1861–1986 →
→ Established 1861 | Capital Huntsville, Tennessee | |
Government Organized unrecognized State | ||
The State of Scott was a Southern Unionist movement in Scott County, Tennessee, in which the county declared itself a "Free and Independent State" following Tennessee's decision to secede from the United States and align the state with the Confederacy on the eve of the American Civil War in 1861. Like much of East Tennessee, Scott became an enclave community of the Union during the war. Although its edict had never been officially recognized, the county did not officially rescind its act of secession until 1986.
Contents
History
Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union. On June 8, 1861, the people of Scott County, spurred on in part by a speech delivered four days earlier on the steps of the Huntsville courthouse by then-Senator (and future president) Andrew Johnson—a Democrat and himself a slave holder—voted overwhelmingly (541–19) against Tennessee's referendum on secession from the Union. Later that year, the county court voted to approve the Scott County Assembly's unanimous resolution of secession from Tennessee, while allowing the immediate formation of the "Independent State of Scott," an enclave community whose sympathies remained strongly loyal to the Union throughout the war.
Of little strategic value, the mountainous State of Scott was not the site of any fighting on a major scale during the Civil War, instead seeing mostly guerrilla warfare, bushwhacking, and skirmishing, which was often of a very vicious and violent nature.
Aftermath
The proclamation was finally repealed by Scott County in 1986. The county successfully petitioned the state of Tennessee for readmission, which was ceremonially granted, even though its secession had not been recognized by the state —nor the federal governments of either the Union or the Confederacy.
Roadside marker
Today, a roadside marker on Highway 63, near the county seat, Huntsville, Tennessee, reads: