Charles Inman (1810 – April 9, 1899) was an American politician, soldier and farmer, who served two terms in the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

, from 1865 to 1869. A

Radical Republican The Radical Republicans were a political faction within the Republican Party originating from the party's founding in 1854—some six years before the Civil War—until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reconstruction. They ca ...

, he typically supported the initiatives of Tennessee's postwar governor,

William G. Brownlow William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow (August 29, 1805April 29, 1877) was an American newspaper publisher, Methodist minister, book author, prisoner of war, lecturer, and politician who served as the 17th governor of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and ...

. He voted in favor of the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and supported legislation punishing former Confederates. Inman remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. He was a delegate to the

East Tennessee Convention The East Tennessee Convention was an assembly of Southern Unionist delegates primarily from East Tennessee that met on three occasions during the Civil War. The convention most notably declared the secessionist actions taken by the Tennessee sta ...

in 1861, and later served as a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the Union Army. He was captured and jailed by Confederate authorities in November 1864.

Early life and Civil War

Inman was born in

Cocke County, Tennessee Cocke County is a county on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,999. Its county seat is Newport. Cocke County comprises the Newport, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part ...

, the son of John and Anna (Chilton) Inman. He likely attended field schools as a child. By 1850, he had moved with his family to the Fair Garden area of rural northeastern Sevier County, where he established a farm. According to family tradition, he fought in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, but his name is not included in the list of Mexican–American War veterans in the Tennessee Archives.Robert McBride and Dan Robison, "Charles Inman," ''Biographical Directory: Tennessee General Assembly, 1796–1967: Knox County'' (Tennessee State Library and Archives, 1971), p. 62. In 1856, he was among the commissioners appointed by the

Tennessee General Assembly The Tennessee General Assembly (TNGA) is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is a part-time bicameral legislature consisting of a Tennessee Senate, Senate and a Tennessee House of Representa ...

to oversee the construction of the Knoxville, Sevierville and Paint Rock Railroad. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Inman, like most Sevier Countians, remained loyal to the Union. He was a member of the Sevier County delegation at the Greeneville session of the East Tennessee Convention in June 1861. This convention, which met a few days after Tennessee voted to secede and join the Confederacy, petitioned the state government to allow the counties of

East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...

to form a separate state that would remain part of the Union.Leroy P. Graf and Ralph W. Haskins (eds.),
The Papers of Andrew Johnson
', Vol. 6 (University of Tennessee Press, 1983), p. 295n.

Oliver Perry Temple Oliver Perry Temple (January 27, 1820 – November 2, 1907) was an American attorney, author, judge, and economic promoter active primarily in East Tennessee in the latter half of the 19th century.Mary Rothrock, ''The French Broad-Holston Country: ...

,
East Tennessee and the Civil War
' (R. Clarke Company, 1899), p. 573. After Confederate forces occupied East Tennessee, Inman fled to Kentucky. He joined the 2nd Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry in December 1862 with the rank of major. This unit, which consisted primarily of Union loyalists from Knox, Blount, and Sevier counties, was commanded by Colonel Daniel M. Ray, who had been one of Inman's fellow Sevier County delegates at the East Tennessee Union Convention. Inman marched with this unit to join forces commanded by General

William Rosecrans William Starke Rosecrans (September 6, 1819March 11, 1898) was an American inventor, coal-oil company executive, diplomat, politician, and U.S. Army officer. He gained fame for his role as a Union general during the American Civil War. He was ...

in Middle Tennessee. After the

Battle of Stones River The Battle of Stones River, also known as the Second Battle of Murfreesboro, was fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Ci ...

, Inman fell ill, and was discharged on March 10, 1863. In the weeks following his discharge, Inman was appointed Provost Marshal in East Tennessee by General

Ambrose Burnside Ambrose Everts Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the American Civil War and a three-time Governor of Rhode Island, as well as being a successfu ...

. He was captured near

Morristown, Tennessee Morristown is a city in and the county seat of Hamblen County, Tennessee, United States. Morristown also extends into Jefferson County on the western and southern ends. The city lies within the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, Ridge and Valley regi ...

, in November 1864, and imprisoned in Virginia. He was released by Confederate authorities on February 20, 1865, and rejoined the 2nd Tennessee shortly afterward. He was mustered out at Nashville on May 6, 1865.

