“When
in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them with another...” (from the preamble to the Declaration of
Independence)
Secession
is an American tradition. Not
necessarily a legal tradition in most
cases, but it is a tradition in America nonetheless. After all, the United States of America’s
“Novus Ordo Seclorum” (“New Order for the Ages”) began with thirteen British
colonies seceding from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
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| Tennessee's unofficial but used flag during the War. |
Almost everyone is aware that the State
of Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861, but not as many know that the
majority of counties in East Tennessee (plus one in Middle Tennessee) almost
seceded from the state that year. Had it
happened, that would not have been without precedent in Tennessee’s history,
since the state was created by secession, after multiple prior secessions, from
the parent state of North Carolina.
In addition to some facts about East
Tennessee’s near independence, I’m adding a few facts to put the whole thing
into the proper context politically.
Antebellum (pre-Civil War) secession
A large part of the State of
Tennessee’s prehistory and history has involved secession.
Watauga
Association
Established in 1772 by former
Regulators from North Carolina. These
had declared themselves independent of the royal governor and corrupt colonial
officials in 1765, inciting the War of Regulation (1765-1771). After losing that conflict, James Robertson led
a party west across the Appalachians, where they organized themselves as an
independent government along the Watauga River in Upper East Tennessee.
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary
War in 1775, the Watauga Association joined with the settlements upon the
Nolichucky River as the Washington District of North Carolina. The other frontier settlements inside the
later Tennessee, North-of-Holston and Carter’s Valley, made up Pendelton
District of Washington County, Virginia.
American
Revolution
What began April 1775 as a rebellion
for more autonomy in both the government and the economy became a war for
independence when the Continental Congress made such a declaration in July
1776. At the time, the United Kingdom
had not just thirteen but twenty-two colonies in the North American mainland,
and it was not thirteen which seceded from the United Kingdom but fourteen.
The seceding colonies were
Massachusetts Bay (including Maine), New Hampshire (including Vermont),
Connecticut, Rhode Island and Prividence Plantations, New York, Gardiner’s
Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Three Lower Counties (Delaware), Maryland,
Virginia (including West Virginia), North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia.
The loyalist colonies were Rupert’s
Land, Quebec (formerly Canada and including Quebec, southern Ontario, Labrador,
and the Ohio Country), Newfoundland, St. John’s (now Prince Edward) Island,
Nova Scotia (including New Brunswick and Cape Breton Island), East Florida,
West Florida, and the Indian Reserve (which was actually a protectorate).
Westsylvania
Westsylvania (roughly the current state
of West Virginia plus the southwest corner of Pennsylvania) seceded from the
states of Virginia and Pennsylvania in 1776 and petitioned to join the new
United States. Their appeal was turned down and what is now West Virginia
became the District of West Augusta at the end of 1776. The would-be citizens of Westsylvania in
southwest Pennsylvania continued to seek separation until 1782 when the state
legislature made any discussion of the region’s independence treason subject to
the death penalty.
Washington
District
Washington District successfully
petitioned to become part of North Carolina in 1777 after failing to be
accepted by Virginia as part of that state’s Washington County. In North Carolina, it became that state’s
Washington County, and included what are now the Allegheny, Ashe, and Watauga
Counties in North Carolina.
It was partly in response to the
creation of Washington County in support of the Revolution that the Cherokee
leader Dragging Canoe and his militant followers seceded from the rest of their
Nation after the latter made peace that year.
They first relocated to what was long known as the Chickamauga country,
after Dragging Canoe’s town on South Chickamauga Creek. However, they remained Cherokee rather than
becoming a separate tribe as some claim.
Republic
of Vermont
That same year, 1777, the Republic of
Vermont declared its independence from both New Hampshire and New York, first
attempting to Quebec as New Connecticut before organizing the independent
republic. This Republic of Vermont was
the first government in the New World to outlaw slavery and to allow all adult
males to vote.
