Quote Originally Posted by L. Ramsay View Post
Pardon the off-topic nature of my addition here, but I find it worth noting that my family were well-to-do secessionists right around Knoxville. If you're ever in the area, you might want to check out Ramsey House.
There are always exceptions to the rule, of course. Greene County, Missouri, where I live, was mostly pro-Union, but one of the founding families, the Campbells, were pro-secession. Eastern TN, however, contained a fairly large population of Southern Loyalists. Current's book devotes at least one chapter to them. My old adviser in university was from Johnson City, and discussed Eastern TN in our Civil War class as a "disloyal" area for Richmond.

Also I note your comment "well-to-do". Most Southern Loyalists were not that, but yeoman farmers and "poor white trash" who resented the political & economic power of the planter aristocracy. To keep this somewhat on topic, many of them were of Ulster-Scots heritage, as were the early settlers of SW MO, who hailed from the Upper South. Missouri's geographic divide was flipped-flopped; most of the Southern portion of the state were moderates or Unionists, while the "Little Dixie" region along the Missouri River saw the largest pro-secession areas.

T.