[FLT-bird]

Now you're not paying attention, are you? I mentioned East Tennessee because you say your ancestors came from East Tennessee and you used it to illustrate how "happy whities" who held no slaves could still lovingly support the CSA. Bullshite.

Bullshite indeed. It is you who is not paying attention. I said my ancestors lived in Tennessee at that time. I did not say East Tennessee. Take a look at a map of Tennessee and see if you can figure out where Giles County and Marshall County are.

Perhaps more important, East Tennessee was only one such region, others including: Western Virginia Western North Carolina Northern Georgia Northern Alabama Arkansas Ozarks Northern Texas & Texas Hill Country

There were some areas. Then again there were far more areas that did not have many slaves at all but which supported the Confederacy. Like most of Tennessee for example.

Nonsense. There are no Northern analogies to Confederate massacres or drumhead trials of civilians & surrendering soldiers at: Great Hangings at Gainesville, Texas, October 1862:

Nonsense indeed. There were not tens of thousands of civilians thrown into prison without charge or trial or at best trial before military tribunals only in the Confederacy unlike in the Union. Over 100 opposition newspapers were not shut down by order of Jefferson Davis. Confiscation acts were not passed in the border states and citizens were not disarmed in the border states unlike in the union.

Massacres of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

There was no such "massacre". There was a running battle there with some soldiers surrendering and some still shooting. As is always the case in such situations, if some are still shooting then the other side assumes they are all threats and shoots them all. The same thing happened the other way at Drewry's Bluff and countless other places. Congress specifically questioned Nathan Bedford Forest about this and he was able to produce the receipts for the captured union soldiers he turned over to the Confederate Medical Corps. Even the Northern dominated Congress declined to charge him with anything after looking at the evidence. This was just so much propaganda put out by the Republican newspaper in Cincinnati right before the election.

Neely estimated 14,000 Union arrests and identified 4,000 arrested in the Confederacy, which is per capita the same number.

Historians have disagreed about the numbers but 14,000 is considered a low estimate for those arrested in the union. There's universal agreement among historians that Jefferson Davis suspended Habeas Corpus less often and far fewer were arrested in the Confederacy.

But the correct answer is: zero were arrested unlawfully in the Union, while relatively equal numbers of Southern Unionists were arrested in the Confederacy, many murdered absolutely unlawfully by Confederates.

The correct answer is that is pure Bullshite. Tens of thousands were arrested unlawfully in the Union. Some were tortured and some died. There were far fewer abuses of civil liberties in the Confederacy.

[BroJoeK]

June 8, 1861 Tennessee vote: red=pro secession, blue=anti-secession:

FLT-bird: "I said my ancestors lived in Tennessee at that time.
I did not say East Tennessee.
Take a look at a map of Tennessee and see if you can figure out where Giles County and Marshall County are."

I see -- South-Central Tennessee, where about 30% of families in 1860 owned slaves meaning: if your ancestors there did not, then some of their relatives and neighbors did.
30% of slaveholding families is well within the range of regions which voted for secession and supported the Confederate cause.

Contrast your pro-secession Central and Westen Tennessee with Eastern Tennessee, which had very few slaves and only about 5% of families owned slaves.
Eastern Tennesseans:

1. Voted against secession by a margin of 2 to 1, even after Fort Sumter.

2. Tried to secede from Tennessee and form their own Union state, like West Virginia.

3. Burned railroad bridges to disrupt Confederate communications.

4. Suffered under Confederate army imposed martial law, revocation of habeas corpus, expulsions, deportations, drumhead trial hangings, and massacre ordered by Confederate commander to "take no prisoners".

5. Supplied more white troops to the Union army (31,000) than to Confederates (~20,000).

Bottom line: your Tennessee family was embedded in the the 30% slaveholder culture of Middle & Western Tennessee, not the 5% slaveholder anti-slavery pro-Union culture of East Tennessee.

FLT-bird or rebellion against the CSA: "There were some areas.
Then again there were far more areas that did not have many slaves at all but which supported the Confederacy.
Like most of Tennessee for example."

