Re: West Tennessee Unionists - updated monograph..
In the five West Tennessee counties with the most Unionists, I have found very few men who joined KY Union regiments. Most joined Iowa, Illinois, Indiana or Ohio units. As to the relative comfort of West Tennessee vs. Southern Illinois, almost anywhere was better than West Tennessee in 1864-5 after the majority of Union and Confederate troops went east and the bushwhackers and guerrillas filled the vacuum.