Bummer, his wife and lab Indy are in the planning stages of visiting Eastern Tennessee next spring. More than half of this writers ancestors lived in this hill country before and during the Civil War. Many left during the conflict and relocated north and west in order to ride out the bloodshed. Those that remained paid an incredible price, some with their lives. A man’s choice to go to Kentucky and enlist in the Union Army, which many did, imperiled his family’s safety and ability to work the farm. Another option was to join a Union loyal militia and raid local Confederate encampments or southern leaning families. The downside, of course, was being discovered by Confederate partisans and losing you and your family’s life by hanging or firing squad.
The majority of these ancestors lived and farmed south of Knoxville in Sevier County. Bummer has gleaned from family diaries and journals of the time, that daily life was pretty much mundane from the female entries, however from the younger boys reference “hiding in the weeds with the snakes” at the approach of strangers on horseback. Many of the men folk “hid in the weeds” also, farming by day and raiding by night. These folks were an interesting mixture of educated, semi-urbane and patriotic, yet pictures of the time, reflect and odd assortment of dark-complexioned, dark-haired, tall folks that are eerily similar in appearance. It is apparent that these kin were fiercely loyal to family and location, prayed together and most often married within the close-knit community.
President Lincoln expressed a special sympathy for the residents of Eastern Tennessee, because of the majority’s support during the elections of 1860. However, there was little the President could do until the western and central sections of the state were in Union control. In addition, East Tennessee had sent numerous regiments to serve the Union.
Lincoln had met with two ladies from Tennessee, their husbands were being held as prisoners of war, they pleaded for release on the grounds that the husbands were devoutly religious. The President ordered the release and admonished both wives; “You say your husbands are religious men; tell them, when you meet, that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that in my opinion the religion which sets men to rebel and fight against their government, because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men’s faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.”
Bummer and his family’s journey to Tennessee cannot be soon enough. Time constraints will limit who we visit and what battlefields we study and explore. More than one visit will not satisfy all the people and places that need to be investigated. Bummer believes that the Civil War experience in Tennessee holds the key to his study and understanding of the Western Theater.
Bummer
“The religion which sets men to rebel and fight against their government, because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men’s faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.”
That’s a fantastic quote.
Thanks Andy, one of my favorites. Lincoln seems to have always been able to say what others could not and in such an eloquent way. I should ever be so lucky.
Bummer