Extracted from Guide to Genealogical and Historical Research in Jefferson County, Tennessee, copyright ©1995 Billie R. McNamara. All rights reserved. This page will be supplemented periodically as new information is located. Additions and corrections are welcome via the Contact Us link on this Web site.
East Tennessee has always been socially, economically, and politically different from its sister regions, Middle and West Tennessee. During the Civil War, East Tennessee was predominantly pro-Union. In June, 1861, a Union convention was held in Greeneville, Tennessee. The delegates petitioned Tennessee's legislature to form a new state out of East Tennessee and those Middle Tennessee counties that did not favor secession. When the petition was denied, East Tennesseans by the score began joining the Union Army. Along the East Tennessee rivers, large landowners usually owned slaves; the fact that most of these men were Confederate sympathizers gives support to the fact that slavery was responsible for the War. [Robert White, Tennessee: Its Growth and Progress (Nashville, TN: By the Author, 1944), p. 596.]
Jefferson County was especially affected by this division of loyalties.
The "Genealogical and Historical Reference Materials" section of Billie McNamara's Guide to Genealogical and Historical Research in Jefferson County, Tennessee contains a list of resource materials on the Civil War in Tennessee. Jefferson County resident Cleve Smith is the acclaimed authority on the Civil War in the county, and his published works are absolutely "must-have" volumes (see below).
No one has, as yet, compiled a listing of Jefferson County Civil War soldiers.
The main building of Strawberry Plains College was used as a hospital after the college was destroyed in 1865. Several Union and Confederate soldiers were buried in the Strawberry Plains Cemetery (behind Rush Strong School); only one grave is marked, and no records are available. The Confederate soldiers were moved to the Confederate Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Thankfully, none of Jefferson County's public records were destroyed during the War. They reflect the county residents' divided loyalties and the changing control of the government.
Like most Southern communities, Jefferson County suffered financially and spiritually during the War. However, a number of antebellum houses and buildings survive today because of Jefferson Countians' pro-Union sympathies.
Because several published volumes of information on the Civil War period of Jefferson County's history are available, this document will not present details of the war and its effect. Among the primary sources for information are the following:
| Author | Title | Publication Data |
| Judd, Cameron | The Bridge Burners: a True Adventure of East Tennessee's Underground Civil War Heritage Handbooks: Celebrating Two Centuries of Tennessee Adventure. Vol. 1. | Greeneville, TN: Nolichucky Press, 1995 |
| Kinder, Don | Secession and Civil War in Jefferson County, Tennessee, 1860-1865 | Master's Thesis. Johnson City, TN: East Tennessee State University, 1973 |
| Nikazy, Eddie | Forgotten Soldiers: History of the 4th Regiment
Tennessee Volunteer Infantry (USA) 1863-1865 [Soldiers from Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Carter, Johnson, and Washington Counties. Historic detail and maps.] |
Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1995. |
| Seymour, Digby | Divided Loyalties: Fort Sanders and the Civil War in East Tennessee. 2nd ed., revised. | Knoxville: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1982 |
| Smith, David C. | The Battle that History Lost: An Episode
During the Civil War in Dandridge, Jefferson County, Tennessee Excerpted from Campaign to Nowhere, by the author |
Dandridge, TN: Restore Our County, Inc., 1982 |
| Smith, David C. | Campaign to Nowhere | New Market, TN: By the Author, 2000 Available from the East Tennessee Historical Society's Bookstore |
| Smith, David C. | Lilly in the Valley: Civil War at Mossy Creek | New Market, TN: By the Author, 1986 |
| Wilson, Sandra, and Snapp, Dennis, eds. | Broken Hearts, Broken Lives: Jefferson County,
Tennessee, 1860-1868, Civilian Life in the Civil War East Tennessee Historical Society Community History Series |
Dandridge, TN: Restore Our County, Inc., 1986. |
Some recommended research links (see also general Civil War information links in the Links section of this Web site:
- Knoxville Civil War Roundtable
- Battle of Mossy Creek Battlefield (Part of the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program. Note: There is no back link from there to here.)
- Battle of Dandridge (Part of the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program. Note: There is no back link from there to here.)
- Fair Garden Battleground (Part of the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program. Note: There is no back link from there to here.)
- Women in Tennessee History: The Civil War
- The diary of Susan Heiskell McCampbell, of Dandridge, dated 1863-1865, is in the manuscripts collection of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
- William T. Chapman Journals at the Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University, Accession Number: MS 652 mf -- Chapman was in Company H, 103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which fought at the Battle of Dandridge. A transcript of the journals is available on the BGSU Web site.
- John A. Everett Letters at Emory University. Everett, a Confederate soldier from Georgia, worked in government shoe factories, mending and making shoes for his brigade. In 1864, he worked in New Market.
