View attachment 525568
Flag of the Republic of West Tennessee
Excerpt from Jonathan Langley's
The Tennessee Campaign of 1883-1884.
The Tennessee Campaign was one of the most brutal of the Confederate Civil War. The state had been historically divided between the rural, agricultural, pro-slavery West and more developed, less agricultural, abolitionist East. Barring the uncontested election of Jefferson Davies in 1861, for every election cycle the state is consumed by sectarian violence and rioting between the two camps. The state just narrowly voted for Lee in 1867 by a difference of under 0.6%, the closest margin in Southern electoral history. As slavery was slowly phased out, West Tennessee began losing its political and economic influence. Under Beauregard, East Tennessee was greatly favored, and tended to receive almost all federal support, leaving the western half destitute and awash in discontent.
Violence in Tennessee only intensified. This bloody period, often compared to the Bleeding Kansas of the 1850's, would be prolonged well into Beauregard's presidency. In 1879, the state actually voted for Early, a fact which President Longstreet would not easily forget: cities like Memphis and Jackson became the epicenter of Richmond's anti-Golden Circle pogroms, robbing West Tennessee from its most powerful voice in national politics. For many, this was the last straw. For several more, this was only the beginning.
When Alabama decided to break free from Confederate control in November 1881, nowhere were the repercussions felt more than in Tennessee. Citizens of West Tennessee, armed and trained by the Golden Circle Army, threw away the shackles of authoritarian rule and raised their rifles in open revolt. In January 1882, Gen. Joseph Wheeler was sent to a burning Memphis to bring order to the widespread upheaval and organize anti-Richmond efforts in the region. He summoned a general meeting of insurgent leaders on 26 January to discuss the future of the movement.
The Congress of Memphis was a historical event. It was an unmistakeable reality that continued existence under East Tennessean control was no longer feasible, and so several ideas were floated around. Wheeler believed that a separate "State of West Tennessee" should be established "within the boundaries of the reformed Southron state that the fires of war are currently forging"; however, radicals were unwilling to submit themselves to yet another superior authority. This is where West Tennessee is different from other liberty-seeking regions of the Confederacy, which readily retorted into the Golden Circle/Freedom fold: secessionist independence ran strong.
Despite the GCP's best attempts to keep Tennessee under their sphere of control, on 29 January the Congress of Memphis voted in favor of independence. The Republic of West Tennessee, the first and most successful of the post-Confederate republics, was born.