing de Sotos visit, new tribes moved into the ennessee region. Tepowerul Cherokee built their towns and villages along the Hiwassee and Little ennessee Rivers,

while the Chickasaw Nation held sway over the territory west o the ennessee River. A large Ohio

Valley tribe, the Shawnee, moved south into the Cumberland River country, but by 1715 the last

Shawnee had been driven out by Chickasaw and Cherokee attacks. Henceorth, the game-lled

woods o Middle ennessee would be home to no Indian towns, although various tribes used it

as a common hunting ground.

Europeans resumed their exploration o the area in 1673, when both the British and the French,

came rom opposite directions to lay claim to the region. James Needham and Gabriel Arthur,

English traders rom Charles own (later Charleston), South Carolina, crossed the Appalachianshoping to establish trade contacts among the Cherokee. Far to the west, Father Jacques Marquette

and ur trader Louis Joliet came down the Mississippi River and claimed its entire valley in the

name o the King o France. In time, Britain and France would build orts and trading posts, trying

to reinorce their rival claims to unspoiled lands beyond the mountains.

Stone pipe rom Roane County (lef) and engraved shell gorget (right), both rom the Mississippian period


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Te early ur traders, colorul characters like Alexander Cummings, James Adair, and Martin

Chartier, lived among the Indians and became the crucial link between tribesmen, colonial gov-

ernments, and international markets. Tey employed Indian hunters to supply them with beaver

skins and deer pelts, which they carried on pack trains to Charles own or shipped down river toNew Orleans. South Carolina merchants dominated the early ennessee ur trade, exporting over

160,000 skins worth $250,000 in 1748 alone. Te ur trade was proftable or the traders, but it

wiped out much o ennessees native animal lie. Te competition or the Indian trade sharpened

Anglo-French rivalry, and the Indians were drawn into a global power struggle.

In 1754, the contest between the French and British or control o a New World empire burst

orth in the French and Indian War, in which native alliances became the objects o European

military strategy. English soldiers built Fort Loudoun near present-day Vonore in an eort to

keep the divided Cherokee loyal. Te plan backfred as Cherokee warriors laid siege to the ort

and starved out its garrison, most o whom were massacred on their march to captivity. Despitethe English disaster at Fort Loudoun, the outcome o the war was the deeat o the French and

the decline o their inuence in North America. France ceded all her claims to land east o the

Mississippi River to the British, whose Proclamation o 1763 prohibited all westward settlement

beyond the Appalachians. Although still a orce to be reckoned with, the Cherokee aced an

uncertain uture. Not only had their independence

been compromised by mixing in European aairs,

but the land they occupied lay squarely in the path

o migration across the mountains.

Te end o the French and Indian War broughta new presence to the ennessee wilderness,

as restless back-country Virginians and North

Carolinians began moving across the mountains

into the valleys o East ennessee. Tey ignored

the British prohibition against settling on Indian

lands. By the early 1770s, our dierent com-

munities had been established in northeastern

ennesseeon the Watauga River, the North

Holston, the Nolichucky, and in Carters Valley.With the ounding o these tiny settlements, ron-

tier diplomacy entered a new phase: the possession

o land, not trading privileges, now became the

white mans goal. When an extended survey o the

North Carolina-Virginia boundary line showed

most whites to be squatting illegally on Indian

land, the settlers negotiated leases or their arms

rom the Cherokee.

A race to grab western lands developed betweenNorth Carolina and Virginia land speculators, who

hoped to obtain cheap land rom the Indians and resell it at a proft to incoming settlers. Richard

Henderson o Hillsborough, North Carolina, settled the issue by boldly arranging a private treaty

with the Cherokee or the purchase o a vast tract that included most o Kentucky and Middle

ennessee. Henderson was the most ambitious speculator to take advantage o the Indians will-

Spanish explorers were the frst Europeans to encounter

native Tennesseans.

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Struggle for the Frontier Tennessee Blue Book

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ingness to trade land or money and goods, exchanging some 20 million acres or six wagon loads

o goods worth about 10,000 English pounds. Dragging Canoe, a young Cherokee chie opposed

to selling ancestral hunting grounds, warned the whites that they were purchasing a dark and

bloody ground. With other disafected warriors, Dragging Canoe retreated south to establish thewarlike Chickamauga tribe which plagued the ennessee settlements or the next twenty years.

Te men and women who ventured over the mountains to clear trees, plant elds, and build

houses in ennessee were a highly independent, sel-su cient breed. Teir desire or land brought

them into conict with the Indians, and their insistence on reedom rom arbitrary and remote gov-

ernment put them on a collision course with Great Britain. Tis independent spirit was expressed

in the writing o the Watauga Compact, a new model o sel-government or people who had

migrated beyond the reach o organized government. However, their persistence in settling on

Indian land brought hostility rom most o the natives who would align themselves with the British

in their conict with the colonists.In July 1776, the Cherokee launched well-orchestrated attacks on the East ennessee settle-

ments. Te Wataugans, led by their popular and soon-to-be-amous Indian ghter John Sevier,

repulsed the onslaught and swily counter-attacked. With the help o militia rom North Carolina

and Virginia, they invaded the heartland o the Cherokee and put their towns to the torch. Siding

with the British during the American Revolution proved disastrous or the Cherokee, as it gave

the Americans a pretext to reduce the tribes military power and to encroach urther on their land.

Te high-water mark o ennessees part in the Revolution came in the autumn o 1780. With

American ortunes lagging aer a series o military deeats, a motley orce o backwoodsmen and

armers destroyed a British and ory army at Kings Mountain, South Carolina. Tis key victory,

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Struggle for the Frontier Tennessee Blue Book

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in which ennessee militia played an important part, saved the Patriot cause in the region and set

in motion the chain o events that ended one year later with Cornwalliss surrender at Yorktown.

Te Revolution gave settlers an opening to

push the rontier westward to the CumberlandRiver. Intrepid long hunters had been trav-

eling to the Cumberland country since the

1760s. Men such as James Robertson, Kasper

Mansker, Tomas Sharpe Spencer, Anthony

and Abraham Bledsoe, and John Rains hunted

and trapped through Middle ennessee and

spoke o its richness to their neighbors at

home. On the heels o his vast ransylvania

land purchase, Henderson hired Robertsonand others to go there and survey the pros-

pects or settlement. In the winter and spring

o 1779, 300 pioneers black and white made the dif cult trek to the French Lick, the uture site

o Nashville. Most o the men came overland under Robertsons leadership, while John Donelson

led a otilla with the women and children on a hazardous voyage down the ennessee and up

the Cumberland River.

Tis rst band o settlers established a number o ortied stations and spread across the Central

Basin in search o good arm land. Tey withstood ourteen years o brutal attacks by Creek and

Chickamauga warriors rom the ennessee River towns. Nearly all o the earlyamilies lost someone in the ghting, but the Cumberland olk survived and

planted the seeds o uture communities. More settlers came, and in time the

Indian threat aded. reasure seeker, trader, hunter and

land speculator had ound the ennessee country, but

it would take the armer to hold what they had ound.

From Territory to Statehood

In the days beore statehood, ennesseans struggled to gaina political voice and suered or lack o the protection aorded

by organized government. Six countiesWashington, Sullivan and

Greene in East ennessee and Davidson, Sumner, and ennessee in the

Middle Districthad been ormed as western counties o North Carolina

between 1777 and 1788. Aer the Revolution, however, North Carolina

did not want the trouble and expense o maintaining such distant settle-

ments, embroiled as they were with hostile tribesmen and needing

roads, orts and open waterways. Nor could the ar-ung settlers

look to the national government, or under the weak, looselyconstituted Articles o Conederation, it was a government

in name only. Te westerners two main demandspro-

tection rom the Indians and the right to navigate the

Mississippi Riverwent largely unheeded during the 1780s.

