| New book targets Kentucky-Tennessee connection |
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Posted: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:09 am
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When English settlers migrated from the colonies of Virginia and North Carolina to what would become Kentucky and Tennessee, a connection between the two states solidified.
From the journeys of their ancestors, to the terrain, culture, and agricultural lifestyle of their lands, the bond between these sister states was one of the strongest ever formed and at one time thought to be unbreakable. The Civil War, the deadliest conflict in our nation’s history, changed that.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, the political, social, and economic bonds between the two states began to crack. Sister States, Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee, edited by Kent T. Dollar, Larry H. Whiteaker, and W. Calvin Dickinson, explores these cracks. Rather than focusing on the military campaigns or war heroes, this volume delves into the social, political, and economic issues which arose from the war, looking at both the similarities and key differences between these two states.
Scholars such as Thomas C. Mackey, Robert Tracy McKenzie, and John D. Fowler explore the secession movement in both states, looking into divided loyalties, sectional divides within each state, and the political debates that roiled each legislature. Once the war started, it had a profound impact on various groups within each state. Kenneth W. Noe examines a group of Union soldiers from central Tennessee who literally took up arms against their brothers. Brain D. McKnight looks at the guerrilla movement by focusing on the exploits of Champ Ferguson. Likewise, the plight of African Americans and refugees are examined by Marion B. Lucas and Richard D. Sears respectively.
As the war was ending, Lincoln looked to Tennessee as a model for how all other Confederate states could be readmitted to the Union, while Kentucky—never fully trusted by either Union or Confederate leaders—experienced a more difficult transition. Jonathan M. Atkins, Ben H. Severance, and B. Franklin Cooling each look at various aspects of reconstruction in each state, while Dollar and Dickinson examine the war’s impact on the lives of those who fought.
Sister States, Enemy States goes beyond military and political analysis of the Civil War to look at how it affected the lives of the people involved. As cultural kin and geographic neighbors, Kentucky and Tennessee harbored not only some of the most brutal battles of the Civil War, but also some of the most devastating societal, familial, and individual conflicts, the effects of which linger to this day. For the first time, historians explore the strained relationship that resulted from each state’s very different attempt to grapple with the moral and political problems of the era.
Kent T. Dollar, assistant professor of history at Tennessee Technological University, is the author of Soldier’s of the Cross: Confederate Soldier-Christians and the Impact of War on their Faith.
Larry H. Whiteaker, professor emeritus of history at Tennessee Technological University, is the author of The Individual and Society in America.
W.Calvin Dickinson, professor emeritus of history at Tennessee Technological University, is the coauthor of Tennessee Tales the Textbooks Don’t Tell.
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