re: Something to laugh at...

quote:

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Tennessee was dubbed the Volunteer State because so many of the men from East Tennessee volunteered to fight for the Yankees during The War of Northern Aggression.

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I know that part. The part I'm less clear on is the ubiquity of people just generically referring to Tennessee natives as "volunteers" in the same way that Indiana natives are called "hoosiers" and North Carolina natives were frequently just called "tarheels." Since Prof is more attached to the state and, well, kinda educated in a Knoxvillain (yes, intentional spelling) sense, I'm leaning toward accepting that it was actually pretty common back in the day.