Dragging Canoe

Tis painting by Peggy Harvill depicts a fatboat voyage o theDonelson party to Nashville, 1780.


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North Carolinas insensitivity led rustrated East ennesseans in 1784 to orm the breakaway

State o Franklin, also known as Frankland. Te ever-popular John Sevier was named governor,

and the fedgling state began operating as an independent but, unrecognized, government. At the

same time, leaders o the Cumberland settlements made overtures or an alliance with Spain, which

controlled the lower Mississippi River and was held responsible or inciting the Indian raids. Indrawing up the Watauga and Cumberland Compacts, early ennesseans had already exercised

some o the rights o sel-government and were prepared to take political matters into their own

hands. Such stirrings o independence caught the attention o North Carolina, which quietly began

to reassert control over its western counties. Tese policies and internal divisions among East

ennesseans doomed the short-lived State o

Franklin, which passed out o existence in 1788.

When North Carolina nally ratied the new

Constitution o the United States in 1789, it also

ceded its western lands, the ennessee country,to the Federal government. North Carolina had

used these lands as a means o rewarding its

Revolutionary soldiers, and in the Cession Act

o 1789 it reserved the right to satisy urther

land claims in ennessee. Congress now des-

ignated the area as the erritory o the United

States, South o the River Ohio, more com-

monly known as the Southwest erritory. Te

erritory was divided into three districtstwo or East ennessee and the Mero District on theCumberlandeach with its own courts, militia and o ceholders.

President George Washington appointed as territorial governor William Blount, a prominent North

Carolina politician with extensive holdings in western lands. Land grant acts passed in North Carolina

created a booming market in ennessee land beore actual settlers had ever arrived. Land specula-

tion was based upon cheaply amassing large amounts o western land, or claims to it, in hopes that

Attack on Fort Nashborough, 1781

Overmountain men muster at Sycamore Shoals before the battle of Kings Mountain in this painting by Lloyd Branson, courtesy

of the Tennessee State Museum

StateofTennessee

From Territory to Statehood Tennessee Blue Book

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Tennesseeca.1796;notetheseparationofEastandMiddleTennesseebyIndianterritory.


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AttributedtoDanielSmith,thismapservedasaguideforprospec

tiveimmigrants.

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increased immigration would raise the price o these lands. Most o ennessees early political

leadersBlount, Sevier, Henderson, and Andrew Jackson, among otherswere involved in land

speculation, making it dif cult sometimes to tell where public responsibility le o and private

business began. Te sale o public land was closely linked to Indian aairs, because settlers wouldnot travel to the new land until it was sae and could

not legally settle on lands until Indian title was extin-

guished. Te business o the territorial government,

thereore, centered on land and Indian relations.

Despite the governments prohibition, settlers

continually squatted on Indian land, which only

increased the natives hostility. Indian warare ared

up in 1792, as Cherokee and Creek warriors bent on

holding back the tide o white migration launchedrequent attacks. Te Cumberland settlements, in

particular, were dangerously remote and exposed

to Creek raiding parties, and by 1794 it seemed

questionable whether these communities could

withstand the Indian onslaught. Exasperated by the

unwillingness o the Federal government to protect

them, the Cumberland militia took matters into their

own hands. James Robertson organized a strike orce

that invaded the Chickamauga country, burned the renegade Lower owns, and eliminated thethreat rom that quarter. Te Nickajack Expedition and threats o similar action against the Creeks

nally brought a halt to raids on the Cumberland settlements.

With rontier warare subsiding, the way seemed clear or peaceul growth and the possible

creation o a state or the people o the Southwest erritory. In 1795, a territorial census revealed

a suf cient population or state-

hood, and a reerendum showed

a three-to-one majority in avor

o joining the Union. Governor

Blount called or a constitutionalconvention to meet in Knoxville,

where delegates rom all the

counties drew up a model state

constitution and democratic bill

o rights. Te voters chose Sevier

as governor, and the newly elected

legislature voted or Blount and

William Cocke as senators, and

Andrew Jackson as representa-tive. ennessee leaders thereby

converted the territory into a new

state, with organized government

and constitution, beore applying to Congress or admission. Since the Southwest erritory was the

rst Federal territory to present itsel or admission to the Union, there was some uncertainty about

Indian warriors lying in ambush.

Gov. Blount summons Tennessees first territoriallegislature.


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Page rom Tennessee's frst Constitution, adopted in 1796

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how to proceed, and Congress divided on the issue along party lines. Nonetheless, in a close vote

on June 1, 1796, Congress approved the admission o ennessee as the sixteenth state o the Union.

Tennessees Coming of AgeOnce the threat o Indian warare had subsided, the pace o settlement and growth in ennessee

quickened. A brisk business in public lands arose rom the continued issue o North Carolina

military warrants, which ennessee agreed to honor with grants within its boundaries. Afer

1806, the state also began to dispose o its public domain by selling o unclaimed land or a

nominal ee. Cheap public land and the circulation o so many old claims had the desired eect

o attracting settlers rom the East.

Even more avorable or immigra-

tion were the various cessions oIndian land negotiated between 1798

and 1806. reaties signed with the

Cherokee and Chickasaw during that

period resulted in the acquisition o

much o south-central ennessee and

most o the Cumberland Plateau,

nally removing the Indian barrier

between the eastern counties and the

Cumberland settlements. ennesseenow had jurisdiction over contigu-

ous territory rom east to west, which

made it easier or westward travellers to reach Middle ennessee.

With so much resh landsome o it quite ertileopening or settlement, the state experienced

a very rapid rate o population growth. Between 1790 and 1830, ennessees growth rate exceeded

that o the nation, as each successive Indian

treaty opened up a new rontier. Between

1790 and 1800 the states populace tripled.

It grew 250% rom 1800 to 1810, increas-ing rom 85,000 to 250,000 during the

rst ourteen years o statehood alone.

By 1810, Middle ennessee had moved

ahead o the eastern section in popula-

tion. his demographic shit caused a

shif in the balance o political power, as

leadership in the governors o ce and the

General Assembly passed rom the older

region o East ennessee to the middlesection, particularly the up-and-coming

town o Nashville. Te state capitol, at Knoxville rom 1796 to 1812,

moved to Nashville rom 1812 to 1817, then returned briey to Knoxville.

From 1818 to 1826 the General Assembly met in Murreesboro, and in

1826 the capitol moved to its permanent site in Nashville.

1

Iti

a

t

s

l

rse

town o Nashville. Te state c

moved to Nashville rom 1812 to

From 1818 to 1826 the General

1826 the capitol moved to its pe

An 1827 land grant with plat showing the metes and bounds of the tract


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MapofIndianTreaties,1770-1835

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Tennessees Coming of Age Tennessee Blue Book

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Slavery played a major role in ennessees rapid expan-

sion. Te territorial census o 1791 showed a black population

o 3,41710 percent o the general population; by 1800, it

had jumped to 13,584 (12.8 percent) and by 1810, AricanAmericans constituted over 20 percent o ennessees people.

More black slaves were brought to the state ollowing the inven-

tion o the cotton gin and the subsequent rise o commercial

cotton arming. Slavery, because it depended on the cultiva-

tion o labor-intensive crops such as tobacco and cotton, was

always sectional in its distribution, and it quickly became more

prevalent in Middle ennessee than in the mountainous East.

