The Greeneville Convention, and the State of Franklin.

Chapter 1-1 Tenneese's Seccession Rejected

June 17-Greeneville, Tenneese. After the failure of the Knoxville Convention to create a new state, one seperate from Tenneese. Delegates from Eastern Tenneese again meet to consider seceeding from the state. There were two sides to the debate, wether to Seccede from Tennesse, or to "Restore the true government of Tennesse", simmilar to the Wheeling Convention in Virginia. On June 20, the delegates made their decision. The Union Government of Tennesse would be restored, and the seat of government would be at Greeneville. The delegation sent a proclamation out that Tennesse had revoked its seccession. The President of the Convention Thomas A. R. Nelson was named Governor of Tennesse, and elections for another Tennesse Senator, (Andrew Johnston was still a Tennesse U.S senator), would be held shortly. Confederate Governor, Isham Harris sent for Felix Zollicoffer, a general who had previously lived in eastern Tennesse, to occupy the region. Tennesse's representatives in Congress asked for military aid. General Don Carlos Buell in Kentucky would cross the Cumberland Mountains and reneforce the region. Local citizens in the area formed a militia several thousand strong and were able to form 3 infantry regiments, to defend the area. Local partisans destroyed bridges to slow Zollicoffers advance, however they could not delay the inevitable.

Chapter 1-2 Zollicoffer's Invasion of Eastern Tenneese

General Zollicoffer commanded 4,500 recently raised soldiers, outnumbering the 3,300 Union soldiers in the region. The Union forces, scattered throughout the region, converged at Knoxville to repulse the Confederate invasion. Zollicoffer arrived outside Knoxville on August 13th, late enough for the 2nd Tenneese to arrive and renforce the 1st and 3rd Tennesse. As the regiments began fortifying Knoxville, word arrived from General Buell that weather conditions in the cumberlands would delay the crossing until next spring, the Milita was on its own. Thomas Broyles, the Commander of the 3rd Tennesse was named Union commander in the region. Realizing his men were going to be outnumbered and because they lacked cannon which the Confederates had, made the decision to abandon Knoxville on the 15th of August. He adopted Gurellia tactics to weaken the confederates. Hit and run tactics were very successful in causing Confederate causalites with minial union losses. Zollicoffer, undetered moved towards the Union Capital of Tennesse, Greeneville. His march, which should have taken 5 days at the most, took two weeks. When he arrived at Greeneville his force was a fraction of itself. 300 men had been killed, 800 wounded and another 200 captured or missing. He also left a garrison at Knoxville. Thomas Broyle realizing the advantage in number he had, went on the attack.

Chapter 1-3 Battle of Greeneville and the end of the East Tennesse Campaign

On August 29th the Union forces attacked the Confederate forces outside of Greeneville. The 2nd and 3rd Tennesse attacked the center, and the 1st Tennesse would attack the left flank of the Confederate line. The 2nd and 3rd Tennesse advanced towards the Confederates through the woods. Due to the wooded condition of the battlefield, Artillery was rendered almost useless, but a shell did strike the center of the 2nd Tennesse and killed 6 soldiers and wounded 19 more. Soon the Union and Confederate lines clashed. The Union soldiers were more accustomed to the region and inflicted massive casualties on the Confederates. As soon as the 1st Tennesse sturck the Confederate left, the Confederate line fell apart. In the confused Zollicoffer was killed and a full scale Confederate began. The Union persued them and inflicted massive casualties on the retrating Confederates. Knoxville was soon abandoned and reoccupied by Union forces. The 2nd Tennesse was stationed in the city and the 1st and 3rd continued driving the Confederates out of Eastern Tennesse. The Total Casualties of the East Tennesse Campaign were 850 Dead for the Confederates, 1200 Wounded, and 500 Captured or missing. The Union causualties were very minimal. 200 Dead, 500 Wounded, 120 Captured or Missing. This Victory was a major boost to Union morale which was at a low after defeat at Bull Run and Wilsons Creek. Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered his generals to take East Tennesse back for the Confederacy, the already stretched confederate army was further reduced as Regiments were moved to Tennesse in prepeartion for the invasion of Eastern Tennesse. Albert Sindney Jonhston was named commander of the Army of Tennesse. As winter set in, both sides prepared for campaigns in the next year.
 
Always wanted to see a TL on this. Subscribed :cool:

Thank you, I wanted to do a Civil War POD TL. I've read about the Wheeling Convention and wondered if the same could be accomplished in Pro Union, Eastern Tennesse. Turns out they did have a convention (It failed which is why we never heard of it) and the outcomes of it would be changed for my TL.

Glad to see your interested in it:)
 
Great idea for a timeline! I always wanted to see East Tennessee make a stand against the Confederacy.

