Editing Sullivan County, Tennessee (section)

==History==
Sullivan County was created in 1779 from a portion of [[Washington County, Tennessee|Washington County]], and named for [[John Sullivan (general)|John Sullivan]], a Patriot general in the Revolutionary War.<ref>[http://www.state.tn.us/sos/bluebook/05-06/44-counties.pdf Tennessee's Counties], ''Tennessee Blue Book'', 2006.</ref>  [[Long Island of the Holston]] in Kingsport was long an important center for the [[Cherokee]], who occupied much of this territory. Later in 1761 the British colonists built Fort Robinson on Long Island, following the fall of [[Fort Loudoun (Tennessee)|Fort Loudoun]] further to the south. This attracted other settlers, and the Sullivan area became one of the earliest areas of Tennessee to be settled by European Americans.<ref name=tehc />

As political tensions rose prior to the [[American Civil War]], Sullivan County was one of the few East Tennessee counties to support secession. It became known as the Little Confederacy. In Tennessee's June 1861 referendum, the county voted 1,586 to 627 in favor of secession.<ref>Oliver Perry Temple, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=g8xYAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22The+detailed+vote+of+the+several+counties+was+as+follows%22&pg=PA199 East Tennessee and the Civil War]'' (R. Clarke Company, 1899), p. 199.</ref>