Tried men and true, or, Union life in Dixie
By: Thomas J. Cypert ; edited by Margaret M. Storey
Contributors: Storey, Margaret M., 1969-
Series: Seeing the elephant
Publisher: University of Alabama Press; University Alabama Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Tuscaloosa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 169
ISBN-13: 9780817317508; 9780817385781
Subjects: Prisoners and prisons; United States. Army. Tennessee Infantry Regiment, 2nd (1861-1865); Campaigns; Personal narratives; United States; History
Other titles: Tried men and true; Union life in Dixie
Description: Tried Men and True, or Union Life in Dixie highlights in emotional detail the local tensions between Unionists and Confederates in the Civil War South and offers a rare first-person account of the guerrilla war that devastated Western Tennessee.

Thomas Jefferson Cypert (1827-1918) was a staunch Union man of Wayne County, Tennessee. In 1863, he helped organize the Second Tennessee Mounted Infantry, a regiment of loyalist Southerners enlisted to combat Confederate cavalry in West Tennessee and Northern Alabama. Tried Men and True is Cyperts memoir of his time as Captain of Company A, including his capture by Confederate cavalry and subsequent daring escape, in which he was aided by local Union sympathizers and slaves.

After the Civil War, Cypert served two terms in the Tennessee State Senate, one of them during the heated first years of Reconstruction, when Tennessee disenfranchised former rebels and attempted to establish Unionist Republican rule in the state. Cypert clearly wrote his memoir to defend Unionism, condemn secession and rebellion, and support loyalists claims for post-war power through an account of their wartime sacrifices. Never before published, the manuscript has been preserved in nearly perfect condition by Cyperts descendants over the generations. This book is a remarkable and engagingly written account of resistance to the Confederacy by a group of southwestern Tennessee loyalists.
Notes: "Containing the personal experience of Thomas J. Cypert of Wayne Co., Middle Tenn., from 1861 to 1866: a complete account of his capture by the rebels, his treatment at their hands and final escape: with occasional digressions and reflections in regard to some questions that arisen during the Rebellion. Also a history of the Second Regiment of U.S. Tenn. Mounted Infantry, raised by Mr. Cypert n[ow] Senator from the Sixteenth District of Tennessee."

Includes bibliographical references and index.