Despite their initial success in throwing back the Confederates, though, I wonder how much they'll have in keeping it. Despite some comments from Lincoln about the importance of East Tennessee, the Confederates were a lot more determined to hold onto it than the Union was to take it because they needed the railroads.

This looks like it's actually going to push back or even stop Buell's capture of Nashville now that he has East Tennessee to defend and the Confederates determined to fight him, but it might make Grant's job easier because the Confederates forces in Tennessee have a two-front war and can't focus as much on him. I look forward to seeing what you do with this.
 
*Bump* is no one else interested in this TL? :(


This is a very interesting idea, but you should be aware by now that ACW time lines here are just a popular as WW2 time lines. There are members here with incredible knowledge regarding all aspects of the war and with access to huge amounts of resources regarding the same.

For eample, look at the discussions usually swirling around that arch-troll 67th Tigers. He and the others routinely quote primary sources at each other.

Because of that level of knowledge, without a research effort comparable to that of a college thesis, you are going to make tiny yet fundamental mistakes which will be noticed and which will cause your work to be disregarded.

It's as if you've been playing high school baseball and have decided to step into the batter's box versus Cliff Lee thinking you can get a hit when in reality you are completely over matched.

All of that deals just with your content. You have various problems with your presentation too.

At the basic level, you need to run a spell check program to catch spelling, capitalization, grammar, and other errors. Seeing as that process is now automated even for posts which are typed directly into the site's Reply Window, let alone in whatever word processing program you used to create the text before cutting and pasting it, failing to take use spell check sends a negative message to your readers.

If you can't be bothered to do something as simple as spell checking, why should they be bothered to read your work?

On an intermediate level, you need to work on your actual composition. It's always a good idea to read your prose aloud. It helps to avoid run on sentences. It's help to avoid confusing sentences. It also shows you how and where you can simplify your prose. Short, direct, active sentences which sound "right" when read aloud are the way to write.

On an advanced level, you need to spend more time examining the story you're telling and examining the assumptions behind that story. If you have a muddled or incoherent idea of what you're trying to say, what you're trying to say will come across as muddled and incoherent. Let me use the description of the battle in Chapter 1-3 to illustrate this.

Here's your descriptions of how Union forces attacked a Confederate position and drove the Confederates out of the region:

On August 29th the Union forces attacked the Confederate forces outside of Greeneville. The 2nd and 3rd Tennesse attacked the center, and the 1st Tennesse would attack the left flank of the Confederate line. The 2nd and 3rd Tennesse advanced towards the Confederates through the woods. Due to the wooded condition of the battlefield, Artillery was rendered almost useless, but a shell did strike the center of the 2nd Tennesse and killed 6 soldiers and wounded 19 more. Soon the Union and Confederate lines clashed. The Union soldiers were more accustomed to the region and inflicted massive casualties on the Confederates. As soon as the 1st Tennesse sturck the Confederate left, the Confederate line fell apart.
Ignoring the numerous spelling, capitalization, and grammatical errors I've mentioned already, the story itself is disjointed and the thinking behind it muddled.

If you read that passage aloud, you'll realize how disjointed it seems to the reader. Your ideas are muddled too. The terrain was very important in the battle, but you didn't manage to mention that fact until late in the passage. If you'd prepared an outline of the story first, noting which parts are important and what you want the reader to learn, you wouldn't have muddled the story's telling.

I took your passage, extracted the details, prepared an outline, and quickly wrote the following. Compare your passage with this one:

The battle between local Union forces and the Confederate invaders occurred outside of Greeneville on August 29th. The Union force's local knowledge of the terrain proved important in planning and fighting the battle.

The Union plan involved the 2nd and 3rd Tennessee attacking the Confederate center while the 1st Tennessee swung around to hit the Rebel's left flank. The wooded nature of the battlefield and the Union troops familiarity with it allowed this plan to come off without a hitch. Union troops in the center were able to advance on the Confederate lines while taking little fire. The Confederate artillery was rendered almost useless by the terrain. Only a single shell managed to inflict casualties with the the 2nd Tennessee losing 6 killed and 19 wounded.

With the battle joined in the center of the opposing forces' lines, the 1st Tennessee struck the Confederate left flank seemingly out of the blue. The same terrain which had shielded the advance of the Union center completely hid the flank march of that regiment until it charged out of the trees and into the shocked Rebels.

Confederate casualties in the center were already high and the shock of the 1st Tennessee's flank assault proved too much. The Confederate line quickly unraveled and the pursuit of the routed Rebels began.
Look at an outline of that passage. I set the time and place of the battle first paragraph while also mentioning the importance of the terrain. The second paragraph described the Union's plans for the battle, how the battle began, and how the terrain adversely effected the Confederate troops. The third paragraph dealt with the important flank attack, again mentioning terrain's effects. The final paragraph described the end of the battle and set up the subsequent narrative dealing with the occupation of Greeneville and withdrawal of the Confederacy from the region.

