Background | Archerology

Before I discuss in detail the history of my ancestor Joseph Archer (1835?-1915), who was for about four years of his 80-year life an officer in the Confederate Army, I think it would be appropriate for me to make some notes about the social, economic and political culture of the area in which he grew up.

These notes grew organically, are principally for my own future use, and were not the product of a well-organized outline, so they are not necessarily the best organized.

I am including references which I believe are useful, though I am not really following a standard citation format. If the source has a recommended citation format, I just copied and pasted it. If I wrote the citation myself, I more-or-less follow the format of the Blue Book used by lawyers and judges for citations, as this format was beaten into my head during law school. Source references are cumulative; if I use a source in one section, everything below it may also make reference to it, rather than me repeating it again in the source list for a section. I hope this is not too confusing to the reader.

Table of Contents:

Scope and Geography of this Discussion

In discussing the Watauga Valley, I am talking about an area in southern Sullivan County, Tennessee and northern Washington County, Tennessee; specifically, those areas formerly known as Civil Districts 9 (Brush Creek), 10 (Knob Creek), 11 (Boones Creek a/k/a Boons Creek) and 12 (Buffalo Ridge) of Washington County and Civil District 8 and 9 of Sullivan. Today, this area would include all of the areas upstream of TVA Boone Dam, including Gray, much of Johnson City, as well as the unincorporated area of Piney Flats and the Tri-Cities (TRI) Airport on the Sullivan County side of the Watauga.

I did not include any part of Carter County in my analysis or some parts of Sullivan County downstream of Boone Dam (for example, Civil District 14, the area where Colonial Heights is now situated). Part of the reason I am excluding Carter County is because the 1860 Census of Carter County was not done by civil district but by dividing the county into three divisions, named “1st Division”, “2nd Division”, and “Elizabethton”. I am not sure aside from the one named “Elizabethton” how these records map to a particular geographical area. Also, none of my ancestors, insofar as I am aware, lived in Carter County, so I have no personal interest in documenting it.

I recognize this may be something of a “private definition” as the Watauga River continues into Carter County and into North Carolina. I am not particularly concerned with the upper reaches of the Valley here. The main reason for defining the Watauga Valley in this way is that this is the part in which my ancestors resided, in the lower stretches just above the confluence with the Holston.

The Tennessee Virtual Archive has an early surveyor’s map of the civil districts of Washington County from 1836:

p15138coll23_9855_full

(Note that this map has north pointing more-or-less to the left; up is east; right is south; west is down).

Here is another map from the 27 May 1875 edition of the (Jonesborough) Herald and Tribune, which is referred to on the tngenweb.org website and found on newspapers.com:

map_washington_county_1875_jonesborough_herald_and_tribune_27_may_1875_p3

The two maps, from roughly 40 years apart, are largely similar, although the 4th and 6th districts were reorganized (the 6th becoming an area south of the Nolichucky around Embreeville, today a few miles northwest of Erwin; the 4th becoming all of that area on the southeast side of Washington County that today is largely part of the Cherokee National Forest).

The Tennessee Virtual Archives also has a similar early map of Sullivan County from 1836 (north is to the top right, south to the bottom left):

download

Sullivan County in 1860 had very nearly the same boundary lines as it does today (though sometime between 1930 and 1960 it lost a wedge of land southeast of Pine Ridge around Fall Branch, that is now part of Washington County).

Washington County, however, extended much further south than it does now, all the way to the North Carolina border. In 1875 the Tennessee Legislature created Unicoi County from the parts of Old Washington County and Carter County nearest the North Carolina state line. A piece of southwestern Washington was also transferred to Greene County a few years later.

(There were also several (ultimately unsuccessful) efforts made from 1836 to 1857 to separate some of the western districts of Sullivan County and join them with nearby parts of Washington, Greene and Hawkins County to form Powell County (seated in Fall Branch); however this county was never fully-organized and ultimately was dissolved. I believe that parts of Washington’s 12th District would have been in Powell County had it formed, but that issue has been moot for over a century and a half).

Here is a rough free-hand sketch of the study area overlain on an 1880 railroad map:

study_area

Some Census Records and Statistics, 1850-1860

County-Level Statistics

U.S. Census Bureau publications from the 1800s generally included breakdowns at the county level but not lower subdivisions. Also, it seems wise to compare the Watauga Valley to the surrounding areas, so let’s look at the county-level statistics for Sullivan and Washington Counties first.

1850 Census

The population of Washington County in 1850 was reported as 13,861, being 91.4 percent white, 1.8 percent (260 persons) free people of color, and 6.7 percent (930) enslaved people of color (does not add up to 100 percent due to rounding). The total population was up 18 percent over the 1840 Census. The population skewed young; about 10.2 percent of whites were under the age of 5, and about 40.7 percent of whites were between the age of 5 and 20, with about half of those attending school. A significant portion (about 28 percent) of the free white adult population could not read or write. Agriculture (particularly corn, wheat, oats/barley and dairying) was the dominant agricultural activity; only about 216 people were involved in manufacturing, and the value of farms and implements was about 14 times that of capital invested in manufacturing.

Sullivan County had a slightly smaller population in 1850 than Washington County — about 11,742 — and also a slower-growing population, up only 9 percent from 1840. Sullivan County’s population was 90.2 percent white, 1.1 percent (135) free people of color, and 8.6 percent (1004) enslaved people of color (this does not add up to 100 percent due to rounding). The population was even younger and more agrarian than that of Washington County, with about 57 percent of the white population in Sullivan being under the age of 20, and only about a third as much capital invested in manufacturing. The adult white population in Sullivan County does seem to have been somewhat more literate however, with only about 17 percent of free whites being wholly unable to read or write.

Sources:

J.D.B. DeBow (Superintendent, U.S. Census Bureau), Statistical View of the United States (1854), pp. 302-313 (statistics of Tennessee). Online at: https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1850/1850c/1850c-10.pdf
J.D.B. DeBow (Superintendent, U.S. Census Bureau), The Seventh Census of the United States: 1850 (1853), pp. 563 et seq. (Tennessee). Online at: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1853/dec/1850a.html

1860 Census

The population of Washington County in 1860 was 14,829 (an increase of 7 percent from 1850), with the population being 91.6 percent white, 2.0 (297) percent free people of color, and 6.4 percent (952) enslaved people of color. While there was an absolute increase in the number of enslaved people, the absolute and relative number of free people of color grew somewhat faster (there being 47 additional free and 22 additional slaves in this time). Of the enslaved population, 71 percent were classified as “black” and 29 percent as “mulatto” (or mixed-race).

(Across the state of Tennessee as a whole, enslaved people of color made up 24.8 percent of the total population of 1,109,861; free people of color made up only 0.7 percent of the total statewide population.)

The population of Washington County continued to skew young; about 55.5 percent of the white population was under the age of 20, with a large demographic bulge in the 20-30 year old bracket (17 percent of the white population) and a notable drop off in older age brackets. In 1860 about 1,804 white men were between the ages of 20 and 40, with another 897 between the age of 15 and 20. There were 2,425 family units in Washington County in 1860.

In Sullivan County, the total population grew to 13,552 people (up 15.4 percent from 1850), The population was 90.8 percent white, 1.2 percent (169) free people of color, and 7.9 percent (1,074) enslaved people of color (being 81 percent “black” and 19 percent “mulatto”). Although both the number of free people of color and the number of enslaved people had grown, in Sullivan County the enslaved population was growing faster (about 34 additional free and about 70 additional enslaved people of color since the 1850 Census). There were 2,186 families in Sullivan County in 1860.

The improved farm acreage in Washington County grew significantly between 1850 and 1860, from 86,794 acres across 922 farms in 1850 to 113,752 acres in 1860 (number of farms unknown). The cash value of the farmland also nearly tripled, to over $4.5 million (not including $155,000 in farm implements). Farmland thus made up almost all of the value of real estate in Washington County (about $4.7 million) and the vast majority of total wealth ($7.8 million). The most value products continued to be corn, wheat, grains, butter and meat; although some wool was produced in Washington County, no cotton was produced.

The improved farm acreage shrank slightly (from 95,034 acres across 816 farms, to 94.168 acres) but the value of the farmland roughly doubled to $2.8 million (with total real estate valued at about $3.3 million and total wealth at about $5.9 million). Sullivan County actually produced a very small amount of ginned cotton by 1860, but as in Washington County the most significant agricultural products were corn, grains, meat and dairy. Both counties had approximately 4,000 horses recorded in the 1860 Census.

Manufacturing capital more than doubled between 1850 and 1860 in Washington County, though it remained secondary to agriculture in terms of economic value, with about $282,000 invested, 305 employees and $691,000 in annual production value. Significant industrial products included milled flour, metals (iron and tin), lumber and leather.

In Sullivan County, manufacturing capital remained steady (and far behind that in Washington County, which had nearly 7 times the invested capital). Only about 59 people worked in manufacturing in 1860, and the annual produced value was a mere $72,000. Sullivan County manufacturers produced milled flour and iron.

Between 1850 and 1860, nearly 1,200 miles of railroad was constructed in Tennessee, including over 130 miles of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. The ET&V ran from Knoxville to Bristol through Jonesborough and Johnson’s Depot (now Johnson City, briefly known as Haynesville), but bypassed Kingsport and other settlements in western Sullivan County.

In 1860 there were 21 Methodist, 15 Baptist, 7 Presbyterian and 1 Lutheran churches in Washington County. There were 15 Methodist, 8 Presbyterian, 7 Baptist, 4 Lutheran and 3 Christian/Union churches in Sullivan County. For the most part, these tallies are not broken down by district, but either by accident or special procedure, it is noted that the Brush Creek District (9th Civil District) of Washington County had a Baptist congregation.

We do not know the exact membership counts for each denomination from the Census; however, based on a regression model of late-19th century church attendance by Finke and Stark, we can make an informed guess about church membership. The Census values for number and value of churches and number of seats allow us to estimate that there were probably about 1,473 practicing Baptists, 4,416 Methodists and 834 Presbyterians in Washington County. There were probably about 952 Baptists, 2,034 Methodists and 896 Presbyterians. Note that in both counties (even accounting for the fact that I did not include minor denominations), it seems plausible that a significant minority of people in this area were not “churched,” despite the fact that there were far more seats than people to fill them in local churches.

Both counties had a small number of paupers; 15 in Washington and 19 in Sullivan. There seems to have been relatively few criminal convictions; the social schedule for Washington county reports 2 criminal convictions in the past year, and the schedule for Sullivan shows only three people imprisoned.

Sources:

Joseph C. G. Kennedy (Superintendent, U.S. Census Bureau), Population of the United States in 1860 (1864), p. 456 et. seq (Tennessee). Online at:
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1864/dec/1860a.html
Joseph C. G. Kennedy (Superintendent, U.S. Census Bureau), Agriculture of the United States in 1860 (1864), p. 132 et. seq (Tennessee). Online at:
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1864/dec/1860b.html
Joseph C. G. Kennedy (Superintendent, U.S. Census Bureau), Manufacturers of the United States in 1860 (1864), p. 560 et. seq (Tennessee). Online at: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1865/dec/1860c.html
Bureau of the Census, Statistics of the United States (Including Mortality, Property, &c.) in 1860 (1866). Online at: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1866/dec/1860d.html
Tony Casey, “A Look At Slave Life in East Tennessee”, Johnson City Press, 6 Nov. 2016, online at: https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/History/2016/11/06/A-look-at-slave-life-in-East-Tennessee
Ancestry.com. U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data:View all sources.
Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, “Turning Pews Into People: Estimating 19th Century Church Membership”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 25:2 (June 1986), pp. 180-92. Available online through JSTOR.org.

District-Level Analysis for 1860

These statistics were compiled by reviewing the Census returns from 1860 for the five civil districts of interest transcribed on familysearch.org.

Unfortunately, all of the Washington County records for 1850 seem to be marked as being from “4th Subdivision, Eastern District”, rather than separated by county civil districts. I do not believe Subdivision 4 is equivalent to Civil District 4, as the returns contain enough records to account for everyone who lived in Washington County, and many of those records are for people who are known to have not lived in Civil District 4, “Swinney’s District” east of Jonesborough. A similar district-level analysis, therefore, is impossible for the 1850 Census.

	Sullivan C.D. 8 — Boring	Sullivan C.D. 9 — Piney Flats
Total Population	972	796*
Free Households	162	148
White Persons	886	788
Free Persons of Color**	5 (5 mulatto)	8 (8 black)
Enslaved Persons	81	0*
Free Males	435	408
Free Female	456	388
Free Males 20 or Older	169	174
Free Males 15-40	142	156
Enslaved Males	45	n/a
Enslaved Female	36	n/a
Median Age of Free Persons	16	17
Median Age of Enslaved Persons	17	n/a
Slaveholders	15	0*
Notable Slaveholders	Lawrence Snapp (12), Mary C. Dulaney (12), Robert P. Fickle (10), Jesse Cross (9), John Hawley (9), John R. Fain (6), Thomas C. Spurgeon (5), George R. McClellan (5)	n/a
Number of Slaveholders with >5 slaves	6	n/a
Number of Slaveholders with >2 slaves	10	n/a
Number of Slaveholders with 2 slaves	1	n/a
Number of Slaveholders with 1 slaves	4	n/a

	Washington C.D. 9 — Brush Creek	Washington C.D. 10 — Knob Creek	Washington C.D. 11 — Boones Creek	Washington C.D. 12 — Buffalo Ridge
Total Population	915	753	938	832
Free Households	142	100	132	190
White Persons	780	598	817	739
Free Persons of Color**	61 (35 black, 19 mulatto, 7 other)	74 (43 black, 6 mulatto, 25 other)	80 (43 black, 13 mulatto, 24 other)	71 (12 black, 3 mulatto, 57 other)
Enslaved Persons	74	81	41	21
Free Males	425	346	446	391
Free Female	411	326	451	420
Free Males 20 or Older	167	136	188	159
Free Males 15-40	152	119	165	130
Enslaved Males	42	45	17	10
Enslaved Female	32	36	24	11
Median Age of Free Persons	17	17	16	18
Median Age of Enslaved Persons	14.5	13	16	15
Slaveholders	20	19	13	8
Notable Slaveholders	Joseph L. Burts (15), John White (7), John Lyle (7), Thomas T. Young (6), Tipton Jobe (6), Albert King (5), James Miller (4)	J.M. Hoss (15), William R. Rhea (13), Matthew Aiken (8), William P. Reeves (7), Hugh P Young (6), Elizabeth Devault (6), James F. Deaderick (5)	Margaret Carson (8), Mark Pennybaker (5), Perry Hunter (4), David J Carr (4), Hugh A. Crawford (4), George P. Faw (3), Elbert Cox (3), Alford Martin (3), Landon C. Haynes (3)	Henry Hall (6), John R. Spirgin (Spurgeon?) (5), Samuel B. Ellis (4)
Number of Slaveholders with >5 slaves	5	6	1	1
Number of Slaveholders with >2 slaves	10	10	9	3
Number of Slaveholders with 2 slaves	5	2	1	1
Number of Slaveholders with 1 slaves	5	7	3	4

* There was no Slave Schedule for Civil District 9 of Sullivan County.

** The transcriptions for Washington County include a large number of records where column 6, “Color” of the Census schedule is marked something other than “B” or “M” (white is unmarked, i.e. the absence of “color”). Counting these “other” records toward “free people of color” leads to an implausibly high tally (they would tally up to 294, nearly the entire official tally for free people of color — 297 — for the whole county despite these districts comprising only a small portion of it). I suspect that many of those marked as “other” in the transcription were tallied as “white” in the official statistical reports. Those records marked “other” may represent people with Native American ancestry, a small amount of black ancestry, or perhaps most likely simply an error on the part of the Census taker or later transcriptionists; I would suggest most of the “other” records should be excluded.

Note that the slave schedules only count enslaved persons present in the district; in a few cases, enslaved people owned by residents of other districts may appear, and vice-versa.

Also note that some of the enslaved people counted in the 1860 Census slave schedules appear on the “wrong” pages, and I have tried to account for that. It is possible that I am erring, but I am trying to use common sense to make this work.

The vast majority of the free persons of the area where native to the United States, with the vast majority of those being born in Tennessee:

In Sullivan’s 8th district, 87 percent of the free persons were born in Tennessee, 8 percent in Virginia, 3 percent in North Carolina, and most of the balance in Pennsylvania (about 0.5 percent), Maryland (about 1 percent) or other northern states. One person is recorded as being born in Ireland.
In Sullivan’s 9th district, 89 percent of the free persons were recorded as being born in Tennessee, 5 percent born in Virginia, 4 percent born in North Carolina, 0.5 percent born in Pennsylvania, and 0.4 percent (3 persons) born in Ireland.
In Washington’s 9th district, 77 percent were born in Tennessee, 8 percent in Virginia, and 8 percent in North Carolina, and less than one percent born in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Indiana, Kentucky, etc. Two people are recorded as being from Maine.
In Washington’s 10th district, 79 percent were born in Tennessee and 15 percent born in Virginia. Two Irish immigrants are recorded.
In Washington’s 11th district, 73 percent were born in Tennessee, about 15 percent in Virginia, and about 7 percent in North Carolina, with most of the balance being from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana. One person was born in Germany.
In Washington’s 12th district, 89 percent were born in Tennessee, 4 percent in Virginia, and 2 percent in North Carolina. One immigrant from Italy is recorded.

Most of those with recorded occupations were engaged in farming, domestic work, or day laboring, with a few exceptions. For example, in Sullivan’s 9th district, eight blacksmiths, four carpenters, two millers, a stone mason, a wagonmaker, a cooper, a cabinetmaker, a shoemaker, a merchant, a lawyer and a school teacher.

Some notably wealthy individuals (relative to others nearby) include:

In Sullivan’s 8th District: Thomas C. Spurgeon ($14,000 in real estate, $8,000 in personal property), Jesse Cross ($8,000 in land, $7,000 in personal property), John Hawley ($10,000/$9,400), Thomas Crawford ($14,000/$1,250), John N. Rhea ($12,000/$4,000), and Robert P. Fickle ($2,500/$8,000).
In Sullivan’s 9th District: Andrew Shell ($5,000 in real estate, $7,340 in personal property), Jesse Allison ($7,500/$4,400), Isaac King ($10,000/$1,870), and Isaac Devault ($7,700, $8,320),
In Washington’s 9th District: Alfred Carr ($12,457/$1,070), Peter M. Reeves ($16,150/$5,400), Samuel Miller ($10,670/$3,437), Henry Bashor ($8,125/$3,075), Rev. James Miller ($11,626/$9,080), John H. Bowman ($7,075/$7,400), Henry Johnson ($10,000/$9,194), Dr. Thomas T. Young ($1,500/$11,270), John Lyle ($29,100/$20,570), Joseph L. Burts ($17,880/$18,445), John White ($19,405/$11,590), George King ($10,142/$3,774), Landon C. Hoss ($21,110/$5,110), Abraham Hoss ($8,575/$4,210), Tipton Jobe ($14,065/$9,350), and Landon C. Haynes ($9,600/$1,545).
In Washington’s 10th District: J. F. Deaderick ($18,300/$7,200), Matthew Aiken ($10,000/$6,797), Jacob Range ($10,000/$1,575), Jacob Devault ($9,870/$11,674), Valentine Devault ($13,480/$2,434), William R. Rhea ($11,725/$10,737), and R.D. Bear ($7,000/$3,050).
In Washington’s 11th District: Michael Bashore ($8,000/$2,297), Robert Allison ($9,635/$2,270), Fuller P. Hale ($5,400/$5,060), James Hodge ($9,175/$5,726), James Vaughn ($10,000/$3,870), James H. Deakins ($16,200/$6,051), Hugh A. Crawford ($18,305/$6,255), David Garst ($12,250/$1,205), J.M. Hoss ($9,500/$16,581), David Carr ($5,000/$14,920), Elbert S. Cox ($11,060/$6,779), Mark Pennybaker ($7,280/$3,825), Alford Martin ($11,655/$5,950), Lawrence Bowers ($9,000/$4,355), and George Faw ($7,320/$3,524),
In Washington’s 12th District: Jonathan B. Williard ($10,625 in real estate only), George Gray ($10,340/$1,306), John R. Spergin (Spurgeon?) ($16,500/$4,500), and David Kitzmiller ($9,340/$1,056).

By comparison, in the Boone’s Creek District, the total real property value was $302,133 and the total personal property was $131,427 (figured by adding the sums at the bottom of each sheet). This computes, on a per capita basis (excluding slaves), to $337 and $147 respectively; or about $2,289 in land and $996 in personal property per household. A similar analysis for Brush Creek District shows per capita (excluding slave) wealth of $461 and $242 in land and personal estate, respectively. The county-wide average (for Washington County) was $341 and $222 for land and personal estate, respectively. Assuming that these districts are representative of the area as a whole, then, it seems that they were neither remarkably wealthy nor remarkably poor; though it does seem that the value of land relative to other property tilted relatively more heavily toward land in this area than in Washington County as a whole.

Sullivan’s 8th Civil District, had a per capita (excluding slaves) wealth of $187 in land and $118 in personal property. The county per capita wealth was $262 in land and $210 in personal property.

The four Washington County districts analyzed here made up about 23 percent of the total number of enslaved people in Washington County, and about 23 percent of the total population. Likewise, in Civil District 8 of Sullivan County, the enslaved population made up about 7 percent of the county’s total enslaved population; the total population of the district made up about 8 percent of the county. With the possible exception of Sullivan County’s 9th Civil District (where a slave schedule does not exist), it seems therefore that the Watauga Valley region had a ratio of free to enslaved people in 1860 that was roughly equal to that of the surrounding Washington/Sullivan region.

By comparison, the town of Jonesborough seems to have had about 208 enslaved residents (164 on two pages marked “Jonesboro” and 44 more on another marked “Jonesborough”), representing 22 percent of the enslaved people in Washington County. Jonesborough also had about 1231 free citizens (including 64 free people of color), representing only about 9 percent of the free population of the county (or, the total population of Jonesborough was about 10 percent of Washington County’s total population).

Perhaps not surprisingly, Jonesborough’s wealth was also exceptional; the per capita real estate value for Jonesborough’s free residents was $562 and the per capita value of other property was $567, for a total per capita wealth more than twice that of the average Washington County resident. Jonesborough residents held about 18 percent of the county’s total wealth, and 23 percent of the personal property wealth. Some individual estates in Jonesborough were simply staggering, relative to those of their country neighbors:

A. E. Jackson held $89,400 of land and $28,300 in personal property (presumably inclusive of his 18 slaves, but also likely including substantial mercantile stores despite being listed as a farmer, according to W. Todd Groce).
G.A. Clark, a retired businessman originally from Canada, had a personal estate of $42,012.
Eva Gillespie had $43,144 in land and $13,837 in personal property.
William K. Blair, a pension agent, and Dr. Samuel P. Cunningham had over $30,000 in total wealth.
John Blair, whose occupation is listed as “keeping hotel”, held $31,266 in land and $10,940 in personal property.
Z.L. Burson, listed as “merchant”, held $30,530 in land and $39,685 in personal property, and owned several slaves.
William Brewer, a merchant, held over $30,000 in total property.
William G. Gammon, “broker”, held $25,900 in land and $68,000 in personal property, and six slaves.
Congressman Thomas A. R. Nelson, a lawyer by occupation, held $26,200 in land and $21,935 in personal property, and eight slaves.

With regard to farming in the area:

For the 160 farms counted in the Agricultural Schedule, Brush Creek District (District 9) had 10,791 improved acres and 14,709 unimproved acres with a total value of $466,132. There were 379 horses, 20 mules, 372 milk cows, 8 working oxen, 530 other cattle, 1,132 sheep and 2,295 hogs. There were 20,115 bushels of wheat, 37,057 bushels of corn and 840 pounds of tobacco.
For the 40 farms counted in the Agricultural Schedule, Knob Creek District (District 10) had 2,227 improved acres and 3,143 unimproved acres with a total value of $104,307. It had 126 horses, 4 mules, 113 milk cows, 10 working oxen, 121 “other cattle” (bulls, cows to be slaughtered, etc.), 318 sheep and 645 hogs. It produced 5,505 bushels of wheat, 11,630 bushels of corn and 550 pounds of tobacco.
For the 74 farms counted in the Agricultural Schedule, Boone’s Creek District (District 11) had 7,515 improved acres and 5,788 unimproved acres, valued at $298,114. There were 258 horses, 27 mules, 247 milk cow, 268 other cattle, 658 sheep and 1,740 hogs. Wheat yields were 17,620 bushels; corn 27,600 bushels; and 5600 pounds of tobacco (almost all of which was produced by Jacob Garst).
For the 80 farms counted the Agricultural Schedule, Buffalo Ridge District (District 12) had 4,847 improved acres and 3,606 unimproved acres worth $144,471. There were 205 horses, 5 mules, 182 milk cows, 186 other cows, 708 sheep, 1,433 hogs. Wheat yield was 10,597 bushels; corn was 22,043 bushels; and 15 pounds of tobacco were produced.
A significant amount of oats was also produced in all four districts, presumably to feed horses and mules.

(The pages for Sullivan County Districts 8 and 9 are difficult to read, so I did not do a similar analysis for them).

Sources:

“United States Census, 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GBSX-SSH?cc=1473181&wc=7QMS-84L%3A1589422383%2C1589422318%2C1589436310 : 24 March 2017), Tennessee > Washington > Brush Creek District > image 1 of 21; from “1860 U.S. Federal Census – Population,” database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census, 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSX-SW7?cc=1473181&wc=7QMS-ZK1%3A1589422383%2C1589422318%2C1589436315 : 24 March 2017), Tennessee > Washington > Knob Creek District > image 1 of 17; from “1860 U.S. Federal Census – Population,” database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census, 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSX-SQ5?cc=1473181&wc=7QMS-84M%3A1589422383%2C1589422318%2C1589436301 : 24 March 2017), Tennessee > Washington > Boons Creek District > image 1 of 22; from “1860 U.S. Federal Census – Population,” database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census, 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSX-9V9?cc=1473181&wc=7QMS-8HS%3A1589422383%2C1589422318%2C1589436317 : 24 March 2017), Tennessee > Washington > Buffalo Ridge District > image 1 of 21; from “1860 U.S. Federal Census – Population,” database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census, 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSX-SMPV?cc=1473181&wc=7QMS-8W3%3A1589422383%2C1589426720%2C1592382365 : 24 March 2017), Tennessee > Sullivan > Civil District no 8 > image 1 of 23; from “1860 U.S. Federal Census – Population,” database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census, 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSX-SM4G?cc=1473181&wc=7QMS-8H9%3A1589422383%2C1589426720%2C1592382370 : 24 March 2017), Tennessee > Sullivan > Civil District no 9 > image 1 of 20; from “1860 U.S. Federal Census – Population,” database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census, 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSX-9MR?cc=1473181&wc=7QMS-ZKY%3A1589422383%2C1589422318%2C1589436335 : 24 March 2017), Tennessee > Washington > Jonesboro District > image 37 of 37; from “1860 U.S. Federal Census – Population,” database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GBSF-98X4?cc=3161105&wc=81XD-3TL%3A1610412401%2C1610317701%2C1610349001 : 16 October 2019), Tennessee > Washington > Brush Creek > image 1 of 1; citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSF-9454?cc=3161105&wc=8B1K-3TL%3A1610412401%2C1610317701%2C1610414201 : 16 October 2019), Tennessee > Washington > Knob Creek > image 1 of 1; citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSF-94N2?cc=3161105&wc=81PM-6TL%3A1610412401%2C1610317701%2C1610414001 : 16 October 2019), Tennessee > Washington > Boons Creek > image 1 of 1; citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GBSF-98JC?cc=3161105&wc=8B1V-168%3A1610412401%2C1610317701%2C1610303601 : 16 October 2019), Tennessee > Washington > Other > image 1 of 2; citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GBSF-9882?cc=3161105&wc=8BXL-C68%3A1610412401%2C1610317701%2C1610414301 : 16 October 2019), Tennessee > Washington > Jonesboro > image 2 of 2; citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GBSF-98DT?cc=3161105&wc=81RF-C68%3A1610412401%2C1610317701%2C1610414101 : 16 October 2019), Tennessee > Washington > Jonesborough > image 1 of 1; citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GBSD-JT4?cc=3161105&wc=DMMZ-DP8%3A1610412401%2C1610455701%2C1610413701 : 16 October 2019), Tennessee > Sullivan > District 8 > image 1 of 1; citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
Ancestry.com, “Census Place: Washington, Tennessee; Archive Collection Number: T1135; Roll: Roll 10; Schedule Type: Agriculture”, online.
“George Haynes and Slavery”, Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site web page. Online at: http://www.tipton-haynes.org/research/history/george-haynes-and-slavery/
W. Todd Groce, Mountain Rebels: East Tennessee Confederates and the Civil War, 1860-1870 (1999).

A History of Slavery, Manumission, and Abolitionism in East Tennessee, particularly Washington County and Sullivan County

I. Before Tennessee Statehood (1760-1796)

The history of slavery in East Tennessee coincides nearly with the first white settlements of the area, then part of the British colony of North Carolina. Ramsey recalls an 18-year old enslaved man part of the first Anglo-American longhunters to explore the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, along with Col. James Smith and company, in 1766 (Ramey 69; see also Goodspeed’s Maury p. 117).

According to Bill Carey (on pages 3-4 of his book), describing Donelson’s account of his expedition of 1779-80:

Sixteen years before Tennessee became a state, there were slaves on the Donelson Party flotilla, which left Fort Patrick Henry (present-day Kingsport) and floated downstream on the Holston and Tennessee Rivers, bound for present-day Nashville. The first person to die on that journey was a slave. “Camped on the north shore, where Captain Hutchings’ negro man died, being much frosted in his feet and legs, of which he died,” John Donelson wrote in his journal.

(See also Ramsey at 198 et seq.).

According to local historian Oliver Taylor in 1909:

Slavery is coexistent with the first settlements of Sullivan County. The earliest records we have… mention the purchase and exchange of slaves and more often the presence or possession of them….

The Island road, named for Long Island, from Kingsport through Virginia, was one of the great thoroughfares of slave-trade, as was the Blountville road, to Jonesboro and back through Virginia. This explains why there were more slave-owners along those two roads than there were along the Reedy creek road, running between and parallel with them…

(Taylor at 272).

Despite slavery’s presence in the area from the earliest days, general histories seldom mention slavery in great detail. The absence is particularly notable outside of the context of white abolitionists and the Civil War. For example, despite being a hefty 1,289 pages, the Washington County Historical Association, Inc.’s epic History of Washington County, Tennessee does not contain an index entry for “slavery” and only mentions it in any meaningful way in the chapter related to the Civil War, beginning on page 171, and continuing thereon for a few pages.

Moreover, it is not unusual for authors, particularly those writing in the 20th Century, to soften slavery by making vague claims along the lines of “slavery wasn’t as bad here as it was elsewhere.” While there may or may not be truth to these claims — it is objectively true, for example, that the enslaved fraction of the population was smaller in Tennessee, and much smaller in East Tennessee, than it was in the Deep South — specific examples of slaveholder leniency are rarely given, and damning in their weakness. Referring back to Oliver Taylor (who frames much of his discussion of slavery in terms of “civilizing” the African people):

Indian slaves worked side by side with negro slaves and in this way the latter absorbed much of the humor and quaint folk-lore of the Indian, but the Indian being a conservator would have none of the negro.

…

The reputed cruel treatment of slaves has been much magnified as far as [Sullivan County] is concerned, but of course we may have had a milder form of slavery than the corn and cotton countries. Some owners never even whipped their servants, while other did chastise the unruly ones when occasion demanded.

(Taylor 277) (note that Taylor claims in a footnote that some Indians sold themselves into slavery to pay debts or as prisoners of war; to the extent that this was the case it seems to have been in the earlier years of Tennessee settlement, as all of the records for enslaved people that I have reviewed, starting in 1850, appear to be for people with either African or African/European mixed-race heritage).

As Oliver Perry Temple, a Knoxville lawyer and prominent Unionist during the Civil War, states in his book East Tennessee and the Civil War:

Our forefathers, though generally in moderate circumstances, brought slaves with them to East Tennessee from North Carolina and Virginia. This region was poorly adapted to the culture of cotton, rice or indigo. Yet at that day, and for many years afterward, every farmer had his “cotton patch.” This was for the purpose of raising a supply for domestic use. While cotton could be raised even in the eastern and more elevated counties, the region could not be classed as a cotton country.

That, however, was not always, and perhaps not generally the question. Men who desired to possess slaves did not stop to inquire into the question of profit or loss.
There was always connected with the ownership of slaves a sense of pride and independence, a supposed badge of superiority, that attracted men. Few in that day could resist the temptation of having some one to do for them the hard work of life, to relieve them of all drudgery, to wait upon them obsequiously, and to be ever present to do their will….

Our forefathers, in East Tennessee, at an early day, so far as we can ascertain by the lights before us, do not seem to have cared very much about the moral aspect of slavery, either one way or the other. Those who were able, and felt so inclined, purchased and held slaves. But much the larger number seemed not inclined to own them.

(Temple at 84-85)

White settlers, however, were not the only ones who brought enslaved people into Tennessee; some Native American tribes also participated in slavery from an early date (Cary pp. 4 & 10, noting Chickamauga and Cherokee raids).

In1791, when the first Census of the United States was completed, what would later become Tennessee had been separated from North Carolina and designated as the “Territory South of The River Ohio” (confusingly, Kentucky, which actually contains the south bank of the Ohio, was already its own separate territory and became a state in 1792). The Territory contained two major districts each subdivided into counties: the Washington District (comprised of the counties of Washington, Sullivan, Greene, Hawkins and the county South of the French Broad) and the Mero District (comprised of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee County). The Census returns are shown below:

tenn_census_1790_table

The tables indicated that there were about 535 enslaved people in Washington County, , 297 in Sullivan County with a total of 2,256 in the Washington District and 3,417 throughout the Territory as a whole; this represented 9.1 percent of the population of Washington County, 6.7 percent of the population of Sullivan County, 7.8 percent through the District as a whole; and 9.6 percent throughout the Territory (indicating that, even at this early date, slavery was somewhat less common in what would become East Tennessee, than what would become West Tennessee). The 1790 Census also counted about 361 free people of color throughout the Territory, about 1 percent of the population.

(Note that in 1790, Washington County included most of the land that today comprises Carter County and Johnson County. This land was separated from Washington when Carter County was formed in 1796. Washington County also included most of modern Unicoi County that was not separated until after the Civil War. Sullivan County in 1790 was slightly larger than it is today but the boundary changes have been far less significant, and not worth discussing in detail.)

As Bill Carey notes in his study of slave advertisements, the slave trade was already a significant matter of concern in the Washington District as early as 1791, when the first issue of the state’s first newspaper, the Knoxville Gazette, published a “help wanted” advertisement seeking a “Negro fellow.” In the following months the same paper began to publish notices for runaway slaves, including from slaveowners in Washington and Sullivan counties. (Carey pp. 4 – 5). Slaves were also given away as prizes in local lotteries as early as 1794 (Ibid. at 7). The Washington County sheriff was involved in enforcing fugitive slave laws as early as 1792 (Carey pp. 5 and 141), even before the passage of the first federal fugitive slave law in 1793.

Sources:

J. G. M. Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee to the end of the eighteenth century (1853). Available online at hathitrust.org.
Goodspeed Publishing Company, History of Tennessee: From the Earliest Time to the Present; Together With an Historical and Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall Counties; Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Reminiscences, Observations, Etc. Etc. (1886). Available online at hathitrust.org.
Bill Carey, Runaways, Coffles and Fancy Girls: A History of Slavery in Tennessee (2018).
Joyce Cox and W. Eugene Cox (editors), History of Washington County, Tennessee (2001).
Oliver Perry Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War (1899, Kindle Edition 2011). I am using the Amazon Kindle edition of this book as the original is out of print. The Maury County Public Library has a copy which I may consult at a later point.
J. Phillips (publisher), Return of the Whole Number of Persons within the Several Districts of the United States (1793). Online at: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1793/dec/number-of-persons.html
Oliver Taylor, Historic Sullivan: A History of Sullivan County, Tennessee with brief Biographies of the Makers of History (1909). Available online at: https://archive.org/details/historicsullivan00tayl/
Act of Feb. 12, 1793, cited in 1 Stat. 302-03, discussed in “Fugitive Slave Act of 1793” (online article) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1793

II. Statehood through Second Constitution (1797-1834)

At the first constitutional convention held at Knoxville in the winter of 1796, “a determined effort was made to prohibit slavery in the new state that was about to be created,” with thousands of petitioners asking the convention delegates to include a provision gradually phasing out slavery (Patton at 68-69). It has also been claimed, although the truth of this is questionable, that the 1796 state constitutional convention very nearly made Tennessee a free state. (Temple at 84, footnote 1, noting a claim by Horace Maynard that the proposal was defeated by a single vote). It is difficult to ascertain with certainty what was discussed and to what extent as no journal was kept of the debates of the statehood convention (Ramsey at 652-53). Regardless of these efforts, Tennessee’s first constitution ultimately contained no provisions directly allowing or prohibiting slavery, effectively preserving the legality of slavery, although also effectively the right of free blacks to vote (Coan; Blue Book at 591; Carey at 31).

By 1796, when Tennessee was admitted to the Union, the enslaved population had grown to 10,613 (Temple p. 83); by 1801 the statewide total had grown to 13,584 (12.9 percent of the population), with 533 (8.3 percent of the total county population) of those being in Washington County and 491(4.8 percent) in Sullivan County; the vast majority of enslaved people of color by this point being in the Mero District (Middle Tennessee). There were about 25 free people of color in Washington County and 17 in Sullivan County at that time.

(Unfortunately, the Census schedules for Tennessee from 1790, 1800 and 1810 have been destroyed or lost, and the Census records from 1820 are also missing for most of East Tennessee. So we do not have a list of the slaveholders for these years.)

In 1801, the Legislature passed a law making it easier for a slaveowner to manumit (i.e. to voluntarily free his slaves). Prior to that it time it required petitioning the state legislature, but the new law permitted the local courts to do so (Patton at 75).

Up through the 1820s, manumission movements sprang up in Tennessee (mostly East Tennessee). In 1815, the Tennessee Manumission Society was formed, with branches in Washington and Sullivan Counties (Temple at 84-85). Other societies also formed; by 1827, perhaps 1,000 Tennesseans were involved in 25 societies (Patton at 89; Goodheart at 224).

In 1819, Elihu Embree, an ironworker in the southern part of Washington County, began printing The Manumission Intelligencer in Jonesborough, which would become the Emancipator in 1820, before stopping publication upon Embree’s death. It is often described as the first newspaper dedicated to ending slavery in the United States (Blue Book 591-92; Temple at 90-91). Benjamin Lundy’s Universal Genius of Emancipation was also published for about two years in Greenville (Temple at 92-93; Patton at 93-94).

While Embree and Lundy’s work is often mentioned today, in their own time they seem to have been little remarked upon; Embree’s name does not appear to have been mentioned in print (other than in his own literature) in Tennessee until after the Civil War (a point also made by Carey at 182). Generally speaking, manumission and abolitionist societies in Tennessee were not well-funded and largely ineffective outside of East Tennessee (Goodheart at 224-25). Moreover, those who supported manumission did not necessarily embrace immediate emancipation or abolition; Elihu Embree’s appears to have kept his slave Nancy, as well as her sons Frances and John and daughters Abigail, Sophia and Mariah, until his death (as his Will specifies their freedom).

Embree’s own zeal seems to have sprung from his conversion to Quakerism (although his father Thomas, who was for a time owner of the Pactolus Iron Works, also held anti-slavery views) (Brooks; Goodheart at 226). The Quakers (Society of Friends) were the most consistent opponents of slavery in antebellum Tennessee, though other denominations, particularly the Brethren (Cox and Cox at 172) Methodists (Temple at 103) and to a lesser extent, Presbyterians (Temple at 106, Cox and Cox at 172), adhered to anti-slavery views to some degree, particularly in the 1810s and 1820s.

As the decades passed, however, zeal among Methodists and most other protestants became hesitation, acceptance and even outright promotion of slavery, at least among its Southern congregants (Patton at 82-83; Martin at 108-109). The Methodist Church ended up splitting into Northern and Southern branches over clerical regulations relating to participation in the slave system (Patton at 87; Temple at 103; Martin at 109).

Dr. Frederick A. Ross, a Presbyterian pastor and theologian near Kingsport manumitted his slaves around 1830, but sometime after (allegedly due to being unable to find workers in East Tennessee), ended up buying more slaves to replace those he had freed; by 1853, he was so convinced of his error that he gave a passionate defense of slavery at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, declaring slavery “ordained by God.” (Temple at 257; Chattanooga News; Ross at 11). “My own emancipated slaves would today be worth greatly more than $20,000,” Ross lamented. Challenging the good faith and charitable intentions of Northern abolitionists, he then asked, “Will you give me back $10,000? Good. I need it now.” (Ross at 18-19). The Presbyterian synod in Tennessee withdrew from the national Presbyterian Church over slavery in 1857 (Goodspeed-East Tennessee at 939).

The first few decades of the Nineteenth Century saw several shifts in Tennessee politics and culture that set the stage for a massive expansion and entrenchment of slavery in Tennessee:

Adoption of the cotton gin and commercialization of farming (Blue Book at 591).
The end of organized Native American resistance to white settlement. Military expeditions in the 1810s led by Andrew Jackson directly or indirectly to treaties that led to the extinguishing of Indian land claims (formerly over two-thirds of the present-day state) leaving only the Cherokees in the southeast part of the state by 1820. (Id. at 594-95). As president two decades later, Jackson finished the removal of Indians from Tennessee by deporting the Cherokee to Oklahoma on the “Trail of Tears.” (Id. at 598-599).
The opening of West Tennessee to white settlement and the rapid development in West Tennessee of a cotton-based economy, as well as the continued rise in power of Middle of Tennessee, and the concurrent shifting of political and economic power away from East Tennessee. (Blue Book at 595).

In 1810, the enslaved population of Tennessee was 44,535 (17.0 percent of the statewide population) (this comes from 1850 Statistical View of the United States).

In 1820, the enslaved population in Tennessee was 80,107 (18.9 percent of the total statewide population); 39,565 of them under the age of 14 years. There were 2,727 free people of color. In Sullivan County, there were 836 enslaved people (11.9 percent of the population) and in Washington County, there were 979 (10.2 percent of the population). Across East Tennessee as a whole (which held about 31 percent of the state’s total population), there were 12,413 enslaved people (15.5 percent of the total slaves in the state) and 1,165 free people of color (42.7 percent of the total free people of color in the state).

In 1830, the total number of enslaved persons in Tennessee was 141,603 (20.8 percent of the state’s total population), with 4,555 free people of color (holding steady at about 0.7 percent of the state’s population). About 38 percent of the enslaved people across the state were under the age of 10 years. In Sullivan County, there were 1,187 enslaved people (11.8 percent of the population). In Washington, there were 1,040 enslaved people (9.5 percent of the total). Across East Tennessee as a whole, there were 17,887 enslaved people (12.6 percent of the total slave population across Tennessee).

Despite the growth of slavery, the anti-slavery movement was able to score legislative wins as late as 1829, when the Tennessee state legislature passed an act permitting enslaved people to sue the executors of estates where manumission clauses in slaveowners’ wills were being ignored (Patton at 76).

By the end of 1831, however, the mood had changed significantly, with the shift usually attributed to the Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia that summer, and perhaps to a lesser extent the increasingly radical mood of Northern abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison (see, e.g. Temple at 252; Carey at 31; Patton at 76; Blue Book at 601; England at 41-42). By the end of December, the Tennessee legislature had passed new “defensive legislation” limiting the application of the 1829 manumission law; prohibiting the entry of free people of color into the state and requiring freed slaves to leave the state (e.g. to be removed to the colony of Liberia); as well as a law declaring “unusual” gatherings of slaves to be unlawful assemblies, and stepping up slave patrols (Acts of Tennessee 1831 at pp. 120-24; Patton at 76). The severity of the law relating to freed slaves led to it being subsequently revised in 1833 to exclude those emancipated before 1831; and from 1842-49 the legislature permitted local courts to grant amnesty to free people of color based on good behavior (Id. at 77). It has been said that the 1831 law was only enforced sporadically (with particular harshness during times of perceived emergency) as the number of free people of color only continued to grow after its passage (England at 49); and it has been written that only a few hundred people were ever effectively deported from Tennessee to Liberia (Patton at 102).

This law was tested in the case of Ford v. Ford, where the slaves of Loyd Ford, Sr. (a farmer in the Buffalo Ridge district of Washington County) brought forth a probate claim for freedom against his disapproving children. The will specified that the slaves were to live on his land, which contradicted the terms of the 1831 law (although later amendments softened it, at least until the 1850s). The case went all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which upheld Ford’s will in 1846 and freed his slaves. (Tennessee Encyclopedia article; Howington article).

The entrenchment of slavery in Tennessee law and culture continued during the 1834 constitutional convention, which met during the summer months in Nashville. There, an effort was made (including petitions from Washington County, and championed by Washington County delegate Matthew Stephenson) to include provisions that would have mandated the gradual abolition of slavery; but these proposals were handily rejected (Temple at 111, 254; Cox and Cox at 173).

The convention, perhaps responsive to popular indignation, released a report claiming, in effect, that it was better for both free and enslaved Tennesseans that the institution of slavery continue than to thrust enslaved people into the “gloomy” plight of being free people of color (Temple at 113).

Ultimately, the 1834 constitution, which seems to have been dominated by delegates from Middle and West Tennessee, stripped away the right to vote from free people of color (limiting the franchise to free white men) and deprived the General Assembly of the power to pass any laws relating to the emancipation of enslaved people without the consent of their owners (Temple at 118; Patton at 69-74).

These efforts were opposed by some delegates from East Tennessee, particularly Stephenson of Washington County, who also proposed, unsuccessfully, to add a provision protecting the suffrage of those who already had the right to vote (Temple at 118; Cox and Cox at 173). The elimination of black suffrage in particular seems to have been motivated by resentment stemming from the perceived power of free people of color in close elections, which allegedly provided the margin of victory in at least one congressional race (Patton at 73-74).

Further entrenching slavery in the state constitution, the Convention, by a margin of 31-27 agreed to add Article II, Section 31, which stated: “The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves, without the consent of their owner or owners.”

With regard to this provision, Oliver Perry Temple wrote:

Thus the delusive hope and promise held out by the committee, speaking for the majority of the convention, that slavery would not be “perpetual,” was falsified, and the door to emancipation closed and barred apparently forever. Slavery was already protected by the Constitution of the United States, and now it was securely enthroned in that of Tennessee, from which it could only be dislodged by the slaveholders themselves.

(Temple at 119).

Sources:

Tre Hargett (Secretary of State), Tennessee Blue Book 2019-2020 (2019). This is a book is printed biennially by the Tennessee Department of State and is a compendium of facts related to Tennessee politics and government, and contains a brief but detailed discussion of the state’s history.
Return of the Whole Number of Persons within the Several Districts of the United States (1801). Online at: https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1800/1800-returns.pdf
“Making the Best Use of Tennessee Census Index Books, 1820-1840”, Tennessee State Library and Archives website, online at: https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/history/census/census1820.htm
James W. Patton, “The Progress of Emancipation in Tennessee, 1796-1860”, Journal of Negro History 17:1 (Jan. 1932), p. 67 et seq.
Ron W. Coan, “6.13 Tennessee Statehood and 1796 Constitution” (blog post), online at: https://edcurmudgeon.com/2019/09/15/6-13-tennessee-statehood-and-1796-constitution/
Lawrence B. Goodheart, “Tennessee’s Antislavery Movement Reconsidered: The Example of Elihu Embree”, Tennessee Historical Quarterly 41:3 (Fall 1982) at 224 et seq.
Asa Earl Martin, “Anti-Slavery Activities of The Methodist Episcopal Church in Tennessee”, Tennessee Historical Magazine 2:2 (June 1916), p. 98 et seq.
James Brooks, “Abolitionist: Jonesborough publisher spoke out against slavery”, Johnson City Press, 15 February 1998, p. D-51.
Frederick Augustus Ross, Slavery Ordained By God (1857). Online at: https://archive.org/details/slaveryordained01rossgoog/page/n26/mode/2up
“Early History of Tennessee, As Told by Member of Chattanooga Writers’ Club”, Chattanooga News, 13 November 1916, p. 11 (discussion of paper by Anna Bachman Hyde regarding early Tennessee, relating the slavery views of Dr. Frederick Ross and Samuel Rhea of Blountville).
John Quincy Adams (Secretary of State), Census for 1820 (1821), available online at: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1821/dec/1820a.html
Matthew St. Clair Clarke (Clerk of the House of Representatives), Abstract of the Returns of the Returns of the Fifth Census (1832), available online at: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1832/dec/1830b.html
Debow, Statistical View of the United States (1854), mentioned above. The relevant pages are available online at: https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1850/1850c/1850c-04.pdf
Elihu Embree Will, “Tennessee Probate Court Books, 1795-1927,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:2:77TV-BFXP?cc=1909088&wc=M6QW-GZ9%3A179850501%2C180226401 : 22 May 2014), Washington > Wills, 1779-1858, Vol. 01 > image 186 of 543; county courthouses, Tennessee.
Public Acts Passed At the Stated Session of the Nineteenth General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, 1831 (1832). [Also called Acts of Tennessee 1831]. Available online at hathitrust.org.
J. Merton England, “The Free Negro in Ante-Bellum Tennessee”, The Journal of Southern History 9:1 (Feb. 1943), p. 37 et seq.
Goodspeed Publishing Company, History of Tennessee from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of from twenty-five to thirty counties of east Tennessee (1887). Partly available online at hathitrust.org.
Tennessee Secretary of State, transcript of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee (1834), available online at: https://tsla.tnsosfiles.com/digital/teva/transcripts/33662.pdf
Tennessee Secretary of State, The Tennessee Constitution of 1834 Introductory Materials (manuscript, undated) available online at: https://tsla.tnsosfiles.com/digital/teva/intros/33662.pdf
G. Brian Jackson, “Ford v. Ford”, Tennessee Encyclopedia (Tennessee Historical Society website), online at: https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/ford-v-ford/
Arthur F. Howington, “‘Not in the Condition of a Horse or an Ox’: Ford v. Ford, the Law of Testamentary Manumission, and the Tennessee Courts’s Recognition of Slave Humanity”, Tennessee Historical Quarterly 34:3 (Fall 1975), p. 249 et seq. Available online at jstor.org.

III. The Golden Age of Slavery (1835-1861)

A. Laws Relating To Slavery

The years between the second constitution if 1834 and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 mark a sort of golden age of the institution of slavery in Tennessee. The trajectory of the state’s laws during this time was toward greater suppression of abolitionism and stricter and crueler treatment of free people of color and the enslaved.

According to Oliver Perry Temple:

Soon after the events I have been relating, the antislavery current, which had been running so strongly for the past twenty years in favor of emancipation, in parts of the South, turned back in its course, and was lost in the maelstrom of slavery propagandism. Men who had once clamored for emancipation were either hushed into silence, or eagerly followed the swelling current of Southern thought. Many men who had denounced slavery, away back in emancipation days, now hastened to set themselves right with their neighbors by purchasing slaves. Every voice, every whisper of opposition to slavery, was silenced. Universal acquiescence, if not universal approval and advocacy, succeeded. If a few doubted, if a few still had conscientious scruples as to the system, they were hushed into silence in the dread of an overpowering public opinion. No man in the South was bold enough to open his lips in opposition to slavery. No man dared to suggest any longer either its amelioration, much less its extinction. To be suspected of abolition sentiments, was to bring on one’s self the curse of social outlawry; to become as a loathsome leper shunned by every one. The boldest men who had had scruples on the moral side of the question stood petrified and confounded in the presence of this omnipotent despotism of public opinion. By it, all resistance was crushed out.

(Temple at 120; same passage cited approvingly by Cox and Cox on page 173).

Perhaps the clearest example of the “omnipotent despotism” that Temple describes, is the history of the enactment of the 1836 act “to prevent the publication or circulation in this Sate of seditious pamphlets and papers.”

The 1834 Tennessee state constitution stated in its Declaration of Rights (Art I. sec. 19) that “The free communication of thoughts and opinions, is one of the invaluable rights of man, and every citizen may freely speak, write, and print, on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. ” In context, the term “abuse of that liberty” clearly relates to defamation, as the next several sentences go on to specify that truth would be an affirmative defense in libel cases.

But even while the ink was still drying on the new Declaration of Rights, the General Assembly went about the business of ignoring it. A great furor arose in the Southern states during 1835 about the unsolicited mailing by Northern abolitionists of abolitionist literature to Southerners (Savage; Barrett). In his December 1835 report to Congress, President Andrew Jackson called for Congress to pass a law “as will prohibit, under severe penalties, the circulation in the Southern States, through the mail, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection.” (Jackson).

The United States Congress debated the subject of regulating mailed abolitionist pamphlets considerably, with the majority concluding that censorship of the mail would violate the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of the press and freedom of speech (Barrett at 103); and quite contrary to Jackson’s request, and in keeping with the spirit of the First Amendment, Congress did end up passing legislation specifically directing local postmasters to deliver the mail even if they found it objectionable (Savage at 183-84).

The Tennessee General Assembly took a different approach, enacting February 1836 a law that declared it a felony to “write, print, paint, draw or engrave” or to “aid or abet in writing, printing, painting, drawing or engraving… “any paper, essay, verses, pamphlet, book, painting, drawing or engraving, calculated to excite discontent, insurrection or rebellion amongst the slaves or free persons of color….” Other provisions of this bill specifically were aimed at prohibiting anti-slavery sermons by ministers of the Gospel “in the presence or hearing of any slave or free person of color.”

As Carey notes the sedition law was clearly written to avoid any loopholes, which he contrasts with the state’s ban on the importation into Tennessee of enslaved people for the purpose of sale or trade (which was in effect from 1827 to 1855) (Carey at 35-39).

Other statewide laws restricting the liberty if its free white citizens with regard to slavery include: a prohibition on visiting a slave at night (even if the slave was a relative); a prohibition on harboring runaway slaves; a prohibition on carrying slaves on a ship or carriage without a written pass; a prohibition on allowing slaves to manage their own time or to own livestock of their own; a prohibition on giving weapons to slaves; a prohibition on trading with slaves, including selling them liquor or allowing them to practice medicine; and of course, a prohibition on whites marrying a person of color (and this law applied both to the married couple and to ministers and county clerks) (Carey at 34-36) (Revised Code at 500 et. seq.).

The corporation laws of Jonesborough also provided local restrictions on both enslaved people and on whites. In addition to the usual prohibition on whites visiting slaves after dark, free whites were also prohibited by local ordinance from permitting “frequent slave assemblies” or from selling liquor to slaves. Citizen slave patrols were organized to enforce these laws (Cox and Cox at 173-74).

Slaves caught without passes by slave patrols (“paddyrollers”) were subject to imprisonment and beatings (Carey at 40).

In Washington County (where it is somewhat-plausibly claimed that slave treatment was less severe than in other parts of Tennessee), the county’s largest slaveholder, Dillard Love, was prosecuted by the local court for “allowing a slave to trade for himself” and “permitting a slave to act as free,” thus showing that restrictions on the behavior of enslaved people frequently transformed into restrictions on the owners themselves. (Cox and Cox at 172).

The restrictions on enslaved persons themselves were, of course, severe. As Carey notes:

Tennessee did not codify its laws until 1858. This makes it difficult to find out what the laws related to slavery were at any single point prior to that time. However, Tennessee’s laws related to slavery in 1858 were clear, and from the point of view of the slave, harsh.

Slaves were not citizens and has practically no rights. Slaves did not have the right to file lawsuits or to bring charges against slaveholders. Slaves did not have the right to claim they were being abused, underfed or overworked. Furthermore, a free person who believed a slave owner was abusing, underfeeding or overworking his or her slave had no right to press charges or file a lawsuit against that person.

There were, practically, no laws that restricted a what a slaveholder could do to his or her slaves. Slave owners could work slaves as much as they wanted and force them to do whatever type of work they wanted. Slaveholders could, legally, rape their slaves. They could beat their slaves. They could not, however, “wantonly and without sufficient cause beat or abuse the slave of another person.” [emphasis in Carey]

In other words, it was legal for a slaveholder to beat his or her own slave “wantonly and without sufficient cause.” It was also legal to beat someone else’s slave, so long as it was not “wantonly and without sufficient cause.” It just wasn’t legal to randomly and without cause beat a slave that belonged to someone else.

It was, at least, illegal for a person to kill a slave. But there were two corollaries built into that law. For instance, it wasn’t considered murder if a slaveholder killed a slave who was “in the act of resistance to his master.” It also wasn’t considered murder if a slave died “under moderate correction” – a clause that was amplified in the law.

(Carey at 32, referring to the enactment of The Code of Tennessee a/k/a The Revised Code of 1858; note that the reason why Tennessee laws were hard to determine with precision prior to that date is because Tennessee inherited the common law of North Carolina in 1796, which consisted of a mish-mash of colonial legislation and court decisions, and legislation passed by the Tennessee general assembly up to that point were simply modifications of that common law; see Patton and Patterson on this point).

Note that the entirety of Title V (about 27 pages) of the Revised Code of 1858 relates to slavery and treatment of free people of color. but only one half of a page relates to “offenses against slaves”, primarily to prohibiting the murder of slaves “wilfully, with malice aforethought,” which in theory was punishable “in the same manner as a similar offence committed on the body of any white person” (as well as the payment of the slave’s value to his master, if the slave murdered was not the property of the murderer himself) (Revised Code secs. 2649-2652, pp. 512-513).

Blacks, free or enslaved, could not testify against a white person in Tennessee state courts (Revised Code sec. 3808, p. 687). Consequently, it would have been practically impossible to prosecute abuse of slaves, notwithstanding the legality of such conduct (Carey at 38).

The importation of slaves from other states for sale in Tennessee was, in theory, illegal between 1827 and 1855. It was however not illegal for a Tennessean to purchase slaves in other states and import them for his own use (and then later sell them), or to hire others to do so on their behalf. It was also not illegal to transport slaves through Tennessee from one foreign state (e.g. Virginia) to another (e.g. Mississippi). Quoting Chase C. Mooney’s 1957 book on slavery, Carey states: “‘Interstate trading again became legal [in Tennessee] in 1855, and those who had been carrying on the trade under cover now came out into the open where they could reap much more substantial rewards.'” (Carey at 38-39).

By the 1850s, the policy of the State of Tennessee regarding free people of color was also quite draconian. All free persons of color were required to register with the clerk of the county court. Free people of color, even if they were never enslaved, were also subject to being deported to the “Western coast of Africa” (i.e. Liberia) if they failed to provide bonds for “good behavior,” and subject to imprisonment if found to be idle outside of their county of residence. The state of Tennessee also had a law permitting free people of color to sell themselves into slavery (presumably, as a way of exploiting those who incurred debts) (Revised code secs. 2710-2745, pp. 522-528).

As Patton (at 78) states: “It will be observed from the foregoing that the general tendency of all the legislation from 1831 to 1860 was toward the restriction of the slaves more and more and at the same time toward the elimination of the element known as the free Negro.”

B. Remarks on Census Records for 1840, 1850 and 1860

The 1840 Census counted 183,059 enslaved people in the state of Tennessee out of a total population of 829,210 (22.1 percent of the total), with 3,670 free people of color (0.4 percent of the population).

In Washington County, there were 915 enslaved people, out of a total population of 11,751 (7.8 percent) with 236 free people of color (2.0 percent). In Sullivan county, there were 1,037 enslaved people out of a total population of 10,736 (9.7 percent of the population), with 195 free people of color (1.7 percent of the population).

Across the Grand Divisions of Tennessee in 1840: there were 56,610 enslaved people in West Tennessee (29 percent of the total population of West Tennessee and 31 percent of the slaves in the state), 107,735 in Middle Tennessee (26 percent of the total population of Middle Tennessee and 59 percent of the total number of slaves in the state), and 18,714 enslaved people in East Tennessee (8 percent of the population of East Tennessee and 10 percent of the slaves in the state).

In addition to the remarks on the 1850 and 1860 censuses made above, the enslaved population in 1850 across Tennessee was 239,459, out of a total population of 1,002,717 (23.9 percent). There were also 6,422 free people of color (0.6 percent). Relative to other states, Tennessee had the 8th largest slave population, and in terms of the proportion of enslaved people, Tennessee was slightly higher than Arkansas (22 percent enslaved) and Kentucky (21 percent) and somewhat lower than that of Texas (27 percent), Virginia and North Carolina (both 33 percent). It was about half of that in Alabama (44 percent) and Mississippi (51 percent of the population enslaved). If East Tennessee were counted as a separate state, its slave population would have ranked second lowest among slave states, higher only than Delaware (2.5 percent) and the District of Columbia (7.1 percent) and a bit lower than that of Missouri (at about 13 percent) and Maryland (15 percent).

The number of enslaved people statewide grew to 275,719 by 1860, out of a total population of 1,109,801 (24.8 percent), with 7,300 free people of color.

As can be seen, the absolute number of slaves in Sullivan and Washington Counties was relatively stable after 1830, while the enslaved share of the population slowly dropped; contrast with the state as a whole, where the enslaved population was continuing to grow both in absolute terms and as a share of the population through 1860.

During this time, the share of free people of color also expanded significantly in absolute terms (although was fairly stable at about 1/2 of one percent of the state’s population, in percentage terms).

According to the Census Slave Schedules for 1850, there were about 245 slaveowners in Washington County, Tennessee (based on my manual count of the census schedules). Seventy-seven of them owned one slave, 110 owned between two and five, and 58 owned more than five.

Cox and Cox, in their History of Washington County, Tennessee, conduct a similar analysis. They note that in 1860, enslaved people made up 33 percent of the population of West Tennessee and 29 percent of the population of Middle Tennessee, but only about 10 percent of East Tennessee (Cox and Cox at 171), Furthermore, they note that only 3 percent of slaveowners in East Tennessee owned 20 or more slaves (with only one of Washington County’s 238 slaveowners – Dillard Love – owning 20 slaves). In Washington County, only thirteen slaveowners held ten or more slaves, and “a third” owned only one. Cox and Cox estimate that slaves made up between 10 and 20 percent of the estimated wealth of the citizens of Washington County in 1860 (Id. at 172).

Here are some of the largest slaveholders (those who owned more than 5 slaves) in Washington County in the 1850 Census Schedules: Seth J. W. Lucky (7), Landon C. Hoss (6), Elizabeth C. Johnson (9), Catherine Emberson (10), Alfred E. Jackson (11), Samuel B. Cunningham (6), Montgomery Davis (6), Michael Clem(?) (9), Daniel Barkly (7), Mark Hale (10), John M. Crawford (9), John Blair (8), John A. Wild (6), Thomas A. R. Nelson (12), John Hammer (6), Archibald Hale (8), Peter Miller (8), John Lyle (7), Joseph L. Burts (15), Joseph Crouch (7), Abraham Jobe (9), Samuel Hunt (6), Moses Carson (8), Brookins Campbell (8), Hugh A. Crawford (6), William B. Glaze (8), Soam Waddell (12), Ebenezer Barkly (18), Thomas T. Young (6), James McAlister(?) (6), A. H. Broyles (11), Adam Broyles (7), Ebenezer L. Mathes (8), Samuel Bayless (9), Mary Hunter (9), Abraham Snapp (6), Robert McKee (13), Christopher Sliger (9), Isaac Murray (11), Ruth Hill (15), Bird Brown (10), John F. Broyles (9), William K. Blair (17), Joseph Longman (6), Simon H. Jones (6), Samuel Templing (7), Henderson Clark (13), James Miller (10), Nicholas Keefauver (11), Henry Hall (10), Samuel Fitzgerald (9), James A. Walls (7), Samuel Keebler (9), William(?) Nelson (8), Jacob Miller (12), Joshua Royston (8), William R. Rhea (8), and Joseph S. Rhea (7).

From this it appears that there were about 18 slaveowners who held 10 or more slaves in 1850 (and 58 who held five or more), but none with 20 or more. It seems that there may have been some narrowing of the slave-owning “elite” in Washington County, with some modest amount of “squeezing” of their middle ranks during the 1850s. In some cases, slaveholders died and slaves may have been distributed to their heirs, thus leaving more owners with fewer slaves. Other slave-owners who were significantly invested in the slave economy may have moved to “greener pastures” out west. Some slaveowners not listed here seem to have grown their holdings significantly during this decade (for example, Dillard Love held only 2 enslaved people in Washington County in 1850; William P. Reeves also seems to have added slaves during this time).

In Sullivan County in 1860 there were about 254 slaveowners, based upon a count of the owners listed on the Slave Schedules. I counted about 243 (it is imprecise because it is a manual count and did not carefully look for duplicates) in Sullivan County in the Census Schedules for 1850.

According to the Census Slave Schedules for 1860 here are the slaveholders who owned the greatest number of slaves in each civil district of Sullivan County and Washington County:

Washington County
--------------------------------------------------------
Washington 1	William Glaze (15)
Washington 2	Montgomery Hunter, John H. Greenway (9)
Washington 3	Asa Bayles (11)
Washington 4	Adam A. Broyles (20)
Washington 5	Bird Brown (11)
Washington 6	n/a
Washington 7	Dillard Love (22)
Washington 8	Christian Sliger (8)
Washington 9	Joseph L. Burts (15)
Washington 10	J.M. Hoss (15)
Washington 11	Margaret Carson (8)
Washington 12	Henry Hall (6)
Washington 13	Isaac Murray (8)
Washington 14	n/a
Washington 15	A.E. Jackson (18)*
Washington 16	E. Barkly (15)
Washington 17	Doug Morrow (17)
Washington 18	n/a

Sullivan County
--------------------------------------------------------
Sullivan 1	John Delaney (13)
Sullivan 2	John G. King (16)
Sullivan 3	n/a
Sullivan 4	Robert P. Rhea (32)
Sullivan 5	James King (20)
Sullivan 6	n/a
Sullivan 7	David Birdwell (12)
Sullivan 8	Mary C. Dulaney, Lawrence Snapp (12)
Sullivan 9	n/a
Sullivan 10	n/a
Sullivan 11	George W. Netherland (16)
Sullivan 12	n/a
Sullivan 13	Samuel Pierce (14)
Sullivan 14	Samuel Bachman, Martin Roller (11)
Sullivan 15	N.W. Bachman (15)
Sullivan 16	n/a
Sullivan 17	T.L. Chambers (31)

* The Slave Schedule marked “Jonesborough District” is confusing; Jackson may have been in Swinney’s District, in which case District 15 would be a tie between John Blair and Samuel Cunningham with 11 slaves each.

Note that some slaveowners owned slaves in different districts, and in some cases extended families might own far more than just those listed under one owner’s name; for example, some frequently-appearing surnames in the Washington County slave schedules include Gillespie, Devault, Broyles, Bayles, Young and Hale. In Sullivan County, the slave schedules are populated with Kings, Rheas, Dulaneys and Bachmans.

Some large slaveholders in Carter County included: “William Ervin’s two heirs” (30, Carter County); Robert Love (23, Carter County); “A.W. Taylor’s seven heirs” (22, Carter County); and various other members of the Stover, Carter and Taylor families (who combined owned several dozen slaves).

For a subset of the slaveowners in Sullivan County Civil District 8 and Washington County Civil Districts 9, 10, 11 and 12 for which I could handily guess their ages based on Census Records (total of 67 individuals), I found that the median age of a slaveowner was 49 years, and the average age of 49.3 years. I found only one man under the age of 30 whom I believe to be a slaveowner (the 23-year old younger Martin Kitzmiller), and I may have confused him with a relative (the 88 year-old elder Martin Kitzmiller, father of Elizabeth DeVault). Given the possibility for error and small sample size; I would say the median age for a slaveholder in this section was probably between about 45 and 55 years, and that most slaveowners probably acquired their first slaves in their 30s. Most of the owners tended to be men, though widows and (possibly) adult daughters who acquired slaves through inheritance.

Cox and Cox also note that there were more free blacks in Washington County alone than in the entire state of Arkansas (although this only seems to be true because there was a significant drop in free blacks between 1850 and 1860). The number of free blacks in Washington and Sullivan Counties combined also exceeded the number of free blacks counted in the entirety of Texas in 1860 (Cox and Cox at 172; see 1850 and 1860 census statistics).

C. Notes on Slave Prices and Valuations

Most sources seem to confirm that a slave usually cost about $1,000, with prices varying depending on several factors. (Cox and Cox at 171). Casey, for example, mentions bills of sale from 1836 for slaves exhibited at the East Tennessee State University’s Archives of Appalachia, mentioning one for a 17-year old girl for $900 and another for an 11-year old boy for $1,100 (Casey).

Slaves were between the ages of 12 and 50 were considered taxable property (Revised Code secs. 541 and 542, pp. 171-72). Slaves also likely were exempt if they were, for example, government property or owned by Revolutionary War veterans and their widows (who were exempted from tax up to a value of $2,000) (Id.). It appears that unlike some other states, which applied a flat tax to slaves (for example, Mississippi applied a tax of 40 cents per slave and Virginia, $1.20 per slave), Tennessee held fast to the ad valorem principle of taxing slaves at the same rate as any other property. (Dunlap-’59 at xi). The tax rates, as shown in the chart on page 1 of Dunlap-’61, varied from year to year, but were generally around 10-15 cents per $100 assessed value, or about 50 cents to $1 per enslaved person. This would have been roughly comparable to, if not slightly higher than, the poll tax on free white men (which was 40 cents in 1854-1856, 50 cents per head in 1858-1859 and 35 cents per head in 1860-61).

In addition to being taxed as property, a $5 sales tax was also levied on professional slave-traders for each sold slave (Revised Code sec. 553, p. 175). However, the state receipts were quite minimal — a review of the 1860 “privilege taxes” table shows that a mere $83.57 was collected in all of Tennessee that year from “Negro Traders.” (Dunlap-’61 at 39). Whether the tax was artfully avoided or simply ignored is hard to say, but unfortunately these do not appear to be valuable records of slave transactions.

Some of the Comptroller reports from this time period give specific breakdowns on source of revenue (and others are missing) —

Comptroller’s reports in 1845 and 1849 showed 448 assessed taxable slaves in 1844 and 428 in 1848 for Washington County, valued at $170,075 and $154,850 respectively ($379.63 and $361.80 average assessed value per enslaved person). For Sullivan County, those numbers are 557 assessed slaves in 1844, 512 assessed slaves in 1848, at average assessed values of $388.28 in 1844 and $366.24 in 1848. (Zollicoffer at 27, Shepperd at 26).

The 1859 Comptroller’s report showed for the year 1858 — 477 taxable slaves in Washington County, with a taxable value of $335,050 (or $744.34 assessed value per enslaved person). In Sullivan County there were 529 taxable slaves at an average assessed value of $626.47. This is a bit lower than the statewide average of $792.23 per taxable slave (Dunlap-’59 at 17, 18-19).

The same report showed for the year 1859 — 478 taxable slaves in Washington County, at an average assessed value of $573.03, and 528 taxable slaves in Sullivan County at an average assessed value of $683.72 per enslaved person (both lower than the statewide average of $854.65) (Dunlap-’59 at 17, 26-27, 65).

In the report for 1861, for the year 1860 — 462 taxable slaves in Washington County at an average assessed value of $747.32 per enslaved person, and 558 in Sullivan County at $677.18 in average assessed value per enslaved person. This is well below the statewide average assessed value of $886.40 per enslaved person (probably the highest average assessed value ever recorded in Tennessee slavery). (Dunlap-’61 at 1, 2-3).

And for the year 1861 — 460 taxable slaves in Washington County, at $697.21 per enslaved person. In Sullivan County, 535 taxable slaves at $642.62 per enslaved person assessed. The statewide average assessment was $769.36 (Dunlap’61 at 1, 32-33).

(Note that the rate of inflation during the mid-19th century was fairly insignificant).

By 1861, the total assessed value of slaves in Tennessee (which seems to have been a fraction of the market value, given that only about half of slaves — 131,567 — seem to have been assessed and the assessed values seem to have been below market value) was $101,222,581, or about 27.4 percent of taxable property in the state. In East Tennessee, the 13,110 assessed slaves were valued at $10,028,378, or 15.4 percent of the total taxable property. In Middle Tennessee, slaves were 26.5 percent of taxable property by value, and in West Tennessee, that figure was 33.4 percent.

Generally speaking, the assessed taxable value of slaves (which is not the same thing as the market value) seems to have been tied to the value of land and agricultural prospects (Cf. Patterson at 59 et seq.).

chart_value

D. Miscellaneous Notes Relating to Slavery ca. 1835-1860

The East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad (ET&V) connecting Bristol to Knoxville was built in part by hired-out slaves in the 1850s (Carey at 166). Ironically, the same railroad was likely later used to transport slaves from Virginia into Tennessee (Carey at 111,112, 229). Cox and Cox note that, in Washington County, “economic and political ties with the rest of the slave states were enhanced with the completion of the East Tennessee and Virginia Rail Road in 1858.” They continue: “Pro-slavery sentiment was evident in railroad towns such as Jonesborough. Ross Smith (who was born in 1846) remembered that on the issue of slavery: ‘Our town was pretty equally divided.'” (Cox and Cox at 173).

Even before the opening of the ET&V, slave trading was active in East Tennessee, with Dr. Joseph Powel (or Powell — he was the father-in-law of Confederate Senator Landon Carter Haynes) trading slaves in Elizabethton and Z.L. Burson trading slaves in Morristown (Carey at 110-11).

As noted above, there is a tendency to remember slavery as less harsh in Washington County than elsewhere. Cox and Cox quote Ross Smith’s book Reminiscences of an Old Timer: “I do not remember of ever hearing of one being whipped.” (Cox and Cox at 172). However, certainly slaves in Washington County were whipped, although possibly before Ross’s time, as evidenced from newspaper runaway slave ads (Carey at 67 and 238, relating to ad run in 1797-1798 for a slave named Sampson who had a whip mark on his back).

Cox and Cox note that many slaves worked as house servants in Washington County, with some engaged as brick masons, seamstresses, blacksmiths, millers or carpenters. (Cox and Cox 172).

Prominent slave owners included Chancery Court Judge Seth Lucky, Sheriff Mark Bacon, Postmaster William H. Crouch, and William Cate, a Baptist minister. (Cox and Cox 172).

Carey notes that even those farmers who did not themselves own slaves may have hired enslaved persons on a short-term, paying wages to their masters, often at below-market (relative to a free man’s) wages. (Carey at 153). This meant that those who could not afford slaves still had temporary access to their labor. As noted, hired slaves were used to build the ET&V, as well as other Tennessee “internal improvements.” In addition to the state and local governments, who profited from slavery both from taxes and from owning them directly (see Carey at 173-180, including slaves owned by the State who quarried the limestone for the state capitol building), the banking industry in Tennessee was highly dependent on slave loans (Carey at 169). As noted, slaves were also given away as lottery prizes until lotteries were banned in the 1834 constitution (Carey; see also Introductory Materials for the 1834 Constitution).

In reviewing the federal (WPA) slave narratives that were compiled in the 1930s, I did not find many relating to East Tennessee (and according to a list drawn up by a University of Vermont scholar, none appear to exist for Sullivan or Washington County). A few worth mentioning —

Martha (Brown) Cunningham, interviewed in Oklahoma. This is the narrative of a slaveowner’s daughter from Sevier County, who grew up in Knoxville and recounts:

“Our mother and father treated our slaves good. They ate what we ate, and they stayed with us a long time after the War. I remember though all of the slave; owners weren’t good to their slaves. I have seen ’em take those young fine looking negroes, put them in a pen when they get ready to whip them, strip them and lay them face down, and beat them until white whelps arose on their bodies. Yes, some of them was treated awful mean. I saw mothers sold from their babies, and babies sold from their mothers. They would strip them, put them on the auction block and sell them bid them off just like you would cattle….”

William Davis, interviewed in Texas. This is the narrative of a slave born in Kingston, Tennessee but raised in the Bristol area. His Master, Rev. Jonathan Draper, was a Baptist minister who was involved with a “Washington College” (not clear if this is the one in Washington County, Tennessee, or the Martha Washington College in Abingdon). He relates:

“Bout de first I ‘members real good am where we am in Virginny and Massa John runs de Washington College, in Washington County. I ‘member all de pupils eats at massa’s house and dat de first job I ever had….Dey ain’t no whuppin’ on our place and on Sunday us all go to church, and Massa John do de preachin’. Dey rides in de buggy and us follow in de wagon. De white folks sets in front de church and us in back.”

Rachel Cruze, interviewed in Ohio, was a mixed-race daughter of an enslaved woman and the youngest son of her white owner (Maj. William Holden), who was raised a slave in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, has a fascinating, but extremely long narrative, which I will quote from only briefly:

Everbody leaving the farm had to have a pass. If they didn’t, the old paddyrollers worked on them. Yes, those paddyrollers were poor white trash. Nobody who amounted to anything would go about the country like they did — just like dogs hunting rabbits.

Joseph Leonidas Star, interviewed in Knoxville, a free person of color born in Knoxville:

“The people ’round here calls me “Lee” Star, and I want to tell you, Lee Star is a free-born man. But of course, things bein’ as they were, both my mother and father were slaves. That is for a few years. They lived in Greenville, Tennessee. My mother, Maria Guess, was free’d before the emancipation, by the good words of her young white mistress, who told [’em] all when she was about to die, she wanted ’em to set Maria free, ’cause she didn’t want her little playmate to be nobodys else’s slave. They was playmates you see. My mother was eleven years old when she was freed. When she was about fourteen and my father Henry Dunbar wanted to marry he had to first buy his freedom. In them times a slave couldn’t marry a free’d person. So he bought his freedom from his Marster Lloyd Bullen, and a good friend of Andrew Johnson, the president. My father an’ him was friends too. So he bought his freedom, for just a little of somethin’ I disremember what, ’cause they didn’t aim to make him buy his freedom high. He made good money though. He was a carpenter, blacksmith, shoe maker and knowed a lot more trades. His Master was broadhearted, and good to his slaves, and he let ’em work at anything they want to, when they was done their part of white folks chore-work.”

E. Additional Notes Relating to Abolitionist Activities ca. 1835-1860

Although the activities of the manumission societies and newspapers such as Elihu Embree’s Emancipator were largely squashed by the late 1830s, various degrees of resistance continued.

Cox and Cox note that local Presbyterians continued to teach local blacks. Moreover, at least two homes in Washington County have been claimed as possible Underground Railroad stops. The Bell-Herrin House in south Johnson City, built in 1837, contains tunnels that may have been used to help slaves fleeing the Carolinas (Cox and Cox at 172, 173). State Historian Walter T. Durham did not include the Bell-Herrin House in his paper on the Underground Railroad in Tennessee, but does include the Kinchen Miller house between Jonesborough and Johnson City as a likely stop:

On Lone Oak Road between Jonesborough and Johnson City, a two-story brick house built about 1836 was the home of the Kinchen Miller family. According to family
history, it was a station on the Underground Railroad. The Millers were Dunkards, a religious faith that opposed slavery and war. The house has a large cellar accessible from inside the first floor through three trap doors. Two tunnels with a combined length of approximately 200 yards led from the cellar toward a nearby creek and a small cave. The trap doors, cellar, and tunnels have sustained succeeding generations’ confidence that the house was truly a station.

(Durham at 80)

Regardless of which houses were used, slaves did escape with the aid of locals:

A Jonesborough slave couple, Willis and Elsie Hamilton, and their two daughters fled in 1842 when they learned their master planned to sell them to a trader. After hiding out at an East Tennessee Underground Railroad depot for five weeks, they were directed to a Quaker family in southern Indiana. They remained with the Quakers for a year during which time their third child was born. Following the Underground Railroad, they relocated northward to Adrian, Michigan, where they were received by Charles and Laura Haviland. Willis farmed twenty acres near Adrian for three years until, with the appearance of slave catchers in the area, they took shelter at farms in Ypsilanti and Monroe. Probably the bounty hunters’ search had been prompted by a letter sent to Jonesborough by Elsie and intercepted by the postmaster, her former owner.

(Durham at 58).

Moreover, whether the activities were consequential or not (and Carey at 34, notes that generally, the “vast majority” of white Tennesseans would not have given aid to escaped slaves), the reputation persisted of Washington County as a den of “infernal firegured abolitions” (quoting a letter from former resident S.G. Woddill, writing from Texas, denouncing his former neighbors after John Brown’s raid of Harper’s Ferry in 1859) (Cox and Cox at 174). This aroused panic both within the county and the state. For example, in 1839, the Elizabethton Whig (edited by the fiercely-partisan and ever-feuding Parson W.G. Brownlow) denounced the new editor of the Jonesborough Sentinel, Rev. John Lawton, as an abolitionist (West Tennessean). This affair was discussed in papers across the state (see for example, The Nashville Republican Banner).

It goes without saying that the decade before the Civil War was a time of paranoia in Tennessee relating to the activities of anti-slavery organizations. As Carey notes, “Tennessee newspapers not only defended slavery, but they also mocked people who were critical of it and even accused them of being traitors.” He continues (at 188):

The best example of this was this was the so-called slave insurrection of 1856. In the fall of 1856, rumors of an armed slave rebellion among ironworkers swirled around Montgomery and Stewart Counties. The events were said to have occurred because of publicity associated with Republican John Fremont, the first openly anti-slavery candidate nominated to a major ticket (the Republican Party). In November, the Clarksville Jeffersonian reported that at least eight slaves and an English carpenter (who allegedly encouraged slaves to rebel) had been arrested over a plot to blow up a white church near the Louisa Furnace in Montgomery County. The account of the plot turned out to be false, but that didn’t stop a slave named Britton from being killed in the hysteria.

A few weeks later there was news of a plot in Stewart County in which slaves were reportedly planning to “kill the white men and children at the forge, seize the white women as wives, and then link up with the slaves from the Cumberland rolling mill for a joint rush on Dover.” As a result of this second panic, many slaves were interrogated and whipped, and some number of them killed. Again, however, there does not appear to have ever been massive, organized slave insurrection, contrary to reports by many newspapers at the time.

