Got to see Joyce Kilmer and Sky Lake in MS. Sky Lake has cypress trees they either couldn't get to or left because the tops had blow out of them. Incredible trees.
More than the old growth forests of the time you speak and the American chesnuts McGill mentioned, but the oak savannahs and grasslands of Tennessee would've also been a sight to behold. I dearly wish the politicians would let TWRA, Ruffed Grouse Society, NWTF, etc continue with their oak savannah restoration at Bridgestone.
Early settlers and explorers spoke and wrote of endless grasslands and savannahs with roaming herds of bison, elk, and deer as they moved towards Nashville on the plateau.