"Southerners for the Yankees and Northerners for the rebels?" Topic

Hello everyone,

For various reasons more or less good – depending on the sensitivity of each of you – I suppose that Southerners fought for the Yankees and Northerners for the rebels and that they are famous for that?

West Virgina, Western NC, Eastern Tenn, Red River Germand in TX, and Many more Counties were pro Union. Southern IL was pro Slavery. Several Statew wouldn't have ever left the Union if it wasnt for underhand Actions at some state's Secussion Conventions.

"Southerners" and "Northerners" were often hazy concepts in a mobile society. Northern-born army officers were stationed in the south, married local girls, and accepted commissions from their states of residence. Southern-born army officers might not have seen "home" in years, and stayed with their regiments. Thousands if not tens of thousands of young men relocated for professional reasons before the war and served with their neighbors rather than with their cousins. Recent immigration and ethnic ties mattered too. German immigrants to Texas tended pro-Union, for instance.

Border states raised regiments for both sides. Feel free to sort out whether pro-Confederate Maryland and Kentucky regiments were northerners fighting for the south or pro-Union Maryland and Kentucky regiments were southerners fighting for the north. (I'll draw a discrete veil over a clash between the 1st Tennessee Cavalry (US) and the 1st Tennessee Cavalry (CS).)

It is estimated that some 400,000 Southern men fought for the Union. That would include the slave states that stayed in the Union and West Virginia that seceded from Virginia. Also, solid numbers from East Tennessee.

I have not seen numbers for Northern men who fought for the South. They would be quite small overall. Robert is right about the officer corps. Pemberton, defender of Vicksburg, would be a good example of the Northern man who married a Southern woman and went with the Confederacy. Of the 9 Southern officers who shared the same rank as Lee in the old regular army, all of them stayed with the Union. Lee was the only one to leave.

Two noteworthy generals were:

John C. Pemberton -- link -- a Pensylvanian who became a Confederate general, commanded at Vicksburg.

and

George H. Thomas -- link -- a Virginian who was a Union general, the "Rock of Chickamauga" and victor at Nashville.

Jim

John Gibbon is another example of officers from one section who fought for the other. Born in Pennsylvania, his parents moved to North Carolina when he was young, and he got one of the North Carolina appointments to West Point. When the war came, he fought for the North, and rose to the rank of major general of volunteers, commanding an army corps. After the war, he reverted to the rank of colonel, and commanded troops on the Indian frontier, helping to pick up the mess after the Little Big Horn in 1876 and being surrounded by the Nez Perce at the Battle of Big Hole.

Grelber

Alabama had the Free State of Winston. This was a county in north Alabama that voted not to leave the union. It was such a close vote statewide that a second vote was needed.
The First Alabama Volunteer Cavalry fought for the Union and gained many awards. Several books and magazine articles have been written about them.
A number of men joined the units out of Pensacola Florida which raided for the Union.

Significantly, every state in the Confederacy except South Carolina had at least one battalion or regiment of white volunteers that fought for the Union. In addition, many loyal Southern men served in Federal units and units not of their home state. It is also important to note that many Southerners who were in Federal service prior to the War also remained loyal. The officers get a lot of attention (Thomas, Anderson, Meigs, etc.), but there were many Southern enlisted and NCOs who also continued to serve. Union "Colored" units (originally state formations and later USCT) were raised in every state of the Confederacy.

A key characteristic of Northerners who fought for the CSA is they almost invariably had lived in the South for a significant period of time, many since childhood or youth. Per Robert Piepenbrink's point, it is probably more accurate to refer to these men as "Northern born". Of course there were those that settled there as adults, and these typically had integrated tightly into their local community and (crucially) economy. Money and social standing were and are powerful motivators. Ironically, the most famous Northerner in CSA service, John C. Pemberton, falls into neither of these categories. From 1837to 1861 he spent more time in Northern and Frontier postings (and the Mexican War) than in the South, and some of his Southern service (Texas and Florida) was comparatively remote.

Idid not know these 6 were from
Ohio

"A century and a half ago, most Ohioans who fought in the Civil War did so for the Union.

Most — but not all.

Among the more than 320,000 Ohio men who served the Union were the North's two most famous generals: Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman.

As the nation commemorates the 150th anniversary of the pivotal four-year conflict, a lesser-known fact is that Ohio also produced a half-dozen Confederate generals.

Three of the six had ties to the Columbus area: two who attended Ohio Wesleyan together, and a Worthington native who fired on Fort Sumter to start the war.

The families of Charles Clark of Lebanon and Robert Hatton of Youngstown moved south when both were young boys.

Roswell Ripley of Worthington married a woman from Charles-ton, S.C.

And the other three — Otho Strahl of Malta, in Morgan County; Daniel Reynolds of Centerburg, in Knox County; and Bushrod Johnson of Belmont County — moved south as adults and were working there when the war began in 1861."

When I surveyed cemeteries in 1977, in Clay County Alabama, the Concord cemetery had a marker with a soldier who served in Ohio regiment. I am not sure if he was a Local who ent to Ohio or a carpetbagger who came done after the war.

David Farragut ("Damn the torpedoes") was a Tennessean.

It's interesting to note the areas within the South that remained pro-Union, such as East Tennessee and Western Virginia, were not amenable to the cultivation of cotton or tobacco (or row crops in general), hence there was very little economic reliance in those areas on enslaved laborers. The same can be said of Eastern Kentucky.

Farragut is an interesting case. Although born in Tennessee, he was orphaned at age eight and then placed in the care of the Porter family. He went to sea the following year and spent the greater part of the next fifty years either on deck or in various Navy Yards. I suspect his fiercely Unionist views stemmed from his father (a hero of the American Revolution), his adoptive family (all Navy officers), and his 52 years of service prior to 1861.

In fact I bet there were even families who had fighters on both sides and who knew it?

Certainly there were, hi EEE ya. Maryland and Kentucky were especially prone to this.

@robert piepenbrick
Are there any famous cases?

20 second Google search for "brother against brother civil war":
link

Yes, Mary Lincoln. She had brothers and cousins that fought on both sides.

Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky had sons who were generals on both sides.

Union General John Buford, of Gettysburg fame, was a cousin of Confederate General Abraham Buford.

Confederate General James Longstreet was a 2nd cousin of General Grant's wife.

As I stated in a different post, we had family members fight for both sides. Mountain families were not keen on supporting the CSA with their slave policies. However once the Union invaded their area, more men flocked to join some type of defense force.
One great uncle went to Arkansas-Oklahoma area in 1861 and came back in 1866. Great grand daddy Roberson joined the CSA as a draft substitute and later captured. Offered a chance to get out of prison by joining the Union in a none combat role. Came home after the war and still had the land given to him earlier.
One widow great aunt went to claim survivor benefits but discovered that her husband had survived the war and went west after the war. So he was alive and had joined the Union army during the war.
More stories available but I consider it sad that many youth care little about learning their family history.