Saralee Says
I grew up in East Tennessee and for those of you who are interested in Tennessee’s history of the Civil War you know that our state was split. East Tennessee was sympathetic to the North, opposed slavery and did not want to leave the Union. This was the correct side as far as I am concerned but, like many of you, I have ancestors who fought on both sides during the Civil War.
Tennessee was different during Reconstruction also as documented in Tennessee’s Radical Army—The State Guard and Its Role in Reconstruction 1867-1869 (University of Tennessee Press) by Ben H. Severance. No other Southern state had so large a base of support for the Union. No other Southern state so quickly limited the political power of the Rebels who had fought. Tennessee was readmitted to the Union in July 1866 and therefore Tennessee was not subject to the Reconstruction laws passed by Congress in 1867. So, Tennessee did not have the large-scale involvement of or use of federal troops.
The Radical Republican Governor William G. Brownlow used the Tennessee State Guard to enforce his orders and to resist the newly created Ku Klux Klan, which was founded in Tennessee. Severance argues that the Tennessee State Guard was remarkably effective and was not dictatorial but operated within the bounds of the law and succeeded in defeating the ex-Confederate resistance.
How to you feel about the Civil War? Why do you think so many people participate in the re-enactment of the many battles that took place in Tennessee? Why do you think so many people try to say the Civil War was fought over state’s rights instead of the real reason, which was slavery?
The Civil War was horrible because people killed each other, fabulous because we finally freed all the slaves, and therefore a fascinating time in our country’s history. Severance, an assistant professor at Auburn University who helped edit the correspondence of President James K. Polk, has written a captivating account of Tennessee’s politics and policies during a critical time.
Larry’s Language
Both the Tennessee Constitution and the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution declare that a well regulated militia is important for our freedom. Severance’s Tennessee’s Radical Arm—The State Guard and Its Role in Reconstruction 1867-1869 proves the wisdom of our constitutions.
While Governor Brownlow and his use of the Tennessee State Guard were widely unpopular with much of the white population of Tennessee, his actions ensured law and order and limited the impact of the Ku Klux Klan, unlike what was happening in many Southern states at the time.
The Tennessee State Guard started after the Civil War when terror and widespread criminal acts, especially during the riots in Memphis in 1866, were commonly used to threaten and intimidate for political purposes. One of many acts of violence occurred in 1867 when Almon Case, a Tennessee state senator, was assassinated by Frank Farris, a former Confederate soldier, in Obion County. Due to the protection of local Obion County whites, Farris was never arrested. In response, our state Legislature passed a militia bill that created the State Guard in order to enforce the law and protect the Reconstruction process along with a law giving the right to vote to male African Americans.
On the other side, the Ku Klux Klan was spawned in Giles County, Tennessee, under the leadership of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate general and former slave trader who made money buying and selling people, and today Forrest is “honored” by that strange statue on Interstate 65 in South Nashville. The Ku Klux Klan soon evolved into the paramilitary wing of the ex-Confederate forces until Forrest, in response to Brownlow’s hard-line use of the State Guard, issued a disbandment order for the Klan.
The history books say that the Civil War ended in 1865; but in Tennessee at least, the war continued by other means, primarily in the conflicts between the Tennessee State Guard and the Ku Klux Klan. Professor Severance tells the story of the failure of the U.S. Army to enforce order; the need for the Guard; the lawlessness that raged across our state; the racism; and the petty, partisan and life-threatening politics that endured.
Join us for our next Book Club discussion which will feature Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (Pantheon) and other books by Alexander McCall Smith, the best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Anchor Books).
