"Union men" in the Confederacy - Historum

**Patito de Hule** · April 13th, 2012, 05:04 PM

How many were there?

It is well known that in the mountains of western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, Northern Alabama, and Northwestern Arkansas there were many union men. In A Fool's Errand, Albion Tourgee's 1879 best seller, he describes the "many" union men as heroic. Of course he was writing about Greensboro, NC, where he lived. But he was also speaking from the POV of a carpet-bagger. A couple of other quotations have caught my attention.

William L. Royall, a successful attorney from Richmond, VA, and who practiced law in NYC writes on page 15 of his book A Reply to A Fool's Errand by One of the Fools

Quote:

In 1860 there can be no doubt that a large part of the population of the Southern States was opposed to a secession of those states from the Union. BBunn when once the act of secession was accomplished and the tocsin of war had sounded, the entire white population, almost as one man, became ardent sympathizers of its cause. Leaving out of view an inconsiderable part of the mountains of the South, and leaving out of the account such cowardly vagabonds as would profess friendship for one cause or another, according as the immediate profession would tend to save their persons from the risk of war--persons who were no more friendly to the Union than to the Confederacy, but who were eternally friendly to themselves alone--it would be safe to say that after the date when the first battle of Manassas was fought, there were not twenty-five persons in any one of the Southern States who did not sympathize heart and soul with the Confederacy and its cause.

(my emphasis)

Of course, he can consider Union sympathizers vagabonds and cowards and Tourgee can consider them valiant men of principle. But how many were there? And how did their Southern neighbors treat them. That seems to be the issue between Tourgee and Royall.

I was currently reading William Watson Davis's The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida . In Chapter X, Internal Opposition to the Confederacy, p 244, he states the obvious:

Quote:

Any attempt to estimate the number an influence of Union sympathizers in Florida is apt to prove difficult and to yield meagre results in exact figures or conclusive statements. In the aggreate, their number was never large, but their influence in parts of Florida was considerable enough to merit some attention in an account of the war.

He says much more about them in the chapter and in other chapters. It seems that when Jacksonville was surrendered the first time there was but one union man present. The remainder, he stated, could not be considered loyal to the union, but were ready to surrender. He said that they felt abandoned by the Confederacy. In other places in late 1861 there seemed to be significantly more Union men, especially (of course) in Pensacola.

So what was the situation for Union men and how many were there?

**tjadams** · April 13th, 2012, 05:08 PM

I'm almost positive that many in the Confederacy didn't want to leave the Union and
didn't openly support the CSA. I guess those could be counted upon as "Union sympathizers"?
The hard core citizens of the CSA were in the thousands and I would guess that there
were an little less equal amount who didn't support the CSA but feared to openly show support
for the Union.

**Patito de Hule** · April 13th, 2012, 07:04 PM

Any idea whether they were more or less numerous than copperheads in the north?

**tjadams** · April 13th, 2012, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patito de Hule

Any idea whether they were more or less numerous than copperheads in the north?

No, I have no raw data.

**pixi666** · April 13th, 2012, 07:20 PM

So were they forced to fight? Or did they fight out of loyalty to their home state, or to protect their families, or did some simply refuse?

**Patito de Hule** · April 13th, 2012, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixi666

So were they forced to fight? Or did they fight out of loyalty to their home state, or to protect their families, or did some simply refuse?

Yes.

Some were conscripted and forced to fight. Some fought out of loyalty to their home state. Others fought to protect their home and family. Some simply hid from the conscription patrols and refused to fight. But I'm interested in those who remained steadfastly loyal to the Union. Some of those were outspoken and got treatment similar to the Tories in the American War of Independence. Some, like the Red Strings of the NC Piedmont gave aid and comfort to the enemy. It was of these last that Tourgee was primarily speaking, and there were a fair number of them around Greensboro where Tourgee lived as a carpetbagger.

betgo · April 14th, 2012, 04:00 AM

The Constitutional Union party got a high percentage of the vote in the south in the 1860 election (Lincoln was not on the ballot except in Virginia and slave states that did not seceed) and carried VA and TN. There was a high percentage of antisecessionists. Lee had spoken out against secession. Many of those against secession supported the war and fought for the Confederacy.

It probably was not safe to be openly unionist during the war in many areas. Obviously, the mountainous areas were mostly unionist. Pretty sure there were a significant number of unionist, even not including blacks free or slave.

**Patito de Hule** · April 14th, 2012, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by betgo

The Constitutional Union party got a high percentage of the vote in the south in the 1860 election (Lincoln was not on the ballot except in Virginia and slave states that did not seceed) and carried VA and TN. There was a high percentage of antisecessionists. Lee had spoken out against secession. Many of those against secession supported the war and fought for the Confederacy.

It probably was not safe to be openly unionist during the war in many areas. Obviously, the mountainous areas were mostly unionist. Pretty sure there were a significant number of unionist, even not including blacks free or slave.

Everything you say is true. But Royall in his 1880 vanity press book states "...once the act of secession was accomplished and the tocsin of war had sounded, the entire white population, almost as one man, became ardent sympathizers of its cause." And he finishes by saying that "there were not twenty-five persons in any one of the Southern States who did not sympathize heart and soul with the Confederacy and its cause" outside the mountainous areas. Even Lee and Davis were opposed to secession, but they were not "unionists."

I guess where I'm going is Royall's Answer to A Fool's Errand. Tourgee's theme in that novel was why Reconstruction failed and Royall claims that Tourgee did not understand the South. Did he make his point by such obvious exaggerations? I'm just trying to understand how much truth and how much POV is in Royall's Answer.

betgo · April 14th, 2012, 04:50 AM

There were a significant number of Unionist many of them German in Texas trying to avoid the Confederate army who were hanged. There were also several executions in mountainous east Tennessee for sabotague, blowing up railroad bridges and such.

Yes, I think it was an exageration that there were very few Unionists. You can't take something written by a southener in 1880 as totally unbiased. There wasn't much public expression of Unionist sentiment. Aside from the mountainous areas, there was Unionist sentiment from poor whites, in the cities and towns, and in states late to seceed. Slave owners who were antiseccession general got behind the Confederacy.
Have you heard the phrase "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight"? In the cities and in rural areas with few slaves, there were many people who saw the Confederacy as representing slave interests and cotton growing interests which were not relevant to them.

Definitely true Lee and Davis were antisecession. Davis was picked partly for that reason to unite the south.

**Rongo** · April 14th, 2012, 05:32 AM

If you're looking for actual numbers, you'll never find them, of course. But it's clear that from the initial secession votes held in January and February of 1861, the majority of Southerners were opposed to secession. It's also clear that after Lincoln called for volunteers, many pro-Union Southerners (like Robert E. Lee) supported the Confederacy out of loyalty to their home states. But it's also clear that there were still many pro-Union men left, as evidenced by the troubles in East Tennessee and elsewhere, and by Southerners like George Thomas who fought for the Union, and by the fact that the Confederacy had to resort to a draft as early as 1862, a full year earlier than the Union did.

And of course we're talking white Southerners here. When black Southerners got the opportunity, they joined the Union army in droves.