By 1830, there were seven times as many slaves west o the

Cumberland Plateau as in East ennessee.In addition to blacks brought involuntarily into the state,

a sizeable number o ree blacks lived in early ennessee. Te

1796 Constitution had granted sufrage and relative social

equality to ree blacks and made it easy or owners to manumit,

or ree, their slaves. With the growing commercial success o slavery, however, laws were passed that

made it di cult or an owner to ree his slaves, and the position o ree blacks in ennessee became

more precarious. A reaction against the expansion o

slavery developed with the emancipation movement,

making early headway in the eastern section. In 1819,Elihu Embree established at Jonesborough the rst

newspaper in the United States devoted entirely

to reeing slaves, the Manumission Intelligencer

(later called the Emancipator). By the 1820s, East

ennessee had become a center o abolitionisma

staging ground or the issue that would divide not

only the state but the nation as well.

With the opening o ormer Indian lands, and the

heavy migration into the state, the period rom 1806to 1819 was one o prosperity and rapid development

in ennessee. Tirty-six o ennessees 95 counties

were ormed between 1796 and 1819. Raw, isolated settlements developed quickly into busy

county seats, and the ormerly beleaguered outpost o Nashville grew into one o the leading

cities o the Upper South.

Still, with 80 percent o its people engaged in agriculture, ennessee retained an overwhelm-

ingly rural character. Although most armers

worked simply to supply the ood needs

o their amilies, income could be maderom selling certain cash crops. Cotton

and tobacco were commercial crops rom

the beginning. Tey were protable, easily

transported, and could be worked on large arms, or plantations, with slave labor. ennessee

armers also converted corn, the states most important crop, into meal, whiskey, or (by eeding

Te typical ennessee arm was a sel-suf cient enterprise.

Slave traders taking slaves to ennessee tobe sold at auction.


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it to hogs) cured pork and shipped it by keelboat

or fatboat to Natchez and New Orleans. Land-

locked as they were and plagued by poor roads,

early ennesseans relied mainly on rivers to movetheir crops to market.

Most types o manuacturing like spinning cloth,

soap-making, and orging tools were done in the

arm household. Even larger enterprises like grist-

mills, sawmills, tanneries and distilleries centered

around the processing o arm products. Te one

true industry in early ennessee was iron-making.

Frontier ironworks had been erected in upper East

ennessee by men who had brought knowledge o the cra rom Pennsylvania. Beginning withJames Robertsons Cumberland Furnace in 1796, Middle ennessee ironmasters built numerous

urnaces and orges to capitalize on the abundant iron ores o the western Highland Rim region.

Tese were complicated enterprises employing

hundreds o men (slave and ree) to dig the ore,

cut the wood or charcoal and operate the urnace.

Te early ennessee iron industry supplied black-

smiths, mill owners and armers with the metal

they needed and laid the groundwork or uture

industrial development.As nearly all arm work was perormed by

hand and much o the settlers time was devoted

to raising or making the goods necessary to sur-

vive, little time remained or cultural diversions.

All able-bodied men were subject to militia duty,

and the militia musters served as estive social

occasions or the whole county. Tere was little

opportunity or organized religious practice in

the early days and ew ministers to preach. In the absence o ormal churches, the camp meet-ingconducted by itinerant and sel-taught ministersserved as the main arena or rontier

religion. Tese revivals were the chie means by which the Methodist and Baptist aiths gained

new converts. Presbyterianism was much in evidence because

o the prevalence o Scot-Irish settlers in early

ennessee. Presbyterianism, unlike the other two

denominations, insisted on an educated clergy,,

accounting or much o the early develop-

ment o schools in ennessee. Ministers such

as Reverend Samuel Doak in East ennesseeand Reverend Tomas Craighead in Middle

ennessee ounded academies in the 1790s

that became the seed o uture educational

institutions. Academies chartered by the state were

supposed to receive part o the proceeds

Flatboats and steamboats allowed farmers to send their

crops to market.

Great Western furnace in Stewart County, a typical early

iron works

A Methodist camp meeting

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rom the sale o state lands, but

this rarely happened. While state

support or education languished,

ministers and private teacherstook the lead in setting up schools

across the state.

Relations between whites

and Native Americans had been

relatively peaceul ater 1794,

although trespassing on Indian

land was rampant and lie contin-

ued to be hazardous or settlers

in outlying areas. As ennesseanspushed west and south toward the

ennessee River, however, they

began to press upon Creek terri-

tory and hostilities resumed. Te

Creeks were the most ormidable tribe on the ennessee borders, and they were widely believed

to be under the infuence o belligerent British and Spanish agents. In 1812, moreover, ominous

rumors reached the rontier o a warlike conederacy o the Ohio Valley tribes led by ecumseh

and his brother, the Prophet. ecumseh had visited the Creek Nation the year beore to urge the

southern tribesmen to join his warrior crusade to roll back white settlement. His prophecy thatthe earth would tremble as a sign o the impending struggle was seemingly

conrmed by a series o massive earthquakes which

convulsed western ennessee and created Reeloot

Lake.

Anti-British sentiment ran high in ennessee,

and ennesseans were easily disposed to link the

Indian threat with British outrages on the high

seas. Led by Felix Grundy o Nashville, the states

representatives were prominent among the WarHawks in Congress who clamored or war with

Great Britain. When war was declared in June 1812

(with the unanimous assent o ennessees delega-

tion), ennesseans saw an opportunity to rid their

borders once and or all o Indians. Teir chance came soon enough.

News reached Nashville in August 1813 o the massacre o some 250 men, women and children

at Fort Mims, Alabama. ecumsehs message had taken hold, and the Creek Nation was split by

civil war. Te Fort Mims attack was carried out by the war action, called Red Sticks, under their

chie, William Weatherord. Governor Willie Blount immediately called out 2,500 volunteersand placed them under the command o Andrew Jackson. Jacksons 1813-1814 campaign against

Weatherords warriors, known as the Creek War, really constituted the Southern phase o the War

o 1812. Despite a chronic shortage o supplies, lack o support rom the War Department and

mutiny, Jacksons militia army prevailed in a series o lopsided victories over the Red Sticks. His

victory at the Battle o ohopeka (Horseshoe Bend) utterly destroyed Creek military power and

Te Creek War was a civil war among the Creek Nation, in which many chies,including McIntosh (lef) and Yoholo-Micco (right), ought with the Americansagainst the Red Sticks.

ecumseh (lef) and his brother, the Prophet, leaders o thelast great Indian conederacy in the East


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propelled not only Jackson, but also his lieu-

tenants William Carroll and Sam Houston, to

national prominence.

On the heels o his success against theIndians, Andrew Jackson was appointed

major general in the U. S. Army and given

command o the Southern military dis-

trict just in time to meet an impending

British invasion o the Gul Coast. Having

secured Mobile and driven the British out

o Pensacola, Jackson hurriedly marched his

troops to New Orleans to rendezvous with

other ennessee units converging to deendthe city. On January 8, 1815, Jacksons ragtag

troops inficted a crushing deeat on a veteran British army under Sir Edward Pakenham, who was

killed along with hundreds o his soldiers. Te Americans su-

ered 23 casualties. Despite having occurred een days aer the

signing o the peace treaty with Great Britain, the Battle o New

Orleans was a brilliant victory and one o the ew unequivocal

American successes o the war. Tis triumph launched Andrew

Jackson on the road to the presidency. Tree years later he led yet

another orce composed largely o ennesseans into Floridaanaction supposedly directed against the Seminoles but one that

convinced Spain to cede Florida to the United States.

For ennessee, these military campaigns resulted in the clear-

ing o Indian claims to nearly all o the state. Te Chickasaw

reaty o 1818, negotiated by Jackson and Governor Isaac

Shelby o Kentucky, extended ennessees western boundary

to the Mississippi River and opened up a rich, new agricultural

region or settlement. Instead o the two-thirds to three-ourths

o the state occupied or claimed by Indians during the rst year o statehood, the only Indiansremaining in ennessee by 1820 were squeezed into the southeast corner o the state. Te heavy

inlux o settlers and a booming land

market in West ennessee ueled a rantic

period o business prosperity, which ended

abruptly with the Panic o 1819. Tis brie

but violent economic depression ruined

most banks and many individuals. he

states economy bounced back quickly,

however, as West ennessee became oneo the centers o the Souths new cotton

boom. Having gained stature by their recent martial successes, ennesseans could look back on

their rst quarter century o statehood as a period o growth and prosperity comparable to that

o any state in the young nation.

