Escape from East Tennessee to the federal lines

by Robert A. Ragan

They asked me who they were going to fight.

“The Yankees,” I said.

I told them that Fort Sumter had been fired upon. They asked me where Fort Sumter was. You see that the people in that locality had never heard of war, but in a short time they began talking about secession.

CHAPTER II.

In February, 1861, the State of Tennessee voted against secession by the overwhelming majority of 68,000; but a military league, offensive and defensive, was entered into on the seventh day of May, 1861, between commissioners appointed by Governor Harris, on the part of the State of Tennessee, and commissioners appointed by the Confederate government, and ratified by the General Assembly of the State, whereby the State became a part of the Confederate States to all intents and purposes, although an act was passed on the 8th of June for the people to decide the question of separation and representation or no representation in the Confederate Congress.

In the meantime, troops had been organized and made preparations for war. The election was a farce, as the State had already been taken out of the Union and had formed an alliance with the other States of the Confederacy.

The leaders of the Union element, comprising the best talent of East Tennessee, had not been idle. The most prominent Union leaders at that time were Andrew Johnson, Thomas A. R. Nelson, W. B. Carter, C. F. Trigg, N. G. Taylor, Oliver P. Temple, R. R. Butler, William G. Brownlow, John Baxter and Andrew J. Fletcher. These men, with all their eloquence and ability, failed to accomplish the task of holding Tennessee in the Union.

The State commenced organizing troops, and as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Militia I was urged by the leading rebels of my county to make up a regiment for the rebel army. I refused to do so, and from that time on I was considered a Union man.

I was appointed by the School Board to teach school. When the Legislature met a law was passed exempting certain persons, such as school teachers, blacksmiths and millers from the Confederate service. Of course I came under the law and was exempt, and I wanted to keep out of the rebel army. I had just married and did not want to go North and leave my family until I was compelled to go. At that time very few men had left the State for the North.

In a short time the exemption law was repealed, and every man from eighteen to forty-five years of age had to join the rebel army or be conscripted. I was teaching school, but did not know of the repeal of the law; so in a day or two the rebel soldiers came to the school house and arrested me, and took me by way of my home, which was about two miles from the school house, in order that I might see my wife, as I requested.