Sister States, Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee ed. by Kent T. Dollar, Larry H. Whiteaker, W. Calvin Dickinson (review)

84 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY Book Reviews T his collection offers an excellent introduction to the history of Kentucky and Tennessee during the long middle of the nineteenth century. It brings together many of the leading scholars of the region, some of whom wrote new essays based on current research and others of whom drafted essays based on previously published material . The essays, divided into sections on pre-war, war-time, and post-war history, vary in how they balance narrative and argument, with some pieces more strongly analytical and others largely descriptive. The volume as a whole reinforces the importance of contingency. Kentucky and Tennessee shared significant similarities but during the Civil War their experiences diverged sharply. The contributors to the collection offer a variety of explanations for the divergence. Several credit the political framework that developed around the rivalry between Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. The Second Party System, in many respects, grew up around and by virtue of these two men, and their respective states reflected the dominance of each. Other contributors emphasize the role of geography in structuring different economic systems, which in turn produced contrasting political structures. In either case, the flow of events mattered . Kentucky’s refusal to secede in 1861 and Tennessee’s willingness to do so set off a sequence of events that these essays explore from multiple perspectives. The book makes a persuasive case for situating the two states at the center of any narrative of the war era. Thomas Mackey’s strong essay on Kentucky and secession argues that rather than regarding the Bluegrass State as a strange outlier among slaveholding states, we should regard its commitment to the federal Union as an essential victory for the North and one that made possible the later victories along the Mississippi River that went so far toward ensuring the perpetuation of the Union. Mackey’s narrative carefully tracks the adroit maneuvers of both Kentucky Unionists and Sister States, Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee KentT. Dollar, Larry H. Whiteaker, & W. Calvin Dickinson, eds. BOOK REVIEWS WINTER 2009 85 Kent T. Dollar, Larry H. Whiteaker, and W. Calvin Dickinson , eds. Sister States, Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2009. 402 pp. ISBN: 9780813125411 (cloth), $40.00. Abraham Lincoln that together helped keep the state loyal to the North. Derek Frisby’s essay on secession in Tennessee offers one of the sharpest arguments in the collection. Relying on a careful reading of primary sources from across the state, but particularly the relatively understudied west Tennessee area, Frisby shows the powerful role played by a small minority of pro-secession leaders who capitalized on the complacency of Tennessee Unionists to push the state out of the Union. Frisby’s focus on the role of violence and coercion contrasts with analyses of secession that portray it as a deliberative democratic process. The essays on wartime Kentucky and Tennessee reveal how much more there is yet to learn about this theater of the conflict. Several of these essays point toward the increasing brutality and violence of the war in the West. Even if few participants matched the pathologically brutal “Champ” Ferguson, convicted of fifty-two murders during the conflict, the experiences of war in this region clearly blurred the line between combatant and noncombatant . Whether one considers the trauma of forced expulsion for residents of Camp Nelson (a large contraband camp), or the Confederate women subjected to imprisonment or exile by Union provost marshals, it is clear that the war’s force was felt by everyone. Kristin Streater’s essay on pro-Confederate women in Kentucky and Kenneth Noe’s essay on middle Tennessee Unionists suggest that scholars need to continue refining how we understand loyalty and how different groups of southerners expressed their loyalties over time. Kent Dollar’s revealing essay on one Tennessee Christian shows how the chaos and violence of war could reshape even something as basic as religious faith. Dollar’s subject, Alfred T. Fielder, recognized that he had been swept up in events beyond his control and increasingly sought solace in providence as the ultimate controlling force. The authors writing on post-war...