East Tennessee

===Civil War===
{{further|Tennessee in the American Civil War}}
{{further|East Tennessee Convention}}
[[File:1861 Secession vote in East Tennessee by county.svg|right|thumb|Map showing the June 1861 Ordinance of Secession vote in East Tennessee by county. No data could be found for [[Cumberland County, Tennessee|Cumberland]] and [[Union County, Tennessee|Union counties]].]]
[[File:East Tennessee Crossing - Battle of Bean Station Re-enactment - NARA - 7718106.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|A reenactment of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]'s [[Battle of Bean's Station]] in [[Bean Station, Tennessee|Bean Station]]]]
The [[American Civil War]] sentiments of East Tennesseans were among the most complex of any region in the nation. Because of the rarity of slavery in the region, many East Tennesseans were suspicious of the aristocratic Southern [[planter class]] that dominated the [[Southern Democrats|Southern Democratic Party]] and most Southern state legislatures. For this reason, [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] support ran high in East Tennessee in the years leading up to the war, especially in Knox and surrounding counties. In 1860, slaves composed about 9% of East Tennessee's population, compared to 25% statewide.<ref name="Lamon116"/> When Tennessee voted on a referendum calling for secession in February 1861, which failed, more than 80% of East Tennesseans voted against it, including majorities in every county except [[Sullivan County, Tennessee|Sullivan]] and [[Meigs County, Tennessee|Meigs]]. In June 1861, nearly 70% of East Tennesseans voted against the state's second ordinance of secession which succeeded statewide. Along with Sullivan and Meigs, however, there were pro-secession majorities in Monroe, Rhea, Sequatchie, and Polk counties.<ref name=lacy>Eric Lacy, ''Vanquished Volunteers: East Tennessee Sectionalism from Statehood to Secession'' (Johnson City, Tenn.: East Tennessee State University Press, 1965), pp. 122–126, 217–233.</ref> There were also pro-secession majorities within the cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga, although these cities' respective counties voted decisively against secession.<ref name=ezzell>Timothy Ezzell, [http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=226 Chattanooga].  ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002.  Retrieved: August 18, 2009.</ref><ref>William MacArthur, Jr., ''Knoxville: Crossroads of the New South'' (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Continental Heritage Press, 1982), 42–44.</ref>

In June 1861, the [[Southern Unionist|Unionist]] [[East Tennessee Convention]] met in Greeneville, where it drafted a petition to the [[Tennessee General Assembly]] demanding that East Tennessee be allowed to form a separate Union-aligned state split off from the rest of Tennessee, similar to [[West Virginia]].<ref name=lacy /> The legislature rejected the petition, however, and Tennessee Governor [[Isham Harris]] ordered Confederate troops to occupy East Tennessee.{{sfn|Temple|1899|pp=340–365}} In the fall of 1861, Unionist guerrillas [[East Tennessee bridge burnings|burned bridges]] and attacked Confederate sympathizers throughout the region, leading the Confederacy to invoke [[martial law]] in parts of East Tennessee.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Madden |first1=David |title=Unionist Resistance to Confederate Occupation: The Bridge Burners of East Tennessee |journal=East Tennessee Historical Society Publications |date=1980 |volume=52 |pages=42–53}}</ref> Senator [[Andrew Johnson]] and Congressman [[Horace Maynard]]—who in spite of being from a Confederate state retained their seats in Congress—continuously pressed President [[Abraham Lincoln]] to send troops into East Tennessee, and Lincoln subsequently made the liberation of East Tennessee a top priority. ''[[Brownlow's Whig|Knoxville Whig]]'' editor [[William Gannaway Brownlow|William "Parson" Brownlow]], who had been one of slavery's most outspoken defenders, attacked secessionism with equal fervor and embarked on a speaking tour of the Northern states to rally support for East Tennessee.{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=34–35, 69–74}} In 1862, Lincoln appointed Johnson, a [[War Democrat]], as [[military governor]] of Tennessee.{{sfn|Langsdon|2000|p=131}}

Several crucial Civil War military campaigns took place in East Tennessee, although the region did not see any large-scale fighting until the second half of the war, unlike the rest of the state.<ref>{{cite web |title=CWSAC Report |url=http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/cwsac/cws0-1.html |website=Civil War Sites Advisory Commission |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=February 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219001021/https://www.nps.gov/abpp/cwsac/cws0-1.html |archive-date=December 19, 2018 |date=December 8, 1997 |url-status=dead}}</ref> After being defeated at the [[Battle of Chickamauga]] in northwest Georgia in September 1863, Union troops of the [[Army of the Cumberland]] under the command of [[William Rosecrans]] fled to Chattanooga.{{sfn|Temple|1899|pp=468–469}} Confederate troops under [[Braxton Bragg]] attempted to besiege the Union troops into surrendering, but two months later, reinforcements from the [[Army of the Tennessee]] under the command of [[Ulysses S. Grant]], [[William Tecumseh Sherman]], [[Joseph Hooker]], and [[George Henry Thomas]] arrived.<ref>{{cite book |last=Connelly |first=Thomas Lawrence |date=1979 |title=Civil War Tennessee: Battles and Leaders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xN9Um2IJKO0C |pages=77–79 |location=Knoxville |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |isbn=9780870492617 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Under the command of Hooker, the Union troops defeated the Confederates at the [[Battle of Lookout Mountain]] on November 24, and the following day Grant and Thomas completely ran the Confederates out of the city at the [[Battle of Missionary Ridge]].<ref>{{harvp|Connelly|1979|pp=80–82}}</ref> These battles came to be known as the [[Chattanooga campaign]] and marked a major turning point in the war, allowing Sherman to launch the [[Atlanta campaign]] from the city in the spring of 1864.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/timeline/atlanta-campaign |title=Atlanta Campaign |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Civil War On the Western Border |publisher=Missouri State Library |location=Jefferson City, Missouri |access-date=2021-07-27 |quote=}}</ref> A few days after the Chattanooga campaign concluded, Confederate General [[James Longstreet]] launched the [[Knoxville campaign]] in an effort to take control of the city. The campaign ended in a Union victory at the [[Battle of Fort Sanders]] on November 29, which was under the command of Union General [[Ambrose Burnside]],{{sfn|Temple|1899|pp=491–493}} although Longstreet defeated Union troops under the command of [[James M. Shackelford]] at the [[Battle of Bean's Station]] two weeks later.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hess |first1=Earl J. |title=The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee |date=November 15, 2012 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |location=Knoxville |isbn=978-1-57233-924-8 |pages=207–220 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3raeHWhCVZcC |access-date=May 11, 2021 |via=Google Books}}</ref> By the beginning of 1864, East Tennessee was largely under the control of the [[Union Army]]. Despite its Unionist leanings, however, it was the last part of the state to fall to the Union.