Sources:

Ruth Barrett (student), Abolitionist Literature and the Mails in Jackson’s Time (thesis) (1950) available online at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1478&context=studentwork
W. Sherman Savage, “Abolitionist Literature in the Mails, 1835-1836”, Journal of Negro History 13:2 (Apr. 1928), pp. 150-184. Available online through jstor.org.
“By Authority, Public Laws”, The Nashville Republican, 24 March 1836, p. 2. Available online through newspapers.com.
The Code of Tennessee, Enacted by the General Assembly of 1857-‘8 (Return J. Meigs and William F. Cooper, editors). (1858). Available online at: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008595935
U.S. Department of State, Compendium of Enumeration of the Inhabitants and Statistics of the United States, as obtained, at the Department of State, from the Returns of the Sixth Census, etc. (1841) available online at: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1841/dec/1840c.html
“Captain” Ross Smith, Reminiscences of an Old Timer (1930?) transcription of book online at: http://www.stateoffranklin.net/johnsons/southern/rsmith.pdf
F. K. Zollicoffer, Fifth Biennial Report of the Comptroller of the Treasury To The Legislature of Tennessee, October 8, 1845 (1845). Online at: https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcZAAQAAMAAJ
B. H. Sheppard, Report of the Comptroller of the Treasury to the General Assembly of Tennessee, October 15, 1849 (1849). Online at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=fMdAAQAAMAAJ
James T. Dunlap, Report of James T. Dunlap, Comptroller of the Treasury, to the General Assembly of Tennessee, October 1859 (1859). Online at: https://books.google.com/books?id=2ppGAQAAMAAJ
James T. Dunlap, Report of James T. Dunlap, Comptroller of the Treasury, to the General Assembly of Tennessee, October 1861 (1861). Online at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=sa5GAQAAMAAJ
Caleb Perry Patterson, “The Negro in Tennessee, 1790-1865″, The University of Texas Bulletin no. 2205 (1 February 1922), available online at: https://books.google.com/books?id=N6BAAAAAYAAJ
“Watch the Abolitionists!”, The West Tennessean, 12 July 1839, p. 3 (quoting the Elizabethton Whig), online at newspapers.com.
“Dismission Extraordinary!”, The Nashville Republican Banner, 2 September 1839, p. 2 (announcing the resignation of Lawton), online at newspapers.com.
W. G. Brownlow (signing as “Editor of the Whig”, “Caution”, The Elizabethton Whig, 5 September 1839, p. 3 (haranguing the “abolitionist” Lawton and insinuating a plot by Washington County slaves), online at newspapers.com.
Walter T. Durham (Tennessee State Historian), The State of State History 2008 in 2008: The Underground Railroad in Tennessee to 1865 (2008) (report to the Tennessee State Library and Archives). Online at: https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/history/tnhistorian/historian_rep2008.pdf
Federal Writers’ Project, Slave narratives: a folk history of slavery in the United States from interviews with former slaves. Type-written records prepared by the Federal Writer’s Project, -1938, assembled by the Library of Congress Project, Work Projects Administration, for the District of Columbia. Sponsored by the Library of Congress. Illustrated with photographs. (1941) online at: https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/

IV. Civil War and Emancipation: Free At Last? (1862-1870)

The Tennessee state government loyal to the Confederate States was evacuated Nashville in late February 1862, and elements of the United States Army (specifically, units of the Army of the Ohio, commanded by General Don Carlos Buell) then occupied Nashville after successfully capturing Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River (Carey at 217; Tennessee Encyclopedia article on “Civil War Occupation”).

On March 12, Andrew Johnson arrived in Nashville and assumed office as military governor of Tennessee, while Confederate governor Isham G. Harris’s government-in-exile attempted to maintain authority “from the field” over the increasingly-shrinking sphere of Confederate control in the state. (Tennessee Encyclopedia).

For most of the War after mid-1862, most of Middle Tennessee (with the occasional exception of the southern counties, which were invaded by Confederates in the winter of 1863 and the fall of 1864) and West Tennessee were under federal control. Generally speaking, federal forces maintained control over every part of the state that was near enough to the Mississippi to be threatened by the Union gunboats. East Tennessee, however, being far enough upstream to avoid the Navy (and in spite of its Unionist politics), was contested between federal and rebel forces for most of the War, with both sides imposing martial law over the parts of the region that it controlled (Elliott; Tennessee Encyclopedia).

Six days after taking office, on March 18, Gov. Johnson issued an “Appeal To The People of Tennessee” justifying his authority and pledging to protect the loyal people of the state. Declaring that the “state government has disappeared”, Johnson asserted that the federal government had a responsibility to step in and guarantee “a republican form of government.” To that end, he argued that the had been appointed “to restore her government to the same condition as before the existing rebellion.” (Johnson).

Johnson’s pledge did not specifically address slavery, although the conservative tone of his proclamation (which referenced the restoration of “the ancient government” and declared that “[a]ll their rights” would be respected), it was heavily implied that he would take no action to abolish slavery in the State. (Johnson). This dovetailed with previous resolutions that conservative Unionists (including Johnson himself) had passed through Congress early in the War disclaiming abolition as a war aim. (Cimprich at 460-61).

As a practical matter, despite uncertainty, the slave trade (and enforcement of fugitive slave laws) continued in Union-controlled Nashville and Memphis into 1863, with slave ads continuing to run in local newspapers (Carey at 222-24). Certainly, in Confederate areas, slavery continued much as before, though some enslaved people (and some free people of color) were also pressed into service as servants or laborers to the Confederate Army (Carey at 218).

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 specifically excluded Tennessee at the request of Governor Johnson (who argued that Tennessee was not in rebellion and would be under federal control but for Confederate “raiders”) (Lincoln; Carey at 222; Cimprich at 462).

Despite the military government’s nominal opposition to emancipation (which included, at least initially, a policy of allowing slaveholders to search for runaways in U.S. Army camps), many enslaved people in both Union and Confederate-controlled parts of Tennessee chose to emancipate themselves during this time, resulting in a refugee crisis of “contrabands” in Nashville in 1863 (Cimprich at 461; Carey at 223; Tennessee Encyclopedia).

In Washington County, it seems that after a long lull with no reports of runaway slave ads, two appeared in 1862 and 1863, confirming the local effect of the statewide trend (Carey at 291-92). Several of the ads from East Tennessee during this time indicate that those who had been “brought to war” ran away from the Confederate Army.

Certainly, those enslaved people who did remain with their masters must have shared in the deprivation and horror of the War. Cox and Cox (at 201) mention the story of Henry Deakins of Boone’s Creek, who hid a big white horse in his house (to prevent it from being stolen or seized by the battling armies) with the aid of his slaves. Many enslaved people would have lost their owners, either due to battle, or due to flight to the North (for those whose owners were loyal to the United States).

There are also some (questionable) accounts of violence by blacks against white citizens during the Civil War. For example, Cox and Cox mention a story of a hot-headed black Union soldier murdering a teenager in Boone’s Creek, although they question its veracity and suggest the soldier was a straggler or deserter. (Cox and Cox at 201). One of the WPA slave narratives transcribed in Knoxville in the 1930s, for Mrs. Mollie Moss, includes an incoherent narrative of an enslaved woman murdering her master by smashing his head with a shovel, though the interviewer’s comments suggest that Mrs. Moss (who by that time was in her 80s) may have “memories of her own and others’ experiences confused in her mind”; the rambling discussion of this alleged murder seems to have caused the interviewer to cut off the interview.

During the summer of 1863, the Lincoln and Johnson administrations finally converged toward a policy of emancipation and abolition. In May, President Lincoln ordered the United States Army to enlist black men (Carey at 223), and recruitment of black troops in Nashville began in September 1863 (Carey at 224; Cimprich at 464-65). Meanwhile, during an “impromptu speech” in late August, Governor Johnson, declared for ending slavery in Tennessee (Cimprich at 463). Johnson, who remained a die-hard white supremacist, framed his conversion to abolitionism in white Jacksonian populist terms, stating that “[t]he slave aristocracy had long held their foot upon [nonslaveholders’] necks.” (Id. at 463-64). This seems to have coincided with an increasingly harsh and vengeful view of Tennessee Unionists toward the rebels as well as pressure from the Lincoln Administration (Tennessee Encyclopedia; Cimprich at 463, 466-67).

Governor Johnson delayed during most of 1864 to call a state constitutional convention to enact a prohibition on slavery in part because of the need to unify Unionists around the goal of emancipation, and in part because of Johnson’s nomination as the Union Party’s nominee for Vice President of the United States (Cimprich at 466-68). During 1864 the slave system in Tennessee seems to have been crumbling; probably the last runaway slave ad was run on June 21, 1864 in the Memphis Daily Appeal (Carey at 232).

Shortly after the November 1864 election, the Unionists of East Tennessee called for a state convention in Nashville, which met on January 8, 1865. The Convention, which was dominated by delegates from East Tennessee, ultimately ended up proposing two major amendments to the Tennessee Constitution of 1834 that had the main effects of repealing the 1861 acts of secession, and of abolishing slavery. (Elliott; Carey 232; Cimprich at 468). The method of proposal for these amendments was irregular, and the franchise effectively limited to white Unionists (Elliott). Unsurprisingly then, both were easily ratified on February 22, 1865, with a turnout of under 28,000 voters (Carey at 234; Cimprich at 458).

Even after the ratification of the 1865 amendments, Carey notes that illegal slavery may have continued for weeks or months afterward. Moreover, because Tennessee’s southern neighbors remained part of the Confederacy until later in the Spring of 1865, enslaved people in Tennessee were still threatened with the possibility of being dragged into slavery in Alabama or Mississippi until after the end of the Civil War. It was not until after the debelation of the Confederate government and the enactment of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in late 1865 that slavery was finally done for (Carey at 235-36).

Following on the heels the February ratification of the Unionist amendments to the state constitution, elections for governor and the legislature were held on March 4, 1865. The “Fighting Parson”, William G. Brownlow, was unopposed in his gubernatorial campaign, and the new General Assembly was stacked with Radical Republicans. Though undemocratic (and often contradicting Brownlow’s past white supremacist convictions), the Reconstruction government of Tennessee worked diligently to approve the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, and secured Tennessee’s full readmission to the Union in the summer of 1866 (Feistman). In 1867, Brownlow backed black suffrage, in part to counter growing opposition to his rule. Paradoxically, the same government that began the process of granting civil rights to the newly freed slaves also provoked a wave of racist violence from temporarily-disenfranchised ex-Confederates, through the Ku Klux Klan and other means. (Blue Book at 609-10).

Sources:

Stephen V. Ash, “Civil War Occupation”, Tennessee Encyclopedia (Tennessee Historical Society website), online at: https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/civil-war-occupation/
John Cimprich, “Military Governor Andrew Johnson and Tennessee Blacks, 1862-1865”, Tennessee Historical Quarterly 39:4 (Winter 1980), pp. 459-470. Online at JSTOR.org.
Sam Elliott, “The 1865 Constitution and the Return of Civil Government in Tennessee”, Tennessee Bar Journal 53:12 (December 2017), online at: https://www.tba.org/index.cfm?pg=LawBlog&blAction=showEntry&blogEntry=29528
Andrew Johnson, “Appeal to the People of Tennessee” (proclamation), 18 March 1862, online at: https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/johnson/id/5/
“Transcript of the Proclamation”, National Archives website (transcription of Lincoln’s proclamation of 1 January 1863), online at: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation/transcript.html
Eugene G. Feistman, “Radical Disenfranchisement and the Restoration of Tennessee, 1865-1866)”, Tennessee Historical Quarterly 12:2 (June 1953), pp. 135-151. Available online through JSTOR.org.
1850 Census Slave Schedules, familysearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1420440.

Some Additional Runaway Slave Advertisements

Here are some runaway ads from Washington and Sullivan County newspapers that I did not find to be listed in the Appendix to Carey’s book Runaways, Coffles and Fancy Girls: A History of Slavery in Tennessee. Most of these are from various incarnations of Brownlow’s Whig during the 1840s, after it moved from Elizabethton but before it moved from Jonesborough to Knoxville. These advertisements were found by searching in newspapers.com.

There also appear to be a fair number of runaway slave ads from Elizabethton (from the Whig prior to moving to Jonesborough, which Carey catalogued in his appendix) as well as from papers in Hawkins and Greene Counties (which I do not believe he catalogued — the Rogersville newspaper is especially full of them).

Finally, there were also occasional ads for runaway “bound boys,” whom I believe were either indentured servants or apprentices, likely of European descent. These ads are qualitatively different than ads for runaway slaves. First, there doesn’t seem to be any racialized language in them. Second, the reward was usually less than $1, perhaps 1 cent for their return, which seems consistent with the sort of investment inherent in indentured servitude (where the master does not have ownership of the person, but only to their labor) but not consistent with the economic investment in a slave. Many runaway slave ads suggested that the runaway might be trying to head to the North, but in “bound boy” ads it seems to be assumed that the runaway is somewhere nearby, perhaps in the employ of a local competitor. The language tends to be primarily vindictive, which suggests that the purpose of the ad is more to warn others against being defrauded rather than actually seeking the return of the runaway. I cross-checked the name of one of the “bound boys” in later Census Records and found a white man by the same name.

CONTENT WARNING — These advertisements contain offensive language.

From The Whig (Jonesborough), 23 September 1840, p. 3. —

TAKEN U[P],
ON the morning of the 19th inst., a runaway negro by the name of AUSTIN who says he belongs to Ebenezer Gower, in Greenville District in the town of Greenville South Carolina, the owner will please come forward prove property, pay charges, and take him away.
ISRAEL McINTURFF,
Jonesboro,’ Sept 23 1840-3t-18

From The Whig (Jonesborough), 31 March 1841, p. 3. —

Notice.
COMMITTED to the Jail of Hawkins county Tennessee, on the 9th day of November last, a negro man, who says his name is Moses, about five feet eight inches high, and about twenty eight years old, who says he belongs to William Moore of South Alabama, near Russelville, the owner is requested to come, pay charges, and take him out or he will be disposed of according to Law.
JOHN ASTON, Jailor
March 31st, 1841

From The Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal, 17 December 1845, p. 3 —

NOTICE.
WAS committed to the JAIL of Sullivan County, Tennessee on the 20th day of November last, a negro boy who calls himself ARCHIBALD, and says he belongs to Thomas Satterwhite of McDowell County, North Carolina. Said boy is about 25 years of age, about 5 feet 10 inches high, inclined to be of a yellowish complexion, and weighs about 175 pounds. The owner of said boy is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges and take him away, otherwise he will be dealt with as the law directs.
J. E. VANCE Jailor
of Sullivan County
Dec 8th, 1845.

From The Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal, 17 December 1845, p. 3 —

Runaway Taken up.
ON the 15th day of November 1845, was taken up and lodged in the jail of Hawkins County, Tennessee, a Negro man calling himself: Jack, and says he belongs to Warren Holcom a trader who was taking him to market in South Alabama. Said Negro also states that he left his master below Kinngston [sic]. He is a Bright Mulatto about five feet eight inches high, had on when apprehended an old white hat, yarn Roundabout, and Low Pantaloons, and Coarse Shoes. Any person or persons having any claim, or claims to said runaway will come and substatiate [sic] them or he will be dealt with according to law.
ROBT C. CRAWFORD,
Jailor of Hawkins County.
December 10, 1845.

From The Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal, 17 December 1845, p. 3 —

$50 Reward
RANAWAY from the Subscriber 9 miles east of Sparta, on 16th Oct Two Negro men, Jordin about 26 years old full 6 feet high ark complected and weighs about 175 or 80 pounds, has a scar on his chin and forefinger on his left hand crooks over towards the palm of the hand. Jim is about 35 years old, weighs about 165 pounds, 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high very black and light brand, i will give the above reward for the apprehension of said Negroes if deposited in any jail in the state so that I can get them — Said Negroes will endeavor to make their way back to Wilksboro North Carolina, as I purchased one of them in that place but a few weeks since and the other about 30 miles below there. If any Negroes of the above description have been deposited in any jail in the state the jailer or sheriff will please inform the subscriber of the same immediately.
S. T. MOTTLEY.
Lebanon Nov. 7th 1845 1s.

From The Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal, 16 September 1846, p. 2 —
[original has smudge on paper]

runaway_slave_ad_jonesborough_whig_16_sep_1846_p2

STOP THE RUNAWAYS!!
$100 REWARD!!
RANAWAY from the Subscriber on Monday night the 23d August, a MAN SLAVE, named REUBEN. He is a Dark Mulatto, with a heavy head of hair, and a strong beard, when he had lately cut off, in hight [sic] he is 5 feet, 10 inches — straight and well built, with high cheek bones and [?] very likely. He is very active and intelligent; reads and writes well. Has no doubt furnished himself with Free Papers. Graceful in his movements, and polite in his demeanor, he is well calculated to deceive the unsuspecting. He carried off with him a fine black cloth coat, fashionably made, and fixed with silk serge, a [?] over-coat, and a drab-colored wool-hat, with a broad brim. The other articles of his clothing are not now recollected. He is a boot and shoe maker, by trade, is believed to have had a considerably sum of money, when he ranaway. It is supposed that he is in company with a MULATTO GIRL named HANNAH, belonging to the Rev. Mr. Gamewell, who ranaway on the same night, and to whom it is known that he was much attached. She is a dark mulatto, with straight slick hair, kept so by constant attention, though naturally inclined to curl — about 25 years of age, slender built, and supposed to be pregnant. They are no doubt [?] for a Free State.
Any person apprehending the said Slaves, and delivering them to the subscriber, living in LINCOLNTON, N.C. shall receive the above reward, or if they be confined in [?] jail in this or the adjacent States, so that I can get them again, a reward of Seventy-Five Dollars, will be given.
J.A. RAMSOUR
Lincolnton, N.C., August 24, 1846 –n17, 4t.

From The Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal, 24 March 1847, p. 4 —

$50 REWARD!!
STOP THE RUNAWAY
RANAWAY from the undersigned, near Elizabethton, Carter County, Tennessee on the 7th of Jan, a Negro boy, SOLOMON, aged 23 years, five feet 9 or 10 inches in height, weighs about 140, tolerably dark, had whiskers on the Gotee order when he left, but is is likely he has shaved them off. He is a very active well-made boy, rather good looking, reads well for a negro, but in conversation seldom ever looks you in the face, loves liquor, and wen he can get it, most invariably gets drunk, and talks fluently on politics. The kind of clothing he had on when he left, is not recollected, nut he will doubtless be well provided with clothing. He is one of three brothers that started to Ohio some 2 or 3 years ago, and were apprehended in Claiborne county in this State. Should he attempt to go to a free State — as it in [sic] believed he will — he will have the assistance of some or or more white persons, and will adopt a new mode of traveling to that usually resorted to by Runaways. Persons living on the various thorough-fares to Ohio through the State of Kentucky, and the Western part of Virginia will do well to scrutinize waggons [sic], carts, &c, particularly, if in the possession of persons apparently of doubtful character. A reward of $30 will be given for his apprehension in the State of Tennessee, so the undersigned gets him, and
FIFTY DOLLARS
if apprehended without the limits of the State, so that he can be had by the undersigned or his agent. And the undersigned promises that he will prosecute any and all who may harbor or assist said boy to a free State. If any such is detected, their standing in the community, will be no shield whatever.
ROBERT LOVE,
February 24, 1847 nil

From The Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal, 1 November 1848, p. 4 —

$25 Reward.
Will be given for the apprehension of my boy John, who ranaway on Monday night the 16th inst., John is about twenty-eight years of age, five feet ten inches high, thin visage, light colored skin, has his right forefinger cut off, and speaks short when spoken to. He is supposed to be making his way to Ohio, and is assisted by some white person and free Negroes. He is a smart intelligent boy, and has always bore a good character, the above reward will be paid to any person who will apprehend and confine said boy in any Jail so I get him again.
JAMES R. GARRETT.
Oct 23 1848-no.21-1t

From The Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal, 1 November 1848, p. 4 —

$30 Reward!
Ranaway from from the Subscriber, on the 10th of September 1849, a Negro boy named JOE; about 30 years of age; 5 feet 6 or 7 inches high; complexion, dark-yellow; quickspoken; very plasable; very active; without a beard; good teeth; rather squarely built; and no distinguishing mark; except that the two toes next the big toe, are unusually log.
He will aim to get to a free State, with free papers; he will probaly [sic] be well dressed, as he has a suit of black cloth. He may be accompanied by a white man, who will pass him off as his slave. The negro will probably assume the name of Jo Foster. The above reward will be given for his apprehension and confinement in any jail where I can get him.
ED. W. JONES
Fort Defiance, Caldwell county, N.C.
Oct the 18th 1848-n20-3t

From The Jonesborough Whig and Independent Journal, 15 November 1848, p. 3 —
(original page is ripped)

Runaway Negro was committed to jail on the 3d inst., in the Town of Blountville, about 16 or 17 years old, 5 feet one inch high, a dark Brown, two small scars one over each eye, name Henry [Night?] and says he is free, and that his residence is in the [Portsmouth?] Virginia, he has no free papers and the owner is requested to come forward and take him out of Jail, and pay expenses or he will be delt by [?] the law directs.
JAMES G. EAN[ES?]
Jailor of Sullivan County
Nov. the 18th 1848-n23-3t–Pr’s fee $[2?]

From the (Bristol, Tennessee) Bristol Gazette, 31 March 1864, p. 4 —

RAN away from the subscriber, residing in Bland county, Va., on the 6th inst., my negro boy Doctor — Said boy is about 5 feet 5 inches high, black complexion, has a scar on the left wrist, about 21 years of age, has been a brakesman on the E. Tenn & Va. Railroad.
The above reward will be paid for his apprehension and delivery to me, or confinement in jail so that I get him.
G. H. MORGAN.
Mechanicsburg, Va., March 17th-4t

Brief Biographical Sketches of some Watauga Valley Slaveowners ca. 1860

Here are a few brief biographies of slaveowners and slaveowning-families in and around the Watauga Valley area (I am including some prominent slaveholders outside of the immediate study area for context). These were selected largely with an eye toward the larger and more prominent slaveholders of the area as well as those about whom information is readily available. I also was particularly keen on those who were connected (directly or through kin) to the officers and soldiers of the 29th Tennessee Regiment. This may bias the sample somewhat.

Matthew Aiken (1810-1900) was a farmer in the Knob Creek district of Washington County and a son of Col. Matthew Aiken (1775-1860) of Jonesborough (originally from Delaware). Though Matthew fils remained a Methodist, his siblings converted to Roman Catholicism after Rt. Rev. Richard Plus Miles, the first Bishop of Nashville, stayed at their house for a time while en route to his posting in the 1840s. Matthew’s brother John became the first native-born Tennessean to be ordained as Catholic priest. Matthew seems to have been conscripted into mining and home guard duty by the Confederacy in 1863. He died in Canton, Mississippi but was brought back to Tennessee for burial.

Sources: Cox and Cox at 943; “Burial at Jonesboro”, Knoxville Journal and Tribune, 28 October 1900, p. 9; 1860 Census Record for Knob Creek, Washington County, Tennessee; Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records.

Joseph Lyle Burts (1798-1880) was a farmer and briefly a postmaster at the short-lived Green Meadows post office (which was open 1832-33 and 1847-53 near the current site of the Johnson City Medical Center). He was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He married Elizabeth Young in 1823. He seems to have served briefly in a Confederate home guard unit, but took the amnesty oath. He was reportedly “comfortable” after the War, though complained to President Andrew Johnson of harassment by radical Unionists and incitement by the Republican newspapers.

Sources: Cox and Cox at 154, 215, 218; Speer and Brown, Encyclopedia of the New West (1881) at page 194; W. Todd Groce, Mountain Rebels (1999) at page 132; Paul Bergeron (editor), The Papers of Andrew Johnson, Vol. 9, September 1865-January 1866 (1991) at page 216; “Died” (obituary), Bristol News, 30 March 1880, p. 3.

Elbert Sevier Cox (1822-1881) was a wealthy farmer in the Boone’s Creek District of Washington County. His wife, Mary Byers, was a great-granddaughter of Col. John Sevier, the leader of the Overmountain Men at the Battle of King’s Mountain and important leader in early Tennessee politics. Cox opposed secession and fled East Tennessee for a time during the Civil War; according to filings with the Southern Claims Commission, he attended President Lincoln’s presidential inaugural in 1865 before returning to Tennessee. After the War, he was a leading Republican in Washington County, a Deputy Sheriff and tax collector. He was a target of Ku Klux Klan violence (his barns were burned, likely by one or more ex-Confederates). It has also been alleged that Cox lead a group of Radical Republicans in Washington County that deployed mob violence against ex-Confederates; regardless, it is clear that Cox was involved in a significant amount of litigation during the 1860s and 1870s. E.S. Cox was briefly a Congressional candidate for the Greenback Party in the 1st Congressional District in 1878.

Sources: “Pencilettes” (death notice), Knoxville Daily Chronicle, 9 July 1881, p. 4; Knoxville Whig and Chronicle, 9 October 1878, p. 6; Southern Claims Commission file for E. S. Cox; “Knob Creek K.K.K.”, Jonesborough Union Flag, 18 September 1868, p. 3; “Local Intelligence”, Herald and Tribune, 8 July 1875, p. 3.; “Radical Justice in East Tennessee”, Nashville Union and American, 24 April 1870, p. 2. (alleging that the mob drove R.G. Burson out of the county and then brought suit against him).

Mary Caroline Taylor Dulaney (1806-1883) was the widow of Dr. William Roberts Dulaney, a Blountville physician who died in May 1860. Both she and the late Dr. Dulaney were descended from Virginia families. They owned a plantation named “Medical Grove” near Blountville. Despite her small frame (it is said that she never weighed more than 100 pounds), she was the mother of twelve children and managed a large estate after her husband’s death. This estate included a dozen enslaved people in Sullivan County’s 8th Civil District, which is roughly in the same area as where Boring and the Tri-Cities Airport is today. Her sons and grandson were both highly-respected doctors in Sullivan County after the war. Two of her sons (Joseph and N.T.) served as surgeons in the Confederate Army; two of her sons (N.T. and William A.) served in the Tennessee General Assembly after the Civil War; and all of her son-in-laws were also Confederate Army officers. Her sister Seraphina was the wife of Gen. A. E. Jackson. Her daughter Margaret was the wife of Matthew Haynes, the brother of Landon Carter Haynes. Her daughter Evalina was the wife of Jonathan W. Bachman (captain and later chaplain of the 60th Tennessee Mounted Infantry, C.S.A.), kin to many of the other slaveholding Bachmans in Sullivan County.

Sources: 1850 and 1860 Census Records for Sullivan County, Tennessee; FindAGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54406621/mary-caroline-dulaney); Bud Phillips, “Long remembered Dr. Nat Dulaney was highly respected”, Bristol Herald-Courier, 9 September 2012 (https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/long-remembered-dr-nat-dulaney-was-highly-respected/article_ee92ad15-1f4c-55ba-9971-a97b5b21bfed.html); John W. Wayland, A History of Shenandoah County, Virginia (2d ed. 1969), at page 599 (online on Google Books); John Trotwood Moore and Austin Powers Foster, Tennessee: The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 4. (1923) at 746-47 (online at Google Books); Seiden Nelson, “More Concerning Taylor Families”, Knoxville Sentinel, 4 July 1908, p. 4.; Will of W.R. Dulaney (does not mention name or number of slaves), 13 October 1854, from familysearch.org; Taylor at 220; McBride and Robison, Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly, vol. 2 (1975), pp. 248-249.

The Devault (a/k/a Davault and Dewald) Family were farmers in Washington County since the earliest days of Tennessee statehood. The Devaults of Boone’s Creek were kin to the Frederick Devaults who owned the Devault Tavern southwest of Jonesboro on the Old Stagecoach Road. Despite their prominence, it is a bit difficult to pin down facts about the Boone’s Creek Devaults. According to the 1860 Census, three different Devaults in the Boone’s Creek area owned slaves:

Elizabeth Kitzmiller Devault (1810-1890), the widow of John Devault (1808 or 1809-1851). She was the youngest daughter of Martin Kitzmiller (1772-1865), who moved to Tennessee from Pennsylvania in 1800.
Valentine “Vollie” Devault (Jr.) (1835-1892), the son of John and Elizabeth. He was reportedly one of the “best known residents” of Boone’s Creek in the 1890s.
Jacob Devault (1785-1860), the uncle of John and brother of Frederick the innkeeper and Valentine (Sr.), John’s father.

Cox and Cox state that the Frederick Devaults were Confederate sympathizers and appear to have been friends of Andrew Johnson before the War. A “Valentine Devault” is listed as a private in Company G, 29th Tennessee Regiment (C.S.A.).

Sources: Cox and Cox at 650-51 and 658-661; National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Martin Kitzmiller House (https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/5e51cdb4-e708-40c0-9fb3-56b8a9c0ccf6); “Personals and Scintillations” (death notice for Valentine), The Comet, 26 October 1892, p. 4; FindAGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54817272/elizabeth-devault); 1860 Census Slave Schedule for Boone’s Creek, Washington County, Tennessee.