New
Ireland
In July 1779, the British captured part
of what is now Maine from the rebellious colony/state of Masschusetts, mostly
around Penobscot Bay, and created the colony of New Ireland. Britain returned the area to Massachusetts in
the Treaty of Parish in 1783.
Pendelton
District
In 1780, the Pendelton District was
added to North Carolina.
Cumberland
Compact
Also in 1780, James Robertson, leader
of the pioneers on the Watauga River, joined with others in what is now the
Nashville area to establish the Cumberland Compact. The Cumberland District became North
Carolina’s Davidson County three years later.
Republic
of Franklin
After North Carolina reneged on giving
its western territories to the federal government in 1784, the people of those
counties, eight in East Tennessee (Sullivan, Spencer, Wayne, Washington,
Greene, Caswell, Sevier, and Blount) and three in Middle Tennessee (Davidson,
Sumner, and Tennessee) seceded from North Carolina. When the Continental Congress failed to
accept them as the 14th State of Frankland, the future Tennesseans became the
Free Republic of Franklin.
The independent republic’s territory
included the modern East Tennessee counties of Sullivan, Hawkins, Johnson,
Carter, Unicoi, Washington, Greene, Cocke, Jefferson, Hamblen, Sevier, and
Blount; the modern Middle Tennessee counties of Davidson, Sumner, Montgomery,
Robertson, and Humphries; and the western North Carolina counties of Allegheny,
Ashe, and Watauga, which were then part of Washington County. Its first capital was Jonesboro, but was
later moved to Greeneville.
The
Spanish Conspiracy
In 1786, the leaders of the Republic of
Franklin, along with the with the governments of the Kentucky District (Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln Counties)
of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the newly-appointed Superintendent for
Southern Indian Affairs, began scheming with Esteban Rodriguez Miro, governor of
Spanish Louisiana, to bring their territories into the Spanish Empire. James Robertson, Daniel Smith, and Anthony
Bledsoe from the Cumberland region and Joseph Martin and John Sevier of the
eastern counties, along with James Wilkinson, governor of Kentucky, and James
White, the Indian superintendent, were the main conspirators.
I should point out that at this time
Spain’s province La Florida claimed all the territory to the Ohio River anyway
and had for some time. In fact, Spain
had established short-lived forts inside what are now North Carolina and
Tennessee as early as 1567.
The conspirators’ chief vector of
communication with Governor Miro was Don Diego de Gardoqui in New Orleans,
capital of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, which had been in Spanish hands
since the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. The plans of all the parties involved fell
apart due to two main factors: first, the dithering of the Spanish government
in Madrid, and, second, a letter from Joseph Martin to Governor Miro which made
its way into the hands of the Georgia legislature.
Trans-Oconee
Republic
In May 1794, the Georgia Revolutionary
hero Elijah Clarke and several hundred followers crossed to the west side of
the Oconee River, then the boundary between the State of Georgia and,
primarily, the Muscogee. Dispersing
across a wide area covering four modern counties (Greene, Morgan, Putnam,
Baldwin), they established the Trans-Oconee Republic. They built six fortified settlements and
blockhouses across the region. Georgia
finally intervened, sending in the militia, but the republic’s citizens offered
no resistance. The effort ended 28
September.
State
of Muskogee
Former Loyalist soldier in the
Revolution William Augustus Bowles founded the State of Muskogee within the
borders of Spanish East Florida in October 1799, with his capital at
Miccousukee. Its population was made up
of Seminoles, Black Seminoles, Lower Creeks, pirates, Spanish deserters, and
English adventurers. The pirates staffed
Muskogee’s three-ship navy. When Bowles
lost his British backers, the scheme began to unravel, and with Spain and the
U.S.A. both gunning for him, his days of freedom were not long. He was taken prisoner at Tuckabatchee and
handed over to the Spanish governor at Pensacola in 1803.
