The first church organized in Cades Cove (1827). Its congregation famously closed the doors during the Civil War because, in their own words, they were Union people.
This white frame building is the Primitive Baptist Church — the first congregation organized in Cades Cove, back in 1827. For its first years the members met in one another's cabins; by 1832 they'd raised a log meetinghouse, and the trim white building you see today went up in 1887.
But the story that makes this church worth stopping for is what happened in the 1860s. When the Civil War came, Cades Cove did something unusual for a valley deep in Confederate Tennessee — it stayed loyal to the Union. Most of these families were small farmers who owned no enslaved people and had no stake in the Confederate cause, and they said so. The war years were dangerous here: guerrilla bands and raiders crossed the mountains, and the cove was a soft target.
This congregation actually stopped meeting during the war. The reason is written, plainly, in the church's own record book — and I'll let their words stand: 'we was union people and the Rebels was too strong here in Cades Cove.' They closed the doors, and waited out the war.
Walk back to the cemetery beside the church. You'll find the graves of cove founders, of Union soldiers, and generations of the families who built this valley. It's one of the quietest, most honest places on the whole loop. Boone's got more to say about what those war years were actually like down here — but take a minute inside first.
Photo: David Ratledge · CC BY 4.0
