As the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War is marked this year, a lot of focus has been placed on East Tennessee. The region was ripped politically, socially, and economically.
Several references contain good background information, including these on-line resources:
- East Tennessee in the Civil War, by O. P. Temple (1899) -- readable/downloadable at Google Books
- "A City Divided: For Sumter Attack Split Knoxville at Start of Civil War," by Jim Balloch (Knoxville News Sentinel on April 10, 2011)
- "Requiem for Parson Brownlow", by Jack Neely (Metropulse, April 6, 2011)
The Knoxville Civil War Roundtable is an outstanding resource for any sort of question you may have on the Civil War in Knoxville or the entire central East Tennessee valley.
The Tennessee State Library & Archives has compiled and published on-line Tennessee Civil War Research Sources.