150 Years | Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial

The Tennessee Historical Commission's “A Path Divided” handbook provides information on the war in all areas of the state, Hood's Tennessee campaign, a timeline of the war, information about the Civil War Discovery Trail and a downloadable brochure.

The Civil War Courier is a great resource for everything Civil War related. Here, find links to Civil War battlefields, museums, photos, and much more. You can also subscribe and receive regular updates on Civil War news.

Military maps have always played a crucial role in planning strategy, designing battle plans, and finding the best points for supply routes or even a retreat. This was no more evident than in the American Civil War where large armies traversed a widespread landscape unfamiliar to most commanders. Knowing the roads to and from the sites of military engagements, as well as the topography of the locality, were indispensable in conducting war maneuvers. Thus, both sides went to great lengths to ensure that they had as much of a tactical advantage as possible. Today, Civil War military maps are used by historians and other researchers in analyzing the campaigns of the war in order to ascertain troop positions, defensive structures, roads, campsites, local buildings, and topography. A number of battle maps provide information about a locality that is not available elsewhere such as the configuration of small towns, the location of plantations, and the names of landowners in the area. Those interested in cartography find Civil War maps to be an endless source of fascination because of the varieties in methodology, design, and composition. Civil War maps offer a unique glimpse of the nation’s most portentous conflict.

The Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area has launched a major new interpretive website, Shades of Gray and Blue, which interprets Tennessee's Civil War experience through the lens of its artists and art.   This truly innovative interpretive project is a joint partnership between the Heritage Area, the Heard Library at Vanderbilt University, the Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University, and the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation.

The "Civil War Visual Culture" unit of the Tennessee Virtual Archive showcases a wide variety of Civil War-related materials: sheet music covers, professionally designed lithographs, flags, hand-drawn letters, military drawings, and other images. These items represent some of the ways in which a tragic era in America’s history was experienced by contemporaries and interpreted by subsequent generations.

The items in this collection offer new perspectives into the lives of numerous non-combatants during the Civil War in Tennessee and throughout the southeast. The correspondence and primary writings touch on several themes relating to the home front, including the diverse roles of women, the relationship between occupying/invading forces and civilians, personal beliefs regarding secession and the war, and the effect of the war on African American Tennesseans. These sources can offer the public a lens into the lives of many Civil War non-combatant men and women, a subject of increasing importance in Civil War scholarship.

Since 1834, the East Tennessee Historical Society has been helping us hold on to our unique heritage—recording the events, collecting the artifacts, and saving the stories that comprise the history we all share. The historical society pursues its educational mission through publications, lectures, conferences, school programs, exhibits, and heritage programs such as the popular First Families of Tennessee and the new Civil War Families of Tennessee. Headquartered in the East Tennessee History Center in downtown Knoxville, ETHS operates the Museum of East Tennessee History, also located at the History Center.

The East Tennessee Development District (ETDD) is a voluntary association of municipal and county governments that are located in the mid-east region of Tennessee. ETDD provides sixteen counties and fifty-six municipalities with planning and development services while also serving as a forum for local governments to solve common problems associated with economic development and growth. Organized in 1966, the East Tennessee Development District continues to be a vital force in helping local governments plan for the future by coordinating the establishment of regional and local priorities within the fields of economic and community development

The activities of First Tennessee Development District affect the lives of people within the communities of the region, and part of the District's public information program is to communicate its purposes and actions to the regional constituency. Activities have included workshops, surveys, public hearings, teleconferences, displays, meetings, and special events. News releases were prepared and disseminated to area media to keep them informed and involved, as well as to insure that all requirements of laws, regulations, and contract terms and conditions were met for District programs. Informational and educational pamphlets, status reports, and brochures have been distributed to keep citizens of the region knowledgeable and informed.

Begun in the months after the end of the Civil War, Fisk University played a leadership role in the intellectual, artistic and civic education of African Americans and became known for its world-famous Jubilee Singers. In addition to its historic sites and art collections, the Fisk Library’s Special Collections section is a major national resource for the study of the African American experience.

