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James Gallant Spears (March 29, 1816 – July 22, 1869) was an American general who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Leading a unit composed primarily of Tennessee loyalists, he participated in early battles in the Cumberland Gap area before marching with the Army of the Cumberland at Stones River and Chickamauga. He later provided support for the Knoxville Campaign. An ardent Southern Unionist, Spears was appointed vice president of the 1861 East Tennessee Convention, which sought to form a separate, Union-aligned state in East Tennessee. He opposed the abolition of slavery, however, and was dismissed from the Army in 1864 for speaking out against the Emancipation Proclamation. ==Early life== Spears was born in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, the eldest of five children of John Holliday Spears, a doctor, and his wife, Sarah (Gallant) Spears.〔''(National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Book )'', Vol. 42 (1916), p. 47.〕〔Oliver Perry Temple, Mary Boyce Temple (ed.), "(General James G. Spears )," ''Notable Men of Tennessee'' (Cosmopolitan Press, 1912), pp. 186-190.〕 As a child, his family struggled financially after his father lost much of the family's estate through speculation. Fond of reading, Spears managed to educate himself, and eventually studied law.〔 In 1848, Spears was elected clerk of the state circuit court. By 1851, he had acquired a large farm and several slaves, located on the outskirts of Pikeville.〔 In 1860, he was among the commissioners appointed by the state to oversee construction of a turnpike connecting Pikeville and Jasper.〔''(Public Acts of the State of Tennessee Passed at the General Assembly )'' (Griffith, Camp and Company, 1860), p. 216.〕 On the eve of the Civil War, Spears opposed secession. A Democrat, he supported the Northern Democratic candidate Stephen Douglas in the 1860 presidential election.〔 Spears represented Bledsoe County at both the Knoxville and Greeneville sessions of the 1861 East Tennessee Convention, and was appointed the convention's vice president. Described by fellow delegate Oliver Perry Temple as "hot-headed, impulsive, and obstinate in what he thought was right," Spears supported the convention's original petition, which demanded the state legislature allow East Tennessee to form a separate, Union-aligned state, and threatened to use force if necessary. He was joined in this view by convention president T.A.R. Nelson and volatile ex-Congressman Thomas D. Arnold. This petition was rejected in favor of a less-threatening petition authored by Temple, which called for a new state in East Tennessee, but removed the threat of force.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「James G. Spears」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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