Reluctant Rebs & "Homegrown Yanks": East Tennesseans in the Civil War

I may be my own first cousin lol.
:D

I've found some interesting connections in the family tree. I think one of my grandparents is their own third cousin? :laugh: (Her dad and her mom's dad are second cousins. I don't think they knew because a maiden name got lost about a century ago. My head spins trying to figure out what you'd call it.)

I strongly suspect there's another first cousin marriage in there, too, but I haven't confirmed it yet.

I also have ancestors who were stepsiblings who married, so I am related to 2 out of 3 of one ancestor's husbands. Both were notoriously awful men, so it's weirdly funny to me that we managed to work both of them into the family tree. :giggle:

Ancestry.com is super judgmental when you try to enter those relationships, by the way. They keep trying to flag it as an error and make you add it manually. . . . :roflmao:
 
:D

I've found some interesting connections in the family tree. I think one of my grandparents is their own third cousin? :laugh: (Her dad and her mom's dad are second cousins. I don't think they knew because a maiden name got lost about a century ago. My head spins trying to figure out what you'd call it.)

I strongly suspect there's another first cousin marriage in there, too, but I haven't confirmed it yet.

I also have ancestors who were stepsiblings who married, so I am related to 2 out of 3 of one ancestor's husbands. Both were notoriously awful men, so it's weirdly funny to me that we managed to work both of them into the family tree. :giggle:

Ancestry.com is super judgmental when you try to enter those relationships, by the way. They keep trying to flag it as an error and make you add it manually. . . . :roflmao:
My gg grandfather ...Jackson Garrett...was in the 11th GA Infantry. He was number 4 of 12 boys. Number 11 was Lewis Garrett..He was also a direct ancestor...my grandma's dad. My g grandfather.
 
My gg grandfather ...Jackson Garrett...was in the 11th GA Infantry. He was number 4 of 12 boys. Number 11 was Lewis Garrett..He was also a direct ancestor...my grandma's dad. My g grandfather.
I think it's just inevitable in rural areas back then. Not a lot of options!
 
As always east TN great info
"The Old Red Fox" and the killing of the Nave brothers in Sullivan County

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By April, 1865, a number of Confederates remaining in upper east Tennessee had taken up residence in predominantly Confederate Sullivan County. Many of these were rebels that had made life miserable for Unionists in Carter and Johnson Counties. On April 18, 1865, Ellis led his Company A of the 13th TN Cavalry toward Sullivan. One of those men was Henry Nave. Ellis and Nave were both members and Lay leaders in the same Baptist Church. Henry was also a school commissioner in the 9th District of Carter County, and in 1838, contributed to a school built in the Watauga Valley, the Nave School, later to be renamed Davis School. He also was a magistrate, and a prosperous farmer, and served as Justice of the Peace in Carter County for several years. On pages 397-398 of his book, Ellis describes the following :

"After passing our journey a little farther, we saw two men run out of a violent old rebel's house. Some of the men commenced shooting and calling on the men to halt, but the more we called on them to halt, the faster they ran. When I got up closer I heard one of my men say, "That is Henry Nave". I instantly turned my horse and rode off in a different direction, for I did not wish to see him killed, and I knew it would be perfect folly to endeavor to prevent the men from killing a man who had been such a desperate enemy to them and their families. As I rode up to the other man some of my men were pursuing, I heard the gunfire that killed him. When I got close to the other man, to my very great surprise, I found it was Isaac L. Nave. He would not surrender, and, being well armed, he continued to shoot as long as he could, but he was soon killed".

Nave family history says, "Henry and his brother, Isaac Lincoln Nave were badly outnumbered and pleaded surrender but were refused. They fought and died. An inscription on his tombstone reads: MURDERED BY SO-CALLED UNION SOLDIERS. He is buried beside his brother, who died two days after Henry from the wounds he received".

So went the "late unpleasantness" in upper east Tennessee.

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Henry joined the Confederate Home Guard Company of Captain John McLin .

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Isaac's first military service was during the Cherokee War (Removal). He joined the Confederate Army as a private in Co. K, 61st Tenn Inf. He later served in the "Home Guard", and was mortally wounded in a shootout with Capt. Dan Ellis and his Union company. Isaac died of wounds two days later.





 
:D

I've found some interesting connections in the family tree. I think one of my grandparents is their own third cousin? :laugh: (Her dad and her mom's dad are second cousins. I don't think they knew because a maiden name got lost about a century ago. My head spins trying to figure out what you'd call it.)

I strongly suspect there's another first cousin marriage in there, too, but I haven't confirmed it yet.

I also have ancestors who were stepsiblings who married, so I am related to 2 out of 3 of one ancestor's husbands. Both were notoriously awful men, so it's weirdly funny to me that we managed to work both of them into the family tree. :giggle:

Ancestry.com is super judgmental when you try to enter those relationships, by the way. They keep trying to flag it as an error and make you add it manually. . . . :roflmao:
I have found more than one ancestor that I am related to more than once in my western NC family
 
Another thing I have noticed about my family was a tendency to take their mother's maiden name if they didn't get along with dear old dad. Jackson Garrett who I mention had a son...My g grandfather ...who went by his mother's maiden name.
 
Edmund Kirby Smith in East Tennessee

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Edmund Kirby Smith (1824 - 1893)

If one argues that William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow was the most despised Unionist in divided East Tennessee, General Edmund Kirby Smith of St. Augustine, Florida, would probably get the nod for the most despised Confederate. Smith, a veteran of the Mexican War and service on the frontier, resigned his position as a math instructor at West Point and his commission in the U.S.Army in 1861. He led a Confederate Brigade at the first battle of Manassas, where he was badly wounded. This may have been his first (of many) bad experiences with East Tennesseans. Part of his Brigade was John Carter Vaughn's 3rd Tennessee from East Tennessee. Perhaps something happened at Bull Run between he and Vaughn that left a bad taste in Smith's mouth that became the seed of utter contempt he seemed to harbor for East Tennessee and it's people.