An 1818 Tennessee State bank note

Map from Andrew Jacksons report on the

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Creek Chief Weatherford surrenders to Jackson.

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The Age of Jackson

Te rapid settlement o West ennessee brought to a close the rontier phase o ennessees

history. Tereafer, the state served more as a seedbed or migration to other states than as adestination or emigrants. Forever restless and searching or resh land, ennesseans requently

were in the vanguard o westward migration. Tey were prominent among the pioneer settlers o

Arkansas, exas, Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama and joined enthusiastically in the

Caliornia gold rush.

ransportation needs loomed large as ennessee sought to widen its tra c with the rest o the

United States. By 1820, the rst steamboats had reached Nashville, providing the midstate region

with quicker, more reliable service to downriver markets. Goods ofen arrived at Nashville by

steamboat and then were transported overland on roads that radiated rom the city like the spokes

o a wheel. Te most amous o these roads, the Natchez race, connected Middle ennessee

directly with the lower Mississippi River. Memphis was established in the southwestern corner

o the state afer the Chickasaw reaty and, quickly developed into a thriving river port on the

strength o its steamboat tra c. Cotton bales rom delta plantations were carted into Memphis

to be loaded onto boats and shipped to New Orleans.

More di cult was the situation o land-locked East ennessee, which, because o the MuscleShoals and other obstructions on the ennessee River, lacked a ready outlet to the western waters.

Although the steamboat Atlas managed the rst upstream navigation as ar as Knoxville in 1828,

East ennesseans saw their uture in better roads and other improvements to connect them with

cities on the eastern sea-

board. As early as the 1830s,

businessmen in that section

began asking or state assis-

tance in building railroads.

Generally averse to govern-ment spending and with a

capital city already served

by ine waterways, how-

ever, ennessee got a late

start in railroad construc-

Memphis waterfront Nashville wharf


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tion. Te state had no railroad mileage in

1850, but by 1860 1,200 miles o track had

been laid, most o it in East ennessee. So

meager were the commercial ties betweenthe middle and eastern sections that no

line connected Knoxville directly with

Nashville. East ennessee began to develop

coal mines and industries that, together

with its eastward railway connections,

caused that section to diverge even urther rom the rest o the state.

ennessee agriculture achieved great success during this period. In 1840, the state was the largest

corn producer in the nation, and in 1850 it raised more hogs than any other state. Tis success was

due as much to the ready access to markets enjoyed by ennessee armers as it was to the naturalertility o their land. ennessees corn and hog arms contributed a large share o the oodstufs

going downriver to supply Deep South plantations.

Diversication was also a strength. While much

o the South was caught up in the cotton mania

and devoted so much land to the cash crop that

ood had to be imported, ennessee developed a

varied arm economy. Farmers in diferent parts

o the state raised mules and livestock and pro-

duced vegetables and ruits, hemp and tobacco, andvarious grains in abundance. ennessee served as a

breadbasket to the Cotton South, tying it to its sis-

ter southern states and setting it apart rom them.

Another sign o ennessees emergence rom

the rontier stage was the rapid development o

cultural and intellectual lie. Nashville became an

early center o the arts and education in the South. Music publishing gained a oothold here as

early as 1824, making possible the preservation o many traditional American tunes. By the 1850s,

the University o Nashville had grown into one o the nations oremost medical schools, trainingmany o the physicians who practiced in the trans-Appalachian West.

Te noted Philadelphia architect William Strickland came to Nashville in 1845 to design and

build the new state capitol, one o the nest examples o Greek revival architecture in the country.

Strickland, Nathan Vaught, and the Prussian-born architect Adolphus Heiman also designed a

number o ornate churches and residences in Middle ennessee. Te patronage o businessmen in

the towns and wealthy planters in the country-

side gave employment to a considerable number

o silversmiths, engravers, urniture makers,

stencil cutters, printers, and music teachers.Early ennessee portrait painters, most nota-

bly Ralph E. W. Earl, Washington B. Cooper

and Samuel Shaver, turned out a large volume

o technically competent, direct likenesses that

were well suited to the sober Presbyterian char-

Mule power farming

StateofTennessee

The Age of Jackson Tennessee Blue Book

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acter o their subjects. Antebellum ennessee supported a

sizeable community o indigenous crafsmen and artists,

who nonetheless had always to compete against imported

goods brought rom Eastern cities.Te period rom 1820 to 1850 was a golden age or

ennessee politicsa time when the states political leaders

wielded considerable inuence in the aairs o the nation.

None had more o an impact than Andrew Jackson, whose

campaigns revolutionized American electoral politics.

Jackson was unsuccessul in his irst bid or the presi-

dency in 1824, although he received more o the popular

and electoral vote than any other candidate. His election

by landslide majorities in 1828 and 1832 brought hugenumbers o new voters into the system and ushered in the

triumph o western democracy. Gone were the old Virginia

and New England aristocrats who had dominated the White

House. With Jackson, the torch passed to the heroes o the common man. His image-conscious

campaigns made it di cult or anyone to be elected president who could not identiy himsel with

the workers and armers o the country. Long afer his second term expired, Jackson continued

to cast a long shadow over ennessee and national politics, with politicians generally dening

themselves according to where they stood on Jackson and his policies.

Te headstrong chie executive weathered several crises during his eight-year presidency. Hisveto o a major internal improvements bill, his war against the Second Bank o the United States,

Te Political Barbeque shows how Jackson was a force for political passions.

Depicted muzzling the chief, Henry Clay wasJacksons great rival.


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and his clash with the South Carolina nullifers led by John C. Calhoun were signifcant marks

o Jacksons administrationpolitical victories that nonetheless cost the president a good deal

o support.

Most signifcant or ennessee, however, was Jacksons Indian removal policy. Te eort toremove the remnants o the Southern tribes to land beyond the Mississippi River grew out o

Georgias attempts to take over Cherokee land and property in that state. Te Cherokee in north

Georgia and southeast ennessee had long since adopted much o the white mans civilization

some were slaveholders and prosperous armers, they had their own newspaper and constitution,

and many were more literate than their white neighbors. Georgia was allowed to proceed with

its grasping evictions because President Jackson reused to enorce the Supreme Court decisionprotecting Cherokee autonomy. Instead, he actually ordered the Army to begin preparations to

removeorcibly i necessarythe Cherokee rom their ancestral land. With the power o the

Federal government arrayed against them, a handul o tribal members gave in and signed the

removal treaty in 1835, but most steadastly opposed giving up their land. Many Cherokee were

still on their land in 1838 when the U.S. Army was dispatched to evict them and send them on a

woeul trek to Indian erritorythe rail o ears. A small band o Cherokee who reused to

comply with orced removal escaped into the Smoky Mountains where their descendants still live.

Tese fnal lands taken rom the once powerul Cherokee were quickly sold by the state to settlers,

who soon turned Chie John Rosss Landing into the town o Chattanooga.Among other leading politicians o ennessees golden age, ironically, were several who devel-

oped their careers in opposition to Jackson and his party. William Carroll served six terms as

governor rom 1821 through 1835, despite a conspicuous lack o support rom Jackson. David

Crockett, Hugh Lawson White, Ephraim Foster, James C. Jones, Newton Cannon and John Bell

made their political ortunes as part o the anti-Democratic opposition. While some business-

Te rail of ears by Robert Lindneux, courtesy of the Woolaroc Museum

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men resented Jacksons war on the national bank, others elt excluded by Jacksons tight circle o

political handlers. More signifcantly, many ennesseans, particularly in the eastern division,

avored internal improvements and government aid to industrymeasures generally at odds

with Jacksonian economic policy.As a result, Andrew Jacksons home state, became a birthplace o the anti-Jackson Whig Party

and a battleground or two evenly-matched political parties. Whig

candidates or governor won six out o nine contests between 1836

and 1852; all o the races were extremely close with none o the

victorious candidates receiving as much as 52 percent o the vote.