Sabine
Free State
The Sabine Free State didn’t have to
secede from anyone because it was abandoned by both the United States and the
Empire of Spain in 1806 because the two disagreed over the boundary of the
Louisiana Territory purchased by the U.S.A. from Napoleonic France in
1803. The disputed territory lay between
the Mississippi River in the east and the Sabine River in the west and was
populated mostly by a tri-racial ethnic group called the Redbones, similar to
Tennessee’s own Melungeons. The dispute
was resolved in 1821 in favor of the U.S. claims, and the Sabine is the border
between the states of Louisiana and Texas.
Republic
of West Florida
The Republic of West Florida seceded
from the Empire of Spain in 1810. Spain
had acquired its province of West Florida in the treaty which ended the first
American war of secession, our Revolution.
Great Britain had gained La Florida at the end of the French and Indian
War in exchange for abandoning claims to France’s Louisiana west of the Mississippi,
which became Spanish Louisiana. The
British divided La Florida into East and West, the latter including the
southern tips of Alabama and Mississippi and the northern section of the
eastern portion of the modern state of Louisiana. The republic’s independence lasted three
months until the U.S. arrived and assumed control.
New
Ireland (again)
During the War of 1812, a former
extinct colony resurrected. As part of
its war effort, Britain against seized a good part of what is now Maine from
Massachusetts in 1814. This time it
lasted just eight months.
Hartford
Convention
Beginning in December 1814, Federalists
in New England met in the Hartford Convention to discuss their grievances of
the War of 1812, the dominance of the (Jeffersonian) Republicans and the
so-called “Virginia dynasty”, the Three-fifths Clause (in which slaves were
counted as three-fifths of a person for census purposes and therefore
representation in Congress), and other issues.
The more militant delegates wanted to secede from the Union and join
Canada, but those desires never gained much ground. In the end, Andrew Jackson’s spectacular
victory in the Battle of New Orleans ended those plans and the outcome of the
war greatly discredited the Federalists.
State
of Maine
The citizens of the northern part of
the state of Massachusetts did not like being batted back and forth like a
tennis ball. They therefore seceded from
Massachusetts and petitioned Congress to become their own state in 1819. The petition was approved by Congress in 1820
as part of the Missouri Compromise.
Nullification
Crisis
The State of South Carolina first threatened
secession over the Tariff of 1928 enacted during the term of John Quincy Adams. The election of southerner Andrew Jackson of
Tennessee as President thwarted that for the meantime, but when he didn’t act
on their complaints, the more extreme began to advocate nullification. Nullification was claimed to be a right
states had should the federal government pass a law to which the state
objected.
The Tariff Act of 1832 assuaged much of
their concerns, and the threat of secession subsided. However, nullification formed one of the
central arguments of Southerners in the Great Secession.
Republic
of Texas
The Republic of Texas seceded from
United Mexican States in 1836 and won its independence the same year with Sam
Houston, former U.S. Representative for Tennessee, former Tennessee Governor,
and adopted son of John Jolly, then Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
West, as its first President.
What is not as well known by much of
the American public is that far more of those fighting for independence and
supporting it were Spanish-speaking Tejanos rather than English-speaking
Texicans from America. Houston had been
adopted by Jolly while living at Cayuga on what used to be known as Jolly’s
Island—Hiwassee Island.
Republic
of California
Another short-lived republic declared
its independence from the United Mexican States during the first year of the
U.S.-Mexican War which lasted from 1846 to 1848. Like its predecessor, the Republic of
California lasted just three months before the army arrived and took over.
The Great Secession(s)
Of course, the biggest and most
damaging secession in U.S. history occurred in from late 1860 thru the first
half of 1861. Though side issues of high
tariffs, usurious loan rates by Northern banks, and growing influence of
northern manufacturers often to the detriment of nascent Southern
manufacturing, the overwhelmingly dominant issue was slavery and related
matters.
Fire
Eaters
The most militant pro-slavery advocates
called “Fire-Eaters”, representing nine Southern states, held a convention in
Nashville, Tennessee, in June 1850 calling for secession of all slave states
and a separate union of their own. The
Compromise of 1850 worked out between Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas with the
sanction of President Millard Fillmore averted the crisis momentarily. South Carolina threatened to secede over the
admission of California as a free (non-slave) state; the new New Mexico
Territory and Utah Territory were allowed to choose. But a second Fire Eater convention in
Nashville in November failed to get support.
