The scene in a momentous tragedy, thus presented in a region of country so isolated from the great world that its actors could have no stimulus to their constancy in the heard applause of admiring spectators, was phenomenal, even in that time of heroic deeds. It was the reproduction, upon the same stage, after nearly a vanished century, of the same broad patriotism--to some extent inherited--which sent a thousand riflemen from Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga River, to win for the American colonies a victory at King’s Mountain; and which afterwards triumphed over a spirit of revolutionary separation, in retaining the allegiance of the people of Frankland to the mother State of North Carolina. Without doubt, the chief sentiment that animated the hearts of loyal East Tennesseeans in 1861-’65 was one of duty. “The duty of preserving the liberty which their ancestors, through God’s blessing, won, established and handed down” to them--a duty which has been said to be “no less imperative than any commandment in the second table; if it be not the concentration of the whole.”[1] To whatever causes their conduct may be attributed, it at least conveys the impression of their strong individuality as a people and invites the closer observation and study of the political philosopher. It is certain, also, that the steadfast attachment of East Tennessee to the Union and the efficient aid it gave to its preservation, formed an important factor in the war and contributed in no small degree to its final result. Had its territory been friendly ground for the encampment, sustenance and transit of Southern armies, and had the ranks of those armies been recruited with the thirty thousand East Tennesseeans who volunteered in the service of the United States, the course of events might have been seriously deflected and the war been prolonged, to the hurt of the whole country. It is of occurrences during the conflict in that territory, shut in by rock-ribbed mountains, and chiefly in its central town, that these pages will tell. The purpose of the narrative is to instruct as well as to interest the general reader, and it may afford a help, however slight, to some gifted mind that shall in the future attempt the history of the War of 1861-’65 in the spirit of a sound Christian philosophy.