I used paragraphs to separate the important parts of the story and then used short descriptive sentences within those paragraphs to present those important parts. I was able to do that because I prepared a quick outline of the important things I wanted to tell the reader.

You've an excellent idea here and have made a reasonably good start. With very little effort, however, you can do much better.

Good luck! :)
 
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Good premise; I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes (and where the discussion around it goes.) A couple things:

and elections for another Tennesse Senator, (Andrew Johnston was still a Tennesse U.S senator), would be held shortly.
Until the 17th Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by the legislature. It's looking like the convention (who elected them?) is acting as the legislature, so they could just choose someone. Have they invited incumbent legislators who opposed secession to join them? I think the Wheeling Convention invited incumbents and then called pro forma elections to replace those who didn't show up. (Anyone here to correct me?;) )

and the State of Franklin.

So they're going to split off from Tennessee like West Virginia did from Virginia? Have you investigated how much new-state sentiment there was? Were the new-staters willing to combine with West Virginia? I expect there'd be significant opposition to this plan. As it was, West Virginia supporters were accused of planning to pack the Senate by splitting loyal Republican areas off Southern states; a "State of Franklin" would only play right into these accusations. If there was a movement to split Tennessee, I'd guess there'd be another movement to combine East Tennessee with West Virginia.
 

Hyperion

Banned
Good premise; I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes (and where the discussion around it goes.) A couple things:


Until the 17th Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by the legislature. It's looking like the convention (who elected them?) is acting as the legislature, so they could just choose someone. Have they invited incumbent legislators who opposed secession to join them? I think the Wheeling Convention invited incumbents and then called pro forma elections to replace those who didn't show up. (Anyone here to correct me?;) )



So they're going to split off from Tennessee like West Virginia did from Virginia? Have you investigated how much new-state sentiment there was? Were the new-staters willing to combine with West Virginia? I expect there'd be significant opposition to this plan. As it was, West Virginia supporters were accused of planning to pack the Senate by splitting loyal Republican areas off Southern states; a "State of Franklin" would only play right into these accusations. If there was a movement to split Tennessee, I'd guess there'd be another movement to combine East Tennessee with West Virginia.

The boundary line between eastern Tennessee and West Virginia is blocked by the southwestern edge of Virginia and Kentucky. I should know as I've lived in the region for about 3 years. Did a lot of traveling to Bristol on the weekends, good times.

If east Tennessee goes seperate ways, this really isn't going to effect West Virginia all that much, so a merger is a non starter from the beginning.
 
So they're going to split off from Tennessee like West Virginia did from Virginia? Have you investigated how much new-state sentiment there was?

The way Earl of Somerset framed it, I think this convention is claiming to be the legitimate government for the whole state. However, I'm sure a lot of local politicians in the convention wouldn't exactly mind a separate East Tennessee: Middle and West Tennessee were often at odds with East Tennessee in the state government, and there was actually a movement earlier in the 1800s to form a separate state out of East Tennessee.
 
The politicians at the Wheeling Convention claimed to be the legitimate Government of Virginia. They formed a new state not all of virginia was under there control. We could also see this in Tennesse
 
The boundary line between eastern Tennessee and West Virginia is blocked by the southwestern edge of Virginia and Kentucky. I should know as I've lived in the region for about 3 years. Did a lot of traveling to Bristol on the weekends, good times.

If east Tennessee goes seperate ways, this really isn't going to effect West Virginia all that much, so a merger is a non starter from the beginning.

OTL it is, but West Virginia's border was quite unsettled in 1861. We could easily see that region of Virginia become part of WV if the Union takes control of the region in a drive toward East Tennessee.

Earl_of_Somerset said:
The politicians at the Wheeling Convention claimed to be the legitimate Government of Virginia. They formed a new state not all of virginia was under there control. We could also see this in Tennesse
That's what I was inferring based on the thread title. I've read the debates over West Virginia's admission, and I'm thinking there's going to be a lot of opposition to this in Washington.
 
The problem I can see with East Tennessee becoming a separate state like West Virginia in the new timeline is that in OTL the Union army took control of Nashville in 1862, which here might give the Convention a chance to recognized as the lawful government of the whole state by Washington. If you still want a separate state, Union forces would probably need to put Middle and West Tennessee under a military governor like they did in OTL while leaving the civilian Greenville government to run East Tennessee. If East Tennessee and the rest of the state end up with two parallel governments by the end of the war, the Radical Republicans might push through a separate statehood.
 
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