Whigs also carried ennessee in six consecutive presidential elec-

tions. Te state went so ar as to vote against native Democratic

James K. Polk or president in 1844. Te ebb and ow o the

Democrat and Whig rivalry marked the high point o electoralpolitics in ennessee. Voter participation rates reached all-time

highs due to the ferce competitiveness o the two parties, plentiul

political talent, the mass appeal o stump speeches and barbecues

or rural voters, and the wide readership o partisan newspapers.

ennessee earned the nickname o Volunteer State during this

period or its role in Americas wars o expansion. Te list o ennesseans who fgured prominently

in the War o 1812, the exas Revolution, the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War is impres-

sive. Jackson and his troops saved the Gul Coast rom British and Spanish claims and orced

Native American tribes to give up major portions o ennessee,Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky. Jacksons expedi-

tion into Florida in 1818 frst brought that territory into the

American hold. In 1836, ennesseans David Crockett and Sam

Houston led the fght or exan independence at the Alamo and

San Jacinto. Tat same year William Lauderdale took a militia

orce into central Florida to subdue the Seminoles. ennesseans

volunteered in large numbers or the war with Mexico and bore

the brunt o fghting in several key battles. Perhaps the ulti-

mate military adventurer was Nashvillian William Walker, whoduring the 1850s led several reebooting expeditions to carve

out independent, slaveholding

republics in Lower Caliornia

and Central America.

ennessee supplied political as well as military leadership or

an aggressive young nation seeking to expand its borders. Felix

Grundy declared in 1811 that he was anxious not only to add

the Floridas to the South, but the Canadas to the North o this

empire. ennessees congressional representatives were leadingWar Hawks in 1812 and throughout the conict with Mexico.

Having already removed the Southern tribes rom millions o acres

o land, Jacksons fnal act as president was to recognize the Lone

Star Republic. When James K. Polk o Maury County was elected

president in 1844, his frst act was to annex exas. Te MexicanSam Houston

James K. Polk

David Crockett


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War was primarily a war o Southern expansion, and when it was over the Polk administration

had added Caliornia, Oregon, and the New Mexico territory to the countrynearly as much

land as the Louisiana Purchase. ennessees political golden age thus overlapped with an era

when vast domains were added to the nation, in part through the military and political exploitso ennesseans.

Having supplied much o the manpower or the war with Mexico, most ennesseans resented

it when anti-slavery Northerners chose the moment o their triumph to raise the issue o ban-

ning slavery in the newly-won territories. Te Wilmot Proviso, which sought to do just that, was

introduced in Congress in 1848 and it set the match to the political powder keg o slavery.

ennessees slave population had increased at a aster rate than the general populace, growing

rom 22.1 percent o the states inhabitants in 1840 to 24.8 percent in 1860. Ownership o slaves

was concentrated in relatively ew hands: only 4.5 percent o the states white populace (37,000 out

o 827,000) were slaveholders in 1860. As the world cotton market and the plantation economythat supplied it geared up, the value o slaves (and, hence, their importance to slave owners) rose.

Nashville and Memphis were renowned centers o the slave trade. Te proftability o cotton

and slave labor made planters determined

to resist Northern attacks on their peculiar

institution.

In the early 1830s, two events signaled a

hardening o ennessees position on slavery.

Te Virginia slave uprising led by Nat urner

badly rightened slave owners, promptingwhites in ennessee to step up patrols or

runaways and tighten the codes regulating

slave conduct, assembly and movement.

Amendment o the state Constitution in

1834 to prohibit ree blacks rom votingSlaves picking cotton.

Storming of Chapultepec: heavy enlistment for the Mexican War gave Tennessee the name Volunteer State.

StateofTennessee


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relected whites growing apprehen-

siveness over the Arican Americans

living in their midst. Free blacks were

pressured to leave the state, and rumorso planned slave insurrections kept ten-

sion high. ennessee, which earlier had

been home to a peaceul emancipation

movement, but by the 1850s it became

sharply polarized between anti-slavery

advocates in East ennessee and diehard

deenders o slavery in West ennessee.

From 1848 onward, slavery became a

national issue and overshadowed stateissues in the political arena. Political

parties and church denominations broke apart over slavery. Newspapers waged a vicious war o

words over abolitionism and the ate o the Union. Angry over northern intererence with slavery,

delegates rom across the South met in 1850 at the Southern Convention in Nashville to express

their defance. With strong economic ties and even stronger social and cultural bonds to the Lower

South, ennessee supported the pro-slavery movement but not, generally speaking, secessionism.

ennessee was home to a powerul nationalist tradition, orged through decades o volunteer

duty, and most o its citizens were loath to ollow Deep South fre-eaters in breaking up the

Union. Te rest o the country stood poised on the brink o disaster in 1860.

The Time of Troubles

Unaected by the strident political rhetoric o the 1850s, commerce and arm wealth had

climbed to unprecedented heights. o some ennesseans the prosperity o the decade only con-

frmed the superiority o the Southern agrarian systemslavery and all. With more capital than

ever invested in slaves, planters did not intend willingly to suer the loss o that property or even to

have restrictions put on its use. Tey viewed the election o Abraham Lincoln to the presidency and

the elevation o his anti-slavery Republican Party to national power in 1860 as a disaster. Lincolnhad so little support in ennessee that his name was not even on the ballot. Tough relatively

small in numbers, slaveholders exerted great inuence over the political aairs o Middle and West

ennessee, and they were convinced that the time had come or a break with the North. Tey had

a staunch ally, moreover, in Governor Isham Harris who was ardently pro-secession and worked

hard to align ennessee with the ten states that had already le the Union.

Most ennesseans initially showed little enthusiasm or breaking away rom a nation whose

struggles it had shared or so long. In 1860, they had voted by a slim margin or the Constitutional

Unionist John Bell, a native son moderate who continued

to search or a way out o the crisis. In February o 1861,54 percent o the states voters voted against sending del-

egates to a secession convention. With the fring on Fort

Sumter in April, ollowed by Lincolns call or 75,000 vol-

unteers to coerce the seceded states back into line, public

sentiment turned dramatically against the Union. GovernorLucy Pickens, born in Fayette County, waspictured on this Confederate bank note.


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Harris began military mobilization, submitted an

ordinance o secession to the General Assembly,

and made direct overtures to the Conederate gov-

ernment. In a June 8 reerendum, East ennesseeheld frm against separation while West ennessee

returned an equally heavy majority in avor. Te big

shi came in Middle ennessee, which went rom 51

percent against secession in February to 88 percent

in avor in June. Having ratifed by popular vote its

support or the edgling Conederacy, ennessee

became the last state to withdraw rom the Union. Te die was cast or war.

Much is made o the glory and great deeds that occurred during the next our years. Without

diminishing in any measure the heroism o both soldiers and civilians, o women as well as men,the act remains that this was the worst o times or ennessee and its people. Te trauma o

war brought out greatness in some, but the worst in many more.

Hardship visited households rom one end o the state to the other

and ew amilies were spared suering and loss during the conict.

