Defying the "Destructives": Confederate Disaffection and Disloyalty in North Carolina's Northwestern Foothills, 1861-1865

Abstract

This thesis considers Confederate disaffection and disloyalty in North Carolina's northwestern foothills; particularly Forsyth, Stokes, Surry, Yadkin, and Wilkes Counties. In so doing, this thesis adds to a growing collection of social histories and community studies that question Southern loyalties during the Civil War, and suggest that social, religious, and political factors, as well as war weariness contributed to anti-Confederate thought and behavior. Prewar Unionism and overwhelming opposition to secession before mid-April 1861 prevented the foothill counties from wholly devoting themselves to the Confederacy. Consequently, uncommitted foothill citizens rejected the Confederacy once faced with the Richmond government's unpopular wartime measures. Relentless hardships on the homefront additionally deepened regional dissatisfaction. In reaction, the foothill's disaffected population viewed the Confederate national government and North Carolina's original secessionists who encouraged the war as their primary enemies. In response, the region's anti-Confederates disloyally rebelled against the Richmond government, North Carolina's pro-war politicians, and the Southern war effort from April 1862 until the end of the war.