Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey: Autobiography and Letters (Appalachian Echoes)

408 Pages·2002·15.2 MB·English

by  J. G. M. Ramsey

Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey
Autobiography and Letters
Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey
From an oil portrait by Lloyd Branson. Picture furnished through courtesy of
Dr. Ramsey's great granddaughter, Ellen Le Noir, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
(Frontispiece.)
Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey
• I
Autobiofjraphy and Letters
EDITED BYWILLIAM B. HESSELTINE
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY ROBERT TRACY McKENZIE
The University ofTennessee Press
Knoxville
TheAppalachianEchoesseriesisdedicatedtorevivingandcontextual
izingclassic booksaboutAppalachiafor anew generationofreaders.
Bymakingavailableawidespectrumofworks-fromfiction to non
fiction, from folklife and letters to history, sociology, politics, religion, and biography
theseriesseekstorevealthediversitythathasalwayscharacterizedAppalachianwriting,
adiversitythatpromisestoconfrontandchallengelong-heldstereotypesabouttheregion.
Frontispiece:Dr.J.G.M.Ramsey.CourtesyofMcClungHistoricalCollection,Knoxville.
Originallypublishedby theTennesseeHistoricalCommission, 1954.
Editor's foreword and new introduction copyright © 2002 by The University of
TennesseePress. AllRightsReserved.ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Ramsey, J. G. M. (JamesGettysMcGready), 1797-1884
Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey: autobiography and letters / J. G. M. Ramsey; edited by
WilliamB. Hesseltine; withanintroductionbyRobertTracyMcKenzie.
p. em.- (Appalachianechoes)
Includesbibliographicalreferences andindex.
ISBN 1-57233-173-9(pbk. :all. paper)
1.Ramsey,J. G. M. (JamesGettysMcGready), 1797-1884.2. Ramsey,J. G. M.
(JamesGettysMcGready), 1797-188~oITespondence.3.Tennessee,East
History-CivilWar, I861-1865-Personal narratives. 4. UnitedStates-History
CivilWar, 1861-1865-Personalnarratives, Confederate. 5. ConfederateStates
ofAmerica. Dept. oftheTreasury-Qfficialsandemployees-Biography.
6. Landowners-Tennessee,East-Biography. 7.Businessmen-Tennessee,
East-Biography. 8.Physicians-Tennessee, East-Biography.9.Historians
Tennessee, East-Biography. 10. Knoxville Region (Tenn.)-Biography.
I. Hesseltine,WilliamBest, 1902-1963. II.Title. III. Series.
E487.R232002
973.7'82-dc21
Revised 2001045689
Contents
PAGE
Foreword vii
DurwoodDunn
Introduction xi
RobertTracy McKenzie
Preface . xxix
CHAPTER
I Heritage and Youth . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . I
II Mecklenburg Politics 17
III BankingandInternal Improvements. ..... ........ ..... 33
IV IntellectualImprovements 46
V Annals ofTennessee: LettersofaHistorian " 57
VI IndustrialNecessities oftheSouth .................. 83
VII A Confederate Banker 98
VIII FirstRaidon East Tennessee. ........................... 106
IX Buckner's Trip 113
X Captain RobertM. Ramsey I25
XI OtherSons andaCousin ............................... 134
XII Longstreetin Knoxville. ................................ 144
XIII RebelLadies 158
XIV The LostRifle 182
XV Misfortunes andBereavements 187
XVI SomeAtrocitiesandSome Adjustments. ................... 208
XVII Exile's Retreat . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. 220
XVIII Yankee Prisons 236
XIX Return to Knoxville 246
XX A Return to History 256
XXI Men ofMecklenburg. .................................. 278
XXII Pioneers ofTennessee 292
XXIII Interests ofan Octogenarian 308
XXIV King's Mountain Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 323
Index " 347