The next year legislators in several
slave states introduced articles of secession , but Southern Unionists defeated
the measures.
The Fire-Eaters came back to the
forefront after the Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed in 1854, overturned nearly all
provisions of the Compromise of 1850.
The violence of “Bleeding Kansas”, as the Kansas-Missouri border war was
called and such incidents as the speech of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner
in 1856 strongly attacking slavery.
Senator Sumner was one of the very first Senators from the new
Republican Party, founded in 1854.
Two days after Sumner’s speech, in
which he had called Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina a “pimp for
slavery”, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks, nephew of Senator Butler,
attacked him on the floor of the Senate chamber and beat him nearly to
death. It was three years before Sumner
was physically rehabilitated enough to return to the Senate.
Secession
of the North from the South?
The abolitionists had their own
extremists, with William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator, calling for the immediate
abolition of slavery and ultimately for the free states to separate themselves
from the “Slave Power” of the South.
John
Brown
But the most extreme of abolitionists
was John Brown of Kansas, one of the leaders of anti-slave forces in that
state’s border war with slave state Missouri, who seized the armory at Harper’s
Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to start a slave rebellion in that state to
incite a general slave revolution. Three
years of planning and fund-raising preceded the affair.
Presidential
election of 1860
On 6 November 1860, former Congressman
Abraham Lincoln of the anti-slavery, pro-abolition Republican Party was elected
President of the United States, setting in motion the chain of events which led
to the Great Secession and the American Civil War/War Between the States/War of
the Rebellion/War of the Secession.
South
Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama secede
The first entity voting to secede from
the Union was the State of South Carolina on 20 December 1860.
On 9 January 1861, the legislature of
the State of Mississippi, which ten years before had voted that states did not
have the right of secession from the Union, also voted to secede.
The State of Florida followed on the
next day, 10 January 1861.
The day after that, 11 January 1861,
the State of Alabama approved secession, and this brought about the first major
dissension from this course of action.
Unionist sentiment was nearly universal in North Alabama, but it had
been outvoted by Lower Alabama, whose delegates got to vote for three-fifths of
their slaves to continue to keep them in slavery.
Georgia
secedes
Speaking of the State of Georgia, it
voted to secede on 19 January 1861.
Some three days later, 22 January 1861,
Senator Jefferson Davis in his way home to Mississippi stayed at the
Crutchfield House in Chattanooga across James Street (MLK Blvd.) from Union
Station. He gave a vehemently pro-secession speech in the main dining room of
the hotel and was attacked by William Crutchfield, brother of the owner, trying
to do to Davis what Preston Brooks did to Charles Sumner. Tom Crutchfield, who was pro-secession, broke
up the fight and averted the duel that was supposed that place later.
Louisiana
secedes
The State of Louisiana voted to secede
from the Union on 26 January 1861.
Confederacy
forms
On 8 February 1861, the six former U.S.
states that had seceded from the Union so far—South Carolina, Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana—voted to join together as the
Confederate States of America.
Texas
secedes
The State of Texas voted to secede from
the Union to join the new Confederacy on 23 February 1861.
Free
State of Franklin
On 24 February 1861, the very secessionist
Franklin County (seat Winchester) at the eastern edge of Middle Tennessee voted
to secede from the State of Tennessee and become the pro-secessionist Free
State of Franklin, sending its request to Nashville the same day.
New POTUS
Republican from the State of Illinois
Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States
on 4 March 1861, replacing one of my collateral ancestors, James Buchanan.
War of the Rebellion begins
Confederate General G.T. Beauregard, a
French Creole from Louisiana, initiated the Battle of Ft. Sumter in Charleston
Harbor on 12 April 1861, and accepted the surrender of its garrison under Union
Maj. Robert Anderson two days later. The Civil War had begun.
