Short History of Scott County, Tennessee during the Civil War

 As I delve deeper into my ancestors who fought in the Civil War, it's not automatically given that the state of Tennessee was fully a confederate state.

The people in East Tennessee (where my dad and his family were from) were firmly against Tennessee's move to leave the Union; as were many in other parts of the Union. This was primarily due to the distribution of slavery throughout the state; Of the state's entire slave population, nearly 40% of West Tennessee and about 20% of Middle Tennessee were slaves, but in East Tennessee, slaves made up only 8% of the population. 

It was here, at Scott County’s first courthouse, built in 1851, that future U.S. President Andrew Johnson delivered a speech against secession on June 4, 1861. It was also here that Scott County Court voted later that summer to secede from Tennessee and form the Free & Independent State of Scott.

During the Civil War, Scott county was a Southern Unionist bastion, voting against secession from the Union. In 1861, the county assembly officially enacted a resolution seceding from the state of Tennessee, and thus the Confederacy, forming the "Free and Independent State of Scott," also known simply as the "State of Scott." 

Nashville never formally recognized Scott County’s decision to remove itself from Tennessee, but the act of defiance certainly got the attention of the governor. In response to the county court’s vote, Gov. Harris sent a contingent of 1,700 soldiers to Scott County to arrest and hang all members of the county court. They retreated, however, after meeting resistance in the Brimstone area, and none of the members of the court were ever captured.

NOTE: My dad grew up in this area called Brimstone and that was the name of the country road their farm was on. 

Scott County paid a price for its independence. It remained a sort of “no man’s land” throughout the war, subject to guerrilla warfare and lawlessness. Farms were raided by Confederate forces and Union forces alike. There were no major battles fought here, but there were several minor skirmishes. One of them was the Battle of Huntsville, on Aug. 13, 1862. Confederate soldiers seized control of the county seat, forcing Union forces to retreat, and spent two hours looting the town and searching for the members of the county court who had led the efforts to secede.

The county remained a pro-Union enclave throughout the war.  Many East Tennesseans engaged in guerrilla warfare against state authorities by burning bridges, cutting telegraph wires, and spying. 

Tennessee provided more Union troops than any other Confederate state; more than 51,000 soldiers in total, more than 20,000 of whom were Black. Tennessee also provided 135,000 Confederate troops, the second-highest number after Virginia.

It wasn’t until 1986 that Scott County formally voted to rejoin the Volunteer State. That summer, as part of Tennessee’s Homecoming celebration, Scott County Commission adopted a resolution that read, 

“After 125 years of independence, in this, the year of Tennessee homecoming, the Scott Commissioners and people of Scott County have declared the Free and Independent State of Scott to be dissolved.” 

Gov. Lamar Alexander signed the resolution, officially readmitting Scott County to Tennessee. The happening caught the attention of the New York Times.

Today, a plaque near the entrance to the Huntsville Mall reads, 

“United States Senator Andrew Johnson delivered a speech at the Courthouse at Huntsville on June 4, 1861, against separation. At the election four days later Scott County voted against separation by the largest percentage margin of any county in Tennessee. Later that year in defiance of the state’s act of secession, the county court by resolution seceded from the state and formed the Free and Independent State of Scott.”