We have all read of the pro-southern actions in the north during the Civil War; they are in just about every US History text. The NYC draft riots and the murder of black residents in that city, and the fact that Lincoln needed an armed escort to get through Baltimore on his way to DC. But why have those same texts omitted any reference to pro-union actions taken in the states of the CSA? One example of those actions that texts could have noted was the effort by Winston County, Alabama to secede from the CSA. The hill people of Appalachia did not benefit from slavery and might not have wanted to defend it. On July 4, 1861 a group established the "Free State of Winston". Many men of this area resisted conscription into the armies of the CSA and hid out in the hills for the duration of the war. Eastern Tennessee (the poorest section of that state) and northwest Georgia were also part of a "plan" to form a new state-much like West Virginia formed from Virginia-called "Nickajack". The plan to form a new state failed for the lack of a strong leader and died by the end of 1861.
(Source" Lost States by Michael J. Trinklein. Quirk Books of Philadelphia. 2010)
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