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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. That there were many outrages committed on and near the Tennessee line during the Civil War is too well known to admit of doubt. That all the blame does not rest on one side alone is equally certain. These mountains were full of "outliers," as they were called, and they had to live somehow. They did not belong especially to either side; they simply wanted to keep out of the war. It was a great temptation to cold and hungry men on foot to steal horses, food, bedding and clothing, and many of them yielded to the desire. Raiding parties went into Tennessee from North Carolina and raiding parties from Tennessee came into the North Carolina mountains. The trails and wagon roads through these mountains were usually guarded by Confederate troops. When they could not capture those who were riding or driving horses and mules from one side to the other they shot them down. Toward the close of the war lawless men robbed those they thought had money or other valuables. That the names of those who figured in this unfortunate period as oppressors or oppressed should be preserved, as far as possible, is evident to all who appreciate the duties of impartial history. Therefore, not to keep alive unpleasant memories, but to preserve names, dates and events, some of these occurrences are here related. Some of them were attended with unnecessary cruelty, but no mention is made thereof. That some of the women at home had as hard a time as the men in the field is shown by Mrs. Margaret Walker's story. The facts given in this chapter are meant merely to supplement those given in "The North Carolina Regiments," published by the State in 1901.

NORTH CAROLINA IN THE CIVIL WAR.[1] From the address at Raleigh, Way 10, 1904, by Hon. Theo. F. Davidson, the following is taken : "She [North Carolinas was next to the last state to secede from the Union, and in February, 1861 she voted against secession by 30,000 majority; yet, with a military population of 115,365, the State of North Carolina furnished to the Confederate army 125,000 men…Of the ten regiments on either side which sustained the heaviest loss in any one engagement during the war, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey furnished one each, and North Carolina furnished three. North Carolina furnished from first to last one fifth of the entire Confederate army, and at the surrender at Appomattox, one-half of the muskets stacked were from North Carolina. The last charge of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee was made by North Carolina troops, and the last gun fired was by Flanner's battery from Wilmington ton, N. C. The men of North Carolina were found (lead farthest up the blood-stained slopes of Gettysburg. 40,275 soldiers from North Carolina gave their lives to the Confederacy-more than one third of her entire military population, and a loss of more than double in percentage that sustained by the soldiers from any other state. Of this number 19,678 were killed upon the field of battle or died of wounds; and it is now a historical fact, questioned by none, that the greatest loss sustained by any regiment on either side during the war was that of the twenty-sixth North Carolina regiment at Gettysburg.[3] It carried into action 800 men and came out with eighty, who, with torn ranks and tattered flag, were still eager for the fray. The charge of the fifth North Carolina regiment at Williamsburg ranks in military history with that of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. That charge gave the regiment and its brave and illustrious commander, Col. D. K. McRae, to immortality."[2]

Carved on the Confederate monument at Raleigh are these words:

"FIRST AT BETHEL, FARTHEST AT GETTYSBURG AND CHICKAMAUGA AND LAST AT APPOMATTOX."

These claims are amply sustained in Vol. I, "Literary and Historical Activities in North Carolina, 1900-1905," as follows: First at Bethel, by E. J. Hale (p. 427); Farthest to the Front at Gettysburg, by W. A. Montgomery (p. 432); Longstreet's Assault at Gettysburg, by W. R. Bond (p. 446); Farthest to the Front at Chickamauga, by A. C. Avery (p. 459); The Last at Appomattox, by Henry A. London (p. 471); The Last Capture of Guns, by E. J. Holt (p. 481), and Number of Losses of North Carolina Troops (p. 484).

ASHEVILLE A MILITARY CENTER. "During the War Between the States, Asheville became in a small way a military center.[3] Confederate troops were from time to time encamped at Camp Patton, at Camp Clingman on French Broad Avenue and Phillip street, on Battery Porter Hill (now called Battery Park), at Camp Jeter (northeast and northwest corners of Cherry and Flint streets), and in the vicinity of Lookout Park. Fortifications were erected on Beaucatcher, Battery Porter, Woodfin street opposite the Oaks Hotel, Montford avenue near the residence of J. E. Rumbough, on the hill near the end of Riverside drive north of T. S. Morrison's, and on the ridge immediately east of the place where North Main street last crosses Glenn's creek, now [1898] owned by- the children of the late N. W. Woodfin. At this last place, on April 11th, 1865, a battle was fought between the Confederate troops at Asheville and a detachment of United States troops, who came up the French Broad river. The latter was defeated and compelled to return into Tennessee. This was the Battle of Asheville.

WAR-TIME LOCATIONS IN ASHEVILLE. "The Confederate postoffice was in the old Buck Hotel building on North Main street.. The Confederate commissary was on the east side of North Main street between the public square and College street. This old building was afterwards removed to Patton avenue, whence it was removed again to give way to a brick building. The Confederate hospital stood on the grounds afterwards occupied by the Legal building, where is now the Citizen office.[4] The chief armories of the Confederate states were at Richmond, Va., and Fayetteville, N. C., but there were two smaller establishments, one at Asheville, N. C., and the other at Tallahassee, Ala. (1 Davis's Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 480.)

