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| Elections in Tennessee |
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 Government |
The 1861 Tennessee gubernatorial (Confederate) election was held on August 1, 1861, to elect the governor of Tennessee. Incumbent Democratic Governor Isham G. Harris won re-election, defeating Independent Democrat William Hawkins Polk, brother of former President James K. Polk, with 63.37% of the vote.[1][2]
This election took place about two months after Tennessee seceded from the Union during the outbreak of the Civil War. Governor Isham G. Harris was a secessionist, while during the campaign, Polk announced that he was in favor of Tennessee joining the Confederacy, However closer to the election he ran on a pro-Union platform.[3][4] William G. Brownlow, a leader of the state's Unionists, reluctantly endorsed Polk as a lesser of two evils.[5]
By the time the campaign had gotten underway, East Tennessee was threatening to withdraw from the state and join the Union, and Polk campaigned as the candidate best suited to reconcile East Tennessee with the rest of the state.[6] He attacked Governor Harris for ordering troops into East Tennessee, arguing the move only served to inflame already-heightened tensions in the region.[7]
In the months following the election, Polk traveled to Washington to champion causes for the state's Unionists, including advocating the confiscation of the property of Confederates.[8][9] In June 1862, after the Union Army had recaptured Nashville, he spoke at a Unionist convention in the city.[10] In September 1862, Polk joined the staff of Union Army general Thomas L. Crittenden.[11]
- ^ Tennessee Blue Book (1890), p. 170.
- ^ Makers of America, Vol. 1 (B.F. Johnson, 1915), p. 567.
- ^ Philip Hamer, Tennessee: A History, 1673-1932 (New York: American Historical Society, Inc., 1933), pp. 553–554.
- ^ Nashville Daily Patriot, 12 July 1861, p. 2.
- ^ Philip Hamer, Tennessee: A History, 1673-1932 (New York: American Historical Society, Inc., 1933), pp. 553–554.
- ^ "Mr. Polk in East Tennessee," Daily Nashville Patriot, 13 July 1861, p. 2.
- ^ "Gov. Harris," Nashville Union and American, 26 July 1861, p. 2.
- ^ "The Traitor," Memphis Daily Appeal, 26 April 1862, p. 1.
- ^ "The Candidates for Supreme Judge," Memphis Daily Appeal, 18 May 1862, p. 1.
- ^ "Affairs at Nashville," The Athens (TN) Post, 6 June 1862, p. 2.
- ^ "Colonel William H. Polk," Nashville Daily Union, 9 September 1862, p. 2.
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