Secession and The Civil War
Following the collapse of the Whig Party in the mid-1850s, Campbell threw his support behind the American Party ("Know Nothings"), which many Tennessee Whigs had joined. He was again appointed to a circuit court judgeship in 1859, and continued campaigning against secession. In 1860, he supported Constitutional Union Party candidate and fellow Tennessee Whig John Bell for president.
In May 1861, as a wave of pro-secession sentiment swept through Middle Tennessee in the wake of the attack on Fort Sumter, Tennessee's ex-Whigs and others opposed to secession convened in Nashville, and nominated Campbell to oppose Isham Harris in the gubernatorial election later that year. Campbell declined this offer, however. Governor Harris offered him a command in the Confederate Army, but he declined this, as well.
In early 1862, after the Union Army occupied Middle Tennessee, Assistant Secretary of War Thomas A. Scott recommended Campbell for military governor, but the appointment went to Andrew Johnson. On May 12, 1862, Campbell chaired a convention of Tennessee Unionists that mapped out a plan to bring the state back into the Union. Shortly afterward, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him brigadier general in the Union Army. He accepted this commission, but resigned within a few weeks, in part for health issues, and in part because he did not want to fight against his friends and neighbors.
In 1864, Campbell aligned himself with the Democratic Party, and supported George B. McClellan for the presidency. Though he disagreed with Johnson over several issues, namely election regulations Johnson had installed as military governor, he generally supported the Johnson presidency's Reconstruction policies. After the war, Campbell was elected to the state's 5th District seat in the House of Representatives, but was prevented by Radical Republicans from taking his seat for several months. Campbell defended Johnson during his impeachment hearings in the House in 1867, and served as an advisor during his trial in the Senate.
Read more about this topic: William B. Campbell
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