Mountain partisans : guerrilla warfare in the southern Appalachians, 1861-1865
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Bibliographic Information
Mountain partisans : guerrilla warfare in the southern Appalachians, 1861-1865
Praeger, 1999
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-207) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This is the story of a civil war within the Civil War. Many mountain whites in Southern Appalachia opposed the Confederacy, especially when the South's conscription and impressment policies began to cause severe hardships. Deserters from the Rebel army hid in the mountains and formed guerrilla bands that terrorized unprotected Confederate homesteads. Violence escalated as Rebel guerrillas fought back. The conflict soon took on some of the ugliest aspects of class warfare between poorer mountain whites, who were usually Unionists, and the more well-to-do mountain property owners, who supported the Rebels. Mountain Partisans penetrates the shadowy world of Union and Confederate guerrillas, describes their leaders and bloody activities, and explains their effect on the Civil War and the culture of Appalachia.
Although it did not alter the outcome of the war, guerrilla conflict affected the way the war was fought. The Union army's experience with guerrilla warfare in the mountains influenced the North's adoption of hard war as a strategy used against the South in the last two years of the war and helped shape the army's attitude toward Southern civilians. Partisan warfare in Southern Appalachia left a legacy of self-imposed isolation and distrust of outsiders. Wartime hatreds contributed to a climate of feuds and extralegal vigilantism. The mountain economy never recovered from the war's devastating effects, laying the groundwork for the region's exploitation and impoverishment by outside corporations in the early 20th century.
Table of Contents
Prologue: Blood in the Snow
Introduction: War in the Mountains
Western North Carolina
"The Best We Could"
"Nothing More than Mountain Robbers"
"Where Yankees Never Come"
"Power Unrestrained"
East Tennessee
"Bleeding at Every Pore"
"There Are Meaner Men"
Community at the Breaking Point
North Alabama
"Destroying Angels"
"Prisoners of Hope"
Blood in the Sky
North Georgia
"Union Men to the Core"
"In the House of Joseph"
"The Red-Headed Beast from Georgia"
"Guerrilla Holes"
West Virginia
Death of a Dream
Legacy
Survivors
Works Cited
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"