Escape from East Tennessee to the federal lines

In Short

When East Tennessee is pulled into the Confederacy against its popular vote, a local lieutenant-colonel refuses to raise a rebel regiment and becomes a hunted Union partisan. Fleeing into the rugged mountains, he survives capture, imprisonment, and harrowing escapes to reach Federal lines in Kentucky. Returning as a Union recruiter, he pilots over a hundred loyal men through enemy territory, eventually fighting through the Atlanta campaign. Written in simple words, the memoir endures as a stark, grounded testimony to divided communities, extraordinary civilian resilience, and the brutal realities of the Civil War.

The Story

The narrative begins before the outbreak of open hostilities, when the author travels south to drive hogs and suddenly realizes he stands in hostile territory upon seeing the Confederate flag. Back in Tennessee, despite an overwhelming popular vote against secession, a military alliance drags the state into the Confederacy. Because the author refuses local pressure to raise a rebel regiment, he is hunted, briefly conscripted, and forced into hiding. He spends months sleeping in the open woods, navigating rivers at night, and visiting his family only in absolute secrecy—frequently hiding beneath beds to evade curious neighbors and hostile dogs while avoiding the violent fate of fellow Unionists languishing in local stockades.

After managing an initial, dangerous journey to Federal encampments in Kentucky, the author volunteers to return behind enemy lines as a recruiter and pilot. Alongside loyal companions, he braves swollen rivers and treacherous mountain passes to organize an exodus of men eager to join the Union army. Gathering roughly one hundred and thirty followers on a dark, stormy night, he leads them on a grueling march across steep ridges, swollen rivers, and enemy patrols. Sustained only by stolen moments of rest and meager rations shared by loyal sympathizers, the party successfully breaches the Confederate lines, prompting emotional cries of relief as they reach safety in Kentucky.

Enlisting in the Eighth Tennessee Infantry Regiment under Colonel Felix A. Reeve, the author transitions from an underground fugitive to a uniformed soldier. He participates in General Burnside's recapture of East Tennessee, tracking down and capturing local tormentors during scouting details. Subsequently, his regiment joins General Sherman’s forces for the relentless advance toward Atlanta. He experiences the thunderous bombardment, fierce picket battles, and heavy casualties of the Atlanta campaign, ultimately confronting the tragic irony of civil conflict when he discovers childhood friends among captured Confederate prisoners at Jonesboro. The narrative concludes long after the fall of Atlanta and the cessation of hostilities, reflecting on postwar reunions, lingering bitterness, and the eventual restoration of national unity across forty-five years of peace.

How It Unfolds

The sudden awakening While away on a routine business trip to South Carolina, the author confronts the stark reality of secession and feels a sudden, defining surge of loyalty to the Union. Returning home to East Tennessee, he finds his neighbors initially unaware of the impending national catastrophe.

Refusing the Confederacy When state authorities align with the Confederacy, local leaders pressure the author to raise a rebel regiment for the new government. His flat refusal marks him as a traitor to the local regime, instantly plunging him into a life of concealment, nighttime scouting, and constant evasion.

The underground fugitive Living rough in the woods between Newport and Neddys Mountain, the author relies on family connections and intimate knowledge of the geography to survive. Secret nocturnal visits to his cabin and relatives' homes expose him to constant peril from watchful neighbors, hostile dogs, and roaming rebel scouts.

Piloting the loyal band After reaching Union safety in Kentucky, the author returns across the Cumberland Mountains to guide a massive band of loyal men north. Leading one hundred and thirty refugees through torrential storms, flooded rivers, and narrow mountain paths, he relies on supreme stealth to bypass Confederate guards.

Campaigning to Atlanta The narrative culminates in active military service alongside Sherman's army during the grueling campaign through Georgia. From managing dangerous picket lines to witnessing the fall of Atlanta, the author records the ultimate cost of a fractured nation before reflecting on postwar reconciliation.

The People

Robert A. Ragan emerges as a cautious, resolute figure whose initial confusion over the war gives way to ironclad loyalty. He wants to survive the Confederate crackdown and aid the Union cause, facing the constant threat of execution, yet ends up a seasoned captain and pilot who successfully shepherds over a hundred men to freedom.

Alexander Ragan, the author's brother, proves his immense bravery by risking his life in freezing, flooded rivers to secure a canoe for the party's escape. He wants to protect his family and ensure the safe passage of the loyalists, ultimately demonstrating selfless fraternal devotion.

George Freshour serves as a fiercely loyal sergeant in the author's company. He wants to defend his comrades and withstand enemy pressure, displaying notable daring on picket duty and later exacting a measure of poetic justice against local tormentors.

Henry Kilgore represents the local face of Confederate authority as a conscript officer and neighbor. He wants to enforce secession and suppress Union dissent, but he ultimately faces capture by the men he once persecuted, enduring humiliation when his captors pour honey into his tall white hat.

In Its Own Voice

I was young, and hardly knew what it meant, for everything was calm when I left East Tennessee; but when I looked up and saw the rebel flag, I felt a thrill of patriotism run through my veins, and then began to realize the fact that it was not the flag I had been used to all my life.

The author describes the exact moment in South Carolina when the reality of the sectional crisis first dawns on him.

Some of them, when we reached the top of the mountain, looked back into the valley of East Tennessee and said, "Farewell to rebellion;" and they looked North and said, "I can see the Promised Land!"

Weary refugees express their profound emotional release upon finally crossing the rugged mountains into the safety of Federal territory.

I make this statement to show that fathers and brothers and neighbors and friends had fought against each other.

The author reflects on the tragic reality of civil war after encountering childhood schoolmates among captured Confederate prisoners at Jonesboro.

What It's Really About

The book explores the agonizing friction of a borderland community violently split down the middle by ideological and political loyalties. It investigates the heavy psychological and physical toll exacted on civilians who choose to resist an established local regime, highlighting the underground networks of survival maintained largely by resolute women and hunted guides. Beneath the tales of physical endurance lies a fundamental question about the nature of allegiance: how neighbors, schoolmates, and kin turn against one another in a civil conflict, and whether a fractured society can ever truly cohere again once the bloodshed stops.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate raw, unvarnished primary accounts of the American Civil War will find this memoir deeply compelling. It strips away romantic mythmaking, offering instead a gritty, ground-level view of what it actually felt like to hide in a hayloft, bleed through worn-out boots on mountain trails, and whisper in the dark to avoid detection. Modern readers must navigate the occasional rough edges of period dialect and the stark, unpolished nature of a self-published nineteenth-century text. Yet these very difficulties give the book its undeniable power. What stays with you long after closing the cover is the sheer, quiet resilience of ordinary families—particularly the loyal women who tore up their own blankets to clothe escaping soldiers—and the haunting realization of what it costs a community to tear itself apart and slowly stitch itself back together over decades of fragile peace.