Boy, you know your history. My ancestors were also there when the State of Franklin was established, in what is now Greene County, TN.
And when Andrew Johnson "the Constitution President," was brought up on articles of impeachment. He is buried in Greeneville, his homeplace, tailor shop and burial site national Historical Sites now. He was buried with his head on a copy of the Constitution, see details here : http://www.nps.gov/anjo/
I have a copy of the bill my ancestor presented to the Union officers when they used our old homeplace as a headquarters. Greeneville changed hands between the Union and Confederate military nine times during the Civil War, and a confederate soldier was shot and killed on the porch of our old homeplace.
I have details about my great grandfather (when he was six years old)shooting a hole in the wall and barely missing my grandma's aunt's head, when he was going to "kill him a confederate." My grandmother and great aunts and uncles told me these stories passed on to them from their father, aunt and uncles.
John Hunt Morgan, the famous Confederate general, known as "The Thunderbolt of the Confederacy" was killed in Greeneville, after he became a legend for escaping the Union Army and a Union prison several times. He was unstoppable, until a Greeneville family hosted him and their daughter-in-law, a Union sympathiser, sent word to a nearby Union detachment and they ambushed him.
They paraded his body up and down Main Street Greeneville, draped over his prized Kentucky horse.
Greeneville is the true symbol of the war that "turned brother against brother."
I had ancestors on both sides, who fought passionately for their beliefs.
And I mentioned earlier the prized hounds they use for bear hunting here -- there are still lines of hounds here used by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, they were some of the first to import these hounds from Europe.
I have written extensively about the bear hunting and bear hounds here. It's (can't you tell) one of my favorite subjects.
California was coveted by the US government for economic and strategic purposes and, as you know, admitted as a free state, remained with the union. Although California mustered more than 15,000 volunteers a much smaller number participated in the heartbreaking conflict in the east. California troops prevented Texas troops from expanding west and insured gold to finance the union cause. California and it's citizens were more or less spared the anguish of the brother against brother situations. None the less, the war was a tragedy for all Americans. Some points: Southerners fought for States rights, and individual rights, not slavery. Southerners were rebels true, but they also were patriots. Lincoln was correct and wise in his agenda to keep the union together. Slavery was not Constitutional, was illegal, and wrong, and emancipation was a result of the Civil War, not the cause for it. Finally, the contribution of the Southern states to the United States is indispensable from the revolution to the present day.
I can't tell you how much I (and thousands of others, no doubt) have enjoyed them.
You and yours have quite the lineage and traditions.