Foreword
InthewakeofToddGroce'sMountain Rebels: EastTennessee Confederates
and the Civil War, 1860-1870, there has been renewed interest in Confeder
ates in a section ofTennessee long noted for its Unionist sympathies during
the Civil War. No single person was a greater exemplar ofpro-slavery East
Tennesseans loyal to the South than Dr. James Gettys McGready Ramsey
(1796-1884). Dr. Ramsey was a multifacetedindividual whose activities left
a permanent imprint on the political, social, and economic development of
antebellum East Tennessee. He was a physician, public official, religious
leader, banker, railroad advocate, scholar, staunch secessionist, and writer of
an invaluable early chronicle of Tennessee history in 1853, The Annals of
Tennessee to the Endofthe Eighteenth Century.
Perhaps no one better demonstrates the complexity of capitalism in the
antebellumSouththandoesDr. Ramsey.Anearlysupporterofeffortstobuild
acanalsystemtobypassnavigational hazardsontheTennesseeRiverinorder
to connect Knoxville merchants andregional farmers to markets in the wider
worldthroughthe MississippiRiver,Ramseybythe 1830Shadturned, against
the wishes of many ofhis fellow boosters, to railroads as providing the best
economic avenue for EastTennessee to reach larger markets. His efforts cul
minated in the completion by 1855 of the East Tennessee and Georgia Rail
road, connecting Knoxville to both Virginia and South Carolina. As Todd
Groce pointsout, therailroadboundEastTennesseemuchmorecloselytothe
lower South, which was in need ofthe region's wheat, com, beef, and pork.
Likewise, Kenneth W. Noe argues that this same railroad through Southwest
Virginia would link that region politically and economically to the rest of
Virginia and the South. Interestingly, Dr. Ramsey favored all commercial
development but frowned on industrialization; for other Knoxville railroad
advocates, suchasWilliamG. Brownlow, whosaw therailroads as an avenue
to industrialization, he had only contempt. Indeed, Parson Brownlow would
becomeDr. Ramsey's major antagonist long before the CivilWar.
The warwouldprove disastrous to Ramsey andhis family. Longastaunch
states-rights Democrat, he publicly and enthusiastically supported secession
Vll
Vlll FOREWORD
in 1861 and later faithfully served the Confederacy as a treasury agent and
field surgeon. Union occupation of Knoxville brought the destruction ofhis
home, Mecklenburg, and the burningofhis libraryoffourthousand volumes
andoriginaldocuments ofearlyTennesseehistory. Inexile inNorth Carolina
afterthe war, he would write his autobiography, which dealt mainly with the
family's experience during the Civil War. His autobiography is especially
notableinchroniclingRamsey's attitudesandemotionsduringtheconflict, as
wellas actualevents, suchas thedeathofoneofhissons whileservinginthe
Confederate army. In 1954, William B. Hesseltine edited the autobiography,
which, together with an introduction and numerous letters Ramsey wrote to
hisfriend andfellow historianinWisconsin, LymanC. Draper, waspublished
in asingle volumeby theTennessee Historical Commission.
The sufferings so graphically relatedofthe Ramsey family during the Civil
Warareprimarilyinstructivetosocialhistoriansinterestedinattitudesandself
images offamilies like the Ramseys in a critical border state divided in its
loyalties. Historians have long been intrigued by the paradox that so many
southernersexhibitedcharacteristicsthatwerevirtuallyindistinguishablefrom
thoseofotherAmericansinthenineteenthcentury.Ramseyisaparadoxwithin
a paradox-a pro-southern advocate who nevertheless extols the democratic
virtuesofEastTennesseansintheWataugaAssociationandtheaborted"state"
ofFranklinas quintessentiallyAmerican. HeattacksGeorgeBancroftunfairly
for not giving more weight to his frontiersmen's role at the Battle of King's
MountainindeterminingtheoutcomeoftheAmerican Revolution, yetseesno
contradiction in invoking the memory ofthese liberty-loving early frontiers
men inTennessee tojustifysecessionandthe defenseofslavery.
Dr. Ramsey's eventual return and readmittance to an honored position in
Knoxville society illustrates the change and continuity in EastTennessee fol
lowingtheCivilWar. Heremainedblatantlyracist,andlargely unreconstructed
politically,buthisearlierreputationas ahistorianandcivicleaderwouldonce
again bring praise and acclaim during his declining years. He continued his
work with the EastTennessee Historical Society, which he hadearlierhelped
to found in 1834, and served as presidentoftheTennessee Historical Society
between 1874and 1884.InitspoignantdescriptionoflifeduringtheCivilWar
and Reconstruction, Ramsey's autobiography is thus an extremely readable
and valuable socialhistoryofEastTennessee, demonstrating graphically both
the upheavals andthe persistenceofcommunityduring theseturbulent years.
Finally, I am intrigued at the traces of later images of the region from
Ramsey'swritings, whichwouldappearduringthe 1870Sand 1880sinthefic
tion oflocalcoloristswho usedEastTennesseetocreateenduringstereotypes
FOREWORD IX
ofsouthernAppalachia,asoutlinedbyHenryD.Shapiro'sAppalachiaonOur
Mind: The SouthernMountainsandMountaineersintheAmericanConscious
ness. So many of the characteristics of Mary Noailles Murfree's isolated
southern mountaineers, for example, seem to borrow heavily from Ramsey's
Annals of Tennessee. Could Dr. Ramsey, with the best of intentions, have
unwittinglycontributedto the constructionofsomeofthese stereotypes?
The introduction to Dr. Ramsey's Autobiography and Letters is written by
ProfessorRobert Tracy McKenzie, whose own excellentbook, One South or
Many? Plantation Beltand Upcountry in Civil War-Era Tennessee, was pub
lishedin 1994.Dr.McKenzie, now attheUniversityofWashington, Seattle,is
presently working on a study of Knoxville during the Civil War, and Dr.
Ramsey'sautobiographyaccordingly(andserendipitously,asDr.Ramseywould
say) intersects his own current research interests. Consequently, he ably con
textualizes Dr. Ramsey within bothAppalachian historiography and the many
current debates in southern and Civil War history about capitalism and entre
preneurshipas importantagenciesfor southernnationalism.Dr. McKenziealso
manifestlyusestheRamsey autobiographytochallengestereotypesconcerning
bothAppalachianisolationandtheoverwhelmingUnionismofEastTennessee.
DURwooDDUNN
TENNESSEEWESLEYANCOLLEGE