Arkansas
secedes
On 6 May 1861, the State of Arkansas
voted to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
The Tennessee General Assembly approved
articles of secession on 6 May 1861 and sent them down to voters. The legislature and Governor Isham Harris,
who was very pro-secession, also voted and approved a military league with the
Confederacy.
North
Carolina and Virginia secede
The State of North Carolina voted to
secede from the Union and join the Confederacy on 20 May 1861.
The Commonwealth of Virginia followed
suit on 23 May 1861.
Tennessee
secedes
Tennessee held its referendum on 8 June
1861, with voters reversing themselves to give Gov. Harris and his fellow
secessionists a very clear majority (an earlier vote in February had failed by
a large majority). Six counties in East
Tennessee (Sullivan, Monroe, Polk, Meigs, Rhea, and Sequatchie) voted in
favor. Hamilton County and the county
seat of Harrison voted against it, while the small town of Chattanooga, a major
railroad center and burgeoning manufacturing municipality, voted affirmative. Franklin County’s appeal to be allowed to
secede became a moot point.
Missouri
secession
On 31 October 1861, a rump legislature
(one without a quorum) of the State of Missouri called by the deposed Gov.
Jackson passed articles of secession from the Union.
Kentucky
secession
On 20 November 1861, a shadow
government in the Commonwealth of Kentucky (styling itself the “Convention of
the People of Kentucky”) voted to secede from the Union.
Southern Unionist backlash
Sentiment in the South was anything but
overwhelmingly supportive, and early resistance included a number of counter
secessions. Later some of these efforts
proved longer lasting and more successful.
Independent
State of Dade, the truth
According to a local myth, the
Independent State of Dade seceded from Georgia even before the campaign had
started, which, believe it or not, did not begin until July of 1860. The newspaper Atlanta Constitution, then pro-segregationist, reported upon Dade
County’s reentry to the State and the Union on 4 July 1945 that Dade was
extremely pro-slavery that it had seceded from both bodies it was then
reentering in May 1860.
In truth, Dade had long been known even
before that as the State of Dade because of its isolation, there being no road
giving the county access to its state.
And while Southern states were already discussing secession after the
John Brown affair and the propaganda of the Fire-Eaters, if Dade really seceded
at that time, it did so to stay in the Union rather than leave it as much of
the state wished. North Georgia,
particularly the northwest counties of Dade and Walker, were hotbeds of
Unionist sentiment and wartime pro-Union partisan activity.
Tennessee’s
first secession vote
On 9 February 1861, a vote about
whether to call a convention to decide if Tennessee should secede failed 69
thousand to 58 thousand. A clear
majority of Tennesseans didn’t want to even discuss leaving the Union. The vote was the most lopsided in East
Tennessee, with only two counties, Sullivan and Meigs, having a majority in
favor. With Tennessee still securely in
the Union at that time, the plans of North Alabama for the joint State of
Nickajack collapsed.
Free State of Van Zandt
Shortly after receiving word of the
Texas secession vote on 23 February 1861, some 350 citizens of Van Zandt
County, Texas, which was virtually free of slaves, held a convention in Canton,
the county seat, and declared themselves to have seceded from the State.
Free
State of Nickajack
In April 1861, after the Battle of Fort
Sumter, earlier discussions of Unionists in North Alabama uniting with
unionists in East Tennessee grew more serious, with some proposing the two
regions unite as a new state named Nickajack after the former Cherokee town along
with the Unionist counties of Dade and Walker in Northwest Georgia.
First
East Tennessee Convention
East Tennessee had long been fertile
ground for anti-slavery sentiment, with a sizable majority there favoring
emancipation (voluntary manumission of slaves by their owners) rather than the
more radical abolition of slavery by force of law. However, the region did have a sizable and
very influential minority favoring the latter.
On 30 May 1861, twenty-nine counties
from East Tennessee (all thirty minus Rhea) plus the Middle Tennessee county of
Macon began to hold a convention in Knoxville to discuss counter-measures. Its second and final day featured then
Senator and later President Andrew Johnson, with delegates agreeing to meet
again.