No, there were no such areas, not any!
Your ancestors' area of central Tennessee was deeply embedded in the Southern slave culture, with ~30% of slaveholding families.
All of the Southern regions which opposed secession and resisted the CSA had few to no slaves, including:

1861 votes for and against secession:

1. Western Virginia
2. Eastern Tennessee
3. Western North Carolina
4. Northern Georgia
5. Northern Alabama
6. Mississippi Free State of Jones, Piney Woods
7. Arkansas Ozarks
8. Southern Louisiana, including Cajun country
9. Northern Texas and Texas Hill Country

Combined, these regions provided nearly 100,000 white troops to the Union Army and suffered oppression, confiscations, martial law, drumhead hangings and massacres at the hands of Confederates.

FLT-bird: "There were not tens of thousands of civilians thrown into prison without charge or trial or at best trial before military tribunals only in the Confederacy unlike in the Union.
Over 100 opposition newspapers were not shut down by order of Jefferson Davis."

All that is 100% pure nonsense because:

1. Per capita suppression of dissent in the Confederacy was at least as vigorous as in the Union, arguably considerably more so.

2. Neely identified 14,401 Union military arrests of Union civilians, all but a handful of those being in Border States and conflict regions for:
   • Trading with the enemy
   • Blockade runners
   • Guerillas & spies
   • Draft evaders & assisting deserters
   • Contractors cheating and supplying defective goods
   • Small numbers of copperheads, agitators, newspaper editors and anti-war politicians

3. Neely identified 4,108 civilian Confederates arrested by Confederate authorities for:
   • Unionism
   • Harboring or sheltering Union sympathizers
   • Anti-conscription agitation, draft resistors and civilians aiding deserters
   • Religious conscientious objectors
   • Being labeled "disloyal", “disaffected,” “dangerous,” or “unreliable” by CSA authorities
   • Claiming the CW was a “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight”
   • Writing letters to relatives in Union states
   • Domestic violence against Confederate authorities
   • Hiding goods from CSA impressment officials
   • Trading with Union smugglers or forces

FLT-bird on Fort Pillow: "There was no such "massacre".

• There was a running battle there with some soldiers surrendering and some still shooting.
• As is always the case in such situations, if some are still shooting then the other side assumes they are all threats and shoots them all...
  
• Congress specifically questioned Nathan Bedford Forest about this and he was able to produce the receipts for the captured union soldiers he turned over to the Confederate Medical Corps.
• Even the Northern dominated Congress declined to charge him with anything after looking at the evidence.
• This was just so much propaganda put out by the Republican newspaper in Cincinnati right before the election."

What a truckload of cr*p that is!
Here's the truth of it:

1. The US Congress did investigate Fort Pillow immediately after the events in April 1864, while war was still ongoing.
   Congress found:
   • There was a massacre ("slaughter", "butchery", "murder", "atrocity" in newspaper reports) of Union troops after surrender at Fort Pillow

   • African American soldiers were deliberately & disproportionately targeted

   • Confederate claims of a “false surrender” causing the deaths, do not align with casualty patterns or eyewitness testimony.

   • Confederate law refused to recognize Black Union soldiers as lawful combatants.
     Confederate law required that captured Black soldiers be treated as enslaved insurrectionists rather than prisoners of war -- meaning they could be killed on sight -- a policy known to Confederate troops in the field.

2. Regarding Forrest, Congress found in May 1864 (paraphrasing):
   The massacre was committed by troops under Forrest’s command, after control was secured, and Forrest as commanding officer bore responsibility whether by action or failure to prevent it.

3. Forrest did not testify to Congress (or anyone else) in 1864, since he was still in the field fighting the war!

4. When Forrest did finally testify to Congress, in June 1871, it was about his alleged role in the KKK (he denied it) and no question about Fort Pillow was ever raised or answered.

FLT-bird: "There's universal agreement among historians that Jefferson Davis suspended Habeas Corpus less often and far fewer were arrested in the Confederacy."

Neely's research shows that the Confederate per capita rate of civilian arrests was equal to or greater than the Union rate.
Further, that these arrests occurred within the Confederacy itself, predominately in regions which had voted against secession, not as was the Union, in Border States with large numbers of slaveholding pro-Confederates.

More important, Neely's research included only a small number of the 10 major Confederate regions (like Eastern Tennessee) which voted against secession and resisted Confederate authorities.
Other regions were not included because their CW records had been destroyed, leaving only newspaper and other informal reports.
However, there is zero reason to suppose that Confederate oppressions were any less in those regions than they were in regions for which more historical records survived.