Case Studies in Loyalty: East Tennessee in Secession, Civil War and Reconstruction

In East Tennessee during the mid to late nineteenth century, loyalty translated into action.

Citizens in the Union stronghold of a Confederate state fought for secession or they fought to

preserve the United States, but the reasons behind their decision went beyond broad calls to defend

either side of national conversations. The constant presence of occupation, terrorism, violence and

intimidation ensured loyalties grew out of intimate designs for self-preservation. Throughout the

Sectional Crisis, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction, white southerners in East Tennessee

allowed personal ambition and harbored resentments to inform what loyalty looked like when put

into practice. Preserving white supremacy remained an objective on either side. Case Studies in Loyalty

lifts the veil of motivations held by individuals who allowed their worldview, their historical literacy,

and plans for a postwar world inform which side they defended in the American Civil War. At the

same time, it follows the families into the postwar period and examines how wartime loyalties

informed their postwar experience.