Knoxville Register
Encyclopedia
The Knoxville Register was an American newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 published primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

, during the 19th century. Founded in 1816, the paper was East Tennessee's dominant newspaper until 1863, when its pro-secession editor, Jacob Austin Sperry (1822–1874), was forced to flee advancing Union
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 forces at the height of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. Sperry continued to sporadically publish the Register in Atlanta, and later Bristol
Bristol, Tennessee
Bristol is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The boundaries of both cities run parallel to each other along State...

, until he was finally captured by Union forces in December 1864.

Frederick S. Heiskell (1786–1882), who had worked briefly for Knoxville's first newspaper, the Knoxville Gazette, cofounded the Register along with his brother-in-law, Hugh Brown. The Register initially supported the policies of Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

, but became a primarily Whig
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 sheet in 1836, when it snubbed Jackson's handpicked presidential successor, Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....

, in favor of local favorite Hugh Lawson White
Hugh Lawson White
Hugh Lawson White was a prominent American politician during the first third of the 19th century. He succeeded Andrew Jackson and served in the United States Senate, representing Tennessee, from 1825 until his resignation in 1840, and was a Whig candidate for President in 1836...

. In 1849, polemical editor William G. Brownlow
William Gannaway Brownlow
William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow was an American newspaper editor, minister, and politician who served as Governor of the state of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875...

 moved his paper, the Whig, to Knoxville, and a rivalry developed between the two papers that lasted until the Civil War.

Publication

The Register was a broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...

 published weekly for its first four decades. In April 1861, largely in response to the growing interest in the secession crisis, a daily edition of the Register was established. Typical of 19th century broadsheets, the Register reported local news and published political editorials.

Titles

The Register is known to have been published under the following titles:
  • Knoxville Register (1816–1839)
  • Knoxville Register and Weekly Times (1839–1841)
  • Knoxville Register (1841–1862)
  • Knoxville Daily Register (1861–1862) — published daily
  • The Daily Register (1862–1863)
  • Knoxville and Atlanta Daily Register (1864)
  • Knoxville Register (1864)

Early publication

Frederick Heiskell moved to Knoxville from Virginia in late 1814, and worked as a journeyman printer at the Gazette, Knoxville's oldest paper, for just over a year, before leaving to form his own newspaper. On August 3, 1816, he and Hugh L. Brown, whose sister Heiskell had married a few weeks earlier, published the first issue of the Register. When the Gazette closed and its owner moved to Nashville in 1818, the Register became Knoxville's only newspaper.

For a newspaper published in an obscure frontier town, the Register was relatively progressive in its early days. Heiskell and Brown supported the abolition of slavery and advocated religious tolerance. Between 1818 and 1820, they simultaneously published one of the nation's earliest abolitionist newsletters, the Western Monitor and Religious Observer. In 1820, the Register mourned the death of noted Jonesborough
Jonesborough, Tennessee
Jonesborough is a town in and the county seat of Washington County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The population was 4,168 at the 2000 census...

 abolitionist, Elihu Embree
Elihu Embree
Elihu Embree was an abolitionist and the publisher of the first newspaper in the United States devoted exclusively to the cause of abolishing slavery.-Early life:...

. Heiskell and Brown also published numerous pamphlets and state documents. In 1823, they published John Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee, one of the first comprehensive histories of the state.

By the late 1820s, the Register had positioned itself as one of the state's most influential newspapers, mostly through its support of President Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

. The paper consistently called for internal improvements
Internal improvements
Internal improvements is the term used historically in the United States for public works from the end of the American Revolution through much of the 19th century, mainly for the creation of a transportation infrastructure: roads, turnpikes, canals, harbors and navigation improvements...

, especially regarding roads, railroads, and postal service. In 1826, the paper rallied support for East Tennessee College's
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

 move to Barbara Hill
The Hill (Knoxville)
The Hill is the colloquial name for the location of various academic buildings on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's campus. It comprises the oldest part of the university, and is located at the eastern side of the campus. There are two concentric roads around the Hill. University...

, just west of Knoxville, and the following year helped revive interest in the Knoxville Female Academy
East Tennessee Female Institute
The East Tennessee Female Institute was an all-female institution of higher learning that operated in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, from 1827 until 1911. Originally chartered as the Knoxville Female Academy, the school offered high school and college-level courses to the women of Knoxville and...

. Although Brown left in 1829, future Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 general Felix Zollicoffer
Felix Zollicoffer
Felix Kirk Zollicoffer was a newspaperman, three-term United States Congressman from Tennessee, officer in the United States Army, and a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War...

 joined the paper as a journeyman printer in 1831, and future Knoxville mayor W.B.A. Ramsey joined as an editor in 1835.

The Whig period (1836–1859)

During the presidential election of 1836, the Register abandoned Jackson when it supported Whig candidate Hugh Lawson White instead of Jackson's choice, Martin Van Buren. In 1837, Heiskell retired and sold the paper to Ramsey and Robert Craighead. Ramsey and Craighead made several changes that angered subscribers, prompting local businessman Perez Dickinson and Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...

-born editor James C. Moses to establish a rival paper, the Times, with Thomas William Humes
Thomas William Humes
Thomas William Humes was an American clergyman and educator, active in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the latter half of the 19th century. Elected rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in 1846, Humes led the church until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he was forced to resign due to his Union...

 as editor. In 1839, Moses bought the Register and merged the two papers. Humes edited the merged paper until 1840, after which Moses edited the paper himself.