In March 1862, Smith was made a Major General and appointed commander of the Department of East Tennessee. He followed General Felix Zollicoffer, who had been killed at Mill Springs, Ky. and whose initial approach to East Tennessee Unionists had been one of reconciliation and leniency. Zollicoffer had hoped to convince Unionists to at the least, become neutral in the conflict. Smith proved to be as harsh as Zollicoffer had been lenient.

Declaring East Tennessee “an enemy’s country,” he advised the Confederate Government that East Tennesseans could only become good soldiers serving "away from the area and the influence of the enemy". His strict enforcement of conscription sent hordes of Unionists fleeing for Kentucky. Men hazarded their lives in following pilot guides like Daniel Ellis through Confederate lines and across the mountains into Kentucky to enlist in the Yankee Army. Acting as a virtual military dictator, Smith enforced martial law, suspended habeas corpus, jailed and deported suspected Unionists that remained in the area.

Smith failed to draw any distinction between the loyal and disloyal and succeeded only in turning the Davis Government against the citizens and soldiers of his department, adding to an already uneasy feeling about the region. He served through the summer of 1862, doing no doubt, irreparable and irreversible harm to the Confederate cause in East Tennessee, and making bitter enemies of people whose support that cause desperately needed.
 

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Name changing and naming. Zella, marriage rules that we see today did not apply at the time. First cousins often got married. In my tree, at some point, 3 sisters of one family married 3 brothers of another family.

Name patterns: Norwegians in the 1850s went initially by their patronymic name or who their father was and what sex they were such as Ander Iverson. Something changed around 1880 because I see a lot of Norwegians opting for a form of a name for where they came from. Then we get a name such as Anders Iverson Lien or Berit Iversdatter Lien.

Names for "Yankees" (anyone born and raised in America to the Norwegians) often had a hard time spelling their own names. Many took a different name based on trying to hide their true identify, were ticked off for some reason about their own name - I mean the reasons go on!
 
Parson Brownlow was able to reproduce one fine Calvary officer if nothing else. The good Parson's problem was he just disliked so many people besides blacks , slave owners and Yankees. He also had a distaste for Methodist and Baptist. He preached some pretty harsh sermons against both. The thing is if you get Baptists in east-TN. ticked off at you, you got a lot of people mad. :smile:
 
Parson Brownlow was able to reproduce one fine Calvary officer if nothing else. The good Parson's problem was he just disliked so many people besides blacks , slave owners and Yankees. He also had a distaste for Methodist and Baptist. He preached some pretty harsh sermons against both. The thing is if you get Baptists in east-TN. ticked off at you, you got a lot of people mad. :smile:

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-terror-of-tennessee’-parson-brownlow.98302/#post-852743
 
James Brownlow was the epitome of a fighting officer...with or without clothes...John Brownlow I don't know much about, though I think he was capable.
 


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"Wild Bill" as a Confederate Volunteer


William O. “Wild Bill” Sizemore : He headed one of the most notorious Unionist gangs in northeast Tennessee. Like Newton Knight in Mississippi, he began the war as a Confederate before deserting early on. He was never affiliated in any captivity with the Union Army, choosing instead, to make war on and terrorize civilians, Confederate and Union. He enlisted in Captain Robert Simpson's, Co. “D”. 4th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion Organized July 8, 1861 at Rogersville, Hawkins County, TN. They were accepted into Confederate service at Camp Buckner October 4, 1861. They were reorganized May 24, 1862, and consolidated with the 5th Battalion to form the 2nd (Ashby’s) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. Shortly after if not before, "Wild Bill" deserted. He reputedly shot seven Confederate prisoners in federal custody at Rogersville, and generally did as he pleased through the countryside. On April 5,1865, Sizemore appeared at the door of Eliza Fain, an ardent southern sympathizer, who lived in Rogersville. After telling Eliza that he intended to destroy her property and burn the house, he turned his men loose to accomplish the task. In Eliza’s words, “such a scene ensued for about half or three-quarters of an hour I have never witnessed.” Sizemore and his accomplices stole all Eliza’s silver, the meat in the smokehouse, a horse, fruit in the cellar, and all the milk and butter in the spring-house. The gang specialized in stealing provisions from citizens and selling the goods to military commissaries. Following the escapade at the Fain house, Sizemore and his men rode on to steal from other families in Rogersville. Fortunately, Bill did not act on his threat to burn Eliza’s house, but later that day the gang murdered five men associated with the secessionist band of Bill Owens. Eliza trusted in God to exact vengeance on Bill Sizemore and, shortly after the war, she got her wish. When the war ended, Sizemore set himself up in Rogersville and continued his bullying ways. In 1867, his cousin Irdell Willis, also a Confederate deserter of the 5th TN Cavalry Battalion and Ashby"s 2nd TN Cavalry, and probably also a Union deserter, shot him dead in front of the Rogersville courthouse, ending the notorious bandit’s short but violent career as a bushwhacker and robber.

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Eliza Fain was married to Colonel Richard G. Fain, a West Point graduate from Hawkins County. He was the first Colonel of the 63rd Tennessee Infantry, the last front-line regiment from east Tennessee and one of the last, if not the last, regiment from the entire state. Colonel Fain resigned his commission in early 1863, for health reasons. 5 of their 6 sons fought for the Confederacy.
Bill Owens, leader of the secessionist band, is my 3rd great-grandfather.
 
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