Great battles were ought in ennessee as much as in any theater

o the war, and the men who ought them deserve the respect o

posterity or their sacrifces. For most ennesseans, however, the

period rom 1861 to 1865 was a grim, brutish time when death

and ruin ruled the land.ennessee was one o the border states that sent large numbers

o men to fght on both sides o the Civil War. A sizeable part o

the male population187,000 Conederate and 51,000 Federal sol-

diersmustered in rom ennessee. In no state more than this one,

loyalties divided regions, towns, and even amilies: on Gay Street

in Knoxville, rival recruiters signed up Conederate and Federal

soldiers just a ew blocks rom each other. Rebels enlisted rom

mostly Unionist East ennessee, while pockets o Federal support

could be ound in the predominantly Conederate middle and western sections.Te provisional troops that Governor Harris turned over to the Conederate government

became the nucleus o the Conederacys main western army, the Army

o ennessee. While a ew ennessee Conederates were sent east to Lees

army, most o the states enlistees, like the Virginians with Lee, had the dis-

tinction o fghting on their home soil to contest the invasion o their state.

Being in part a home-grown orce, the Conederate Army o ennessee

ought tenaciously against a oe that was usually better-armed and more

numerous.

Geography dictated a central role or ennessee in the coming con-ict: its rivers and its position as a border state between North and South

made ennessee a natural thoroughare or invading Federal armies. Te

Conederate commander in the West, Albert Sidney Johnston, set up a line

o positions across Kentucky and ennessee to deend the Conederacy

rom the Appalachians to the Mississippi River. It was a porous deensive Gov. Harris led Tennesseeinto the Conederacy.

Brothers in arms: Raord andBenjamin Ammons, TennesseeConederates

Johnsons Island Ohio, where Conederate of cers capturedat Fort Donelson were imprisoned.

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The Time of Troubles Tennessee Blue Book

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line whose weakest points were two orts in ennesseeFt. Henry on the ennessee River and,

twelve miles away, Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Te Union high command was quick

to recognize the strategic advantage o controlling these two rivers, fowing as they did through the

heartland o the Upper South and holdingthe key to Nashville.

In late January 1862, General Ulysses

S. Grant and Commodore Andrew

Foote steamed up the ennessee River

with seven gunboats and 15,000 troops

to attack Fort Henry. Union gunboats

quickly subdued the hal-looded ort

and, while Footes lotilla came back

around to the Cumberland River, Grantmarched his army overland to lay siege to

Fort Donelson. Te Conederate batteries

there were more than a match or Yankee

gunboats, however, and the inantry battled back and orth around

the orts perimeter. Despite air prospects or the garrisons escape, a

trio o Conederate generalsJohn Floyd, Gideon Pillow, and Simon

Bucknerdecided on the night o February 15 to surrender their

orces. Col. Nathan Bedord Forrest reused to surrender and, in the

rst o many brilliant exploits, managed to lead some troops out othe entrapment. Approximately 10,000 Conederate soldiers, many o

whom had enlisted only a ew months earlier, were surrendered and

packed o to Northern prison camps.

Te loss o Fort Donelson was the rst real catastrophe to beall the

Conederacy. Just to show who now controlled the waterways, Foote

sent two gunboats steaming unmolested up the ennessee River into

Alabama. Te rivers that had been such an asset to ennessee beore

the war now became avenues by which Federal invaders captured the regions towns and cities.

Nashville, which had been le undeended except or the two shakyorts, ell to Yankee troops on February 24, 1862, as panic-stricken

reugees streamed southward out o the city. With the all o Nashville

and Middle ennessee, the South lost one o its chie manuacturing

centers, tons o badly needed supplies, the western Highland Rim iron

industry and one o its richest arm regions. Nashville remained in

Union hands until the end o the war, sparing it the physical destruc-

tion suered by other Southern cities. Te city would, in act, serve

as the headquarters, supply depot and hospital center o the Union

command in the West.he retreat o Conederate orces to Mississippi let much o

ennessee occupied by enemy troops, a harsh condition that soon

stirred up resistance rom civilians. Guerrilla warare was the

Conederacys answer to having lost control o its rivers: Federals might secure the towns and

waterways, but they could not always control a hostile countryside. Vicious behind-the-lines

Nathan Bedford Forrest

General Ulysses S. Grant

Te lower water battery at Fort Donelson, Courtesy of om Kanon


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warare between Conederate partisans and Federal troops, and between bushwhackers o both

stripes and ordinary citizens, af icted much o the state. Military rule in Conederate-controlledEast ennessee was equally onerous, and ghting there was widespread between Unionists and

Conederate sympathizers. Military occupation oered many opportunities or settling blood euds,

vendettas, and scores o all sorts. Ambushes o Union soldiers in Middle ennessee brought reprisal

in the orm o lynchings, house-burnings, and even the razing o courthouses and churches. With

most o the ghting-age men away, bands o armed menlittle more than banditsroamed the

country, leaving in their wake the breakdown o civil order.

In April 1862, near tiny Shiloh Chapel in Hardin County, General Johnston had his chance

or revenge on Grant and the Federals. On a Sunday morning his army o about 40,000 collided

in the woods with an encamped Union orce o roughly equal size. By dusk that evening theConederates had come close to driving Grant into the river, but they did not deliver the knock-

out blow. Teir attempts cost the lives o many men, among them Johnston himsel. During the

night 25,000 resh Union troops reinorced Grants battered brigades, allowing him to mount

a strong counter-attack the next day. Te

weary Conederates, now under the com-

mand o General P.G.. Beauregard, were

not pursued as they withdrew that evening

rom the eld. Shiloh was a bloody wake-up

callmore men were lost in that one battlethan in all o Americas previous wars, and

both sides began to realize that the war

would be neither brie nor cheaply won.

Union gunboats shelling Fort Henry

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West ennessee now lay open to Federal rule, and the Union fag was raised over Memphis

aer a brie naval ght on June 6, 1862. Ironically, only pro-Union East ennessee remained in

Conederate hands. Governor Harris and the state government, which had moved to Memphis

aer Nashvilles all, were orced to fee the state altogether. Te secessionist regime that had ledennessee into the Conederacy lasted less than a year and spent the

rest o the war as a government-in-exile. In its place, President Lincoln

appointed ormer governor Andrew Johnson to be military governor.

A staunch Greeneville Unionist, he had kept his seat in the U.S. Senate

despite ennessees secession. Johnson introduced a new political order

to Federal-occupied ennessee, aiming to return the state to the Union

as soon as possible by avoring the Unionist minority and suppressing

the pro-Conederate crowd. Johnson was unpopular and oen heavy-

handed requiring the support o the Federal military presence.Conederate hopes were raised in late summer o 1862 when bril-

liant cavalry raids by Forrest and John Hunt Morgan thwarted the

Federals advance on Chattanooga and returned control o lower Middle

ennessee to the Conederates. Te Army o ennessee, now commanded by the irascible Braxton

Bragg and emboldened by recent successes, advanced into Kentucky.

Following the inconclusive Battle o Perryville, Braggs army with-

drew to winter quarters near Murreesboro, to await the Federals next

move. In late December an army o 50,000 under William Rosecrans

moved out rom Nashville to conront the Conederates thirty miles tothe southeast. Once again, aer successully driving back the Union

fank on the rst day o battle, December 31, the Conederate advance

altered and wore itsel down battering against strong deensive posi-

tions. On January 2, Bragg launched a disastrous inantry assault in

which the Southerners were decimated by massed Federal artillery. Te

next day when the bone-cold Army o ennessee trudged away rom

Murreesboro, it le behind one o the bloodiest battleelds o the war.

One o every our men who ought at Stones River was killed, wounded or missing.

