150 years ago today, Tennesseans voted to secede from the United States.
The June referendum wasn’t the state’s first vote on secession. Another in February of 1861 was a draw; East Tennessee overwhelmingly voted against leaving the Union, West Tennessee was for it, and the midstate was split.
But things changed over the next few months. Some Tennesseans’ support for the Union died when Fort Sumter was attacked. And Historian James Jones says so-called “Vigilance Committees” worked to squash any remaining pro-Union sentiment by violent means.
“Sometimes they would kill them by hanging, or just imprison them or whip them. It worked, and the secession vote was passed.”
Tennessee was the last state to join the Confederacy. Ultimately, 120,000 Tennesseans fought for the Rebel army; 31,000 took up arms for the Union.
It took about six months for the fighting to come to Tennessee, but one of the war’s bloodiest battles was fought in the state at Shiloh within a year. Over the course of the Civil War, more fighting happened in Tennessee than in any other state but Virginia.
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