CHAP.XII.] REVOLT OF THE UNIONISTS IN EAST TENN.
JONESBOROUGH, TENN., November 12, 1861.
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, President, &c.:
SIR: Civil was has broken out at length in East Tennessee. In the late election scarcely a so-called Union man voted. Neither Mr. Nelson nor any of the released men who had been sworn to be faithful to the Southern Confederacy voted upon the occasion, and there appeared a simultaneous assault upon our line of railroads from Georgia to the Georgia line. In this county (Washington) the secession strength is about equal to the Union force, but our force is much weakened by five volunteer companies now in the service. In Carter and Johnson Counties, northeast of this, the Union strength is not only as formidable, but it is as violent, as that of any of the Northwestern Virginia counties. Had they the power not a secessionist would live in this region. The hostile element in those counties and also in Greene is so strong, that I give it as my firm conviction that it will neither abate nor be conciliated. They look confidently for the re-establishment of the Federal authority in the South with as much confidence as the Jews look for the coming of the Messiah, and I feel quite sure when I assert it that no event or circumstance can change or modify their hopes. In this state of affairs this part, and, indeed, all of East Tennessee, will be subjected during the war to apprehensions of internal revolt, ore or less remote, as the tide of war turns in this direction. The recent bridge burning in this section was occasioned by the hope that the Federal troops would be here in a few days from Kentucky to second their efforts. We will crush out the rebellion here in a week or ten days, but to prevent its recurrence should be a matter of anxious consideration. Upon this subject I have the honor of making the following suggestions to your excellency: The expatriation requiring alien enemies to dispose of their effects and leave with their families should be enforced. Should they not do so voluntarily, on proof being submitted that they were in arms or hostile to the Government they should be forced to leave on dire notice, with their families. A man with his family with him in the North will do us no great harm. He will not enlist there, for he will have to support his family.
By removing the hostile element from our counties we have peace, land the Southern men can then enter the Army, because they know that their families are safe at home. By leaving this hostile element here we will never have peace, but be subject to constant alarm, these men rising up at every turn of events to harass us. I submit this suggestion to your excellency's careful attention. There are now camped in and about Elizabethtown, in Carter County, some 1,200 or 1,500 men, armed with a motley assortment of guns, in open defiance of the Confederate States of America, and who are awaiting a movement of the Federal troops from Kentucky to march forward and take possession of the railroad. These men are gathered up from three or five counties in this region, and comprise the hostile Union element of this section, and never will be appeased, conciliated, or quieted in a Southern Confederacy. I make this assertion positively, and you may take it for what it is worth. We can and will in a few days disperse them, but when will they break out again? I am satisfied the only hope for our quiet and repose and court co-operation without hinderance in the present revolution is the expatriation voluntarily or by force of this hostile element.
I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. G. GRAHAM.
