East Tennessee and the Civil War [Hardcover]

Oliver P. Temple (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A solid social, political, and military history, this book sheds light on the rise of the pro-Union and pro-Confederacy factions. It explores the political developments and recounts in fine detail the military maneuvering and conflicts that occurred.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Oliver P. Temple was a former Equity Judge of Tennessee. Southern by birth, education, and residence, he was bound to the South and yet he was drawn to the North by a strong love of the union and an ardent desire to preserve it.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 588 pages
• Publisher: Overmountain Press; 2nd edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570720339
• ISBN-13: 978-1570720338
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,371,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than Just Tennessee!, January 18, 2002

By 

H. B. Estabrooks Jr. (Oak Ridge, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: East Tennessee and the Civil War (Hardcover)

Oliver Temple's book is a must-read for anyone who would understand the causes of the war and the nuances of the issues of abolition and secession (Chaps. 8 and 9). Written by a contemporary of those events (published in 1899), it provides invaluable insight into the "feelings" of the participants on these issues; insight that is usually lost in the passage of time. Temple's discussion of secession in Chap. 9 is particularly valuable in refuting the argument in defense of legal secession. A personal letter from Robert E. Lee to his son in January of 1861, denouncing secession was particularly enlightening.

1.0 out of 5 stars East Tennessee in the Civil War reviewed by an unreconstucted Southerner, August 8, 2011

By 

kernelp "kernelp" (Smith Bend) - See all my reviews

This review is from: East Tennessee and the Civil War (Hardcover)

I rate this book at 1 star. If a lower rating was available it would get it.

I was raised in Sullivan County and live across the mountain from Greene County. I was a Unionist for many years attributable to my Republican raising and government school education. God converted me and made me a curious Reformed Presbyterian. I checked and found out why my Reformed Presbyterian ancestors were Confederates. It was because the South was right.

Temple was a unionist born in Greene County. He was a "new school" presbyterian descended from Scotts-Irish presbyterians. Me too, but not new school. That Temple was biased is an understatement. He attributed the secession of Tennessee to the manipulation of the citizen electorate by the ruling class of planters. Noel Fisher noted that the electorate in E. TN was manipulated by unionists like Brownlow, Johnson and Temple. (War at Every Door.) Six of one type of manipulator, or half a dozen of another.

Temple lavishly praised Scotts-Irish settlers of Tennessee he refers to as "Covenanters". This was interesting. Being descended from them, I heartily agree. He credits their patriotism to love of the Union stemming from their participation in the battle of Kings Mt. My Scotts-Irish presbyterian ancestors fought in the first war for independence in western NC. They moved to Middle TN and fought for the South in the second one. I suggest he was wrong.

Temple let it slip that many E TN unionists were concerned with the CSA constitutional prohibition of internal improvements which they believed would hamper business. Fisher noted that "(t)he promise of favorable industrial and trade policies drew Whigs to the national government. . ." (War at Every Door.) The South financed seventy-five percent of the national government before the war through tariffs with most of the internal improvements in areas besides the South. This was one of the causes.

It is worthy of note that Temple was a member of the presbyterian church. This same church seceded from the national denomination because of covenant breaking. Being a presbyterian who praised the Covenanters he should have understood breaking the covenant allows the members to withdraw. In 1861 the Southern church withdrew because of the Gardiner Spring Resolution. The passage of the resolution by the Rev. Gardiner Spring of New York was, as Dr. Benjamin Palmer pointed out, a "writ of ejectment of all that portion of the Church within the bounds of the eleven states, which had already withdrawn from the Federal Union, and established a government of their own."

The Southern church seceded.

Temple conceded the constitutional covenant had been broken by the northern states'nullification of the fugitive slave act. The South had the right to secede. He just didn't like it so he argued that it should have been handled differently. His is just an unjustified opinion.

Temple wrote many things which are odious to a self-conscious Southerner. He heaped great praise on the tyrant Lincoln and the war criminals Grant and Sherman. That these malefactors' execrable acts were completely overlooked is unconscionable. That they were so grandly lauded is extremely repugnant.

He also praised William Brownlow. His reputation brings no praise on him. He was a "black republican" who took every opportunity to avenge himself during reconstruction.

There are other books on the war in East Tennessee. I recommend Noel Fisher's book "War at Every Door." Fisher is unburdened by Temple's bias.