Replies

You could not be more wrong. First, for initial volunteer service, how long was the committment for the North? How about the South? Which one you pick if you ain’t got a dog in the hunt and you got to pick one? Those decendents of the Overmountain Men didn’t own slaves, was that their beef? They didn’t ship cotton, they didn’t buy furniture from Charlestown. They sure were not benefitting from Northern industry.

And to protecting the wealth. The Republican parties first presidential nominee, the one before Lincoln, was Freemont. He was courtmartialed for trying to make California his own kingdom after making a fortune in Gold. And what was the time period called after the War of Northern Agression and Reconstruction? Seem to remember something about “empire”. Lincoln set the stage, and it was all planned.

First, for initial volunteer service, how long was the committment for the North?

Depended on how long the regiment enlisted for. Longest term I was aware of for the volunteers was 3 years. Shortest was 90 days.

How about the South?

Didn't matter. In April 1862 the confederate government extended all enlistments for the duration of the war, regardless of what the original commitment had been for. The individual soldier had no choice but to serve till the end, die, get crippled, or desert.

And what was the time period called after the War of Northern Agression and Reconstruction? Seem to remember something about “empire”.

You are blessed with quite a memory. I don't suppose you can point to a source other than yourself that refers to the time after the end of the War of Southern Rebellion as 'empire' could you?

Those decendents of the Overmountain Men didn’t own slaves, was that their beef?

They had no beef. They had no reason to be dissatisfied. That's why so many of them resisted the Confederacy. The heart of the conflict was about slavery and Southerners in non-slaveholding locales tended to support the Union. I suggest you look at the individual county returns in the the two Tennessee secession elections and compare the pattern with the US Census slave schedules. There seems to be a pretty strong correlation between the presence of slavery and the support of secession. I'm sure states rights and defense of the homeland motivated some, but it's hard to ignore the mathematics that indicate a relationship between the presence of slavery and pro-Confederate sentiment.