Second
East Tennessee Convention
The East Tennessee Convention
reconvened on 17 June 1861 at Greeneville, former capital of the 18th century
secessionist (from North Carolina) Republic of Franklin. Senator Johnson did not attend due to very
credible threats to his life. Instead, the
most radical and vociferous delegate at the meeting was Hamilton County’s own
William Clift, who proposed the counties in East Tennessee unilaterally secede
from the State of Tennessee, form their own state government, and fight the
Confederacy.
In the end, the delegates of the East
Tennessee Convention voted to separate from Tennessee only with the agreement
of the state government and sent the request to Nashville on 20 June 1861. Their request was summarily rebuffed on 29
June.
U.S.
State of West Virginia
The would-be state of Westsylvania,
minus the portion in southwest Pennsylvania, finally became a reality when the
State of West Virginia voted to secede from the Commonwealth of Virginia of the
C.S.A and rejoin the Union on 17 June 1861.
Free
State of Winston
On 4 July 1861, delegates from the
North Alabama counties of Winston, Marion, Franklin, Lawrence, Morgan, Blount,
Marshall, Walker, and Fayette met at Looney’s Tavern in Winston County to draw
up condemnation of Alabama’s secession from the Union. At the end of this meeting, the delegates
from Winston County, who were the heart of the effort, declared the Free State
of Winston, independent of Alabama but neutral in the military conflict between
the Union and the Confederacy.
Secessionist
state of Tennessee stops secession of East Tennessee
Tennessee’s Gov. Harris ordered Brig.
Gen. Felix Zollicoffer and his men into East Tennessee to suppress the growing
resistance in the region to Tennessee’s secession from the Union on 26 July
1861. His mission was to prevent East
Tennessee from seceding from the state.
By then the Provisional Army of
Tennessee (which, interestingly, included at least two all Afro-American
regiments organized in Memphis) had merged into the Confederate Army (minus the
two Afro-American regiments, which were refused). In addition to this command, Zollicoffer was
appointed the first commanding officer of the geographical command in East
Tennessee.
Crossroads
Treaty
Meanwhile, William Clift had returned
to Hamilton County and as commanding officer of the county’s militia mustered
the 7th Tennessee Militia into service at a camp on his large farm in Sale
Creek. After nearly three months which
involved drilling and training but little else, Col. Clift signed a truce with
Col. George Gillespie of the 43rd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry in the
Confederate Army on 19 September 1861 at Smith’s Crossroads (now Dayton),
Tennessee.
This Crossroads Treaty was basically a
pact of non-aggression between two men who knew each other and travelled in the
same social circles. Col. Clift owned
one of the largest farms in the north of the county while Col. Gillespie owned
a large plantation south of the Tennessee River west of Chattanooga Creek. Gillespie’s brother James was a lieutenant in
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who owned a large farm east of South
Chickamauga Creek near Chickamauga Station but few slaves. Clift’s son Moses was a major in Forrest’s
Cavalry Corps who arrested his own father carrying dispatches between the Army
of the Cumberland in Chattanooga and the Army of the Ohio in Knoxville in late
1863.
East
Tennessee Bridge Burnings
The first action of the war which
affected the Chattanooga region occurred on 8 November 1861 when two railroad
bridges across the South Chickamauga Creek were burned by Unionist
sympathizers.
In late October, Senator Johnson had
begged President Lincoln for Union troops to protect the loyal citizens of East
Tennessee. Unionists in East Tennessee directed by William Carter of
Knoxville were going to destroy nine major railroad bridges in East Tennessee
and one in North Georgia to ease an invasion by troops in the Department of the
Cumberland under the command of Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman. Alfred
Cate of Bradley County was in charge of the attacks on the bridges over the
Hiwassee River between Charleston and Calhoun, two bridges of the Western &
Atlantic Railroad over the Chickamauga River east of Chattanooga, and
the long bridge of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad (also used by the
Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad) at Bridgeport, Alabama.
Unfortunately for the Unionists, Brig.