Franklin’s Charge is a § 501(c)(3) Tennessee nonprofit corporation organized in 2005 dedicated to preserving America’s threatened Civil War battlefields in Williamson County, Tennessee. In addition, Franklin’s Charge has actively worked to educate the public about the 1864 Schofield- Hood campaigns, the 1864 Battle of Franklin, the 1863 Battle of Thompson’s Station, the Union earthworks in Triune, and other Civil War events in Middle Tennessee. Further, Franklin’s Charge has been an active participant in heritage tourism, American Civil War history programs, and preservation efforts.

The Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving our historic resources in Franklin and Williamson County, Tennessee. Among our programs is the award-winning Main Street Program, the Downtown Franklin Association, which promotes and revitalizes the 150 unique places to explore in the 15-block downtown National Register District. The Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County was founded in 1967 and has a long history of preserving historic resources. The Foundation started with a group of citizens with vision who wanted to protect the historic resources that make Franklin and Williamson County a special place. The efforts of the Foundation have played a major role in keeping Franklin and Williamson County from becoming "Anywhere USA."

The National Park Service document "Holding the High Ground: Principles and Strategies for Managing and Interpreting Civil War Battlefield Landscapes" discusses efforts to preserve and interpret battlefields, roads, adjacent land and other resources.

Since its founding, Knox Heritage has aimed to educate everyone about the benefits of historic preservation. It has acquired blighted houses that once were the worst examples of neglect and restored them to attractive homes, improving historic neighborhoods. It has helped secure funding for development projects that contribute to the revitalization of downtown. It has called attention to some of Knox County’s most endangered cultural and historic assets, encouraging owners to preserve these unique places for the next generation. And it has helped build a broad network of those that value historic preservation throughout the community.

The Knoxville Civil War Rountable, founded in 1983, works diligently to remain committed to its stated goals of knowledge, commemoration and preservation of Civil War heritage. Their meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month, at the Bearden Banquet Hall, 5806 Kingston Pike (on the south side of Kingston Pike, 0.2 mile east of Northshore Drive and just west of Buddy's Bar-B-Q). All meetings are open to the general public, and anyone with an interest in the Civil War, or a specific speaker or topic, is both welcome and encouraged to attend. A dinner buffet is served at 7:00 p.m. Cost is $15.00 for members and $17.00 for nonmembers. Reservations must be made or cancelled not later than 11:00 am on the day before the meeting. Call (865) 671-9001 to make or cancel reservations. Roundtable business is conducted at approximately 7:45 p.m. A guest speaker, normally an author, educator, or historian of national prominence in his or her field, speaks for approximately one hour, on some aspect of the American Civil War. This address is followed by a brief question and discussion period. Cost (for those not dining) is $3.00 for members and $5.00 for nonmembers.

The Teaching with Primary Sources Program works with colleges and other educational organizations to deliver professional development programs that help teachers use the Library of Congress's rich reservoir of digitized primary source materials to design challenging, high-quality instruction.

TN State Library and Archives website related to the Looking Back: The Civil War in Tennessee project funded by the TN Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission along with this description: The first of its kind--a statewide, web-based, interactive application using GIS technology to display and manipulate different data about Civil War sites in Tennessee--is now available at http://tnmap.tn.gov/civilwar_test/ . It shows hundreds of places where Civil War battles & engagements occurred, which you can view with aerial photography, street maps, land use and property parcel maps (use the vertical arrow cursor at left to zoom in and out). You can find complete histories of all the units that served in the war from TN, searchable by county. We have linked many images and documents from the TSLA collections to sites, and overlaid old Civil War maps onto the current landscape. Play with it, click the buttons and tabs, and show it to your kids. They might like it!

MTSU’s Center for Historic Preservation is a research and public service institute committed to the heritage development--the identification, research, preservation, interpretation, and promotion--of our historic environment. Covering all of Tennessee's 95 counties, the Center programs enhance a sense of place, pride, and identity through the documentation, interpretation, and preservation of historic sites, landscapes, and historical narratives that comprise the Tennessee experience.

During the Civil War, nearly every county in Tennessee formed military units for the Confederate government and the Federal government. The Tennessee State Library and Archives has collections of Civil War military records which can be used by patrons conducting historical or genealogical research.

