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This chapter analyzes the behavior of Knoxville Unionists under Confederate military occupation (May 1861-August 1863) against the backdrop of the speeches of William G. Brownlow, who undertook a triumphal speaking tour in 1863 and became, for his adoring northern audiences, the very personification of Southern Unionism. Drawing on extensive evidence from Confederate and Union civil and military records, the chapter constructs a collective profile of Unionist and Confederate sympathizers that includes nearly 450 individuals from 323 households. Mining these and other contemporary sources (diaries, memoirs, correspondence), it sketches the range of responses among Unionists to Confederate occupation. Whereas Brownlow was lecturing Northern audiences about defiant, “unconditional” Southern Unionists willing to sacrifice their all in defense of the Stars and Stripes, Knoxville's Unionist leaders were in fact adopting a range of accommodation strategies that defined loyalty to the Union as anything short of active, enthusiastic support for the Confederacy.

Thousands of escaped prisoners, refugees, Confederate deserters, recruits for the Union Army, raiders, and guerrillas moved through the Appalachian Mountains in the last winter of the Civil War. The lack of clear jurisdiction among the various Confederate military departments and a dysfunctional command structure hampered an effective response to the movement of internal and external enemies across borders. Thomas’s Legion, a Confederate unit that captured a number of escaped prisoners, exemplified the confused state of the Confederacy’s military bureaucracy. Escaped prisoners joined forces with southern recruits for the Union Army to navigate the dangerous conditions of East Tennessee.

Bragg badly needed rest and he found it at the resort located at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he spent the time period from early December, 1863 until February, 1864 recuperating with his wife and selected members of his personal staff. Then Jefferson Davis named him to serve as his military adviser. Many people thought Bragg had been elevated to the post of general-in-chief of all Confederate armies, but his role was limited to serving as Davis’ right hand man concerning military matters. The Confederate president relied heavily on Bragg to handle a wide variety of problems, mostly administrative and institutional, that linked the army with Southern society. Bragg now became a dedicated supporter and help mate of the president. While some citizens thought he did a good job, others remained highly critical of Bragg, believing him Davis’ pet. Bragg’s intellectual and organizational strengths came to the fore, but many of the problems he attacked had no viable solutions. His success rate was mixed during the period from February until the opening of active campaigning in early May, 1864.