A Supplement to Civil War Historiography in Southern Appalachia

         The article, Feelin' Mighty Southern: Recent Scholarship on Southern Appalachia in the Civil War, written by Noel Fisher, attempts to bring together the sparse scholarship surrounding the Civil War struggles of the Union and Confederates in western Virginia, eastern Kentucky, western North Carolina, East Tennessee, northern Georgia, and northern Alabama: the areas making up the region of Southern Appalachia. Historiography relating to conflict in this region has remained largely unstudied, despite the extensive scholarship dedicated to other aspects of Civil War history and memory. Traditionally, Fisher notes, the Southern Appalachian region had been stereotyped “as poorly developed and isolated, cut off from involvement in the market and from contemporary political currents, self-sufficient, fiercely independent, unionist, and perhaps even abolitionist” (p. 336). However, other sources have indicated that the economic influence of this region has been under appreciated. Fisher suggests that there was a vast network of trade, farmers producing surpluses for military use, artisans providing needed services, and a workforce of slave and white labor. The political, military, and economic forces of Southern Appalachia were much more substantial than stereotypes had suggested.

          The Civil War in Southern Appalachia also fostered the expansion of women's involvement in military, politics, and economics. The underprivileged women of the region were suddenly responsible for maintaining a livelihood, often with only the help of their young children. Hundreds of women wrote to Appalachian statesmen, including Governor Zebulon Vance of North Carolina, asking for “an end to conscription, the return of husbands and sons, and economic relief” (p. 338). Women and other individuals from this region were also impacted by the presence partisan soldiers, who engaged in wide ranging activities with definite political and military ends. Fisher highlights the participation of these irregular forces, suggesting that their influence has been understated and historically rewritten as isolated violence by criminals and psychopaths. Although their actions did include criminal plunder, rape, and sadistic killings, partisan bands often operated with definite goals to, “weaken the enemy, hamper the enforcement of conscription, shield communities from harassment by troops, and win some measure of autonomy” (p. 343).

        Scholarship concerning the lives of women, as well as slaves, soldiers, and partisans in the region have helped to fill in gaps of the larger Civil War experience. Fisher's exploration reveals the cultural and ideological elements which have clouded the thorough understanding of the Southern Appalachian region. Furthermore, he points out the tendency of historians to disregard the strategic and criminal impact of irregular violence, sanitizing the accounts or avoiding them all together. However, Fisher suggests that these are critical elements, without which one could not hope to understand the events of Civil War in Southern Appalachia.

Fisher, N. C. (2001). Feelin' mighty Southern: Recent scholarship on Southern Appalachia in the Civil War. Civil War History, 47(4), 334-346.