Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis

Description

Daniel Crofts examines Unionists in three pivotal southern states--Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee--and shows why the outbreak of the war enabled the Confederacy to gain the allegiance of these essential, if ambivalent, governments. Crofts's study focuses on Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, but it includes analyses of the North and Deep South as well. As a result, his volume presents the views of all parties to the sectional conflict and offers a vivid portrait of the interaction between them.--American Historical Review Refocuses our attention on an important but surprisingly neglected group--the Unionists of the upper South during the secession crisis, who have been too readily ignored by other historians.--Journal of Southern History Contents Preface Acknowledgments Prologue 1 Unionist Profiles 2 Political Parties in the Late Antebellum Upper South 3 The Political Origins of Upper South Unionism 4 Unionists on the Defensive 5 The Unionist Argument 6 The Unionist Offensive 7 Measuring the Unionist Insurgency 8 The Unionists and Compromise 9 The Unionists, the Republican Party, and President-Elect Lincoln 10 The Unionists and President Lincoln—The March 1861 Rapprochement 11 Reversal of the Hands-Off Policy 12 The Unionists, Fort Sumter, and the Proclamation for Seventy-five Thousand Troops 13 Forced to Choose Sides: Southern Unionists after the Proclamation Epilogue: Rethinking the Secession Crisis Appendix I Appendix II Appendix III Notes Bibliographical Essay Index