This article is the second installment of a multi-part series on the Civil War in Alabama.

The work of the Peace Society, in Alabama at least, was first felt in the August elections of 1863. Up to that point, these collective organizations had been formed for purposes that bordered on treason--for constitutional opposition to the Confederate governmental administration. The extremes of the Peace Society grew further apart as the war progressed, until the constitutional wing withdrew or ceased to exist.  The Peace Society embraced at least three organizations within the state of Alabama, all of whom were located in the extreme north and northeast sections of the state.  It was no coincidence that the civilian Peace Society was the strongest in the same sections of the state that sheltered army deserters.  Their members interchanged and assisted one another.

In the election of 1863, the governor was elected with the help of a disaffected party, and a disaffected element was elected to Congress and to the legislature.  Six members of Congress, who were from Alabama,  were said to be Unionists in favor of ending the war at once and returning to the Union.  The toll of the immense hardships faced by soldier and civilian alike, had obviously changed the hearts and minds of many from the South, including those from Alabama.

An excellent example of the situations that arose, due to the influence off the Peace Society, was the election of Williamson R.W. Cobb, who was a very popular Jackson County politician.  He was a member of the United States 36^th Congress, but was defeated in 1861, when he was a candidate for the Confederate Congress.  In 1863, however, Cobb was successful in his election bid to the Confederate Congress.  Nevertheless, after the election, if not before, he was in constant communication with the North, and went into their lines several times.  He was later expelled by the Confederate Congress for his treasonous acts. 

During the summer and fall of 1863 and in 1864, the Confederate officials in north Alabama often reported that they had found evidence of secret organizations, which were hostile to the Confederate government.  In 1863, The Provost Marshal’s Department obtained information of the existence of a secret society between the lines in Alabama and Tennessee, the object of which was to encourage desertion among the Confederate soldiers.  The bulk of the membership consisted of Tories that remained loyal to the Union, and deserters, plus a few discontented Confederates--with the strength of the Peace Society contained in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. The organizers actively recruited potential members and initiated those whom they felt were proper persons for the Society.  No records were kept, and the members did not know one another, except by recognition through signals.

The Tories, in turn, were people who rebelled against the authority of the Confederate States.  Some of them were true Unionists, or loyalists, as they were called in the North.  The “mossback”, according to popular belief, hid himself in the woods away from Confederate service, until moss grew on his back.  The mossbacks fell into the category of Tories, if their actions dictated that classification.  If he were hostile to the Confederacy, then he could have been classified as a Tory; if he was simply keeping out of the way of the enrolling officers, he was not a Tory.  When too closely pressed, he would either become a Tory, or enter the Confederate Army, though he did not usually remain in it.

The Alabama Tory was, as a rule, from the lowest class of the population.  Chiefly, they came from the mountain whites and the Sand Mountain people, who were shut off from the world, a century behind the times and who knew scarcely anything of the Union or the national questions at issue.  There was a certain social antipathy felt by them toward the lowland and valley people, whether in south or north Alabama.  They also held a strong dislike for the slave holder.  Secluded and ignorant, they were not directly concerned, and most of them would have preferred to have remained neutral during the entire war, as there was little for them to gain either way.  As long as they did not have to leave their hills, they were quiet, but when the enrolling officers went after them, they became dangerous.  Nevertheless, the more troublesome lot, at least for the Confederate government, was the deserter, whom we will examine next week.