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A sizable amount of men who lived in the south,or border south,fought in the union army. Mostly they were from the mountains of western North Carolina,east Tennessee,northern Alabama and Georgia.
Has anyone ever talked much about northern men who fought for the Confederacy? I am sure their were instances,as many parts of Ohio,Indiana and downstate Illinois were Copperhead in their sympathies,Jacksonian Democrats politically,and southern in culture. Yet I do not recall hearing about men from the north actively serving the Confederates,unlike the many,many southerners who fought for the Union.
Well the most well know was Lt. General John Pemberton, defender of Vicksburg. A Philadelphian born and raised, he resigned his commission and was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate army. The reason most cited for his defection was his marriage to his Virginian wife and long service while in the Army in southern states.
Another was Gen Samuel Cooper who was born in New Jersey, married Sarah Maria Mason of Virginia, (aunt of Gen Fitzhugh Lee, Robert E. Lee's nephew) and having served much of his career in the South was sympathetic to their cause.
Ovcatto has identified Pemberton who was the most prominent. There was much feeling in the South that Vicksburg fell because of latent sympathies for the Union on Pemberton's part, but it does not require much of an examination to see that Pemberton just got out generaled by Grant.
Among general officers, along with Cooper there was also Daniel Ruggles who was born in Massachusetts, attended West Point and made the army his career. He resigned his commission in May of '61 and offered his services to the South. Ruggles distinguished himself at Shiloh. The reason? He married into a Virginia family and felt that he had to defend his own.
So it seems from our three examples that it just didn't pay to marry a woman from Virginia.
Loyalty was apparently a big thing with those Virginia families. General George Thomas, a Virginian who remained loyal to the United States, was forever shunned by his family as a consequence. They refused to even open any letters he sent to them, burning them upon receipt. The pictures of Thomas on the wall were turned backwards and left that way. His sisters announced that they no longer had a brother. And they were never reconciled after the war.
In the case of Thomas, he had married a woman from New York, an influence on his decision to remain loyal.
I remember reading a book about Reconstruction a long time ago where they talked about Pennsylvania,Philadelphia in particular,of having strong southern sympathies. Forget the author and the book title. Was kind of surprised at that.
Maybe it had to do with commerce and trade.
I remember reading a book about Reconstruction a long time ago where they talked about Pennsylvania,Philadelphia in particular,of having strong southern sympathies.
Philadelphia was the biggest "border" city and a center of commerce. It was also a hugely democratic city particularly amongst immigrant Irish population, so yes there was significant Southern sympathy in Philadelphia. Remember long before 1860, Quaker domination of the City had long since wained.
There were obviously plenty from border states like Missouri who did. I'm sure you'll find plenty of Southern Marylanders who did too.
Didn't Kentucky have rival governments complete with rival state armies or militias?
Not to derail the OP, but I think southerners who cast their lot with the Union is more interesting because the fact that so many did and did so under great pressure to remain loyal to their respective southern states and communities took a lot of inner courage. The fate of complete social ostracism these folks met if they were able to survive the war was no cakewalk either.
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