Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Spring 2025

Department 1

GLI History

Abstract

Local histories of Civil War occupation provide a human face to the larger history of the American Civil War. The interactions between citizens and outside occupiers furnishes greater clarity and revelations on the human cost of conflict. It also presents greater evidence, either supportive or not, on broader arguments expressed in scholarly works on the Civil War. This work examines how prior attitudes towards the Unionism and secessionism were provoked during the process of military occupation. It argues that in the town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the citizens’ allegiances and relationships were challenged by the occupation of both Union and Confederate armies. Prewar notions of honor and liberty were altered by close contact between occupiers and citizens. In many instances this contact further strengthened soldiers’ and citizens’ convictions about the Union and secession, causing community strife, violence and distrust. In these instances, this contact further strengthened occupiers and community members’ attitudes and opinions on what exactly liberty and honor meant to themselves and their country. This work begins by engaging with important secondary scholarly works on the American Civil War Historians such as James McPherson, Eric Foner, David Potter, Stephen Ash, Lorien Foote, and Daniel Croft providing the broader contextual arguments made within this narrow community history. However, primary sources are the heart of all historical studies and interpretations, and the local and state archives furnished a large amount of the diaries, letters, and newspapers used to write this narrative local history. The two most important source providers were John Cedric Spence and John Gibson Parkhurst. These two men were from the two opposing sections of the country during the war and gave the author abundant material to use in the form of letters and diaries. These sources offered fascinating stories and showed the strengths and vulnerabilities of the people living and occupying Murfreesboro during the war. The findings of this research paper demonstrate the complexities of human interaction and showed that stereotypes and ideologies are changed very little and often reinforced under extreme conditions.

Comments

Written for AMHI 699: Capstone in American History

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