The mission of the Mississippi River Corridor in Tennessee is to identify, conserve and interpret the region’s natural, cultural and scenic resources to improve the quality of life and prosperity in West Tennessee.

Nashville Public Television is available free and over the air to nearly 2.4 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky viewing area, and is watched by more than 600,000 households every week. The mission of NPT is to provide, through the power of traditional television and interactive telecommunications, high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those they serve.

The Teaching with Primary Sources Program works with colleges and other educational organizations to deliver professional development programs that help teachers use the Library of Congress's rich reservoir of digitized primary source materials to design challenging, high-quality instruction.

Northwest Tennessee Development District is an association of forty-seven municipalities and nine counties organized to advocate and promote economic and community development in the region. Founded in 1971 to provide planning, technical assistance, staff support and to help its local governments develop projects and activities to benefit the communities and citizens. Currently the district employees 26 full-time and 6 part-time persons in the office and many other persons full-time and part-time through the Area Agency on Aging administered contracts. The primary goals are to assist local governments in researching, obtaining, and administering state and federal funding; to enhance the quality of life in Northwest Tennessee; and to identify needs and advocate services for the elderly population of the region. The District concerns itself with the total social, economic, and environmental well being of this area.

In cooperation with the Cumberland River Valley Consortium and other Teaching American History initiatives, TSLA has digitized primary source materials that will be useful for K-12 teachers and students. Linked with Tennessee’s standards for teaching American history, items are divided into the ten eras of history as designated by the State Department of Education. Each primary source featured in the era presentations will include brief interpretive text, in addition to a reference to the state performance indicator being addressed. There is also a link to our online exhibits; eventually, we will provide sample lesson plans for teachers based on our holdings of historical images and documents.

For years, the Reconstruction era marked a tumultuous period in American and Tennessee history. Even before the formal process of Reconstruction began following the Civil War, steps were taken to address the rights of freed slaves and the readmission of Confederate states to the Union. The materials in this collection portray a few of the challenges and victories that emerged during Reconstruction. The focus of the images rests primarily on the Reconstruction period and Gilded Age (1876-1910) in Tennessee following the Civil War.

This white clapboard house built in 1849 by Jacob Burkle served as a way station on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves. A tour of the house includes a visit to a small cellar where slaves waited to escape.

The Smoky Mountain Convention & Visitors Bureau in Townsend provides information about a number of historic sites, museums and events related to the Civil War.

South Central Tennessee Development District (SCTDD) is an association of thirteen county and thirty-six municipal governments in southern Middle Tennessee organized to advocate and promote economic and community development within the region.

Southeast Tennessee’s Civil War stories are closely tied to the places where heroism, violence, sacrifice, and commitment from both soldiers and civilians have forever left their mark. Follow this trail to some of the most compelling places in Tennessee’s history, including the South’s first major battlefield park at Chickamauga-Chattanooga; monuments to both the North and South; historic homes; and modern museums. Trails include Bledsoe, Bradley, Grundy, Hamilton, Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie Counties.

The Southeast Tennessee Development District provides and shares a staff to cost effectively plan, promote and implement programs that result in the development and improvement throughout the southeast region of the Tennessee River Valley Basin. These program names are listed to the left and vary somewhat in service territory. The programs can be categorized into the following four basic departmental areas: Human Services, Workforce Development, Planning, and Economic Development.

As a planning organization, the Southwest Tennessee Development District promotes the renewal and revitalization of both rural and urban communities through betterment of an economic base (Economic Development), physical infrastructure (Community Development) and quality of life (Area Agency on Aging & Disability) for our eight county area.

Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and maintained by the Tennessee State Museum,the Tennessee 4 Me website contains information about all eras of Tennessee's history, from the first humans in Tennessee through the information revolution of today. The site includes images, historical information and teachers' pages.

The first of its kind--a statewide, web-based, interactive application using GIS technology to display and manipulate different data about Civil War sites in Tennessee--is now available at tnmap.tn.gov/civilwar . It shows hundreds of places where Civil War battles & engagements occurred, which you can view with aerial photography, street maps, land use and property parcel maps (use the toolbars and vertical arrow cursor to zoom in and out). You can find complete histories of all the units that served in the war from TN, searchable by county. We have linked many images and documents from the Tennessee State Library & Archives collections to sites, and overlaid old Civil War maps onto the current landscape.