Te Army o ennessee stayed in a deensive line along Duck River until late July 1863, whenRosecrans bloodlessly maneuvered Braggs Conederate army out

o ennessee altogether. Having relinquished the vital rail center o

Chattanooga without ring a shot, Bragg then awaited the Federal

advance into north Georgia. Overcondent rom the ease with which

he had pushed the Conederates so ar, Rosecrans stumbled into Braggs

army drawn up along Chickamauga Creek. On September 19 and 20,

the two armies grappled savagely in the woodsa battle that one gen-

eral likened to guerrilla warare on a grand scale. On the second day,

part o Braggs le wing poured through a gap in the Union line andtouched o a near-rout o the Federal army.

With two-thirds o the Union army in ull fight back to Chattanooga,

a total collapse was averted by the stand o George Tomass corps on

Snodgrass Hill, which covered the escape o the rest o Rosecranss army. Te Army o ennessee

won a great tactical victory at Chickamauga but at a rightul cost (21,000 casualties out o 50,000

William S. Rosecrans

Braxton Bragg

John Hunt Morgan


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troops), and Bragg again ailed to ollow up his success. Te Federals dug in around Chattanooga

while the Conederates occupied the heights above the town. Grant hastened to Chattanooga to

take charge o the situation and, on November 25, his troops drove Braggs army of Missionary

Ridge and back into Georgia. It would be nearly a year beore the Conederate army returned toennessee.

At the same time that Bragg abandoned Chattanooga, a Union orce under Ambrose Burnside

captured Knoxville and restored East ennessee to the nationalist old. Te whole state was now

in Federal hands, and the grip o mili-

tary occupation began to tighten. With

constant requisitions o ood, grain and

livestock, soldiers became a greater

burden on local citizens. Adding to the

problem was the indiscriminate stealingand oraging by undisciplined troops.

Anything o value that could be eaten or

carried of was taken by soldiers o both

sides. ennessees unortunate position

as the breadbasket or two dierent

armies, especially the vast Federal orces quartered here, brought more destruction and loss o

property than was caused by actual combat.

Te war brought a sudden end to the age-old system o slavery, making the times even more tur-

bulent or Arican Americans than or other ennesseans. Te system o plantation discipline andslave patrols began to break down early in the war, particularly in Union-occupied areas. Northern

commanders organized contraband camps to accommodate the large numbers o ugitive slaves

who ocked to Federal army encampments. Black laborers impressed rom these camps built much

o the Federal military inrastructurerailroads, bridges and ortsin ennessee. In these camps,

too, missionaries and sympathetic Union o cers provided education, solemnized marriages,

and arranged or some ex-slaves to work or wages on military projects. Tis wartime conversion

o blacks rom unpaid orced labor to

paid employees o the U.S. govern-

ment was an important element inthe transormation o contraband

to reedman. In late 1863, the Union

army started mustering in colored

regiments, some o which eventually

saw combat duty in their home state.

ennessee urnished one o the larg-

est contingents o black troops during

the Civil War: 20,133 served in Federal

units, comprising ully 40 percent o all ennessee Union recruits. Arican Americans in ennessee,partly because o their experience with military duty, secured citizenship and sufrage earlier than

most black Southerners.

Aer the long Atlanta campaign and the capture o that city by William . Shermans army,

the new commander o the Army o ennessee, John Bell Hood, decided on an aggressive plan

o action. He would leave Georgia to Sherman and strike back north into ennessee, threaten

Naval battle at Memphis: Confederates were no match for Union gunboats

on the wester rivers.

Shiloh Chapel in Hardin County

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Nashville, and draw Union pressure away rom threatened areas o the Deep South. It was an

idealistic plan with little chance o success, but the Conederacys situation was desperate, and

Hood was desperate or glory. Te

ennessee troops were in highspirits as they crossed into their

home state. When they and their

comrades reached Franklin on the

afernoon o November 30, 1864,

the Army o ennessee stood on

the verge o its nest perormance

o the war as well as a blow rom

which it would never recover. On

Hoods orders, nearly 20,000 inan-try, including a large contingent o

ennesseans, made a grand, near-

suicidal charge across an open eld

against an entrenched Federal army. As regiment afer regiment hurled itsel against the Union

breastworks or ve erocious hours 1,750 Conederate soldiers were killed. When the carnage was

over, Hoods recklessness had destroyed the Army o ennessee. It would go on to ght a two-day

battle outside Nashville in the sleet and mud, but its deeat there was a oregone conclusion. As

the tattered remnants o the western Conederate army hastily retreated across the state line, the

military struggle or ennessee ended, although the war would continue or another our months.Te devastation o the war in ennessee was proound. A substantial portion o a genera-

tion o young men was lost or maimed, resulting in an unusually high percentage o unmarried

women in the years to come. Planting

and harvesting were extremely di-

cult during the war, and oraging

consumed what little was produced

between 1862 and 1865. With the

slaves gone, husbands and sons dead

or captive, and arms neglected, manylarge plantations and small arms

alike reverted to wasteland. he

economic gains o the 1850s were

erased, and arm production and

property values in ennessee would

not reach their 1860 levels again until

1900. On the other hand, the 275,000

ennesseans who had been enslaved

our years earlier were no longer any-ones property. Tey were ree at last.

Others who beneted rom the Civil War were the behind-the-lines proteers who siphoned o

some o the Federal capital that owed into ennessees occupied towns. Veterans o both sides

lived with the wounds and memories o the war or the rest o their lives, and the chie reward or

most was a place o honor in their communities.

Tere were 24 military hospitals during wartime such as this one in Nashville,

showing the hospitals laundry yard, July 1863.

Railroad tracks and trains were a frequent target of Confederate raiders.


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Reconstruction and Rebuilding

ennessees ordeal did not cease with the end o military hostilities, but continued during the

postwar period known as Reconstruction. Te wars legacy o political bitterness endured oryears afer the surrender o Conederate armies. Civil conict split ennessee society into rival

and vindictive camps, with each side seeking to use politics to punish its enemies and bar them

rom participating in the system. Tis political warare was only slightly less violent than the

just-concluded military struggle.

President Lincolns ormula or reconstructing the Southern states required only that ten percent

o a states voters take the oath o allegiance and orm a loyal government beore that state could

apply or readmission. In January o 1865, afer Andrew Johnson departed or Washington to

become Lincolns vice president, a largely sel-appointed convention o ennessee Unionists met

in Nashville to begin the process o restoring the state to the nation.Tey nominated William G. Parson Brownlow o Knoxville or gov-

ernor, repudiated the act o secession, and submitted or reerendum

a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. A small turnout o

voters, about 25,000, approved the amendment and elected Brownlow

as governor, essentially meeting the requirements o Lincolns plan.

ennessee thereby became the only one o the seceded states to abol-

ish slavery by its own act.

Lincolns assassination in April catapulted Johnson into the presi-

dency and signaled a radical shif in the course o Reconstruction.he Radical Republicans were gaining power

in Congress, and they wanted a more punitive

approach to the South than either Lincoln or

Johnson had envisioned. Never a very skillul negotiator, the new President

soon ound himsel out o step with the pace o political change in Washington.

Congress reused to seat ennessees congressional delegation, claim-

ing that Johnsons amnesty plan was too lenient. It decreed that only

states which ratied the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, extending

citizenship and legal protection to reedmen and denying the ranchiseto ormer Conederates, would be readmitted.

Just as the Radicals star rose in Congress, so did that o the most radi-

cal UnionistsBrownlows actionin ennessee. Opposition developed

quickly to the Fourteenth Amendment, particularly to the liabilities it

placed on ex-Conederates, and extraordinary exertions were required

on Governor Brownlows part to orce the General Assembly to ratiy the

measure. Tis it did on July 18, 1866, paving the way or ennessees early read-

mission to the Union. ennessee became the third state to ratiy the Fourteenth

Amendment, beore any other Southern state and earlier than most Northernstates. Brownlows regimenoxious as it was to many o the states citizens

ensured that ennessee rejoined the nation sooner than any other seceded

state. More importantly, it meant that ennessee would be the only

Southern state to escape the harsh military rule inicted by the

Radical Congress.

