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I can see that... During WWI I know Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina were teamed up in the 30th Infantry Division. They were good but didn't really make a name for themselves until WWII. During WWII it was just Tennessee and North Carolina together and they pulled some absolutely ridiculous crap. They became known as the "workhorse of the western front" by the allies and "Roosevelt's SS Troops" by the Germans (which basically meant Germany regarded Tennessee and North Carolina as America's most elite shock troops.) I can't remember the exact quote, but I know the historian officially assigned by the army to review the war determined that the 30th was was the finest division of the European theater.

One of my favorite stories was from the 117th (Tennessee) where the troops were listening to Axis Sally and she said "That radical 30th Division is on its way to rescue the army, but they'll be crushed this time!" Tennessee's reaction was a simple "... How did she know we were coming? Axis Sally is amazing. <_<"

I think Tennessee and North Carolina have one of the most interesting relationships. I usually play them off as brother and sister, but one thing I always feel like people need to be reminded of is that Tennessee was actually a separate government before it joined with North Carolina. It wasn't actually spawned from her and had existed officially as the Watauga Association since 1772 then later joined up.

I especially like thinking of them as brother and sister because it makes Tennessee's reasons for getting directly involved with the Revolutionary War so much cuter. I can see baby Tennessee being like "Don't pick on my sister! >.<" then he violently crushes Cornwallis' western flank and causes the British Army to retreat and back off for 3 months. (My favorite part of the Battle of King's Mountain story is how afterward the Loyalists was like "Holy s**t! I don't want to fight that mountain psycho! ;_;" and everyone thought baby Tennessee was infinitely stronger than he was.)

Er... Well, actually it was because Tennessee was defending North Carolina and being a nuisance to the British army that he got threatened and THEN he kind of went crazy violent and smashed up some redcoats... But still! The root cause is someone was picking on his sister.

The South is pretty intense and take the idea of "we take care of our own" to a whole new level. But it wasn't always entirely that way... When the Union was just being formed, the eastern states looked down on the western states (Kentucky and soon after Tennessee) and essentially left those two to fend for themselves. It wasn't until after 1812 when Tennessee defended the south against the Creek, Seminole and British and Kentucky protected the Northwest territories from the Shawnee Confederacy and British that they started getting some respect. It was only about that time America and the other states started seeing some worth in those two... ^^;

Any story with Indiana is usually hilarious in some shape or form. I love Indiana stories... XD I need to learn more of them.



Ah, now that is a hard one to explain... Actually, Tennessee and Kentucky were basically the same in their opinions of the Confederacy and the Union. What tipped Tennessee into the Confederacy was... kind of a long and tragic story.

People mistakenly think Tennessee voted first not to secede by a slim margin then voted later to secede, but that's not really true. The first thing Tennessee voted on wasn't about secession itself. It was actually about whether or not Tennessee wanted to have a convention about secession and, if so, who would Tennessee want to be represented by. Tennessee was split on whether to have the convention but voted against it (this is the part most people say was about secession) and the part where it asked what representation Tennessee wanted every single one of Tennessee's grand divisions voted for Union representatives. So what Tennessee said wasn't "I don't want to secede!" it actually said "I don't want to talk about it, and even if I did, I'd only want to talk about it with Unionists." The governor didn't accept this and started making under the table deals with the legislature and CSA then sent Tennessee's militia to defend Virginia without the state's approval. Which automatically put Tennessee in a state of de facto rebellion. This caused Unionists to freak out and call foul so the governor had the second statewide election. But by the time the second election had come about so many Unionists had either fled, were hiding from voter intimidation or had run off to join the Union army that we may never honestly know what Tennessee was thinking at that point. It's one of those things historians debate and there are still some people in the Eastern Division (the part that had to be occupied by the CSA army and openly rebelled) who will swear to you their state was tricked/hijacked by the governor and radical minority and never legitimately should have been part of the CSA.

Kentucky declared neutrality but no one really believed it could remain neutral. What tipped Kentucky was being invaded by the CSA and so it went with the Union, but it honestly could have gone either way. (Well, I think Kentucky would have probably stuck with the Union regardless, but people say it could have gone either way.)

Considering how both states were kind of in the same boat of reluctance (sort of almost) there really wasn't a lot of animosity between them. In fact, when a group of Tennessee soldiers (Morgan's Raid, I think?) invaded there were people in Kentucky who openly welcomed them and would even give them stuff. It was kind of like "Oh, hey, Tennessee, good to see you." "Sup, Kentucky?" "Not much... but you do realize as part of the Union I have to shoot you now, right?" "Fair enough but only if you can catch me!" Then Kentucky's militia chased Tennessee's people for a while and I was like "Oh, lawl, those two..."

I probably need to do more research on it and that's all pretty general so don't base a thesis on what I said, but I'm fairly confident it's accurate.

Ugh, Missouri and Maryland were really screwed up by the Civil War. I just read a brief summary on it and had to file them away for studying at a later date. The border states really did get it worst regardless of how much people in South Carolina and Georgia whine about Sherman's March. That was nothing compared to the utter rape of Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia.

The weirdest thing about Tennessee during the Civil War was that it wound up being occupied by both armies. The CSA was occupying the Eastern Division which hated the CSA while the Union army was occupying the Western and Midwestern Divisions which had more Confederate sympathizers. So Tennessee basically got--pardon my language and cover your eyes, children--cluster ******** by both armies trying to get their occupied regions to submit (Tennessee was a rebel no matter what he did lol) This situation would pretty much last from 1861 to 1863 (I think) when the CSA was finally pushed out entirely.

Oh, yeah, I forget sometimes myself about the stuff that happened to Louisiana and I think there are quite a few really tragic stories from Mississippi. Something people also forget all the time is that there were actually three theaters to the Civil War. Texas and New Mexico started duking it out and there were other incidents I just have never gotten around to studying. (But I love how Texas always seems to be harassing New Mexico. It seems like their dynamic in all of Texas' rebellions goes "I'm seceding and you're coming with me! biggrin " and New Mexico is always like "LEAVE ME ALONE. <_<")

Louisiana is a really complex state... I've never tried my hand at playing it, but I usually enjoy people's OCs. My only problem is that I feel some people play up the French thing a little too much... I mean, Louisiana was French but now it's definitely a culture entirely unique to itself.

The only things I can say for sure about Louisiana is that I think it should have some affiliation with parties, big band/jazz music and voodoo. Otherwise it's kind of hard to nail down and I can see multiple interpretations.