Postwar politics

In April 1865, Samuel McCammon, who had been elected to Sevier County's seat in the

, died suddenly, and Inman was elected to fill the vacancy. He was seated on May 25, 1865. Inman generally supported Governor William G. "Parson" Brownlow's legislative agenda, which aimed to reintegrate Tennessee into the Union and punish former Confederates. At an August 1865 political rally in Knoxville, Brownlow's son, John B. Brownlow, praised Inman for supporting the "franchise bill," which barred ex-Confederates from voting. By 1866, the

, though dominated by Unionists, had divided into two factions: the

Radical Republicans The Radical Republicans were a political faction within the Republican Party originating from the party's founding in 1854—some six years before the Civil War—until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reconstruction. They ca ...

, who supported Brownlow and favored harsh policies toward former Confederates and the extension of the right to vote for freed slaves, and the Conservative Republicans, who supported President

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...

and favored more lenient policies toward former Confederates. Inman, who was squarely in the Radical camp, voted in favor of a second, more contentious franchise bill in May 1866 that gave Brownlow the power to throw out entire counties' voter registrations. In July 1866, Inman voted to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, which extended civil rights to minorities. Tennessee's ratification of this amendment allowed it to become the first former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union. In September 1866, Inman was one of Tennessee's delegates to the Radical Republican convention in Philadelphia. In March of the following year, he represented Sevier County at the Radicals' state convention in Nashville. At the party's Knox County convention in April 1867, Inman was praised for his "patriotic adherence to the principles of the Union party." That same month, Inman chaired the party's Sevier County convention, which called for continued disfranchisement of ex-Confederates, endorsed the "tried patriot and firm champion" Brownlow for governor, and denounced Conservatives for aiming to "give the control of the state to the rebels." Inman was nominated for reelection in May 1867, though this time he would be representing a

floterial district A floterial district is a legislative district that includes several separate districts that independently would not be entitled to seats in the legislative body, but whose combined population entitles the area to another seat. It is a technique ...

that encompassed Knox and Sevier counties. In the general election in August of that year, he defeated his opponent by more than a thousand votes out of about 4,000 cast.
Tennessee Blue Book
' (1890), p. 229. His brother, Shadrach, was also elected to the House, representing their native Cocke County. Charles Inman's House assignments for the 1867–1869 term included the Committee on Finance, Ways and Means, the Committee on Military Affairs, and the Committee on Tippling and Tippling Houses. In October 1867, he introduced a bill that would appropriate funds for the establishment of a hospital in Knoxville. He generally supported railroad legislation, voted in favor of a bill that provided certain protections for merchants, and voted to incorporate the

Knoxville Iron Company The Knoxville Iron Company was an iron production and coal mining company that operated primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, and its vicinity, in the late 19th and 20th centuries.J. S. Rabun, National Register of Historic Places Regis ...

. He voted for a bill that barred

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law (legal system), civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier ...

s from discriminating on the basis of race, though he also voted in favor of a

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...

. Inman supported legislation that provided for the reorganization and maintenance of the state's public schools, and voted for the formation of a committee to investigate the mishandling of federal agricultural school funds. In August 1868, Inman voted for a measure authorizing Brownlow to declare martial law in any county he deemed necessary, a response to the growing threat of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

. He voted for a bill authorizing the state to seek compensation from the federal government for damages suffered during the war by the state's Unionists, and voted against a January 1869 measure that would have restored voting rights to some former Confederates. In October 1867, he cast his vote for Brownlow to fill one of the state's soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seats.

Later life

After his second term ended, Inman returned to his farm in Fair Garden, and remained only marginally active in politics.Republican Meeting in Sevier County
" ''Maryville (TN) Republican'', 15 August 1874, p. 2. He died in Fair Garden on April 9, 1899.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Inman, Charles 1810 births 1899 deaths People from Sevier County, Tennessee Republican Party members of the Tennessee House of Representatives Union army officers People of Tennessee in the American Civil War Southern Unionists in the American Civil War American Civil War prisoners of war 19th-century members of the Tennessee General Assembly

Early life and Civil War

Postwar politics

Later life

See also

References

External links