George Parkes Faw (1824-1901) was born in Ashe County, North Carolina, where he lived for his first 30 years. He moved to Washington County in 1854 and farmed in Boone’s Creek for several years before the outbreak of the Civil War. He was the Secretary of the Board of Trustee’s for the Boon’s [sic] Creek Male and Female Institute before the War (the Board was chaired by Lawrence Bowers and also included W. P. Reeves, E.S. Cox, Perry Hunter, David J. Carr and Fuller P. Hale among others). In 1861, Faw was commissioned a captain of Company G, 29th Tennessee Regiment, which he commanded for a couple of years. After the War he lived in Washington and Sullivan Counties. In 1873 he was ordained as a Baptist minister and helped to plant churches in the Pacific states. He settled permanently in Salinas, California in 1886, where he lived until 1899. He spent his last two years with his children in East Tennessee (his son was editor of the Bristol Courier). He was buried with Masonic honors. His father Jonathan Faw, and brother Thomas A. Faw (the postmaster at Haynesville, and father of Judge W.W. Faw, an early mayor of Johnson City) are also listed as owning two slaves each in the Brush Creek District slave schedules for 1860.

Sources: Cox and Cox at 156-57 and 1197, 184; “Rev. Geo. P. Faw Passes Away”, The Comet, 2 May 1901, p. 2; “Death of Rev. Geo. P. Faw”, Knoxville Journal and Tribune, 30 April 1901, p. 3; “Revenue Violator” (summary of news from Johnson City), Journal and Tribune, 5 May 1901, p. 19; Mountain Rebels at 73; FindAGrave.com website (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14844239/george-parkes-faw); 1860 Census Record from Boone’s Creek District, Washington County, Tennessee; 1860 Census Records from Brushy Creek District, Washington County, Tennessee; “Annual Catalogue of the Boon’s Creek Male and Female Institute for 1860 and 1861”, Bob Cox’s Yesteryear website (http://www.bcyesteryear.com/site/node/9786).

The Hale Family (a/k/a Haile), included relatives of Henry Hale, a farmer in the Boone’s Creek area who died in 1850.

Not to be confused with the family of Henry Hall, a wagonmaker in the Buffalo Ridge District, who also owned slaves; nor to be confused with the family of Henry D. Hale, son of Thomas Hale and a non-slaveholder, in Buffalo Ridge.

There are several Hales listed in the 1860 Census slave schedules as owners:

Mark Hale (1789-1880), who appears to have been the brother of Henry (Mark is one of the subscribing witnesses on Henry’s Will, and there are deeds from Henry to Mark in 1826 and 1838), owned eight slaves in the Jonesborough district in 1860. He is buried in the Boone’s Creek Baptist Church Cemetery.
Harriet Hale (1797-1874), the widow of Henry, who owned two slaves in the Knob Creek area (Henry Hale had two slaves in 1850, a 22-year old woman and a 3-year old girl; in 1860 the slave schedule shows Harriet owning a 12-year old girl and a 3-year old boy; it is possible that she was raising the children of a slave who died or was sold).
Fuller P. Hale (1824-1901), the son of Mark Hale (as stated in a deed from Mark to Fuller dated June 9, 1866), was a member of the Boone’s Creek Baptist Church and owned three slaves in the Knob Creek area in 1860. His obituary said that he made his home at Flourville.

Archibald Hale (1802-1854), who may also have been a brother of Henry and Mark (he is also a witness of Henry’s will), is listed in the 1850 Census as owning slaves, but he died several years before the Civil War. He was instrumental in the founding of Hales Community, an area near Sulfur Springs.

Several of Henry Hale’s sons appear to have fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War; but it also appears that least one (Smith H. Hale, his youngest) filed a claim with the Southern Claims Commission, averring to be a loyal Unionist.

Sources: Cox and Cox at 827; FindAGrave.com(https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39905438/mark-hale, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27352986/archibald-hale); TNGenWeb web page for Boone’s Creek Baptist cemetery (https://tngenweb.org/washington/records-data/cemeteries/cemeteries-of-washington-county-tennessee/boones-creek-baptist-church-cemetery/); “F.P. Hale Dead.”, The Comet, 7 February 1901, p. 3.; TNGenWeb web page for Hale (Henry) Cemetery (https://tngenweb.org/washington/records-data/cemeteries/cemeteries-of-washington-county-tennessee/cemeteries-of-washington-county-tennessee-h-i-j-k/hale-henry-cemetery/); 1850 Census Records for Boone’s Creek District, Washington County, Tennessee; 1860 Census Records for Buffalo Ridge District, Washington County, Tennessee; 1870 Census Records for Jonesborough District, Washington County, Tennessee; Slave Schedules for 1850 and 1860; Will of Henry Hale, in Tennessee Probate Court Books, 1795-1927, familysearch.org website; “Obituary” (obituary for Orleana B. Gentry Hale, F.P. Hale’s wife), Bristol News, 7 April 1874, p. 2.; John L. Mitchell, “Buffalo Ridge”, Tennessee State Gazetteer and Business Directory (1860), at 17 (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011561042); Southern Claims Commission files; Washington County deed records

Landon Carter Haynes (1816-1875) was a Methodist minister, farmer, newspaper editor, attorney, and Democratic Party politician. He married Elizabeth Powel (or Powell), the daughter of Dr. Joseph Powel. He is kin to the Hayneses of Carter County (several of whom also owned slaves), and was born there. He was elected to the Tennessee House representing Washington County in 1845 and served as a Senator for one term representing Carter, Johnson, Sullivan and Washington Counties in the Tennessee Senate (1847-49). He was re-elected to the House and served as its Speaker in 1849. During his tenure he helped push through the charter and state funding for the ET&V railroad. He later (1861-1865) served as a member of the Confederates States Senate, after being a leading spokesperson for secession. He famously feuded with William G. Brownlow (which goes back to 1840, when Haynes shot Brownlow in the leg after the latter started beating him with a cane in a Jonesborough street over a newspaper dispute) and Andrew Johnson (whom he challenged for the Democratic nomination for the 1st Congressional district seat in 1851). He lost a congressional race for the second time in 1859, when his former law mentor, T.A.R. Nelson, defeated him for the 1st District seat. The area that became Johnson City was briefly named “Haynesville” in 1859 and remained so during the War. After the Civil War, Haynes moved to Memphis and never returned to Jonesborough. Family oral tradition indicates that his slave George was his half-brother.

Sources: Cox and Cox at 155, 307-308 and 1198-99; Carey at 110-111; Temple at 542; Wikipedia entry for “Landon Carter Haynes” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landon_Carter_Haynes); Robert M. McBride and Dan Robison, Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly, vol. 1 (1975), pp. 348-349; Tipton-Haynes historic site webpage (http://www.tipton-haynes.org/research/history/landon-carter-haynes/).

John Madison Hoss (1824-1896) was a merchant in Jonesborough and philanthropist. He was a Southern Methodist. He seems to have been very enterprising and engaged in unusual lines of trade; for example, he and his brother Landon Carter Hoss (who he was partners in business with, and who also owned slaves) advertised for 30,000 pounds of feathers in 1853 as well as 10,000 pounds of ginseng. He was noted as a “cowardly and infamous Lincolnite” by a rebel publication during the war (the list also included well-known Unionist politician Thomas A. R. Nelson).

Sources: Cox and Cox at 284; “Obituary”, Jonesborough Herald and Tribune, 12 February 1896, p. 3 ; “The Tables Turned”, Brownlow’s Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator, 9 August 1865, p. 2.

Alfred Eugene Jackson (1807-1889) was a farmer, merchant, and railroad promoter, but is most famous for being a Confederate officer during the Civil War. He served as a quartermaster for Gen. Felix Zollicoffer early in the war, then as paymaster at Knoxville under Gen. Kirby Smith. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1863 and commanded an infantry brigade in the Department of East Tennessee in 1863-64. He received a special pardon from Andrew Johnson and eventually returned to Jonesborough to spend his waning years. He was among the wealthiest men (if not the wealthiest) in Washington County prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, and had offered some of his property for the E.T. & V. railroad depot (the original depot was built elsewhere; though after the War when the first depot burned in 1887, a replacement was built on his property).

Sources: Cox and Cox at 1200-1201; Wikipedia article “Alfred E. Jackson” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Jackson); FindAGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9100/alfred-eugene-jackson); Paul M. Fink, Jonesborough, the First Century of Tennessee’s First Town (1972), pp. 134-35.

Tipton Jobe (1826-1890) was a farmer, builder and philanthropist who is remembered as one of the “Fathers” of Johnson City. He was born in Blount County and moved to what would become Johnson City around 1852. He contributed the land on which the ET&V rail depot (“Johnson’s Depot”) was built, donated the land for Johnson City’s first high school (the first iteration of Science Hill High School, at Roan and Water Streets), and built Jobe’s Opera House in Johnson City.

Sources: Cox and Cox at 1201-02, 353. 524; “Tipton Jobe Dead” (obituary), Johnson City Comet, 15 May 1890, p. 2; FindAGrave.com entry for Tipton Joseph Jobe (“https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7716814/tipton-joseph-jobe”).

Dillard Love (1789-1872) was a farmer in the Greasy Cove area who was originally from western North Carolina. He was likely the largest slaveholder in Washington County at the outbreak of the Civil War. He appears to be a relative (probably uncle) of Lt. Col. James Robert Love, who commanded Thomas’s Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders during the Civil War (69th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, C.S.A.). Lt. Col. J. R. Love’s men defended Carter’s Station (Watauga Bridge) in/near Washington County in 1863.

Sources: FindAGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66348116/dillard-love); Thomas’s Legion website (http://www.thomaslegion.net/jamesrobertlove.html); Cox and Cox at 171, 196.

George R. McClellan (1815 or 16 – 1904) was a farmer, soldier and statesman who was a veteran of three wars. He was born in the Beaver Creek area – near where the Bristol Motor Speedway stands today. His father was Congressman Abram McClellan. Most biographies state that he was born in 1815 but his grave marker has the date of “Sept 3. 1816” inscribed upon it. He attended local schools and enrolled at Washington College before marrying Adeline Anderson in 1834 and volunteering for the U.S. Army to assist the removal of Cherokee Indians along the “Trail of Tears” to Oklahoma. He returned home sometime afterward to farm. In 1847 he led a company of troops in the Mexican War as a colonel in General Scott’s army, and fought in the battles of Chapultepec and Mexico City before being mustered out. After being mustered out of the U.S. Army in 1848, he returned home where he embarked upon a political career, serving as a commissioner in the 1850s to resolve a border dispute between Tennessee and Kentucky, before being elected as a Democrat to the Tennessee state senate in 1859. During the secession crisis, McClellan was a prominent speaker on behalf of the disunionist camp. Shortly after Tennessee seceded, McClellan was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and organized a regiment (usually referred to as the 5th Battalion, Tennessee Cavalry although sometimes referred to as the 4th Battalion) in Knoxville in late August 1861. McClellan and his men fought in Tennessee, including at the Battle of Shiloh. After the war, according to Oliver Taylor, “he retired to his farm, broken in spirit and fortune.” He later re-entered politics, serving in county office and again in the state legislature, where he aroused controversy by supporting the use of prison labor to build roads. In the last decades of the 19th century he served in various appointed government positions before retiring due to old age. He died in Bristol in 1904.

Sources: Taylor at 208, 237-38; FindAGrave.com for “Col George Rutledge McClellan”(https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7825752/george-rutledge-mcclellan); “Col. George R. McClellan; Hero of Three Great Wars”, (Knoxville) Weekly Sentinel, 16 January 1904, p. 6; “M’Clellan Rites Sunday Afternoon”, Bristol Herald-Courier, 21 May 1938, p. 3 (obituary for son Dr. John R. McClellan, describing family history).

Mark Pennybaker (1809-1885) was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, and was a farmer in the Boone’s Creek area. Two of his sons, Alfred and Benjamin, enlisted on August 21 in Company G, 29th Tennessee (C.S.A.), only to contract fever and die that fall (Benjamin in on October 2 and Alfred on November 27). By the time of his death he was regarded as “an old and esteemed citizen.”

Sources: Cox and Cox at 184; TNGenWeb Website on J.M. Shipley Cemetery (https://tngenweb.org/washington/records-data/cemeteries/cemeteries-of-washington-county-tennessee/cemeteries-of-washington-county-tennessee-r-s-t/shipley-j-m-cemetery/); “A ‘Merry Christmas’ and a ‘Happy New Year'” (news summary), Herald and Tribune, 24 December 1885, p. 2.

William Pouder Reeves (1802-1885) was a farmer who sat on the Board of Directors of the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad. His estate was called “Wheatland” and sported a gorgeous mansion of homemade brick. His obituary describes him as “a leading character in the community.” One of his sons, Isaac Edward Reeves, was captain of Company G, 29th Tennessee Regiment (C.S.A.) after George P. Faw. William P. Reeves was a Southern Methodist.

Sources: Cox and Cox at 838; “Death of W. P. Reeves”, Herald and Tribune, 27 August 1885, p. 3; J. B. Lindsley, The Military Annals of Tennessee. Confederate. First Series. (1886), p. 440; FindAGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61139297/william-pouder-reeves)

William R. Rhea (1804-1861) was a farmer in the Knob Creek District and postmaster at Watauga Bend station from 1847 to 1858. He seems to have been a Presbyterian as his grave is located at New Bethel Presbyterian Church in Piney Flats, and was the grandson of a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian preacher who settled in Tennessee in the 1770s. He was a first cousin of Robert Preston Rhea, a War of 1812 veteran, and the largest slaveholder in Sullivan County at the outbreak of the War. His son and namesake, William Rockhold Rhea, was wounded and lost a leg while serving as a sergeant in the 19th Tennessee Regiment (C.S.A.). Several Rhea cousins seem to have been officers in this regiment. The younger William R. Rhea later worked as a pension clerk in Knoxville, postmaster in Johnson City, and was a prominent businessman in Johnson City (he is often described as “Captain” but this seems to be an honorific and not a military title). Note that the 19th Tennessee also seems to have been the same unit in which Joseph E. Dulaney (one of Mary Caroline Taylor Dulaney’s sons) served as surgeon.

Source: Cox and Cox at 908; 1860 Census Record for Knob Creek District, Washington County, Tennessee; FindAGrave.com (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178721657); Seiden Nelson, “William Rhea, Second, and his Descendants”, Knoxville Sentinel, 5 September 1908, p. 4; Seiden Nelson, “Lineal Descendants of Rev. Joseph Rhea”, Knoxville Sentinel, 29 August 1908, p. 5; “Death of William R. Rhea”, 4 June 1903, p. 3; Military Annals of Tennessee at 372 et seq.

A Study of Secession in East Tennessee — Particularly Washington and Sullivan Counties

I. Causes of Secession and Secessionism

Many reasons have been given for the question, “what was the cause of the Civil War?” The proximate answer to that question is of course the attempted secession of the Southern states between December 1860 and June 1861, the formation of the Confederate States of America, and the escalating crisis over ownership of federal property in the South that culminated in armed Southerners attacking federal installations (most notably, the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina in April, 1861).

Having established that secession was the cause of the War, the question then to ask is, “why did the South secede?” This question can in turn be broken into three areas of discussion —

What were the stated reasons why the Confederate States seceded, as political and corporate entities (for our purposes, the State of Tennessee), from the Union in 1861?
What were the reasons why individual Southern citizens would have supported or opposed secession?
Regardless of their position on secession, what were the reasons why individual Southerners would have fought for or against the Confederate States after secession?

A. Why Did Tennessee Secede? The Secession Debates and Referenda

With regard to the first question, the weight of the evidence strongly suggests that the primary reason for secession was the preservation of slavery as an institution. This conclusion is drawn after reviewing some of the official communiques of the state’s leaders as well as from accounts of political speeches and meetings during the months before Tennessee seceded.

While other reasons (such as tariffs) have been advanced, they are not consistent with the rhetoric of Tennesseans in 1860-1861. It is also true – and indeed, important to understand – that Tennessee’s secession in June 1861 came only after the bombardment of Ft. Sumter and Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion in the South. But while the fear of federal coercion of the South became important late in the political campaign for secession, it certainly could not have been a key issue for its original proponents, who favored secession long before April 1861. Furthermore, the issue of federal coercion of the South only came about because of the secession of the Deep South states, who likewise made official statements asserting the primacy of preserving slavery (for example, the “Declaration of Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union” mentions “slave”, “slaveholding”, “anti-slavery” or “slavery” 18 times, “servile insurrection” twice, but not once mentions “revenue” or “tariff”).

Tennessee seceded from the Union upon ratification of the Ordinance of Secession on June 8, 1861. The Ordinance itself did not include a declaration of causes for separation, unlike the acts of several other states such as Mississippi, Texas and Virginia. We therefore must look into the statements of prominent men of the time.

The secession ordinance was ratified after a political campaign that formally lasted several months, fairly and reasonably dating to the issuance of a proclamation issued December 7, 1860 by Governor Isham G. Harris calling for a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly (appearing in Republican Banner, 18 December 1860, p. 3).

harris_proclamation_dec71860

To be clear, disunionist rhetoric emerged in Tennessee papers – though mostly as an object of scorn and ridicule – well before December 1860, at least with regard to reporting on Southern “fire-eaters” (I am disregarding here the Nullification Crisis of the 1830s).

The debate surrounding the Compromise of 1850 and the Nashville Convention of southern interests that year were much-remarked upon in Tennessee newspapers. Daniel Webster’s “Seventh of March” speech, as well as Calhoun’s March 4 address (both addressing the possibility of Southern secession due to growing sectional disagreements over slavery), were printed in whole or part in many newspapers around the state. Webster’s speech, in particular, seems to have been The Athens Post declared Webster’s speech “a most masterly production” (“Mr. Webster’s Speech”, 15 March 1850, p. 2)

In 1856, The Nashville Republican Banner and Nashville Whig (October 22, p. 2) re-printed part of an article from the Charleston Mercury stating that “the Union of the North and the South cannot be preserved”; The Banner (wielding the Mercury’s article as a cudgel against its partisan opponents) editorialized that “[t]hese disunionists are not few… their leading spirits are the leading spirits of the Democratic party of the South….” On June 25, 1858 (on page 2) the Daily Nashville Patriot reprinted W. L. Yancey’s letter to the Atlanta American (in which he stated that “no National Party can save us; no Sectional Party can do it… But if we do as our fathers did… we shall fire the Southern heart… we can precipitate the Cotton States to revolution”, calling Yancey’s letter “an indication of the disunion and revolutionary sentiment that pervades one section of the Southern democracy.” Throughout the summer, Yancey was mentioned in Tennessee newspapers several dozen times, with particular condemnation coming from the Whig press. Yancey’s rhetoric was fueled by concerns over the political viability of slavery (see, e.g., “Southern Commercial Convention”, Memphis Daily Appeal, 18 May 1858, p. 2 (discussion at the Southern Commercial Convention in Montgomery, Alabama about disunion during a debate on a resolution regarding re-opening the African slave trade); “Col. Yancey’s Letter to Col. Pryor” (editorial), (Nashville) Daily Union & American, 9 September 1858, p. 2 (discussing Yancey’s fears of anti-slavery Northern politicians).

I will not say much about the presidential campaign of 1860 as that goes beyond the scope of my project; however, I would note that the number of matched newspaper articles for Tennessee newspapers in newspapers.com for the following word searches, from January 1 to October 31, 1860 —

Word or Phrase	Number of Matches
Slave (or Slaves)	3,259
Slavery	1,872
Sectional	1078
Abolitionist (or Abolitionists)	649
Squatter Sovereignty	504
Tariff	481
Sectionalism	332
Slave Trade	325
Fugitive Slave	324
Abolitionism	267
Southern Rights	191
Popular Sovereignty	165
State’s Rights	122
Domestic Institution	121
Free Trade	115
Peculiar Institution	58
Servile Insurrection	55
Protective Tariff	26
Northern Aggression	25
Protectionist	22
Import Duties	6
Export Duties	6
Federal Revenue	2
Protectionism	0

After the election of Abraham Lincoln, Tennessee newspapers began urging Governor Harris to call a special session of the legislature (see, e.g. Memphis Daily Appeal, 24 November 1860, p. 1).

At the opening of the Special Session on January 7, 1861, Gov. Harris delivered an address to the assembled lawmakers in which he explained his reasons for convening the session and making specific recommendations (the entirety of which is printed in “Gov. Harris’s Message”, Fayetteville Observer, 24 January 1861, p. 1). After a perfunctory first paragraph welcoming the returning legislators and noting his Constitutional prerogatives, Harris began in the second paragraph to explain the matter at hand:

The systematic, wanton, and long-continued agitation of the slavery question, with the actual and threatened aggressions of the Northern States and a portion of their people upon the well-defined constitutional rights of the Southern citizen; the rapid growth and increase in all the elements of power, of a purely sectional party, whose bond of union is uncompromising hostility to the rights and institutions of the fifteen Southern States, have produced a crisis in the affairs of the country, u[n]paralleled in the history of the past, resulting already in the withdrawal from the Confederacy of one of the Sovereignties which composed it [i.e. South Carolina – blogger’s note], while others are rapidly preparing to move in the same direction.

(A complete transcription is available at: https://americancivilwar.com/documents/isham_harris.html; the message is also printed in Robert H. White’s Messages of the Governors of Tennessee (1959), vol. 5, starting at page 255).

After calling for “calm and dispassionate deliberation,” Gov. Harris began a review of the history of the nation as he understood it. He noted that the Constitution “distinctly recognizes property in slaves – makes it the duty of the States to deliver the fugitive to his owner, but contains no grant of power to the Federal Government to interfere with this species of property….” He then turned to addressing “…the anti-slavery cloud, which now overshadows the nation…,” before finally concluding with the proposal that Tennessee should hold a state convention that could make demands of the federal government. Harris suggested five constitutional amendments that might be demanded by the proposed convention, designed to secure the rights of slaveholders South of the Missouri Compromise line “forever.” Although not explicitly calling for immediate disunion, Gov. Harris’s policy was, superficially, one of “conditional unionism” – and the condition was essentially one of the federal government bowing to Southern demands in perpetuity.

Altogether, Gov. Harris’s address mentions the words “slave”, “slaves’, or “slavery” 56 times, and only once mentions the issue of revenue — in the context of the economics of slavery. The Southern States, Gov. Harris said, “have quietly submitted to a revenue system which indirectly, but certainly, taxes the products of slave labor some fifty or sixty millions of dollars annually, to increase the manufacturing profits of those who have thus persistently and wickedly assailed them.” Harris’s speech touches upon a whole panoply of sub-issues related ultimately to slavery, including alleging that Northerners had blocked the slave, failed to return fugitive slaves, encouraged slave revolts, and (the final and apparently most damning accusation against the North), “has, in the person of the President elect, asserted the equality of the black with the white race.”

Following Governor Harris’s recommendations, the General Assembly passed, on January 19th, a bill calling for a referendum to be held on February 9, 1861. The two questions in that referendum where “Convention”/”No Convention” and to elect delegates to the convention in the event that the “Convention” side won. The stated purpose of the proposed convention (slated for February 25 in Nashville), was to “consider the then existing relations between the Government of the United States, and the Government and people of the State of Tennessee and to adopt such measures for vindicating the sovereignty of the State and the protection of its institutions, as shall appear to them to be demanded.” (“An Act providing for A Convention of the People of Tennessee”, Nashville Union and American, 20 January 1861, p. 2).

Though not explicitly intended to be a secessionist convention, there is little doubt that disunion was the intended outcome for many supporters of the “Convention” side. The Nashville Union and American (same page as above, “The State Convention”), suggested electing delegates “who will resist coercion to the death” and “who are opposed to all compromises that do not promptly and forever settle the differences existing between the Black Republicans and the South….” The Union and American further implied rebellion by suggesting that “God save the Union” should go the way of “God save the King.” Some delegates explicitly ran as a “Secession Ticket”, for example see those endorsed by the Memphis Daily Appeal, 29 January 1861, on page 2. Unionists likewise understood secession to be the stakes of a convention; Oliver Perry Temple, who was nominated as an explicitly Unionist delegate from Knox County (see Temple at 171 for the details of his nomination) states in his memoir, on page 59 of East Tennessee and the Civil War, that “the question was, not in words, but in substance, secession or no secession.”

“No Convention” won comfortably statewide on February 9, and by a landslide in East Tennessee. Although exact figures vary, only one county in East Tennessee (Sullivan) voted for “Convention”, with several being nearly unanimously against.

(Temple, at 175, states a “No Convention” majority of 11,877 statewide; the state historian, Dr. Robert H. White, states the same (69,675 for and 57,798 against) in his commentary on the February 9 referendum, on page 272 of vol. 5 of Messages of the Governors of Tennessee; Temple states a slightly different figure at 176, of 69,389 to 56,232, yielding a “No Convention” majority of 13,157; my own compilation of “official” returns published in newspapers in in February 1861 yields a “No” majority of 13,981).

Temple also states (at 175) that Unionist delegates won by an even more lopsided majority of 64,114 statewide. White, quoting Dr. James W. Fertig, notes an alternative tally that shows a Unionist majority of 67,054. I did not tally delegates statewide, but it is clear that the delegates called “Unionist” by the newspapers won in East Tennessee by a margin of about 6-to-1, with a majority of 23,951. Even in Sullivan County, “Unionist” delegates outpaced their opposition (by a vote of 980 to 916). Among those delegates elected (but never meeting, as the convention was defeated) were James W. Deadrick from Washington County and Nathaniel G. Taylor from Carter County (Temple at 169).

I would note with caution: classifying individual delegates into a binary Unionist/Disunionist classification is difficult, as many were in the “conditional Unionist” camp prior to the Ft. Sumter events.

Between February and April, public discussion continued, even though the General Assembly was out of session. Several local meetings were held. For example, the Democrats met on March 21 in Blountville, with speakers including Reuben Arnold, Landon Carter Haynes, and a resolution committee made up of James P. Snapp, State Senator George R. McClellan, Azariah Peoples, Maj. Joseph Birdwell, and Dr. J.A. Murphy. The Democrats, calling themselves the “Democratic and States’ Rights Party, ” The resolutions passed included calling for a “speedy reunion of the remaining States of the late United States”, based on the preservation of slavery as a permanent part of the American constitution. The meeting further resolved that in the event that the “non-slaveholding States should fail and refuse in a reasonable time to adopt and propose said amendments…. That in such an event Tennessee is absolved from all allegiance to the government of the non-slaveholding States….” Finally, the Democrats resolved that Lincoln’s efforts to enforce federal law in seceded states would “not only resolve the government into a military despotism but inevitably defeat all hope of a reunion of the States by precipitating the North and the South into horrors of a civil war.” (“Democratic States’ Right Meeting at Blountville”, The Knoxville Register, 4 April 1861, p. 1). Senator McClellan later voted for the Ordinance of Secession (Temple at 222). A similar meeting at Dandridge in Jefferson County on April 11 made similar resolutions, venting about fugitive slaves and potential federal coercion. (“Meeting in Dandridge”, The Memphis Daily Avalanche, 17 April 1861, p. 2). Another meeting of Democrats in Jonesborough on May 6 prepared a resolution describing the Democrats as advocating “the cause of State rights, and to resist the encroachments of Black Republicanism in its unauthorized crusade upon slavery and the rights of the South….” (“Meeting in Washington County”, Nashville Union and American, 11 May 1861, p. 2).

Though anticipated, the bombardment of Fort Sumter in mid-April radically shifted the tone of the secession debate, if not the substance. The Nashville Union and American editorialized on April 18:

Neither States nor individuals can be neutral this contest between Abolitionism and Southern rights. The war has begun. Argument has been exhausted. It is now man to man, and steel to steels. Let no true man talk of neutrality. Either he must support LINCOLN in his usurpation and war upon the South, or he must resist him with arms. The Southern man that declares himself neutral, when LINCOLN is invading the South and desecrating its soil with hostile tread, intends to betray the South the Black Republican power. He that is not for us is against us. He that declares for neutrality now is our worst foe. In the language of PATRICK HENRY, “we must fight, I repeat it, sir, we must fight.”

