Few appreciate how satisfying it can be to collect and assemble information on a specific county. About twenty years ago I began a project on Barbour County AL quite similar to yours. It eventually fell short of 3,000 matches to Confederate military records. Access to the internet and Excel might have helped me idenify a few more.

I'm not particularly familiar with Sevier but know a little about Rhea, both predominantly Federal in sympathy. As you've surely noticed, characteristics other than slave ownership differentiate residents living in the valley from the rest of Sevier county. The published census for 1860 provides useful county benchmarks for almost anything you might imagine, including how the county rank vs. the rest of the state in each category. Are you familiar with these books, available in PDF format from the census bureau?

Reasoned debates can be useful for promoting our understanding of this period. I generally avoid the other kind.