Gen. Sherman got cold feet and called it off 7 November, in spite of his
subordinate Brig. Gen. George Thomas throwing a fit demanding the army not
renege on its commitment. The bridges assigned to Cate were except for
the one at Bridgeport were successfully destroyed. Of the rest, only
those of the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad over Lick Creek at Carters
Depot (Watauga) and over the Holston River at Union Depot (Bluff City) were
successfully destroyed.
The destroyed bridges were soon
rebuilt. Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer,
commander of the District of East Tennessee under Department No. 2, put the region
under martial law to counter the threat of saboteurs and to try the
bridge-burners by court martial. Five of
those involved were hung, around 150 imprisoned in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Those who escaped retribution, including
Carter and Cate, fled to Union lines in Kentucky and joined the U.S. Army.
Another local consequence was the
disbandment of Col. Clift’s 7th Tennessee Militia on 16 November 1861 in the
face of the 6th Alabama Volunteer Infantry, which had been called to end their
threat one way or another. Most of those
mustered out went to Kentucky to enlist in the Union Army but Clift and others
decided to stay behind in the mountains as jayhawkers.
Shortly after the bridge-burnings,
Sherman had a nervous breakdown which caused him to be removed from command.
On 8 April 1862, President of the C.S.A.
Jefferson Davis declared East Tennessee enemy territory and put the region
under martial law.
Free
and Independent State of Scott
In late 1861, the court of Scott County
in East Tennessee on the border with the Commonwealth of Kentucky voted to
secede from the state as the Free and Independent State of Scott.
By May 1862, Col. Clift had come down
from the mountains and begun reorganizing his militia as the 7th East Tennessee
Volunteer Infantry, U.S.A. in Scott, Morgan, and Anderson Counties. It was specifically authorized as a partisan
ranger unit, based in Scott County. The
regiment was broken up in early 1863 and Clift was assigned to the staff of
Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside of the Army of the Ohio. He was later arrested by his own son, Maj.
Moses Clift of Forrest’s Cavalry Corps, during the Siege of Chattanooga but
later escaped from captivity on the Underground Railroad.
Hurst
Nation
As the state considered secession,
McNairy County in West Tennessee was sharply divided between its southern half,
which strongly favored it, and the northern half, which strongly opposed
it. The dominant landowners in that
northern section were the Hursts, and their lead member Fielding Hurst was
imprisoned shortly after the East Tennessee Bridge Burnings in November
1861. Released in February 1862 when the
Union captured Nashville, Hurst returned home and in August raised the First
West Tennessee Cavalry (USA), which was redesignated Sixth Tennessee Volunteer
Cavalry (USA) in July 1863. With his
regiment, Col. Hurst managed to maintain northern McNairy County’s independence
for the remainder of the war, resulting in the section’s becoming known as
Hurst Nation.
Free
State of Jones
The Free State of Jones, formerly Jones
County, seceded from the State of Mississippi in February 1864 after the Battle
of Meridian (14-20 February), at least according to Maj. Gen. Sherman, who now
commanded the Army of the Tennessee. The
Free State of Jones had its own military, the Knight Company, led by
Confederate deserter Newton Knight
Readmissions and reentries
The State of Tennessee was readmitted
to the Union on 24 July 1866.
The State of Arkansas was readmitted to
the Union on 22 June 1868.
The State of Florida was readmitted to
the Union on 25 June 1868.
The State of North Carolina was
readmitted to the Union on 4 July 1868.
The States of Louisiana and South
Carolina were readmitted to the Union on 9 July 1868.
The State of Alabama was readmitted to
the Union on 13 July 1868.
The State of Virginia was readmitted to
the Union on 26 January 1870.
The State of Mississippi was readmitted
to the Union on 23 February 1870.
The State of Texas was readmitted to
the Union on 30 March 1870.
The State of Georgia was readmitted to
the Union on 15 July 1870.
The Free State of Dade officially
reentered the State of Georgia on 4 July 1945.
The Free and Independent State of Scott
officially reentered the State of Tennessee in 1986.