Governor William G. Brownlow

g power

punitive

coln or

resident

ng on.

radi-

ped

s it

red

the

ly read-

rteenth

orthernizens

ceded

President Andrew Johnson of

Greeneville, Tennessee

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Reconstruction and Rebuilding Tennessee Blue Book

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Governor Brownlows administration acted in concert

with the Radical Republicans in Congress, but not with

the majority o the people in its own state. Even with a

hand-picked legislature and the exclusion o most con-servative voters, Brownlow aced considerable opposition

rom other Unionists who resented his despotic methods.

He decided, thereore, to give the vote to reedmen in

order to bolster his support at the polls. Accordingly, in

February 1867 the ennessee General Assembly endorsed

black sufragea ull two years beore Congress did like-

wise by passing the Fieenth Amendment. With the aid o a solid black vote, Brownlow and his

slate o candidates swept to victory in the 1867 elections.

Brownlows unpopular and undemocratic regime caused its own downall. Driven under-ground by the governor and his state militia, the conservative opposition assumed bizarre and

secretive orms. Te Ku Klux Klan emerged in the summer o 1867, one o several shadowy

vigilante groups opposed to Brownlow and reed-

mens rights. Tese groups were made up largely o

ex-Conederates whose aim was to intimidate the

black voters who supported Brownlow. As a politi-

cal organization, the Klan ourished because o

the Radicals near-total exclusion o men who had

served the Conederacy rom the normal channelso political activity. Consequently, when Brownlow

le ennessee in 1869 to become a U. S. Senator, the

Klan ormally disbanded.

Brownlows departure or Washington was the

opening or which conservatives had been waiting. Te man who succeeded him as governor,

DeWitt Senter, had impeccable Radical credentials, but once in o ce he used his power to permit

the registration o ex-Conederate voters, thereby ensuring his victory in the 1869 gubernatorial

race. Seven times as many ennesseans voted in that election as in

Brownlows rigged election o l867.In order to codiy the changes wrought during the past

decade, delegates rom across the state met in 1870 to rewrite the

Constitution. Tis convention, although it was dominated by con-

servatives, walked a middle road in an efort to avoid the threat

o Federal military occupation. Delegates ratied the abolition o

slavery and voting rights or reedmen but limited voter participation

by enacting a poll tax. Political reconstruction efectively ended in

ennessee with the rewriting o the Constitution, but the struggle

over the civil and economic rights o black reedmen had just begun.Arican Americans were in a more destitute and unsettled con-

dition aer the war than most other ennesseans. Having le the

plantations and rural communities in large numbers, black reugees

poured into Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville and a host o smaller towns. Urban areas

experienced a large increase in their black populations, as more reedmen ed the countryside to

Ku Klux Klan

Contraband camp in Memphis, 1867

Scene from Memphis race riots, 1866


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escape the violence o groups like the Klan. Tese newcomers settled near the contraband camps

or military orts where black troops were stationed, orming the nuclei o such major black com-

munities as North Nashville and South Memphis. In time, urbanization grew the black proessional

and business class and laid the oundation or economic sel-suf ciency among reedmen.One institution created specically to aid ormer slaves was the Freedmens Bureau, which had

its greatest impact in the eld o education. In conjunction with Northern missionaries and John

Eaton, the reormer whom Brownlow had appointed as the states rst school superintendent, the

Freedmens Bureau set up hundreds o black public schools. Freedmen responded enthusiasti-

cally to the new schools, and

a number o black colleges

Fisk, ennessee Central,

LeMoyne, Roger Williams,

Lane and Knoxvilleweresoon ounded to meet the

demand or higher education.

Te Bureau, on the other hand,

was not generally successul

in helping blacks achieve land

ownership, and the overwhelming majority o rural blacks continued to arm as tenants or laborers.

Te inuence o the Freedmans Bureau dwindled rapidly aer 1866, the same year the Federal

army departed. Henceorth, ennessee reedmen had to rely on themselves and their own leaders

to advance their goals.Black ennesseans were politically active and exercised their newound legal rights even aer

the ouster o the Radicals in 1869. Tey brought suits in the county courts, led wills, and ran

or local elective of ces, particularly in the cities where they commanded strong voting blocs.

Beginning with Sampson Keeble o Nashville in 1872, thirteen black legislators were elected

to the ennessee House o Representatives. Much o their legislative

work consisted o ghting actions to preserve some o the hard won

gains o Reconstruction. S. A. McElwee, Styles Hutchins and Monroe

Gooden, elected in 1887, would be the last black lawmakers to serve

in ennessee until the 1960s.With the restoration o Democrat Party rule, a reaction set in against

the moves that had been made toward racial equality. Lynchings, beat-

ings and arson had been used to enorce white supremacy during the

Klan era. Beginning in the 1870s, this system was rened to include

the legal enorcement o second-class citizenship or blacks statutory

discrimination commonly reerred to as Jim Crow laws. By the 1880s

the legislature mandated separate acilities or whites and blacks in public accommodations and on

railroads. One young woman, Ida B. Wells, challenged the separate but equal law on the railroads

in an 1883 court case and spent much o her later lie drawing the nations attention to the use olynching as a means o terrorism against blacks. Nashvillian Benjamin Singleton also attacked the

practice o lynching and urged his ellow reedmen to leave the South altogether to homestead in

Kansas in the Exo-duster movement. Te allegiance o black voters to the Republican Party

made them ready targets or Democrat politicians, and Jim Crow laws gradually whittled down

the participation o Arican Americans in the political system.

S.A. McElwee

Fisk University was established in army barracks.

StateofTennessee

Reconstruction and Rebuilding Tennessee Blue Book

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Ida B. Wells

One response to the labor shortage and property losses caused by the war was the campaign to

rebuild a New South based on industry, skilled labor and outside capital. Promoters and state

of cials worked hard to attract skilled oreign immigrants to make up or the shortall o labor

caused by blacks exodus to the cities. With the exception o a ew isolated German and Swisscolonies such as Gruetli in Grundy County the state never succeeded in attracting a large number

o immigrants. As late as 1880 the oreign-born part o ennessees population was still only one

percent, compared with a national average o een percent.

New South advocates backed the educational reorm act o 1873, which tried to establish

regular school terms and reduce the states high illiteracy rate. A statewide

administrative structure and general school und were put in place, but

the legislature ailed to appropriate suf cient unds to operate ull term

schools. Better progress was made during the 1870s in the eld o higher

education: Vanderbilt University was chartered; East ennessee Collegewas converted to the University o ennessee; Meharry Medical College,

the rst and, or many years, the leading black medical school in the

nation, was ounded; and the University o Nashville became the Peabody

State Normal School, one o the earliest Southern colleges devoted exclu-

sively to training teachers.

Te New South promoters also met with some success in attracting

outside capital to ennessee. Northern businessmen, many o whom had

served in ennessee during the war, relocated here to take advantage o cheap labor and abundant

natural resources. Perhaps the most prominent o these carpetbag capitalists was General JohnWilder, who built a major ironworks at Rockwood in Roane County. Chattanoogas iron and steel

industry beneted greatly rom the inusion o Northern capital, and the city grew rapidly into

one o the Souths premier industrial cities. By 1890, the value o manuactured goods produced

in ennessee reached $72 million, a ar cry rom the $700,000 worth that had been produced at

the height o the antebellum economy.

ennessee had incurred a debt o $43 million, the second highest

state debt in the nation, as a result o underwriting railroad construc-

tion beore the war and during the Brownlow administration. Te state

eventually repudiated part o this debt, but the question o how to payit dominated state politics well into the 1880s. Generating revenue to

deal with this indebtedness was one reason or the adoption o the

TS1_AHistoryOfTennessee

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