(“No Neutrality”, 18 April 1861, p. 2).

After the events of Fort Sumter, Gov. Harris called a second extraordinary session of the General Assembly on April 18, to meet one week later (April 25), to discuss “an alarming and dangerous usurpation of power by the President of the United States.” (White at 278). Gov. Harris’s legislative message at beginning of the April session did not address the issue of slavery directly, though he did begin his address by lambasting President Lincoln for “having wantonly inaugurated an internecine war between the people of the slave and non-slave holding States….” Indeed, he referred back to his January address rather than recapitulating the “long train of abuses to which the people of Tennessee, and our sister States of the South have been subjected….” (White at 279-80). Rather, he called for immediate action to secede from the Union, join the Confederacy, and to put the State on a war-footing. The tone of Gov. Harris’s April address was much more urgent than that of his address in January; as state historian Dr. Robert H. White stated (on 279), “he wanted action, and he wanted it NOW!” Dr. White, however, notes that the action Gov. Harris demanded was carefully framed as revolution rather than secession (White at 291-92).

On May 6, the General Assembly passed a resolution that declared Tennessee to be independent of the United States, styled “Declaration of Independence and Ordinance Dissolving the Federal Relations Between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America”, while also passing a resolution that sought representation in the provisional government of the Confederates States of America. (White at 289-91). Both of these acts were contingent in their effect upon being ratified by a statewide vote.

While the Declaration of Independence resolution did not include a declaration of causes, the General Assembly did submit a statement to the people on May 9. Though it scarcely mentioned slavery directly, it did denounce Lincoln’s war policy at length (in much the same tone as Gov. Harris’s April 25th address), calling it a “mad experiment of holding sovereign States together by means of the bayonet,” and labeling Lincoln “an usurping tyrant and false hearted hypocrite.” In its concluding paragraph, however, the racial subtext becomes text; the legislative address ends with this sentence: “Tennessee has taken her position and has proudly determined to throw her banners to the breeze, and will give her strength to the sacred cause of freedom for the WHITE MAN OF THE SOUTH.” (White at 294-300).

As with the February referendum, the exact vote tallies for the June 8 referendum are unknown and subject to debate as the official records appear to be missing (see White at 302-303). My compilation of newspaper reports yields county figures identical to Dr. White’s, as well as the county results in Appendix C of Noel C. Fisher’s book War at Every Door: Partisan Politics & Guerrilla Violence East Tennessee 1860-1869 (1997).

On June 8, the Declaration of Independence was ratified by a vote of 102,172 for “Separation” and 47,238 for “No Separation”, and perhaps an additional 6,339 in military camp votes for, for a majority of either 54,934 (exclusive of military votes) or 61,273 (inclusive). East Tennessee, however, by a margin of 32,923 to 14,780, voted against secession. Several counties voted for secession, particularly in southeast Tennessee; in upper (northeast) East Tennessee, only Sullivan County voted for secession, though several counties came very close. The voters also approved representation in the provisional Confederate Congress.

(A final vote was held in August, concurrent with the gubernatorial election, to adopt the Confederate constitution).

tn_elec_results_secession_1861

cartogram_secession

unionist_support_1861

At first glance, particularly when focusing on percentages rather than absolute vote totals, it would seem that the rhetorical shift from slavery to federal coercion persuaded many voters in Tennessee to shift from a Unionist to a Disunionist position over the spring of 1861.

However, when looking at absolute vote totals, it becomes apparent that voter persuasion alone cannot explain the tremendous shift (from 55 percent, more or less, against a statewide convention, to about 68 percent in favor of secession). In East Tennessee, the vote total for the Unionist position remained at about 33,000 votes in both referenda. In Middle Tennessee, there was a drop of about 20,000 votes in the Unionist position between February and June; but even if every one of the votes leaving the Union column are added to the Disunion column, there are still 10,000 additional secessionist votes in June. Likewise, in West Tennessee, the drop in the Unionist vote from 7800 to 6100 votes cannot explain the rise from 21000 to 29000 in the secessionist vote. Statewide, the Unionist vote dropped by about 22,000 and the secessionists gained about 47,000.

Voter turnout during the February referendum was much lower than that in the June referendum. In February, only about 125,000 voters were cast; this was the lowest voter turnout in a statewide election in some years, even lower than the 1857 gubernatorial election, which had a total of about 130,000 votes cast. By comparison, the November 1860 presidential election, held three months prior, had 146,000 votes cast. The June referendum likely shattered records by drawing about 150,000 voters to the polls (in addition to several thousand military votes).

Without a doubt, some voters, particularly those in the “conditional Unionist” camp found Gov. Harris and the General Assembly persuasive in calling for secession as a response to Lincoln’s aggression. However, it seems that increased turnout likely tipped the balance (particularly in East and West Tennessee), not persuasion.

Furthermore, a significant complaint aired by Unionists in East Tennessee was that the Unionist vote in Middle and West Tennessee was being suppressed. After the June vote, Unionists met in Greenville and issued a “Declaration of Grievances”, calling for East Tennessee to secede from the rest of the state (as West Virginia later would do vis-a-vis the Old Dominion). In their Declaration, the Unionists stated:

The unanimity of the votes in many large counties where, but a few weeks ago, the Union sentiment was so strong, proves beyond doubt that Union men were overawed by the tyranny of the military power, and the still greater tyranny of a corrupt and subsidized press. In the city of Memphis, where 5,613 votes were cast, but five free men had the courage to vote for the Union, and these were stigmatized in the public press as “ignorant traitors who opposed the popular edicts.”

(Temple at 565). To be fair, several East Tennessee counties (most notably, Sevier and Scott counties) were also nearly unanimous against secession, inviting the question of whether unfair tactics were used there to prevent voting (Noel C. Fisher, in his book War at Every Door: Partisan Politics & Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee 1860-1869 (1997), at page 37, notes such accusations). Nevertheless, the two western grand divisions held the majority of the state’s voters, and the effects of voter suppression there would have been far more significant.

At any rate, the shift in the vote seems to have been more about a shift in posture than in position. In February, only the deep Southern states had seceded, and a peaceful resolution, with significant Constitutional gains for slavery, seemed possible, and perhaps probable. By June, Tennessee was surrounded on three sides by states (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia) that had already left the Union, and there seemed to be no point in compromise. The issues of slavery and “federal coercion”, moreover, are largely inextricable, with the latter having no bearing without the former, as Harris’s reference to his January message in his April address makes clear.

An Aside About District-Level Politics

I was unable to find any complete district-level results for any of the three elections (February, June or August); however, the Knoxville Register of 3 August (on page 3) noted some partial results. In Jonesborough, “Constitution” outpolled “No Constitution” 167 to 107; Harris was beating opposition gubernatorial candidate William H. Polk 163 to 113 and Joseph Brown Heiskell beat Thomas A. R. Nelson 166 to 97. The Brush Creek District of Washington County, the “Constitution” race seems to have been very close (the article states it was 624-63, but this seems to be a typo; it was likely either 62-63 or 64-63); Harris won 75-67; and Heiskell won 75-57. Given that T.A.R. Nelson narrowly won the county as a whole (at least if “For U.S. Congress” ballots are included), it seems that Jonesborough and (to a lesser extent) Brush Creek were somewhat more pro-secession than the other parts of Washington County. The same article shows a unanimous result for “Constitution” and Heiskell in the Bristol district of Sullivan County, with Harris winning 179-3.

There is also some circumstantial evidence that areas in southern and western Washington County were particularly strong in adhering to the Union; for example, the “Bricker’s Republic” episode in which Unionists in Bricker’s District (Civil District 2) attempted to secede from Washington County, as well as post office closings by the Confederate postmaster at Washington College, West’s Store, Cherry Grove and Millwood, allegedly for being in “disloyal neighborhoods.” See Cox and Cox at 180-81 (Bricker’s Republic); “Proscription for Opinion’s Sake”, Brownlow’s Knoxville Whig, 24 August 1861, p. 1 (post office closings).

B. Why Did Individual Men in East Tennessee Back Secession?

How can it be true that slavery was the reason why Tennessee seceded, when most Tennesseans did not own slaves? What were the individual motivations for supporting secession?

Ideally, to answer these questions, we would have candid, contemporaneous statements (in letters, diaries, speeches, etc.) from a wide variety of individual supporters. While some of these records exist, most supporters didn’t write down their thoughts (then, as now, most people were relatively apolitical). So we must supplement the written record by making inferences based on economic, political and social trends. One way to do that is to do statistical analysis, including using regression models.

Regression models are not perfect, for two reasons. First, they measure correlation, not causation. It is quite easy to correlate two variables that have little do with one another. For example, most historians would disagree with the assertion that “chili dogs caused Tennesseans to support seceding from the Union.” Yet, we can construct a simple linear regression model with support for secession in the June 1861 as the dependent variable and “number of locations of Pal’s Sudden Service” as the independent variable (due to changes in county line boundaries, I had to assume that one of the Morristown locations would have been in Hawkins and the other in Jefferson using the old county lines).

pals_secession

Part of the reason why the Pal’s model, as absurd as it is, can work, is because Sullivan County has an exceptionally large number of Pal’s locations (9, I believe, based on their website) and because Sullivan County also had an unusually large amount of support for secession in 1861 (about 72 percent). Sullivan County was an outlier in many ways, as will be discussed below, and any model that is tuned to give a good result for Sullivan County likely will misrepresent the rest of East Tennessee.

The other problem with statistical analysis is that it is only as good as the input data. I have tried to carefully collect the data from the 1850 and 1860 censuses, but sometimes the data is missing and I cannot rule out the possibility that there was some error on my part. Furthermore, I am fairly certain that in some counties, there was manipulation of the vote totals during the 1861 secession votes. Specifically, I have noticed a pattern of Polk and Rhea counties being outliers, including when comparing the February and June referendum results. Notably, voter turnout increased from February to June 1861 in every county except for three counties in southeast Tennessee: Bledsoe, Polk, and Rhea. Given their geographic proximity, it seemed possible that perhaps there was a regional trend, for example, bad weather on election day. However, the voter turnout in neighboring counties (i.e. Hamilton, McMinn, Meigs) was up significantly.

There is also a reasonably strong correlation between the February and June 1861 referendum results with the exception of Polk and Rhea counties:

convention_vs_secession

The model R-squared value jumps from 0.4813 to 0.769 if Polk and Rhea counties are excluded. Given that these two referenda were measuring similar things (i.e. pro-Southern political sympathy), we would expect a fairly high correlation between the two.

Accordingly, when doing regressions below, I am going to give R-squared values both with and without Polk and Rhea counties. Note that unlike Polk and Rhea, Bledsoe County does not seem to be a trend outlier in this model, despite the decreased turnout in June; perhaps there were off-setting voter suppression campaigns there. The drop in turnout in Bledsoe is suspicious, but not suspicious enough in my opinion to justify dropping the data point entirely.

My data set is contained in an Excel spreadsheet here: Tennessee Election Results and other statistics and comparisons.

1. Economic Integration with Southern Slave Interests
(Class, Wealth, Urban/Rural, Occupation, and Economic Prospects)

Class interests are frequently, but somewhat controversially, mentioned as a reason why some East Tennesseans (and indeed, Southern men more generally) supported or opposed secession and the Confederate war effort. There is a fair bit of evidence that class played a role, although it was clearly not the only factor, and the relationship between class and support for secession was complex and nuanced.

The term “class interests” is somewhat vague and subjective, but one need not be a vulgar Marxist to recognize that planters, merchants and professionals had substantially more wealth and social capital than the yeomanry and tenant farmers. Moreover, slaveowners as a class had peculiar interests not necessarily shared by non-slaveowners.

Perhaps the foremost expositor of class tension in the antebellum South today is David Williams, who has addressed the issue in several writings. In Bitterly Divided: The South’s Internal Civil War (2008), he describes secession as largely driven by planter class interests. In his view, the antebellum South was an increasingly unequal society, dominated economically and politically by planters. He writes (at 11):

Animosities that tore the South apart from within had been building for decades and had much to do with a widening gap between rich and poor. On the Civil War’s eve, nearly half the South’s personal income went to just over a thousand families. The region’s poorest half held only 5 percent of its agricultural wealth. Land and slave ownership dominated the South’s economy, but most white southerners held no slaves, and many owned no land.

And at 33:

More than the abolitionists, more than Lincoln himself, slaveholders feared the South’s slaves and nonslaveholding whites. Control of neither group had ever been easy. By the late 1850s, it was getting harder. A Lincoln presidency would make control even more difficult, even if Lincoln himself was no direct threat. If the slave states remained in the Union, most slaveholders feared that their “peculiar institution” might collapse as much from internal as external pressures. Outside the Union, controlling the lower classes might be easier and slavery might be safer.

With regard to East Tennessee specifically, anecdotal evidence of class effects are presented by Meredith Anne Grant in her dissertation “Internal Dissent: East Tennessee’s Civil War, 1849-1865” (2008) (available online at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1962/). Grant writes (at 47):

East Tennesseans’ political choices often reflected the region’s deep class divisions. East Tennessee’s wealthier citizens, particularly those in Knox County and Southeast Tennessee, tended to be secessionists and the lower classes Unionists. East Tennessee Unionists often believed that the Confederacy would be a nation ruled by the elite at the expense of the yeomanry.

Noel C. Fisher, in Appendix A of War at Every Door, takes a more skeptical view:

The evidence concerning the influence of class, for example, is quite inconclusive. Some contemporary observers concluded that East Tennessee did divide along the line of wealth. Humes claimed that East Tennessee secessionists came from the ranks of “the rich and persons of the best social position.” Confederate colonel Samuel Doak asserted that the majority of the lower class took the Union side, and in February 1864 a Methodist minister in Chattanooga reported that “rich are rebels the poor are ignorant but beginning to be loyal.” But most statements concerning class divisions were made by Confederates who wished to portray the Unionist party as a movement of ignorant, inconsequential men. And certainly Unionist leaders matched or exceeded their secessionist rivals in terms of wealth and status.

(Fisher at 183). Meredith Grant however, quoting Knox County secessionist Henry Lenoir, argues that Unionists (particularly Andrew Johnson and Thomas A. R. Nelson) actively portrayed themselves as representing the common man in opposition to the planter class. Moreover, Andrew Johnson’s “foot upon our necks” speech (given in 1864 when, as military governor, he reversed course and called for abolition of slavery) seems to be have been a direct to Unionist class grievances.

Certainly it is of note that Oliver Perry Temple, an indefatigable Unionist of East Tennessee, did seem to give at least some credence to the idea that planter class interests were significant; though, in Perry’s account, the planters of East Tennessee were reluctant participants in the secessionist movement rather than its instigators. In his view, class was not the main driver: “The largest as well as the third largest slaveholders in Knox county were Union men. Many non-slaveholders, in East Tennessee, were for secession, and many slave owners were bitterly and unalterably opposed to it. There was, in reference to this question, no certain rule or criterion by which the position of anyone could be judged in advance.” (Temple at 542).

In addition to opposition from some planters, Temple asserts, in several places in East Tennessee and the Civil War, that the yeomanry (small farmers whose primary source of wealth was in their land) were strongly opposed to secession. Temple writes of the East Tennessee yeomanry:

They own an interest in the soil. They love their little homes. By the simplest reasoning, this love of home is transferred to the government which protects their title to their homes. Their homes thus become the bond by which they are linked to the government. Lawlessness and anarchy, as they can see, threaten their security. They are, therefore, the friends of stability, order and good government. Naturally, inevitably, they are conservative, cautious and anti-revolutionary in sentiment.

(Temple at 542). Perhaps as a result of this conservatism (both in the yeomanry and among at least some planters), it was observed by Temple and others a divide between the town and the country in the first half of 1861:

From December till the 9th of June, there was little cessation in the active and earnest work done in trying to preserve the government. During this time, there were either five or six great Union meetings held in Knoxville, the central point in East Tennessee. In consequence thereof, the Union men held that town firmly, and its influence was all the time kept in the right direction. But the reliance of the leaders from the beginning was on the country and the country people. Every effort was made by speaking and otherwise to hold these people firm and united. They were kept at a fever heat of enthusiasm. Secession was denounced most unsparingly. Speakers went into nearly every neighborhood to arouse and consolidate the people. Outside of the towns and railroad lines, with the exception of two or three counties, the country became almost a unit, a solid compact body, in favor of the Union. A public sentiment was molded and shaped on behalf of the Union, which ultimately became as overpowering and as terrible to the disunionists as was the sentiment further South in an opposite direction.

(Temple at 200).

Temple’s statements find some support in the statistical analysis of Daniel Crofts in his book Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis (1989), who makes the following estimates of the slaveowner vs. nonslaveowner vote during the 1861 Secession Crisis in Tennessee:

	Slave Owners	Non-Slaveowners	All eligible voters
November 1860 (Presidential)
Whig (%) (Bell)	48	34	37
Democrat (%) (Douglas or Breckenridge)	37	41	40
Nonvoting (%)	15	25	23
February 1861 (Convention)
No Convention (%)	18	41	37
Convention (%)	57	24	31
Nonvoting (%)	25	35	33
February 1861 (Delegates)
Union (%)	54	52	52
Secession (%)	20	15	16
Nonvoting (%)	25	33	32
June 1861 (Secession)
No Separation (%)	0	31	25
Separation (%)	85	48	55
Nonvoting (%)	15	21	20

	N= 36,844	N= 152,585	N= 189,429

(Adapted from Crofts, Table 7-5, at 184-185).

As you can see, it appears that slaveholders as a class leaned heavily toward the Whig party, and at least with regard to delegates seemed to lean strongly toward nominally-Union candidates in February 1861 (though Crofts numbers suggest a far greater willingness to hold a secession convention, perhaps reflecting a smug belief that their interests would dominate such a convention). By June, however, Crofts estimates that the slaveholder vote had swung entirely toward secession, whereas a substantial minority of non-slaveholders opposed it (indeed, a majority of non-slaveholders either voted for “No Separation” or did not vote).

Some historians have argued that secessionists in East Tennessee specifically were initially motivated by economic ties to the larger Southern slaveholding economy, even if they themselves were only minor slaveholders or did not own any slaves at all.

Firstly, it must be recalled that some nonslaveowners would have still benefited directly from being able to lease the slaves of others at rates lower than free white labor (See, e.g., Carey at 153; Williams at 19-20) . Secondly, while slavery seems to have depressed the wage-level of white workers, many nonslaveholders in East Tennessee nevertheless viewed Northern capitalism with deep suspicion (See Temple at 307). Thirdly, shifts in the East Tennessee economy during the 1830s, 40s and 50s more tightly integrated the region with the slaveholding states of the South. The most notable proponent of this theory is W. Todd Groce in Mountain Rebels.

Groce’s thesis is summarized as follows: In the early days of Tennessee statehood, the farmers of East Tennessee did not have convenient means of shipping goods to market; the options being to float their unused produced down-river on flat-boats (along a circuitous and often-dangerous Tennessee River) or over land along a handful of trails and turnpikes (Gross at 1-2). The most effective way (at least for those farmers whose landholdings allowed them to grow an excess of corn) to turn the harvest into cash was thus to feed excess corn to hogs and then to drive the hogs through mountain passes to slaughterhouses in the Carolinas and Deep South (Id. at 2-6). The arrival of the railroad in the late 1840s and 1850s spurred a boom in wheat and other cash crops. (Groce at 7-12). This brought new prosperity to the region as well as an increase in the use of slave labor, growth of cities and towns, and tighter economic ties with Southern professional and commercial class interests. (Id. at 11-20). However, not all of East Tennessee was booming; many counties saw shrinking farms despite a growing white population. According to Groce’s thesis, the areas that benefitted most from Southern trade were most supportive of Southern nationalism and secession, while the areas were fortunes were declining were more strongly adherent to the Unionist cause. (Id. at 41-45). Key to Groce’s theory (which he fleshes out in his chapter on the social origins of East Tennessee Confederate officers) is the notion that a “‘rising commercial professional middle class'” and those with optimistic economic prospects were most supportive of Southern secession. (Fisher at 181).

Groce’s theory does explain some aspects of East Tennessee secessionism. For example, his theory helps to rationalize the disproportionately strong support in urban areas observed by Temple and others.John Fowler, in his 2004 book Mountaineers in Gray: The Nineteenth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. (primarily about Hawkins County recruits, cites Groce approvingly, (Fowler at 21).

Nevertheless, Groce’s theory has been criticized. An earlier version of Groce’s work (which was originally presented as a doctoral thesis at the University of Tennessee in the mid-1990s) was discussed by Fisher, who determined (in analyzing all Tennessee counties rather than just East Tennessee) that “no economic factor, either in isolation or in combination with other characteristics, explains a significant percentage of the voting Tennessee” (Fisher at 182; note that he did not view slavery as an “economic factor”; his regressions looked at things like farm value, amount of wheat grown, etc.).

My own regressions do tend to show that the correlation between various economic factors and support for the secession referenda tended to be weak. The strongest correlation seems to have been with the percentage of the county’s population that was enslaved; but even then the R-squared value is only 0.18 (although this does improve to 0.28 if the questionable election results from Polk and Rhea counties are excluded). I did not find however that the growth rate of the slave population correlated with votes for separation; the R-squared value was very nearly zero. The increase in percentage of the county population that was enslaved showed a positive, but extremely weak (R-squared = 0.09) correlation.

slavery_vs_separation_east_tennessee

The correlations for personal estate, real estate wealth, and per capita cash value of farms have R-squared values of about 0.13, 0.13 and 0.17 respectively (though these jump to 0.24, 0.25, and 0.29 respectively if Polk and Rhea are excluded).

2. Personal Ambitions / Generational Conflict

Groce also observed in his study of Confederate leaders in East Tennessee that there was a generational divide between older men (who tended to be more inclined toward loyalty to the Union) and their sons (who tended to be more inclined toward supporting secession). Several prominent Unionists in Washington County had sons who fought for the Confederacy (including T.A.R. Nelson and Seth J.W. Lucky). See Groce at 55-56.

Temple gives particular weight to the role of political ambition in his discussion of the causes of the Civil War (see Temple at 316). But his telling focuses heavily on leadership across the broader South. In Groce’s analysis of the social origins of the secessionist and Confederate leaders in East Tennessee, he finds that many of them lacked office-holding experience prior to the Civil War; though it is unclear if this was due to disinterest or thwarted ambition (particularly for Democrats in Whig-dominated counties) (see teGroce at 65-67).

3. Antebellum Political Party Affiliation

According to Oliver Perry Temple (continuing the quote mentioned above on page 542): “The nearest approach to such a rule was that afforded by old party affiliations. Whigs were nearly certain to be loyal, while the Democrats were rent asunder.”

East Tennessee generally trended to the Whig Party, and its successors, though this varied tremendously throughout the region. The Upper Holston Valley — Sullivan, Hawkins, Greene, and Washington counties — tended to lean to the Democratic Party, especially Sullivan County. Similarly, Southeast Tennessee counties — Hamilton, Polk, McMinn, Rhea, Meigs, etc. — were also friendly to Democrats. The Whig heartland was focused on Knoxville, as well as the more mountain counties.

Here is a table of election results from East Tennessee in 1855, 1856, 1857, 1859 and 1860 (based on newspaper reports of the election returns as they were forwarded, in handwritten letters, from county sheriffs to the state government in Nashville):

tn_elec_results_1855_to_1860

I have done my best to compare different newspaper accounts and to make sure tallies add up to the “bottom line” figures given, to eliminate typographical errors (transposition of numbers seems to happen a lot, as well as smudging of 3s/8s and 5s/6s). Note that other sources, for example Doug Leip’s Election Atlas, give slightly different numbers for the presidential elections, but I believe these are generally accurate. Also note that Republicans (John Fremont in 1856 and Abraham Lincoln in 1860) were not on the ballot in Tennessee in the antebellum years.

As you can see from the table, in the 1860 election Washington County gave 56.3 percent of its vote to John Breckenridge, 2.8 percent to Stephen Douglas and 40.9 percent to John Bell. The combined total of the two Democrats, Breckenridge and Douglas, adding to slightly less (59.1 percent) than the average Democratic share of the vote in Washington County for the period 1855-1859 (which was 60.4 percent). This share was remarkably stable from 1855 onward; the best year for Democrats in Washington County was 1855, when Andrew Johnson received 61.2 percent and the worst year was 1859, when Isham G. Harris received 58.0 percent.

This stability is remarkable given that as late as 1853 (per the Daily Nashville Patriot of 3 November 1856), the Whig candidate, Gustavus Henry, had come within 5 points of winning Washington County, with a Democratic share of only 52.5 percent. However, Washington County had for decades returned consistent majorities for the Democratic ticket; in reviewing older newspaper articles from the 1840s (before which I could not find county-level election returns), I could not find a single year in which the Whig Party prevailed in that county.

In Sullivan County, Breckenridge won 71.4 percent of the vote to Bell’s 25.3 percent in the 1860 election. The 1855-1859 Democratic Party average vote share in Sullivan was 72.8 percent, with a minimum of 70.0 percent in 1855 and a maximum of 74.9 in 1857. As with Washington County, I could not find a single election in which the “top-ticket” Whig carried Sullivan County, though the Democratic majority varied a bit from election to election.

With regard to calculating voter turnout rate, it seems that the general rule of Tennessee at the time was that suffrage was extended to white men over the age of 21, with a few exceptions for certain criminal convictions, those who had resided in the county for less than 6 months, as well as a provision that allowed a few non-white people to vote if they were considered under the law to be a competent witness against a white man (I think this may have applied mainly to Native Americans) (see Sections 833 and 834 of the Revised Code of 1858). Washington County had 2,947 white males over the age of 20 in the 1860 Census, conducted on June 1, 1860, so if we use that as our denominator for the November 1860 election, then the voter turnout in Washington County was approximately 80 percent. Likewise, we can calculate a voter turnout rate in Sullivan County was approximately 79 percent in the November 1860 election. The statewide turnout using this method for the 1860 election would be approximately 77 percent.

Party politics were fueled by local newspapers. According to the Social Statistics Schedule for the 1860 Census (found on ancestry.com), Washington County had two weekly newspapers, the Jonesborough Union (which ironically, was the Democratic paper) with a circulation of 250; and the Jonesborough Express, an opposition newspaper with a circulation of 550. In Sullivan County, there was only one newspaper, the Bristol News, a Democratic newspaper with a circulation of 500.

Both counties probably received newspapers from nearby counties as well. The largest newspaper by circulation in 1860 in East Tennessee appears to have been Brownlow’s Whig, with a weekly circulation of 11,680. This far outstripped the competing Knoxville Register, the Democratic paper, with a weekly circulation of 1,000. Greene County had the Greenville Democrat, with a circulation of 800; Hawkins County also had a Democratic newspaper, The Sentinel, with a weekly circulation of 600. Jefferson County had an apolitical, religious weekly paper with a circulation of 720. It does not appear that there were any newspapers printed in Carter, Johnson, Grainger, Blount, Cocke, Claiborne, Sevier or Hancock counties. Across all of Tennessee, it appears that Opposition/Whig circulation outnumbered Democratic newspaper circulation by about 2-to-1, with Brownlow’s Whig alone outselling all of the Democratic papers combined.

The correlation between support for Democratic candidates in prior general elections and support for separation is not particularly strong, but it does seem to be stronger than most factors. For example, the correlation between support for Isham G. Harris in 1859 and separation in 1861 has an R-squared value of 0.33; and the R-squared value for the correlation between support for Breckenridge and separation is 0.37. Interestingly, removing Polk and Rhea counties makes no meaningful difference here (it actually weakens the Harris correlation).

breckenridge_vs_separation

Civil War Military Units Composed of Men from Washington and Sullivan Counties

Here is a brief summary of the units that are listed as being composed of men from Washington and Sullivan County according to the Civil War Centennial Commission. Note that most of these are companies in larger regiments or battalions.

