audiobook Beyond la Frontera: The History of Mexico-U.S. Migration by Mark Overmyer-Velázquez in History

Description

At the start of the Civil War; Knoxville; Tennessee; with a population of just over 4;000; was considered a prosperous metropolis little reliant on slavery. Although the surrounding countryside was predominantly Unionist in sympathy; Knoxville itself was split down the middle; with Union and Confederate supporters even holding simultaneous political rallies at opposite ends of the town's main street. Following Tennessee's secession; Knoxville soon became famous (or infamous) as a stronghold of stalwart Unionism; thanks to the efforts of a small cadre who persisted in openly denouncing the Confederacy. Throughout the course of the Civil War; Knoxville endured military occupation for all but three days; hosting Confederate troops during the first half of the conflict and Union forces throughout the remainder; with the transition punctuated by an extended siege and bloody battle during which nearly forty thousand soldiers fought over the town. In Lincolnites and Rebels; Robert Tracy McKenzie tells the story of Civil War Knoxville-a perpetually occupied; bitterly divided Southern town where neighbor fought against neighbor. Mining a treasure-trove of manuscript collections and civil and military records; McKenzie reveals the complex ways in which allegiance altered the daily routine of a town gripped in a civil war within the Civil War and explores the agonizing personal decisions that war made inescapable. Following the course of events leading up to the war; occupation by Confederate and then Union soldiers; and the troubled peace that followed the war; Lincolnites and Rebels details in microcosm the conflict and paints a complex portrait of a border state; neither wholly North nor South.