The life of the first three generations of Watlingtons in West Tennessee was severely altered by the tumultuous events of the 1861-65 Civil War, or War Between the States. In nearby Henderson Co. a plebiscite on whether or not Tennessee should secede from the Union was defeated solidly, but secession came and the resulting War Years brought conflict and tragedy. There are many references to the participants and events during the War, but an additional word concerning the effects of the War years on the family should be mentioned.
Most directly, the abolition of slavery affected severely the economy of slave-holding families such as the Watlington-Parchman family. Michael and Fredonia Watlington were a prosperous family with several slaves and much of their prosperity was destroyed by his involvement in the Confederate States Army and the reconstruction years. Because of the social disruption of the War Years young Michael Roberts ( b. 1853), their son, received a very meager formal education which ill prepared him for family and the future.
After the Northern Army's victory at Shiloh on April 6-7, 1862, most of West Tennessee was occupied by Federal troops and West Tennessee became a war zone for the Confederates under the leadership of General Nathan B. Forrest who persisted in invading the area to disrupt the transportation system and to recruit more soldiers for the Confederacy. Both armies' military needs stripped the country of men, mounts and material goods for war purposes. The Jesse Swink cotton gin in the Mt. Pisgah community was burned to prevent the cotton from falling into Federal hands, with a great loss to the farming interests.
Fire became a great enemy as both sides destroyed bridges and railways and public buildings to keep the economy disrupted from Summer 1862 thru April 1865. The loss of life was not as great as the disruption of civil life and economic production. Virtually all the good horses and mules were taken by the armies for their use and only the poorest left for farm use.
Paper was a scarce and expensive item during these years and fires and the shortage of shelter from the elements made paper even more scarce. It is pathetic how little paper of any kind survived these years of intensive warfare in the lower West Tennessee counties. Survival was the order of the day and for three years even that was difficult. Great bitterness toward the Federal forces developed among the Watlingtons and persisted into the Twentieth Century. The catastrophic economic and social effects of the Civil War years dominated politics and social thought patterns well past the relatively mild demands of World War I. The regional conflict can be said to have affected adversely the local economy for the following fifty years, with racial and social attitudes that linger through another fifty years. ``The Wah'' is still the Civil War for some of the older generation.
In the story of our Third Generation of Watlingtons in West Tennessee the long term effects of this devastating conflict must be assumed with its resultant impoverishment of the social, educational and community life of the region.
One advantage a Southerner has in understanding the other peoples of the world today is ``that we know what it is to lose a War.'' Many North Americans lack that understanding.