Civil War documentary focuses on state's role in bitter conflict
First episode examines the run-up to secession
By Claudia Pinto • THE TENNESSEAN • January 3, 2011
Everyone knows the roles Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee played in the Civil War. But how much do you know about Tennessee Governor Isham Harris? Or his nemesis, Knoxville newspaper editor William G. "Parson" Brownlow?
Their bitter feud — and the impact it had on Tennessee — is one of the lesser-known stories examined in "Secession," the first episode of Tennessee Civil War 150, a new series that will eventually comprise six documentaries about the state's role in the war. Produced by Nashville Public Television in conjunction with the Renaissance Center to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the war's beginning, the series premieres at 8 p.m. today on WNPT-Channel 8.
The program also will air on several other dates throughout the month. The other installments — which will focus on topics such as the African-American war experience, music and women — will roll out over the next four years.
"The Ken Burns series on the Civil War was marvelous, but he was focusing on the entire nation," said Carole Bucy, a professor of history at Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin who appears in the series. "This will really emphasize the Tennessee experience."
Ed Jones, who wrote, produced and edited "Secession," said it took about six months to complete the 30-minute episode. Work on the future installments is still underway.
Jones said the biggest challenge in assembling the documentary was the lack of visual materials. "Not a lot of video exists from 1860," he joked. He compensated with re-enactments, and said he's in debt to the Tennessee State Library and Archives for sharing its materials.
Those who tune in to "Secession" will be introduced to colorful characters such as Harris, a major slaveholder in West Tennessee who advocated for secession, and his enemy, Brownlow, a Knoxville newspaper editor who railed against leaving the Union.
Their dramatic stories put modern-day soap operas to shame: Brownlow was imprisoned for a time by the Confederate government, then went on a wildly successful Northern speaking tour about his mistreatment while in custody. "He would be a rock star today," Jones said.
As for Brownlow, "his star is shooting up when Harris' comes crashing down," Jones said. Nashville was the first Confederate capital to fall to the Northern armies. The new Unionist state legislature accused Harris of treason, perjury and theft and put a $5,000 bounty on his head, so he fled to Mexico.
By 1867, Brownlow was governor of Tennessee and Harris was forced to beg his old enemy for permission to return home. Brownlow welcomed Harris back, but it took much longer for the rest of the country to make up.
"The tear lasted for generations," said Jones.
A state divided
Jones has long been a bit of a history buff, but he said he didn't realize until he began working on the documentary project that Tennessee had been so divided on whether or not to secede.
"I had no idea that there was a war-within-a-war in Tennessee," Jones said. "One assumed that below the Mason-Dixon line, everyone was for secession."
"Secession" shows that the state was as divided as the nation itself. Tennessee was initially against leaving the Union. East Tennessee was strongly pro-Union, but West Tennessee was strongly pro-Confederacy. Middle Tennessee fell somewhere in the middle.
The allegiances aligned with slaveholdings. There were few slaves in the mountainous region of East Tennessee, especially compared with the cotton country of West Tennessee.
For East Tennesseans, "The thought of leaving the United States to appease the Southern planters made no sense at all. They had no dog in the fight," Jones said. "They didn't want to give up everything their ancestors fought for."
It wasn't until the attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call to raise 75,000 Union troops that sentiment changed, especially in Middle Tennessee. On June 8, 1861, Tennessee was the last of 11 states that seceded from the Union.
Even after the state seceded, East Tennessee still resisted. Much like the mountainous western portion of Virginia, which sided with the Union and eventually broke off to become its own state, East Tennessee explored separating from the rest of Tennessee.
Of course, here the idea never came to fruition. "The legislature heard their complaint and shut them down pretty quickly," Jones said.
Ann Toplovich, executive director of the Tennessee Historical Society, who appears in the series, said that, ultimately, the Civil War transformed how we see ourselves as a people.
"We went from viewing ourselves as residents of the states we were from to Americans," she said.
