Yankee Supporters in Shiloh, Tennessee?
As southern states seceded from the Union, Tennessee hung in the balance between leaving or staying. Politically, the state was divided into three parts. The people in East Tennessee generally did not own slaves and were solidly in the pro-Union camp, and would remain there throughout the war. Many residents of West Tennessee owned slaves and were committed to secession. Early in 1861, Middle Tennesseeans were equally split between both camps, voting 51% against secession. But by June, passions had shifted dramatically, with 88% supporting a break with the Union, and thus tipping the balance to secession.
This regional breakdown had some interesting sub-plots as well. Residents along the Tennessee River, for example, tended to be more interested in commerce and less interested in owning slaves. Thus the community of Pittsburg Landing, although on the imaginary dividing line between western and middle Tennessee, was split almost equally into Union and Confederate sympathizers. Of the 8,000 residents in the area, only 330 were slaves. The residents voted to remain in the Union, and about 600 men joined the Union army and slightly more than twice that many joined the Confederate army.
Tennessee, partly because of its geography, and partly because of its location, became one of the major battlegrounds of the Civil War. The area around Pittsburgh Landing (perhaps better identified with the small log chapel called Shiloh) was in Confederate hands early in 1862, then in April, General Ulysses Grant moved his army into the area poised for an attack on the Confederate forces in and around Corinth, Mississippi. Grant enlisted the eager assistance of several pro-Union sympathizers in the area as guides for his scouting parties.
Unbeknownst to Grant, the Confederates were moving to attack him, which they did on April 6, 1862. The Union army just barely snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on April 7th. Much has been written about the battle at Shiloh - how Grant and Sherman were totally surprised, how there were more casualties in this battle than in all of the American wars up to that point in history combined, and how the loss of Albert Sidney Johnston, one of the South's leading generals, was such a devastating loss to the confederacy.
What tends to be lost in this battle, however, is how the war affected the local citizens. The battle and the devastation it brought left deep scars on the community, both physical and ideological. Guerrilla bands, made up mostly of deserters from both sides, preyed on the community, causing further polarization of the factions in the community. But eventually the war ended, and with its conclusion, the community returned to its rural way of life.
Visit Shiloh National Military Park on the Web