Play with it, click the buttons and tabs, and show it to your kids. They might like it!

The National Park Service site provides information about the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area and other aspects of Civil War history in addition to information about all National Parks within the system.

TCWPA raises funds to protect Civil War battlefields, promotes their preservation and interpretation, and provides an ongoing battlefields assessment program. TCWPA facilitates a statewide network of local preservation organizations, manages events, campaigns, award programs and education.

The Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook is a searchable collection of more than 7,000 articles from a wide array of historical sources chronicling the Civil War in Tennessee from September 1, 1863 through September 30, 1865. The site also includes a glossary and bibliography.

The Tennessee Council for the Social Studies is an association devoted to providing information, resources, and support for all those involved in social studies education. This includes K-12 teachers, supervisors of instruction, and college professors, in the various disciplines interested in and involved in the social studies.

The state's tourism web site, tncivilwar150.com, was launched to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and provides information on attractions and events throughout the state, including Civil War-related places to go and things to do.

The online edition of the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture is a definitive and comprehensive reference work on the Volunteer State cosponsored by the Tennessee State Press and the Tennessee Historical Society.

The Tennessee Historical Commission encourages the study of Tennessee's history for the benefit of future generations. Their goal is to protect, preserve, interpret, operate, maintain, and administer historic sites in addition to their many programs related to history and historic preservation.

Since 1849, the Society has worked to promote interest in and preservation of Tennessee’s historic sites. Activities include publication of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, public programs and lecture series, special projects such as The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, and active collection of artifacts and documents.

Tennessee History for Kids is changing the way K-12 students learn about the Volunteer State. More than 5,000 classrooms use this web site, videos, posters, brochures and columns to learn Tennessee history, civics and geography. Whether you are a student, teacher, librarian, parent, or an interested citizen, check out the web page making a difference from Mountain City to Memphis.

In the summer of 1999, a group of approximately 30 people, representing interested persons and organizations from across the state, met with staff from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The group inherited the charter and membership roster of the Tennessee Heritage Alliance, which started in 1982 and was active through the mid-1990s. Building on the successes and legacy of the THA (whose 1983 conference featured the legendary Minnie Pearl and then-Governor Lamar Alexander,) the revitalized effort combined the best of old and new to become the Tennessee Preservation Trust (TPT). From the outset, the goal of TPT was to advocate for preservation issues across the state, while helping unify the diverse constituencies that make up the preservation movement in Tennessee.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives collects and preserves books and records of historical, documentary and reference value and promotes library and archival development throughout the state. Resources include African American records, birth, death, census, county, military, Native American and state records, maps, bibliographies, state and governor's papers and other information. Online exhibits and other resources are available for research.

The Tennessee State Museum has one of the best Civil War Collections in the nation. Find art, history and culture at one of the largest museums in the nation. The museum’s Civil War holdings of uniforms, battle flags and weapons are among the finest in the nation.

Tennessee State University is a historic black college, begun as the Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School in 1912, marking the beginning of a new era in higher education. The library’s Special Collections section houses historic archives, art object and other collections of historical interest.

The Tennessee Virtual Archive (TeVA) is a program of the State Library and Archives to create a digital repository of Tennessee history and culture. Our mission is to bring electronic versions of the state’s rich collections to a wider audience. TeVA provides a searchable array of historical records, photographs, documents, maps, postcards, film, audio and other original materials of enduring value.

The Tennessee Wars Commission’s work includes the coordination of planning, preservation, and promotion of structures, buildings, sites, and battlefields of Tennessee associated with the French and Indian War, American Revolution, War of 1812, U.S.-Mexican War, and the War Between the States.

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the seeds of Southern mythology idealizing the service of the South’s aging Confederate veterans began to take root. Defeated militarily, in the decades following 1865 the South struggled to vindicate the decisions that had led to secession and to an armed conflict that had cost so many men their lives. From the ashes of war and the turbulence of the Reconstruction period, a cultural identity took shape, grounded in ideas and attitudes referred to collectively as the Lost Cause.