Mere weeks after U. S. President Abraham Lincoln offers amnesty to white Southerners who pledge loyalty to the United States and encourages Southern states to take steps to be readmitted to the Union, many Confederate citizens are seriously considering Lincoln’s offer. Lincoln is hopeful that his olive branch will quickly peel off Arkansas and Tennessee…
In Montgomery, Alabama – capitol of the new Confederate States of America – delegates to the slaveholding states’ convention unanimously agree upon the provisional constitution for the Confederate government, drafted yesterday. In addition, they vote to elect Jefferson Davis, former U. S. Senator from Mississippi, as provisional president of the Confederate States of America; his…
Union sentiment in Tennessee remains strong, as it will in mountainous regions of the state throughout the war. Itinerant Baptist minister Jesse Cox (pictured) writes in his diary that one church he recently visited had a “large portion here still content for the Union.” (link) Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris hopes that he can lead…