Southern Unionists

In the United States, Southern Unionists were White Southerners living in the Confederate States of America, opposed to secession, and against the Civil War. These people are also referred to as Southern Loyalists, Union Loyalists, Southern Yankees, Lincoln Loyalists. Pro-Confederates in the South derided them as Tories (in reference to the pro-Crown Loyalists of the American Revolution). During reconstruction, these terms were replaced by "scalawag" (or "scallywag"), which covered all Southern whites who supported the Republican Party. Tennessee (especially East Tennessee), North Carolina and Virginia (which included West Virginia at that time) were home to the largest populations of loyalists as well as other (primarily Appalachian) areas with significant Unionist influence such as North Alabama, North Georgia, Western North Carolina, Texas Hill Country, northern Loudon County, State of Scott, Free State of Jones and others, thousands of whom volunteered for Union military service. Western North Carolinians, for example, formed their own loyalist infantry, cavalry and artillery regiments.