In 1849, attorneys William G. Swan
William Graham Swan
William Graham Swan was an American attorney and politician active primarily in East Tennessee during the mid-19th century. Swan served in the Confederate States Congress during the American Civil War, and served one term as mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1855 until late 1856...

 and John Hervey Crozier
John Hervey Crozier
John Hervey Crozier was an American attorney and politician active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, during the mid-nineteenth century...

 formed a syndicate which purchased the Register, and installed John Miller McKee as editor. That same year, William G. "Parson" Brownlow, already well-known in Knoxville as publisher of the Whig, moved his paper from Jonesborough
Jonesborough, Tennessee
Jonesborough is a town in and the county seat of Washington County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The population was 4,168 at the 2000 census...

 to Knoxville. Brownlow accused the owners of the Register of trying to prevent his move to the city, namely by trying to deny him advertisers, and initiated a barrage of attacks against the paper, its owners, and McKee. McKee initially brushed off Brownlow's attacks, but as they intensified, he finally began responding, touching off a lengthy editorial quarrel.

Throughout the early 1850s, the Register struggled financially as the prices of paper and printing supplies continued to rise. In 1855, the cash-strapped paper was sold to the Kinslow Brothers, who installed a Brownlow ally, John M. Fleming, as editor, briefly ending its quarrel with the Whig. In 1859, however, Southern-rights advocate George Bradfield purchased the Register, and converted it into a pro-secession paper, again bringing the paper into conflict with the pro-Union Whig. After the election of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 in November 1860, Bradfield called for immediate secession, claiming, "the last link is broken."

Secession crisis

As the secession debate intensified in the weeks following Lincoln's election, Knoxville's disunionists grew increasingly concerned over the influence wielded by Brownlow, whom they believed responsible for East Tennessee's relatively strong Union sentiment. To counter Brownlow, a group of Knoxville secessionists purchased the Register in early 1861, and installed radical secessionist Jacob Austin Sperry as editor. Sperry immediately set out to attack Brownlow and other Union leaders, carefully tailoring his arguments to show how the demise of slavery would harm not just planters from the Deep South, but poor whites of East Tennessee as well.

Brownlow dismissed Sperry's attacks, calling him a "tool" who "fathers the slang prepared for him by men too cowardly to write over their own signatures." After the attack on Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...

 in April 1861, Sperry began publishing a daily edition of the Register. Secession leaders Crozier, William H. Sneed
William Henry Sneed
William Henry Sneed was an American attorney and politician, active initially in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and later in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the mid-19th century. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 2nd congressional district during the...

, and J. G. M. Ramsey
J. G. M. Ramsey
James Gettys McGready Ramsey was an American historian, physician, and businessman, active primarily in East Tennessee during the nineteenth century. Ramsey is perhaps best known for his book, The Annals of Tennessee, a seminal work documenting the state's frontier and early statehood periods...

 wrote editorials for the paper, and Sperry insisted that East Tennessee's Unionists would eventually come around and unite with the region's secessionists.

Civil War

Throughout the latter half of 1861, the Register called for harsh measures against the region's Unionists, and demanded they either take Oath of Allegiance to the Confederacy or be jailed for the duration of the coming war. Ironically, the paper's cofounder, Frederick Heiskell, then in his late 70s, was among the Unionists jailed for refusing to take the Oath. General Felix Zollicoffer, a former employee of the Register, commanded Confederate forces occupying East Tennessee in late 1861.

After Brownlow was arrested in December 1861, the Register demanded he either be hanged or jailed. When Confederate authorities ordered his release, the Register blasted the decision as foolish, stating "that Brownlow is now laughing, like the king's fool, in his sleeve, we doubt not for a moment." In February 1862, the Register issued a call for the formation of a Knoxville home-guard to help defend against a Union invasion, and supported the continued application of martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...

 in the region to root out Union loyalists.

As Union support in East Tennessee remained steady, Sperry grew increasingly frustrated. He complained that many county officials in East Tennessee who had taken the Oath still supported the Union, or otherwise refused to help the Confederate cause. While Unionism had "played out," Sperry wrote in January 1863, its "bastard and malignant offspring, neutrality, has succeeded it." Sperry slammed Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...

, and happily published a letter from prominent Unionist T.A.R. Nelson
Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson
Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson was an American attorney, politician, and judge, active primarily in East Tennessee during the mid-19th century. He represented Tennessee's 1st Congressional District in the 36th U.S. Congress , where he gained a reputation as a staunch pro-Union southerner...

 suggesting that East Tennessee Unionists had been deceived.

Demise

When General Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Everett Burnside was an American soldier, railroad executive, inventor, industrialist, and politician from Rhode Island, serving as governor and a U.S. Senator...

's Union forces entered Knoxville in September 1863, Sperry was forced to suspend publication of the Register and flee south. He briefly revived the paper in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

, but advancing Union forces again forced him to flee. Sperry finally settled in Bristol, Tennessee
Bristol, Tennessee
Bristol is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The boundaries of both cities run parallel to each other along State...

, in 1864, and attempted to again revive the Register, boasting that the paper was "once again published on East Tennessee soil." Finally, in December 1864, Bristol fell to Union forces, and Sperry and several other Confederate leaders were captured and marched back to Knoxville.

In Knoxville, Sperry was shackled to a ball-and-chain, and forced to work on the city's fortifications. Many of the city's Unionist leaders found this treatment too harsh and degrading, the exception being Brownlow, who demanded Sperry and other secessionists be hanged for treason. Sperry was eventually tried for slandering East Tennessee's Unionists, but acquitted.

In the 1870s, Knoxville's Democrats launched a new newspaper, the Tribune, which they considered a successor to the Register. Throughout the 1880s, the Tribune bickered with the city's Republican paper, the Chronicle, founded by William Rule
William Rule (American editor)
William Rule was an American newspaper editor and politician, best known as the founder of the Knoxville Journal, which was published in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1870 until 1991. A protégé of vitriolic newspaper editor William G...

as a successor to the Whig.

External links

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