During the Civil War, Knoxville, Tennessee was almost equally divided between Confederate and Union sympathizers.

Professor Tracy McKenzie, author of the book on the subject — Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War — will offer a lecture in the John C. Hodges Library on Thursday, November 14. The public is invited. The lecture is at 6:30 p.m. in the Lindsay Young Auditorium. A reception and music in the Jack E. Reese Galleria begin at 5:30 p.m.

Lincolnites and Rebels details Knoxville’s complex Civil War experience from the viciously partisan journalism of characters like William G. “Parson” Brownlow to post-war conflicts over the issue of emancipation.

Knoxville in the mid-nineteenth century was a commercial center, and during the Civil War was a strategically important juncture in the railroad that linked the eastern and western theaters of the war. Consequently, Knoxville was under continuous military occupation throughout the war.

Nearly forty-thousand soldiers fought over the town in the fall of 1863. The bloody Battle of Fort Sanders, the climactic battle in the siege of Knoxville, took place 150 years ago this month, less than a quarter mile from the current John C. Hodges Library.

The UT Libraries is marking the sesquicentennial with a new digital collection that highlights the libraries’ excellent holdings of Civil War documents. Selected letters and journals in the Digital Civil War Collection capture the perspectives and personal experiences of soldiers and civilians.

Civil War artifacts from the UT Libraries’ collections are now on display in the Special Collections reading room, 121 Hodges Library. Among the items on display are an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America signed by an imprisoned Confederate soldier to secure his parole; a Union veteran’s badge cast from bronze taken from Confederate cannons; and the signed carte de visite of General Ambrose Burnside, leader of the defending Union troops at the Battle of Fort Sanders.

The public is invited to interact with fellow Civil War enthusiasts, examine gems from the Libraries’ collections, and enjoy the music of old-time Appalachian string band Boogertown Gap.