A company would ordinarily have about 100 men on paper (due to various reasons, including attrition from casualties/desertions/illness, or due to some of the men being on furlough or detached service) usually more like 40-50 in the field. A regiment would typically be composed of about 10 companies, and a battalion perhaps 6 or 8 companies. A regiment was typically commanded by a Colonel (though sometimes a Lt. Col. or Major) and a company by a Captain. Regiments were typically assigned to brigades, which were assigned to divisions, which were assigned to armies. Brigade and division assignments frequently changed through the Civil War.

At the outset of the Civil War, companies and regiments typically elected their officers, which meant that leadership was in part due to popularity rather than competence. Accordingly, many of the officers would end up resigning during army reorganizations.

Note that Tennessee did not start forming United States Army units until 1863-64, after most of East Tennessee came under Union control. There were men from East Tennessee who joined units from other states prior to that time, who escaped across the border to Union states (i.e. to Kentucky) to enlist. While not listed here, the service of these patriotic Unionists who served in other states’ units should not be forgotten or overlooked.

Confederate States Units

1st (Rogers’) East Tennessee Cavalry Regiment (C.S.A.), also known as 1st (Rogers’) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, 2nd (McLin’s) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Tennessee Cavalry Battalion, and 13th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion. Organized January 7, 1862, though reorganized several times. This regiment was originally commanded by John F. Rogers. Two companies were captured with little bloodshed during a surprise raid by on the Cumberland Gap by the 49th Indiana Volunteers in March 1862, which caused Gen. Kirby Smith to scapegoat the company leaders for “treachery”, insinuating disloyalty to the Confederacy on the part of East Tennesseans. The unit’s misfortune continued and was (in December 1862) folded into the 5th (McKenzie’s) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, led by Col. George W. McKenzie. For the rest of the War, the regiment seems to have generally been a part of the Army of Tennessee and surrendered with the rest of Gen. Johnson’s army in North Carolina in late April 1865.

Company G, originally commanded by Captain John B. McLin, was organized October 21, 1861 at Knoxville, and included men from Washington County. This company later became Company H of the 5th (McKenzie’s) Cavalry Regiment in December 1862. McLin was later promoted to Major and eventually, Colonel of the regiment, before being relieved in August 1862. The company was renamed Company H when it was folded into the 5th (McKenzie’s) Regiment, by then commanded by Capt. William W. Mullendore.

1st (Carter’s) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment (C.S.A.). The regiment was part of Vaughn’s Brigade in the spring of 1864, at which point it had about 248 men present. The regiment in southwest Virginia during 1864. The regiment was disbanded by Gen. Echols after learning of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.

Company M included men from Washington and Sullivan counties, and was organized from conscripts on September 3, 1863 at Jonesborough under Captain Edward Gammon, and was formally attached by Gen. John C. Vaughn to the 1st Tennessee Cavalry on March 11, 1864. Company M does not however appear in regimental rolls from February 1865.

5th (McClellan’s) Tennessee Cavalry Battalion (C.S.A.), also known as 1st Battalion and 4th Battalion. The battalion was organized August 29, 1861 at Knoxville under Lt. Col. George R. McClellan, a prominent man in Sullivan County.

Company F was made up of men from Sullivan County. Company F was commanded by Capt. David McClellan. Company F was assigned to guarding the Watauga Bridge in the fall of 1861, and remained near to suppress “the disaffected.” Company F and was still at Elizabethton in January when most of the battalion were part of the cavalry reserve during at the Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky (sometimes referred to as Battle of Fishing Creek). Most of the battalion was later folded into the 2nd (Ashby’s) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, but Company F appears to have been transferred to the 4th (Murray’s) Regiment and then to Baxter Smith’s Regiment.

19th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.). Organized June 11, 1861, assembled at Knoxville. This regiment was organized June 11, 1861 at Knoxville as part of the Provisional Army of Tennessee before transferring into Confederate States service. The regiment had 34 casualties at Mill Springs and was near when Gen. Zollicoffer was killed. The regiment also had significant casualties at Shiloh (according to Col. C. W. Heiskell). Had 127 casualties at Murfreesboro as part of A. P. Stewart’s brigade, and 94 casualties at Chickamauga under O.F. Strahl’s brigade. Fought in the Franklin-Nashville campaign. Surrendered with only 64 men in North Carolina at the end of the War, having fought in every pitched battle fought by the Army of Tennessee except for Perryville.

Company C (“The Blountville Guards”, originally led by Capt. James P. Snapp) and Company G (originally led by Capt. A. L. Gammon) were composed of men from Sullivan County.
Company B (originally commanded by Capt. Zadock T. Willette) was made up of men from Washington County.

26th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.), also known as the Third East Tennessee Infantry Regiment. Organized near Knoxville on September 6, 1861. After organizing, the unit was sent to Kentucky and then to Ft. Donelson, where 96 men were killed or wounded, and most of the regiment was captured after surrendering (they were paroled several months later). The unit was reconstituted and reorganized in late 1862 and fought at Murfreesboro, where it was once again decimated, and had its flag captured. The unit soldiered on with the Army of Tennessee in 1863 and early 1864 to fight in the Chickamauga-Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns, but was not engaged during the Franklin-Nashville campaigns of late 1864. The regiment was originally commanded by Col. John M. Lillard, who was killed at Chickamauga, and his successor Col. R.M. Saffell was killed at Bentonville, North Carolina in early 1865. What remained of the unit surrendered in late April 1865 in North Carolina.

Company B from Washington County, and commanded initially by Capt. J. L. Bottles (who was promoted to Lt. Col. later), and later by Capt. Talbot Greene.
Company K from Sullivan County, originally led by Capt. James J. C. Odell (later promoted to Lt. Col., later not re-elected).

29th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.). Organized at Henderson’s Mill (Greene County), September 30, 1861. The regiment was first led by Col. Samuel Powel (or Powell), who was injured at the Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky in January 1862, and resigned in November. The regiment was then led by Col. Horace Rice until he was wounded and captured in late 1864 during the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. At the end of the War the regiment was led by Col. William P. Bishop. The unit took 29 casualties at Mill Springs. It then retreated as part of Carroll’s Brigade to Iuka, Mississippi, where it was stationed (some 40 miles away from the main action) during the Battle of Shiloh. The unit was reorganized in May 1862 and had several resignations among its officers, including Lt. Col. Reuben Arnold, who was not re-elected. The regiment was engaged at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky later in 1862 and at Murfreesboro on New Year’s Eve 1862, where it suffered 112 casualties. By 1863 the regiment was part of Preston Smith’s brigade and wintered in Shelbyville, Tennessee before withdrawing to Chattanooga that summer. It was engaged at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge in the fall of 1863. It was engaged in the Atlanta campaign and the Franklin-Nashville campaign in 1864. What remained at the end of the War removed to North Carolina, where it played a minor role at the Battle of Bentonville, before surrendering in Greensboro, North Carolina in late April 1865.

Company G was made up of men from Washington County. It was initially commanded by Capt. George P. Faw before he resigned; afterward commanded by Capt. Isaac E. Reeves.
Company I was also made up of men from Washington County. It was initially commanded by Capt. William Fry, though most of the latter half of the War was commanded by Capt. J.D. Bushong.

Additional notes regarding the 29th:

Field and Staff Officers

Colonels:
Samuel Powel, Col., resigned November. 5, 1863
Horace Rice, wounded at the Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.
William P. Bishop

Lt. Colonels:
Reuben Arnold, Lt. Col.
John B. Johnson, Lt. Col., died July 15, 1864.
Absalom K. Blevins, Maj., killed May 27, 1864

Adjutants:
S.D. Reynolds, resigned November 28, 1863
Alfred Eugene Jackson, Jr., died March 6, 1862.
John A. Martin

Surgeons: J. Buler, G.E. Gordon, J.D. Smith, John F. L. Alston
Charles Madison, resigned July 28, 1862.

Other Officers:
J. P. Allison, A.S.
William F. Edmonds, A.S.
R. P. Hamilton, A.Q.M.
Lloyd Bullen, A.C.S., resigned July 8, 1862.
T. J. O’Keefe, A.C.S.
William B. Shoemaker, A.C.S.
R. A. Brooks, Ens.
John H. Sutherland, Chaplain, resigned September 10, 1863.

Company G
George P. Faw, Capt., dropped May 10, 1862.
Jerome N. Martin, 1st. Lt., dropped May 10, 1862.
William B. Bowman, 2nd Lt., dropped May 10, 1862.
Isaac E. Reeves, Capt.
John K. Shipley, 1st. Lt.
Joseph Archer, 2nd Lt., resigned July 30, 1863.
Joseph C. Whitt, 2nd Lt., resigned July 25, 1863.
John P. King, 2nd Lt.
John A. Martin, 2nd. Lt.

Stations:
Strawberry Plains, August 21-October 31, 1861
Camp Beech Grove, December 1861 (?)
Shelbyville, Tennessee, November 1862-April 1863.
Station not stated, July-August 1863.
Stationed near Chattanooga, September-October 1863.
Stationed at Dalton, Georgia, November-December 1863.
Stationed at Dalton, Georgia, January-February 1864.

Company I
William Fry, Capt. discharged May 15, 1862.
Peter S. Banks, 1st Lt., resigned September 28, 1861.
John H. Craig, Capt., resigned August 13, 1862.
Samuel H. Johnson, 2nd Lt. , dropped May 1862
John B. Johnson, 1st Lt. to Maj.
Jack Dick Bushong, Capt.
William H. Swant, 1st. Lt.
Josiah Wagner, 2nd Lt., killed December 31, 1862.
Lewis Bowers, 2nd Lt., resigned July 17, 1863.
James L. Farnsworth, 2nd Lt., resigned October 28, 1864.
W.C. Justice, 2nd Lt., killed September 19, 1863.
J.F. Keebler, 2nd. Lt.

Stations:
Knoxville, August 21-October 31,1861.
Murfreesboro, November-December 1861.
Shelbyville, January-February 1863.
Shelbyville, March-April 1863.
Chattanooga, July-August 1863.
Missionary Ridge, September 1863 (Battle of Chickamauga, several killed).
Dalton, Georgia – November-December 1863
Dalton, Georgia, January-February 1864.

37th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.), also known 1st East Tennessee Rifles, 7th Tennessee Infantry (Provisional Army of Tennessee). Organized October 1861 near Knoxville. This regiment was briefly led by Col. William H. Carroll before his promotion in late October 1861 to Brigadier General; afterward by Col. Moses White. This regiment participated at the Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky, and afterward (along with the 29th and other regiments under Gen. Carroll) retreated to Iuka, Mississippi. The regiment seems to have suffered heavily from non-combat losses (disease, desertion, etc.) in 1862, going from 771 to 230 effectives between December 1861 and the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky in October 1862. Colonel White and 67 other men were lost at the Battle of Murfreesboro. The regiment slowly rebuilt up to about 484 men by mid-1863, and was present in Chattanooga, the Atlanta campaign, and the Battle of Franklin in late 1864. It finally surrendered in North Carolina in May 1865.

Company F from Washington County, with Reuben Roddie and William F. Roddie as captains.

59th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.), also known as 1st (Eakin’s) Tennessee Battalion, Cooke’s Regiment, and the 59th Tennessee Mounted Infantry Regiment. This regiment was organized in May 1862 and captured in July, 1863 at Vicksburg, Mississippi. What remained was part of Vaughn’s Brigade in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia afterward. The regiment was led by Col. James Cooke and later by Col. William Eakin. The regiment seems to have been primarily assigned to defend and suppress insurrection in East Tennessee during 1862 before being sent to Mississippi to defend Vicksburg.

Company F from Sullivan County. This company by Capt. Henry Giesler (promoted to major) and then by Capt. Jacob Giesler. It was organized in February, 1862. Sixty-six men were captured at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 and then paroled on July 10.

60th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.), also known as 60th Tennessee Mounted Infantry Regiment and 79th Tennessee Infantry Regiment. Organized October 1, 1862 at Haynesville (Washington County). Led by Col. John H. Crawford and then by Col. Nathan Gregg. A significant part (239 men) of this regiment was captured outside Vicksburg, Mississippi at the Battle of Big Black River (probably paroled in late 1864). The regiment later re-assembled as part of Vaughn’s Brigade in East Tennessee.

Companies A,C,D,F and K from Washington County. The Captains were Francis Blair (Co. A), John H. Crouch (Co. C), Mark M. Pritchett (later Joseph L. Hale) (Co. D), Mark Bacon (Co. F) and John M. Morrow (Co. K). Companies A and F formed at Jonesborough; Company D was organized in Boone’s Creek; Company K at Leesburg.
Companies E and G from Sullivan County. Captains were William P. Barron, of Company E, and James A. Rhea (later J.W. Bachman and Joseph R. Crawford) of Company G.

61st Tennessee Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.)., also called the 81st Tennessee Infantry Regiment, Pitt’s Regiment of East Tennessee Volunteers, and 61st Tennessee Mounted Infantry Brigade, was organized in October 1862 at Henderson’s Mills, Greene County (now called Afton). Col. F. E. Pitts and, later, Col. J.G. Rose, commanded this regiment. As with the 60th Tennessee, the 61st regiment was part of Vaughn’s Brigade for most of the War. In 1862-63, the regiment was in Mississippi as part of the defense of Vicksburg. The regimental colors were captured at the Battle of Big Black River (and about 3/4ths of the men were either killed or captured in that battle), with the remainder surrendered at the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. After the parole, the unit reformed in East Tennessee, and fought at Morristown and Russellville. At the end of the War, the 61st did not immediately surrender, but escaped to North Carolina to link up with Jefferson Davis. They were finally surrendered in May in Washington, Georgia. As such, the 61st Tennessee was one of the last Tennessee regiments to surrender.

Companies E and K were men from Sullivan County. James Snapp (later major and lieutenant colonel) and L.H. Denny were captains of Company E, and Samuel Kelton was captain of Company K.

63rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.), also known as 74th Tennessee Infantry Regiment. Organized July 30, 1862 and first assembled at Knoxville. Some of the companies came from other existing units. Col. Richard G. Fain (through November 1863) and (after Fain’s resignation) Col. Abraham Fulkerson led the regiment. This regiment was briefly assigned to the Army of Tennessee in Chattanooga before being sent to Knoxville and other points in East Tennessee. In 1864 it was transferred to the Army of Northern Virginia and fought at Petersburg before surrendering at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865.

Companies D, I and K from Washington County. Company D was known as the “Kirby Smith Rifles” and were captained by A. A. Blair and later, James McCallum. Company I was originally formed as a cavalry company but was transferred to the 63rd; it was led by Capt. James T. Gillespie and later Capt. John A. Gammon. Company K was led by Capt. John W. Robertson.
Companies E and F from Sullivan County. Company E was originally formed in 1861 as part of the Third (Vaughn’s) Infantry Regiment and fought at the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) before being transferred into the 63rd Regiment. Company E’s captain was Crockett R. Millard. Company F was led by Capt. A.M. Millard.

Local Defense Forces (C.S.A.), assembled in part from conscripts and old men, including:

Sullivan County Reserves (six companies), organized in June 1863 by Maj. C. Johnston.
Lt. W. W. Blair’s Company, “The Young Rebels of Jonesboro,” 23 men organized June 23, 1863 at Jonesborough.
Capt. J.B. McLin’s Company, organized June 20, 1863 at Jonesborough.

United States Units

4th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment (U.S.A.). Company B from Sullivan County.

8th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment (U.S.A.). Companies C, D, and I from Washington County; Company G from Sullivan County.

9th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment (U.S.A.). Company M from Washington County; Company L from Sullivan County.

13th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment (U.S.A.). The regiment was organized in 1863; nine companies mustered at Strawberry Plains in October-November 1863. Company C with men from Sullivan County. Company I, from Washington County, mustered at Nashville in April 1864. Company M, with men from Washington, Sullivan, Johnson and Carter counties, mustered at Gallatin in May 1864.

4th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.). Various companies contained Washington County men.

8th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.). Company E from Washington and Sullivan counties.

Sources:

Civil War Centennial Commission, Tennesseans in the Civil War: A Military History of Confederate and Union Units with Available Roster of Personnel (1964), vol. 1. Available online at hathitrust.org.
Janet B. Hewett (editor), Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, pt. 2, vol. 67, no. 79 (1998), pp. 110-120.
John B. Lindsley, The Military Annals of Tennessee. Confederate. (1886). Available online at: https://archive.org/details/cu31924032778700/page/n9/mode/2up

Brief Biographies of Some Watauga Valley-area Civil War Soldiers

These are brief biographies of some of the soldiers who responded to veterans’ questionnaires in 1914-1922 (there is therefore some survivor bias in who was selected, though I do not believe it significantly biases the sample). The soldier were selected first with an eye to telling the story of the 29th Tennessee Regiment but also to give a well-rounded picture of those who fought who were from in or near the four civil districts of Washington County and two civil districts of Sullivan County that I have defined as the study area.

Sgt. Jacob R. Cox, Co. G., 29th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Much of what is known about Jacob R. Cox and other veterans comes from his responses to a questionnaire that was mailed to him around 1922, a time of intense interest in the Civil War as few of the soldiers were still alive. These questionnaires were collected by Gustavus Dyer and John Trotwood Moore (a notable man of letters in Middle Tennessee).

Jacob R. Cox was born in Sullivan County to William Cox and Eliza Crouch Cox in November 1840 (he lists his age as 81 on his questionnaire form that was likely completed in 1922). His brother William K. Cox is described below.

Cox reports that before the War, white society in the Fordtown area was egalitarian. Farming work was considered “the bone and seneou [sic] of our country,” and he writes that slaveholders “didn’t think of themselves as better than a poor man” and claimed that white men “all came into this world equally.” He did not believe that slaveholders were considered more politically powerful than non-slaveholders, with the voters just wanting “the good men.”

Jacob Cox seems to have had about two years of schooling at the same log cabin schoolhouse that his brother William briefly attended.

During the War, reports enlisting in May 1861, and says he was at “Wild Cat, Kentucky”, Shiloh, “Fishing Creek” (another name for Mill Springs, Kentucky), “Chickamoogie”, the Chattanooga battles including Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, “Mary Etta, Ga.”, and the Battle of “Murfreesborough” (likely in 1862-63). He was captured as a prisoner of war in the summer of 1864 at Marietta, Georgia (his questionnaire says it was in July; his service record indicates he was captured in late June). He was held at Camp Morton before being released. He says of his time as a P.O.W., “we didn’t get ice cream, we didn’t suffer for anything to eat or wear.” But he does note that he had to sleep on the ground and that was bitterly cold, both in prison camp and in the field:”[A]s to cold, I didn’t suffer only when I was a prisoner, no fire, no blanket, and nothing to eat, and weather 10 below zero.”

Cox’s Civil War records indicate that he was promoted from Private to 2nd Sergeant sometime in the middle of 1862. He was detailed as a nurse at Dalton, Georgia in August 1862 and was a posted guard there in November, and for that reason was not with the rest of the company during this time. He was released from Camp Morton (in Indiana) during a prisoner exchange in February 1865.

After the Civil War, Cox was a farmer, mill-wright, magistrate, postmaster and Baptist minister.

He received a Confederate soldiers’ pension late in life. His pension application lists Joseph Archer in his chain of command. He states that he was not wounded during his service, but contracted rheumatism and “injury to my general health” from his wartime experiences. In his old age he held 20 acres outright and had a life estate in another 80 acres.

Jacob R. Cox died in Fordtown in December 1924. He was survived by 10 children and was buried with Masonic honors.

Sources:

Gustavus W. Dyer & John Trotwood Moore (compilers), The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, vol. 2 (Confederate Soldiers, Caldwell-Fuston) (1985) at p. 578-79 (questionnaire for J.R. Cox).
Gustavus W. Dyer & John Trotwood Moore (compilers), The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, vol. 2 (Confederate Soldiers, Caldwell-Fuston) (1985) at p. 580-81 (questionnaire for William Kincheloe Cox).
National Park Service, “Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System” (database web site), at: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm
National Archives, “Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from Tennessee”, online at Fold3.com.
“Tennessee, Confederate Pension Applications, Soldiers and Widows, 1891-1965,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GGYS-2J5?cc=1874474&wc=M6ZF-CWL%3A171467301%2C175698002 : 22 May 2014), Filed by Soldier > no 11619-11763 > image 1750 of 2094; State Library and Archives, Nashville.
“Jacob R. Cox Dies At Fordtown Home”, Bristol Herald-Courier, 4 January 1925, p. 3. Online at newspapers.com.

Pvt. William Kincheloe Cox, Co. G., 29th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

William Kincheloe Cox was born in Sullivan County in about 1839 or 1840 (he was 82 years, 7 months old when he filled out questionnaire number 2, probably in 1922). He was the brother of Sgt. Cox, both being sons of William W. Cox.

Before the war he was a farmer, and his father was also a farmer and boatman. His great-grandfather Jeremiah Cox was a major in the Revolutionary War, and one of the first white settlers in “Cox Valley.” Cox himself did not own land or slaves, but his father owned between 100 and 150 acres and his grandparents had owned slaves (they were freed upon their deaths). His father probably had an estate of about $1,500.

His parents occupied a four-room log cabin near Fordtown. His family had a farm that raised corn, wheat “and all such grain.” As a boy, Cox plowed, hoed, and cut wheat using hand tools (i.e. a scythe) “and all such hard, humble farm work.” “All the boys I knew did this sort of work,” Cox wrote later. His mother spun wool and other fabrics.

“There were not many colored slaves in our country and such work was considered both respectable and honorable,” Cox wrote. He notes in his questionnaire that most white men of the area did similar work and were not idlers. He recalls slaveowning men mingling with non-slaveholders before the war; “[a]ll felt equality,” he wrote.

Growing up, Cox only had the opportunity to attend a small log cabin school, and only for a short time (less than a week). Cox recalls that most boys did not attend school.

Cox enlisted in June 1861 near Greenville. He recalls his company being sent to Carter’s Station and then Rockcastle Hill, Kentucky (probably referring to the Battle of Camp Wildcat), then to Knoxville, and to Mill Springs, Kentucky.

Cox wrote that “[m]y experience in the war was one harship [sic] to another, hunger and thirst, hard battles, etc.” He tells a story of riding Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer’s horse back to camp after Zollicoffer was killed at the Battle of Mill Springs. According to Cox, “[w]hen I told his servants he had been killed they cried like children.”

Cox wrote that he had been on furlough during the Battle of Franklin in 1864. He says he was discharged in Virginia after Gen. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, and walked most of the way home to Tennessee.

After the war, Cox worked as a carpenter and mill-wright before being ordained as a Baptist minister. “Something near 2000 souls have been saved under my ministry,” Cox wrote. Cox’s three sons also went into the ministry.

Cox writes that he never received a soldier’s pension due to having “too much poor land.” He wrote, complaining of his pension rejection: “I served four of the best years of my life in the Civil War and have never received a penny for it.”

Cox died in Jefferson City, Tennessee in August 1925, survived by four sons and three daughters.

Sources:

Gustavus W. Dyer & John Trotwood Moore (compilers), The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, vol. 2 (Confederate Soldiers, Caldwell-Fuston) (1985) at p. 580-81 (questionnaire for J.R. Cox).
Gustavus W. Dyer & John Trotwood Moore (compilers), The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, vol. 2 (Confederate Soldiers, Caldwell-Fuston) (1985) at p. 580-81 (questionnaire for William Kincheloe Cox).
National Park Service, “Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System” (database web site), at: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=26474191-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A
“Rev. W.K. Cox”, Knoxville Journal, 16 August 1925, p. 17 (obituary). Online at newspapers.com.

Pvt. Joseph Hunter Crouch, Co. G., 29th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Joseph Hunter Crouch was born in Washington County in March 1843. His Father, James H. Crouch was a schoolteacher and a farmer in Boone’s Creek. His mother, Caroline Hunter Crouch, may have been of Cherokee descent and as a weaver, “wove many yards of all kinds,” Crouch recalled in his veteran questionnaire.

His father owned one slave and 105 acres of land, and Joseph grew up in a three-room log cabin. As a child he had several months of schooling in the nearby log schoolhouse, and also plowed and hoed and did other farm work on the family farm.

As a young man at the outbreak of the Civil War, Joseph Crouch had no property of his own, though as he recalls, “[w]hen a young industrious man wanted to work he could find it.”

He enlisted in the army in the summer of 1861. His service record indicates that he, as many men were, enlisted by James W. Gillespie. Crouch recalls that this was at the Boon’s Creek Church, though also mention’s Henderson’s Depot in Greene County as the starting point of his war career.

He recalls: “Went from Wildcat to Knoxville, then to Strawberry Plains to guard the bridge. After that we moved to Chattanooga. Shortly after that we engaged the Chickamauga battle lasted 2 days or more. There we got the best of them. There I lost my left leg off above the knee.”

(In his service record, it is indicated that he was wounded on September 19, 1863; and his pension application indicates that the regimental surgeon, J.D. Smith, amputated his leg, and afterward was in hospital at Newnan, Georgia).

He recalls living well in camp and being taken care of, and “were clothed very well.” (His service record papers include a special requisition of new clothes while he was hospitalized).

“When I got to the point where I could travel I hit the train for home,” he wrote. “I bid my Colonel Horace Rice good bye in Atlanta, Ga. Then I hit the train and come home.”

After the war, Crouch became a shoe and bootmaker. He owned a little land. He and his wife Abigail Chinouth had nine children. He received a Tennessee Confederate soldier’s pension for his injuries and disabilities. Later in life, he developed crippling rheumatism.

Crouch mentions “Jake” and “Bill” Cox as comrades in arms.

Sources:

Gustavus W. Dyer & John Trotwood Moore (compilers), The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, vol. 2 (Confederate Soldiers, Caldwell-Fuston) (1985) at p. 599-600 (questionnaire).
“Tennessee, Confederate Pension Applications, Soldiers and Widows, 1891-1965,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GGYM-FVG?cc=1874474&wc=M6Z6-3P8%3A171467301%2C171483201 : 22 May 2014), Filed by Soldier > no 161-193 > image 89 of 675; State Library and Archives, Nashville.
National Archives, “Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from Tennessee”, online at Fold3.com.
National Park Service, “Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System” (database web site), at: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm
Findagrave.com, “Joseph Hunter Crouch”, online at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61065661/joseph-hunter-crouch

Pvt. Robert E. DePew, Battery E Kentucky Light Artillery (U.S.A.).

Robert E. DePew was born in Sullivan County in 1841 or 1842. His father, Isaac DePew, Jr. was a farmer and bricklayer who seems to have died when Robert was about 11 or 12 years old. His mother was Sarah Campbell DePew, who later married James Hulse. His family had a one-room log cabin.

Mr. DePew reports working on the farm as a child, and that he had about 12 months of schooling, though his responses to the questionnaire suggest that he may have struggled as a student. While he reported that there was “no ill feeling” between slaveholders and non-slaveholders, he did suggest that he thought slaveholders may have idled more than others. He also stated that slaveholders “to some exstint… descouraged” young men of his generation from working hard, and that “it was kindley hard” for young men to advance themselves in society in his youth.

DePew enlisted as a private in an independent Kentucky artillery battery in Louisville, Kentucky in September 1863. He was discharged a year later in Lexington when his term of service expired. During his term of service, his unit was garrisoned at Camp Nelson, Kentucky. He does not seem to have engaged in any battles, although his unit was engaged at the Battle of Kingsport, Tennessee a couple of months after he was discharged.

It appears that DePew had at least one (L. W. DePew), and probably two or more brothers (including Elbert) who served in Union cavalry units during the Civil War.

After the war, he returned to Tennessee, spending some time in Knoxville before returning to northeast Tennessee. He spent his years farming. He seems to have married Ann (or Anna) H. at some point prior to 1870 (as they appear together on the 1870 Census living in Civil District 11 of Washington County). It appears that they had several children.

Mrs. DePew died in 1906 and is buried at Mt. Wesley Cemetery in Jonesboro. It seems that around this time Mr. DePew was drawing a federal pension and spent some time in the Soldiers’ Home.

It is unclear when Mr. DePew died, but it seems to have been after 1922. According to his questionnaire dated 1922, he was living in or near Fordtown. He was a member of the Church of the Brethren.

Sources:

Gustavus W. Dyer & John Trotwood Moore (compilers), The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, vol. 1 (Federal Soldiers, Acuff – Wood) (1985) at p. 1347-51 (questionnaire, appears as “Robert E. Depeer” probably due to transcriptionist error).
“Smith-Babbs Cemetery”, TNGenWeb website, online at: https://tngenweb.org/washington/records-data/cemeteries/cemeteries-of-washington-county-tennessee/cemeteries-of-washington-county-tennessee-r-s-t/smith-babbs-cemetery/
“Anna H DePew”, FindAGrave.com website, online at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/68817011
National Archives, “Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from Kentucky”, online at Fold3.com.
Wikipedia, “Battery E, Kentucky Light Infantry”, online at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_%22E%22_Kentucky_Light_Artillery

Pvt. Franklin Sevier Leonard, Co. D., 60th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Franklin Sevier Leonard was born in August 1844 (though his pension paperwork states 1842) in Jonesborough. His father, Thomas Smith Leonard, was a farmer who moved to Washington County in the 1820s. One of Thomas Leonard’s sons fought for the Union and three of his sons, including Franklin, for the Confederacy.

Thomas Leonard owned a small farm (70 or 80 acres), a 4-room log cabin and no slaves. He farmed and milled.

“Idleness was unknown when I was a boy,” Franklin Leonard recalled in 1922. Franklin stated that he had about two years of schooling.

Franklin Leonard states in his questionnaire that he enlisted in May 1861 (though the 60th does not appear to have organized until October 1862). He appears on a muster roll with an enlistment date of May 1, 1863 in Jonesborough with the 60th Regiment.

He states, consistent with the history of his unit, that most of the regiment went to Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1863. He appears to have been on detached duty (he also may have been transferred to Company K of the 63rd Regiment around this time).

Pvt. Leonard was twice wounded, first at the Battle of Piedmont, Virginia (when he was shot in the lower jaw, which cost him two teeth, as well as a flesh wound in his left ankle) in 1863; and then in 1864, he was shot in his left hand during the Battle of Bulls Gap, Tennessee, in late 1864. He was briefly hospitalized after both injuries.

After Pvt. Leonard’s first release from hospital in 1863, he returned to his regiment at Bristol, Virginia. According to his questionnaire, he and a fellow soldier, West Peoples, were sent on a special mission to locate the “Yankees.” Unfortunately for them, they were captured as spies in Carter County and held for three days without food at the courthouse in Jonesborough awaiting a military tribunal. He states that he and six others (among them, Peoples, Sam Bacon and N.D. Chase) escaped from their jailors by climbing down the lightning rod of the courthouse.

At the end of the Civil War, Pvt. Leonard seems to have not been content with surrender. He was discharged in Christiansburg, Virginia, on April 15, but appears that he was arrested (possibly trying to meet up with Joe Johnston’s Army of Tennessee, which was still in the field) and brought as a prisoner to Nashville, where he may have then refused to take the loyalty oath to the United States. For some reason thereafter he was sent as a prisoner to Camp Morton near Indianapolis, Indiana, where he remained for eight months before his release. He states that he was aided by Southern sympathizers in Indiana after his release from prison. He did eventually take the loyalty oath (on this point, his questionnaire and pension papers agree; however in his questionnaire he states that he took the oath after being interned at Camp Morton and that it was in 1866; but in his pension papers and service record file it seems like it was in May 1865).

After the war, Mr. Leonard states that he was a farmer and carpenter. He feared for his safety in East Tennessee, due to “Federal soldiers & bushwhackers… making raids on all Rebels and killing them.” It seems that he fled to Virginia in 1866 or 1867 before returning to Tennessee.

While in Virginia, he married Elizabeth Jane Spencer White, a widow of another Confederate soldier who had died at Vicksburg. In addition to her three children from her previous marriage, Mrs. Leonard had three more children with Mr. Leonard. She died in 1916 and he married for a second time to Mary Emma Amason in 1920.

Mr. Leonard lived in Roan Hill, Johnson City during the last 40-50 years of his life. He was a Methodist.

Mr. Leonard received a state Confederate soldier’s pension in 1893 due to his injuries. He died in September 1928. His second wife, two daughters, an adopted son, 20 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren survived him.

Sources:

Gustavus W. Dyer & John Trotwood Moore (compilers), The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, vol. 4 (Confederate Soldiers, Lackey-Quarles) (1985) at p. 1347-51 (questionnaires).
“Tennessee, Confederate Pension Applications, Soldiers and Widows, 1891-1965,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GGY9-SXN?cc=1874474&wc=M6Z6-468%3A171467301%2C171531501 : 22 May 2014), Filed by Soldier > no 582-617 > image 292 of 681; State Library and Archives, Nashville.
National Archives, “Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from Tennessee”, online at Fold3.com.
“Franklin Sevier Leonard”, Johnson City Chronicle, 23 September 1928, p. 12 (obituary). Online at newspapers.com

Pvt. Elbert Clay Reeves, Co. G., 29th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Elbert Clay (E.C.) Reeves was born in 1841 (though his obituary says 1839) in Washington County. His father Peter M. Reeves was a carpenter before becoming a farmer, and according to Elbert’s questionnaire, was “a leading citizen of the county; a leader in the Methodist Church; a Unionist.” Peter Reeves was also the brother of William Pouder Reeves. His mother was Matilda Devault Reeves.

E.C. Reeves’s father owned three different farms totaling over 600 acres, and three slaves. His family had a brick home with eight rooms and total wealth approaching $15,000. As noted, his Uncle William was one of the largest slaveholders in the county in the 1850s and 60s. His grandfather Valentine Devault was the largest slaveholder in Washington County at one point, according to Elbert’s questionnaire. His family appears in the Brush Creek District in the 1860 Census (which shows his father Peter owning $16,150 in land and $5,000 in personal property). It appears that most of the Reeves children had formal education.

E.C. Reeves states that as a child, he “…worked beside slaves and after 18, had to do as much work as a slave” while his father “bosse[d]” the whole crew. Despite working next to his family’s slaves, Reeves noted that there was a strict social segregation of slaves; he writes that they had “equal rights to go to same church service on Sabbath,” but had to sit in the rear seats and that the sacrament was administered to them separately.

Despite working the fields, Reeves did acquire considerable schooling. After attending the local district school, he had about five years of high school and college education, with some of that being before the war and the collegiate education at Emory & Henry College in Virginia after his service. He later attended law school at Cumberland College from 1867-69.

Reeves writes that he joined the army in October 1862 at Bridgeport, Alabama, so that he could serve with his first-cousin, Capt. Isaac E. Reeves. He states that he was never formally “sworn in” or paid, but performed the duties of a private. Though he mentions being with the army in Shelbyville and at the Battle of Murfreesboro, he states that “[a]s I was only a private my experience would not be interesting or otherwise valuable.” He claimed that about half the men of Company G were lost as killed or wounded.

Private Reeves was discharged from the army in July 1863 by furnishing a substitute to fight in his place.

After the Civil War, E.C. Reeves completed his education before practicing law in Greenville, Tennessee. At some point he practiced law with his cousin, Captain Isaac Reeves. While a young lawyer in Greenville, he had many interesting experiences as a newspaper editor and as a Democratic Party politician. Despite being a disenfranchised Confederate, he befriended former President Andrew Johnson (who, according to Reeves’s obituary, owned a farm next to the one on which Reeves was born). Reeves served as Johnson’s personal secretary and aided Johnson in his successful campaign to return to the Senate. Reeves ran for Congress himself in 1898; though a loser, he did do quite well for a Democrat in the heavily-Republican First District.

In religion, Reeves was a fundamentalist Methodist and a prominent lay leader in the church. He was three times a delegate to the Methodist Episcopal (South) general convention and participated in discussions seeking common ground between the northern and southern Methodists.

During his legal and political career, Reeves acquired the honorific title of “Colonel” and is often referred to as “Col. Reeves” despite only being a private during the Civil War. He seems to have had a keen interest in history, including many notes in his questionnaire regarding his times with Andrew Johnson as well as a couple of paragraphs that (tangentially) discuss the details of the history of Sycamore Shoals.

Perhaps E.C. Reeves’s greatest accomplishment was in being the father of several children, including Col. Leroy Reeves (1876-1951), the designer of the Tennessee “tri-star” state flag still in use today. He had four other children with his wife Alice Robeson Reeves, whom he married in 1875.

E.C. Reeves died in September 1929. He was survived by three sons and a daughter. His body was returned from Virginia, where he died, to Johnson City for burial.

Sources:

Cox and Cox, History of Washington County, Tennessee, at 9.
Gustavus W. Dyer & John Trotwood Moore (compilers), The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, vol. 5 (Confederate Soldiers, Rainey-Young) (1985) at p. 1813-16 (questionnaire).
FindAGrave.com, “Elbert Clay Reeves”, online at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97487534/elbert-clay-reeves.
National Archives, “Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from Tennessee”, online at Fold3.com.
Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
“Attendant at Funeral of Andrew Johnson Reminisces”, Jackson Sun, 30 May 1923, p. 17 (describing a speech that Reeves gave about his time with Andrew Johnson).
“Secretary to Johnson Dies”, Knoxville News-Sentinel, 24 September 1929, p. 15. Online at newspapers.com.
“E.C. Reeves”, Johnson City Staff-News, 27 September 1929, p. 12. Online at newspapers.com.

Newspaper Clippings re: the 29th Tennessee Regiment

“Captain Powell’s company” is mentioned in a letter from Thomas A. R. Nelson in the Knoxville Register of 22 August 1861, on page 1.

T.A.R. Nelson was the winner of an unusual election on August 1, 1861 in which some of the ballots were cast “For Congress” (i.e. to the Confederate congress) and some “For U.S. Congress” in East Tennessee. Nelson won a narrow victory in the “For Congress” race and a landslide in ballots cast “For U.S. Congress.” A Unionist, Nelson interpreted his mandate as being to sit in the federal Congress, despite Tennesseans voting for secession in June. He was arrested on his way to Washington, D.C. in Lee County, Virginia and apparently put in the custody of Colonel Powell’s men at the Cumberland Gap. (See Cox and Cox at 1207).

Here we see the election results and Nelson’s letter side-by-side:

knoxville_register_22_aug_1861_p1

The mustering of the regiment is mentioned in the Nashville Union and American, 27 August 1861, on page 2:

CAMP HENDERSON – We are gratified to see how rapidly the patriotic masses of East Tennessee are coming to the rescue.

The fourth East Tennessee regiment is now full and ready to organize. Six companies are now at the above encampment, which is named in honor of Mr. Joseph Henderson, of Greene county, one of the truest friends of the South in East Tennessee. The other four companies have been stationed at points on the Railroad.

The companies in Camp Henderson are the following,

Capt. Powell’s, of Hawkins county.
Rose’s of Hancock ”
Faw, of Washington ”
Arnold’s, of Greene ”
Colter’s, of do. ”
Fry’s, of do. ”

We say well fore old Greene! Andrew Johnson’s home has furnished three gallant companies at her first effort, and we understand is ready to furnish several more. — Knoxville Register, Aug. 25.

(I could not find a copy of the 25 August Register so that is why I transcribe the Union and American here).

In September, Capt. Fry’s company took 39 Unionist partisans as prisoners in Greene County, according to The Daily Nashville Patriot, 14 September 1861, p. 2:

ARRESTS IN EAST TENNESSEE — We learn from a gentleman direct from East Tennessee, that Capt. Wm. Fry of the 4th East Tennessee Regiment, has taken thirty-nine prisoners amongst the Union men of Greene County. Twenty-nine of them took the oath of allegiance and ten were sent to General Zollicoffer, at Knoxville. The majority of the prisoners were taken on Camp Creek in Greene, Monday, while attempting to make an arrest, one of Capt. Fry’s men was shot and instantly killed. These arrests commenced on the 8th and continued through Wednesday, the 11th. It was expected that a body of Unionists, some 200 strong on Cedar Creek, would be surrounded and captured on Thursday, by a portion of the 14th Mississippi and a portion of the 4th East Tennessee Regiments, as they had orders and marched the previous night. The Unionists appear to be under the command of Colonel Dav. Fry of Greene. All the prisoners taken were under arms and preparing to march the first opportunity to join the Lincoln forces in Kentucky.

Note that some contemporaneous articles, all of which seem to be quoting the Knoxville Register (which I cannot find online), claim the Confederate captain was “Jas. Fry”, but I could not find a Confederate captain named James Fry in Tennessee and I strongly believe that it was indeed Captain William Fry of Company I, 29th Tennessee, who led these arrests. For example, from the Memphis Daily Appeal of 12 September, on page 2:

memphis_daily_appeal_12_sep_1861_p2

The election of officers for the regiment is also mentioned in “Fourth Tennessee Regiment”, The Athens Post, 11 October 1861, p. 1:

The 4th East Tennessee Regiment of Infantry organized at Camp Cummings by the election of —

Sam Powell, Colonel.
Reuben Arnold, Lieut. Colonel.
Horace Rice, Major.
Rev. W. H. Crawford, Chaplain.

“The Attempt to Burn the Bridge at Strawberry Plains”, The Athens Post, 15 November 1861, p. 2:

The force at the bridge consists of four companies of Col. Powell’s Regiment, one of Col. Wood’s Regiment, Capt. Gillespie’s Cavalry, and a home guard of one hundred citizens, which is sufficient to repel any force likely to be sent against them.

“Cool, Decidedly”, The Knoxville Register, 13 November 1861, p. 2:

knoxville_register_13_nov_1861_p2

This was picked up by many papers throughout the southern states, including in Maryland. The Baltimore Sun, 3 December 1861, p. 1, shared this similar story, though with some notable edits:

THE UNION MEN OF EAST TENNESSEE
The Knoxville Register states that the Union men under arms in Sevier county, sent a flag of truce to the rebel Colonel Powell, in command at Strawberry Plains, with a proposition that they would disband provided a pledge were given that no further attempts would be made to arrest or punish those engaged in the late bridge burning. Colonel Powell declined to accede to the proposition.

The 29th Regiment’s involvement in the Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky in January 1862 was noted in many stories.

“Battle on Fishing Creek! Crittenden’s Command Routed!”, Gen. Zollicoffer Killed! Federalists advancing into East Tennessee!”, Knoxville Daily Register, 24 January 1862, p. 2, notes the outcome of the Battle of Mill Springs. It includes correspondence between William G. Gammon and Edward Gammon of Jonesborough, which reflects the “fog of war” including false rumors of dead officers:

knoxville_register_24_january_1862_p2

The aftermath of the battle is also described in “The Battle of Fishing Creek. Further Statements”, Memphis Daily Appeal, 28 January 1862, p. 2 (crediting the Knoxvillle Register of 26 January):

Col. Sam Powell, who with part of his regiment was in the warmest of the fight, and was seriously wounded in the arm, reached Knoxville yesterday morning. A musket ball, grazing his left breast, shattered his left arm near the shoulder. He reports that Col. Battle’s 20th Tennessee regiment, Col. Statham’s 15th Mississippi, and Col. Cumming’s 19th Tennessee regiment, bore the brunt of the battle. The engagement lasted over two hours, when the troops were thrown into disorder by the death of Gen. Zollicoffer, which occurred early in the action, and retreated. Generals Crittenden and Carrol occupied a position on a hill overlooking the field. Col. Powell was not aware of the being wounded until sometime after, when, on attempting to draw his pistol, he found his arm hanging powerless at his side. But for the untimely fall of Zollicoffer, or had another officer commanding the same confidence of his men been in the field to take his place, he is confident the Yankees would have been whipped. Col. Powell is an accomplished gentleman, and has proved himself a brave and cool soldier. Col. Powell thinks about ten of his men were killed and ten wounded, some of them severely.

The 29th Regiment is mentioned on page 1 of The New York Times of 9 February 1862, including a captured letter, unfinished and unsigned (though perhaps written by Lt. Col. Thomas C. H. Miller based on context clues) and dated “Jan. 19, 1862” from one of the Confederate officers to his wife, mentioning the role of several regiments:

The cause of our defeat is not definitely ascertained. Some attribute it to overwhelming numbers, they being two to our one. Others to the fall of Gen. Zollicoffer, who was killed early in the action. Both, probably, were the combined causes. At first, and for nearly two hours, the tide of battle was in our favor; but at this time no one seemed to have command, and three regiments, viz.: Murray’s, Powell’s, and mine, all of which had been ordered up to the place where the battle was raging, remained in position ready to enter the woods where the enemy were under over firing upon us; but no order came, at least to me, and I presume none to the other Colonels as both of them being advance of us, remained in their position for nearly one and a half hours without advancing. We were in an open space, with nothing to shelter us except an occasional stump of fallen tree. The General’s Aid passed us shortly after we had arrived at our position; that the Mississippi regiment would charge the right wing, and the Tennesseans the left; at the same time either Cummings or Battle would attack the centre. The charge was made, and for half an hour the conflict was terrific. I then saw the troops come of the wood, in disorder and at a run. Col. Powell moved his regiment off to my right and rear. My men were about to follow, when I ordered them to stand their position and meet the enemy, drive him back, or die in their tracks. At this time a fire was opened on my left flank, and my men returned it….

One soldier from the 29th Tennessee, John Ballinger, a prisoner of war, is mentioned in “Prisoners for Camp Chase”, (Louisville, Kentucky) Courier-Journal, 24 April 1862, p. 3.

A notice from W.B. Shoemaker looking for recruits for the 29th Tennessee was published in the Tri-Weekly Banner of Greeneville on 28 May 1862, p. 2.

The loss of one soldier of the 29th Tennessee during skirmishing at Corinth, Mississippi is mentioned in The Charleston Daily Courier of 31 May 1862, p. 4.

Col. Powell was noted as being in command of a brigade consisting of the 24th Mississippi, 1st Arkansas, 29th Tennessee and Barrett’s battery on the left wing of the Confederate line. “The Battle of Perryville”, (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, 1 November 1862, p. 1.

A large number of men are listed as casualties hospitalized at Murfreesboro in “List of Wounded”, The Nashville Daily Union, 20 January 1863, p. 1. Among the 355 men (308 wounded, 47 sick) listed are these men from the 29th Tennessee:

Henry Sumpter, Co. D (“slightly thigh”)
J.C. McHew, Co. C (“serously in hip”)
J Ketion, Co. C (“seriously in shoulder”)
H. J. Smith, O.S. , Co. E (“seriously in leg”)
W. H. Fillson, Co. E (“slightly in thigh”)
2d Lieut. J. Waggoner, Co. I (“seriously, shoulder”)
O.S. Henry Smith, Co. E (“convalescing from erysipelas”)
T.M. Bright, Co. L (“seriously in head and chest”)
H. W. Mace, Co. I (“in head, slightly”)
R. L. Napier, Co. E (“pneumonia”)
M Click, Co. E (“thigh mortally”)

(I did not make any effort in transcribing these names here to cross-check these names against a roster, which may be a good idea; for example I am pretty sure there was not a “Company L.” Also, the names are listed in no particular order, neither alphabetically or by company, so I may have missed some men simply because the article is a “wall of text” that is difficult to read).

Robert Orr of Company B was listed as a deserter from his post at Ringgold, Georgia in the Chattanooga Daily Rebel, 28 January 1863, p. 1. Apparently desertion in the winter of 1862-63 was a serious issue as there was also a notice (dated December 6, 1862) published in the Greenville Tri-Weekly Banner, 12 February 1863, p. 4 demanding that absentees return to camp immediately:

triweeklybanner_12_feb_1863_p4

In the same issue of the Tri-Weekly Banner on page 3, there is a notice (dated Feb 12) demanding the apprehension of William Russell, William Lister, and George I Weems, conscripts who appear to have gone absent without leave while on furlough. There is also a notice by the same officer (Capt. J. D. Bushong of Company I) noting that he was seeking bids to buy socks and blankets for his men:

triweeklybanner_12_feb_1863_p3

The Abingdon Virginian of 11 December 1863, p. 2, dispelled another round of rumors of Horace Rice’s death (at this point he was Colonel of the regiment):

The Knoxville Register having published the obituary of Col. Horace Rice, son of Mr. Orville Rice, of Hawkins County, Tenn., who was reported to have been killed in the late battle at Lookout, the Chattanooga Rebel, published at Marieitta [sic], Ga., says he will be amused at his own obituary, as he was unhurt.

In January 1864, the 29th Tennessee Regiment, wintering near Dalton, Georgia, seems to have had a sort of political pep rally which was reported on in “29th Tennessee Regiment”, Memphis Daily Appeal, 30 January 1864, p. 2:

29th TENNESSEE REGIMENT.
Camp Near Dalton, Ga., Jan. 22, 1864.

EDITORS APPEAL: At a meeting of the 29th Tennessee regiment, held this morning at 8 o’clock, Col. H. Rice was called to the chair, and Lieut. J.K. Shipley appointed Secretary.

The chair explained the object of the meeting, and on motion, a committee of one from each company was appointed to draft suitable resolutions, expressive of the sense of the regiment.

The committee soon reported the following preamble and resolutions, which were enthusiastically adopted:

Whereas, According to the laws now in force our terms of service, as soldiers in the army of the Confederate States, will expire in May next, and whereas the armies of the United States are still marshaled for the purpose of destroying our country, robbing our homes, and reducing us, our wives, our children, our fathers, our mothers, and our sisters to abject slavery, which if accomplished, would make it sweet to one to die; and whereas, we have already had a foretaste of this devastation, robbery and abject servitude, in pillaged homes, the charred ruins of family mansions, and monstrous tyranny exercised over helpless women and children in our onto fair and prosperous, but no down-trodden State; therefore,

Resolved, That we the officers and men of the 29th regiment Tennessee volunteers, tender our services to the President of the Confederate States for the war — not as offscourings of Europe and rabble of the North, hired by the Executive poltroon who sits enthroned upon the ruins of the Constitution of the once happy United States, but as freemen, who defending our homes and our altars, declare our intention to fight this fight to the bitter end; and never to lay down our arms until the sacred soil of our State is freed from the tread of an insolent foe, and our Confederacy is established among the nations of the earth; reserving to ourselves all the privileges that Congress may confer upon other parts of the army in case of a reorganization.

H. RICE, Chairman.
J. K. SHIPLEY, Secretary.

The death near Atlanta of Capt. James W. Fulkerson, age 23, of Company C, is mentioned in The Abingdon Virginian, 12 February 1864, p. 3 (crediting the Atlanta Register). The article is a short obituary and service history of Capt. Fulkerson, which mentions that he was was promoted to captain after Shiloh due to the resignation of Capt. Patterson (for health reasons). It states that he was at Perryville, Murfreesboro and Chickamauga “and received his fatal wound while bravely confronting the enemy in the late unfortunate engagement on Missionary Ridge.” It notes that he was a pious Presbyterian from Claiborne County.

Pvt. James Neil, of Company A, was listed as having died from variola (smallpox) as a prisoner of war on February 28. “Rock Island Barracks”, The Rock Island (Illinois) Argus, 7 March 1864, p. 2.

The Daily Confederate (of Raleigh, N.C.), 18 May 1864, p. 1. relates the story of Pvt. LeForce, possibly exaggerated:

HORRIBLE – Mr. Samuel Leforce, a member of Co. I., 29th Tennessee Regiment, reached this place two or three days since from General Johnston’s army, having been furloughed that he might, if possible, remove his family out of Greene county, Tenn. He was induced to ask for the furlough by reason of information which reached him from home of the attrocities [sic] being committed by the Yankees and their renegade associates upon the women and children and helpless old men of that ill-starred county. He has shown us a letter from his wife, begging most piteously for him to make some effort to remove her from Greene county, and narrating outrages which are too shocking to put in print. She says (and we have heard the same thing through other sources) that Mr. Green Huck’s wife was treated most brutally. Emerson Keller’s wife and daughter both shot and severely wounded, and Jesse Davis and son murdered. An indiscriminate pillage and plunder prevails, and the most respectable ladies are daily subjected to outrages at the mention of which the blood boils and vengeance becomes at once a virtue and a duty.

The Southern Confederacy of Atlanta of 17 June 1864, p. 1, notes that J.C. Brooks of Company C was injured and was in hospital at Marietta.

Sgt. W. J. Walter (or Walthe) is mentioned for his heroics in the Battle of Marietta, Georgia in June 1864 (from Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer, 30 June 1864, p. 3.):

Sergeant W. J. Walter, 29th Tennessee, leaped the breastworks, seized the standard presented by Gen. Buford to the 29th [27th?] Illinois, wrestled it from the bearer and brought it triumphantly to camp. For this daring act Gen. Hardee presented the colors to the gallant sergeant. It was inscribed – Belmont, Union City, Stone River.

Sgt. Walter’s story is told with some variation in other papers (for example, the Yorkville Enquirer of 6 July 1864, on p. 2), but I cannot actually find a man by that name among the rosters of the 29th Tennessee. There was a Sgt. W.J. Woltz who mustered out as sergeant in Company I, however, and it is quite possible that this story is true and his name was simply mangled in the telling. His service record on fold3.com does not mention this incident, but he does appear to have served in the Georgia campaigns (he contracted dysentery and was hospitalized at Macon in July; he later was a prisoner of war).

“Col. H. Rice, 11th and 29th Tenn.” is listed as “wounded” among the officer corps casualties in Cheatham’s Corps on November 30 at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee in “Casualties Among Confederate Officers in the Battle of Franklin”, The New Orleans Times-Democrat, 24 December 1864, p. 3.

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Scope and Geography of this Discussion

Some Census Records and Statistics, 1850-1860

County-Level Statistics

1850 Census

1860 Census

District-Level Analysis for 1860

A History of Slavery, Manumission, and Abolitionism in East Tennessee, particularly Washington County and Sullivan County

I. Before Tennessee Statehood (1760-1796)

II. Statehood through Second Constitution (1797-1834)

III. The Golden Age of Slavery (1835-1861)

A. Laws Relating To Slavery

B. Remarks on Census Records for 1840, 1850 and 1860

C. Notes on Slave Prices and Valuations

D. Miscellaneous Notes Relating to Slavery ca. 1835-1860

E. Additional Notes Relating to Abolitionist Activities ca. 1835-1860

IV. Civil War and Emancipation: Free At Last? (1862-1870)

Some Additional Runaway Slave Advertisements

Brief Biographical Sketches of some Watauga Valley Slaveowners ca. 1860

A Study of Secession in East Tennessee — Particularly Washington and Sullivan Counties

I. Causes of Secession and Secessionism

A. Why Did Tennessee Secede? The Secession Debates and Referenda

An Aside About District-Level Politics

B. Why Did Individual Men in East Tennessee Back Secession?

1. Economic Integration with Southern Slave Interests (Class, Wealth, Urban/Rural, Occupation, and Economic Prospects)

2. Personal Ambitions / Generational Conflict

3. Antebellum Political Party Affiliation

Civil War Military Units Composed of Men from Washington and Sullivan Counties

Confederate States Units

United States Units

Brief Biographies of Some Watauga Valley-area Civil War Soldiers

Sgt. Jacob R. Cox, Co. G., 29th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Pvt. William Kincheloe Cox, Co. G., 29th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Pvt. Joseph Hunter Crouch, Co. G., 29th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Pvt. Robert E. DePew, Battery E Kentucky Light Artillery (U.S.A.).

Pvt. Franklin Sevier Leonard, Co. D., 60th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Pvt. Elbert Clay Reeves, Co. G., 29th Tenn. (C.S.A.).

Newspaper Clippings re: the 29th Tennessee Regiment

1. Economic Integration with Southern Slave Interests
(Class, Wealth, Urban/Rural, Occupation, and Economic Prospects)