The wonder is that the people of East Tennessee, situated as they were--far removed from States and populations where slavery did not exist; having railway connections and water communications only with those States that were hostile to the United States--should yet have set their faces as a flint against secession. The wonder is, not only that they sprung quickly with uplifted hands to the defence of the Union at the very beginning of the assaults upon its life, but were also its active or suffering friends to the close of the strife. Difficulties and dangers on that behalf, they encountered without flinching. Reproaches, and severities that in some instances were cruel persecutions, they endured with fortitude. Under the influence of an ardent patriotism, most of their able-bodied men, in order to save their personal liberty or life, or to escape being forced to fight against the Nation, left home and family and fled, as they then called it, to “God’s Country”; crossing difficult rivers and mountains by day, and snatching at night short sleep in the dark forests through which they passed; suffering from hunger and fatigue, from drenching rains and alarms from foes, until at length, where the star-spangled banner was floating securely in the air, they enlisted by tens of thousands, to help with arms in saving the Nation’s life. During the War period, in more than two years of which the Southern Confederacy ruled over East Tennessee, the property of these refugees and that of Union people who remained at home, was seized and used or destroyed, until impoverishment and want prevailed to an alarming extent. In numerous instances, starvation, like a gaunt wolf, threatened the door, and the hearts of many were sickened by hope of succor long deferred; but the fire of devotion to the Union still lived and glowed within them strong and bright until the end came.