Editing Middle Tennessee (section)

===Civil War and Reconstruction===
[[File:Kurz and Allison - Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Battle of Franklin (1864)|Battle of Franklin]], November 30, 1864]]
Following the Confederate [[Battle of Fort Sumter|attack on Fort Sumter]] in April 1861, which started the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], and President Lincoln's call to raise federal troops in response, many Middle Tennesseans changed their opinions about secession. In June 1861, Middle Tennessee voted in favor of Tennessee's second ordnance of secession, which resulted in Tennessee joining the [[Confederate States of America]] (CSA),{{sfn|Corlew|1981|p=294}} although a few counties in the extreme southwest ([[Wayne County, Tennessee|Wayne]]) and northeast ([[Macon County, Tennessee|Macon]] and [[Fentress County, Tennessee|Fentress]]) continued to favor the Union.

A number of crucial campaigns and battles of the Civil War took place in Middle Tennessee. General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and the [[U.S. Navy]] captured control of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in February 1862 at the battles of [[Battle of Fort Henry|Fort Henry]] and [[Battle of Fort Donelson|Fort Donelson]], essentially establishing Union control of Middle Tennessee.{{sfn|Connelly|1979|pp=24-30}} Union troops occupied the state for the duration of the war.

Union strength in the area, however, was tested by a series of Confederate offensives beginning in the summer of 1862, which culminated in Union General [[William Rosecrans]]'s [[Army of the Cumberland]] routing Confederate General [[Braxton Bragg]]'s [[Army of Tennessee]] at the [[Battle of Stones River]] in [[Murfreesboro, Tennessee|Murfreesboro]] in December 1862 and January 1863.{{sfn|Connelly|1979|pp=54-65}} This was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war.{{sfn|Connelly|1979|pp=54-65}} In February, the Confederates took about 670 to 870 casualties in the [[Battle of Dover (1863)|Battle of Dover]] when Colonel [[Abner C. Harding]] defeated the 2500 Confederate troops with 800 Union soldiers. The next summer, Rosecrans's [[Tullahoma campaign]] forced Bragg's remaining troops in Middle Tennessee to flee to [[Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga]] with little fighting.{{sfn|Connelly|1979|pp=65-68}} The last major battles in Middle Tennessee occurred during the [[Franklin–Nashville campaign]] in the fall of 1864, when the Army of Tennessee under the command of General [[John Bell Hood]] unsuccessfully tried to lure Union General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]], who was conducting the [[Atlanta campaign]] in Georgia, back into the region. Hood was defeated at the [[Battle of Franklin (1864)|Battle of Franklin]] in November, then completely dispersed from the state by General [[George Henry Thomas|George Thomas]] at the [[Battle of Nashville]] the following month.{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=314-315}} The [[United States Colored Troops]] (USCT) played a major role in this campaign.{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=314-315}}

During [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]], Middle Tennessee's economy fell into a state of disrepair. The [[Ku Klux Klan]] was formed in [[Pulaski, Tennessee|Pulaski]] in December 1865 as a vigilante organization to advance the interests of former Confederates, including maintenance of [[white supremacy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Coulter |first1=E. Merton |author1-link=E. Merton Coulter |title=William G. Brownlow: Fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands |date=1999 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |location=Knoxville |isbn=978-1-57233-050-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egskEhcF5gkC |access-date=May 12, 2021 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref> In the years following the Civil War, African Americans and their White allies in Middle Tennessee were targeted with acts of violence by former Confederates. Many freedmen (former slaves) became [[sharecropping|sharecroppers]] following the end of slavery, and were often disadvantaged by the planters' recordkeeping and contracts.