CONFEDERATE ARMORY. "The armory at Asheville was in charge of an Englishman by the name of Riley as chief machinist. It stood on the branch immediately east of where Valley street crosses it. Here, when North Carolina was one of the Confederate States of America, the Confederate flag from a high flag-pole was constantly displayed. There it floated in the breeze, and rested in the sunlight, the emblem

Of liberty born of a patriot's dream,
Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.

"These buildings were burned by the United States troops when they entered the town in the latter part of April, 1865."

THE FLAG OF BETHEL. The flag of Bethel was made and presented to the Buncombe Riflemen by Misses Anna and Lillie Woodfin, Fanny and Annie Patton, Mary Gains and Kate Smith. It was made of their silk dresses. Miss Anna Woodfin made the presentation speech and after the war embroidered upon it "Bethel. " It was carried by the First North Carolina regiment at the battle of Bethel Church, the first battle of the Civil War.

A HERO OF THE MERRIMAC. Riley Powers of Buncombe was a member of the crew of the "Merrimac" when she fought the "Monitor" in Hampton Roads. He saw her launched and witnessed her blowing up.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL J. A. KEITH. In the spring of 1863 Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. Keith of Marshall, with part of the 64th Regiment, went to the Shelton Laurel country in Madison county to punish those of that section who had taken part in the looting of 'Marshall, which had taken place only a short time before. At this looting men and boys from Shelton Laurel had broken into stores and removed salt and other property. Col. Keith captured thirteen old men and youths. He made them sit on a log, and without having given them even the pretense of a trial had them shot …. Some of these were mere boys. The trench in which they were buried is still shown to the curious. This section was filled with deserters from both armies and those seeking to escape conscription in Tennessee and North Carolina. They carried on a sort of guerrilla warfare, and fought from rocks and crags. But this wholesale execution instantly aroused the indignation of the entire mountain section. Governor Vance demanded Keith's resignation, and he was dismissed from office in disgrace.[5] He was arrested after the Civil War and placed in jail at Asheville; but before he could be tried in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of North Carolina, President Johnson's proclamation of amnesty was issued and he escaped trial altogether. In the account of the 64th Regiment by Capt. B. T. Morris, in "North Carolina Regiments," this act is characterized as being too cruel.[6]

EARLY SIGNS OF DISAFFECTION IN THE MOUNTAINS. On the 7th of July, 1863, the General Assembly of the State provided for the organization of the Guard for Home Defence, commonly called the Home Guard, which was to consist of all males from 18 to 50 not in the Confederate Army, and John W. McElroy was appointed brigadier general and placed in command, with headquarters at Burnsville.[7] On the 12th of April, 1864, he wrote to Gov. Vance from Mars Hill College, where he then had his headquarters, that on the Sunday night before a band of tories, headed by Montrevail Ray, numbering about 75 men, had surprised the small guard he had left at Burnsville, and broken open the magazine and removed all the arms and ammunition. They had also broken open Brayley's[Bailey?] store, and carried off the contents; had attacked Captain Lyons, the local enrolling officer, in his room, wounding him slightly, but allowing him to escape. They had broken all the guns they could not carry off, taking about 100 State guns; also some bacon. On the day before, being Saturday the 9th of April, a band of about fifty white women of the county assembled together and marched in a body to a store-house near David Proffitt's, where they "pressed" appropriated -about sixty bushels of government wheat, which they carried off. He adds: "The county is gone up. It has got to be impossible to get any man out there unless he is dragged out, with but very few exceptions. There was but a small guard there, and the citizens all ran on the first approach of the tories. I have 100 men at this place to guard against Kirk, of Laurel, and cannot reduce the force; and to call out any more home guards at this time is only certain destruction to the country eventually. In fact, it seems to me, that there is a determination of the people in the country generally to do no more service in the cause. Swarms of men liable to conscription are gone to the tories or to the Yankees-some men that you have no idea of-while many others are fleeing east of the Blue Ridge for refuge. John S. McElroy and all the cavalry, J. W. Anderson and many others, are gone to Burke for refuge. This discourages those who are left behind, and on the back of that, conscription [is] now going on and a very tyrannical course pursued by the officers charged with the business, and men [are] conscripted and cleaned out as [if] raked with a fine-toothed comb; and if any are left, if they are called upon to do a little home-guard service, they at once apply for a writ of habeas corpus and get off. Some three or four cases have been tried by Judge Read the last two weeks, and the men released …. If something is not done immediately for this county we will all be ruined, for the home-guards now will not do to depend on.[8] Thus North Carolina, the only Southern State which did not suspend the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, was paying the penalty.

COL. KIRK'S CAMP VANCE RAID. On the 13th of June, 1864, Colonel Kirk, with about 130 men, left Morristown, Tenn., and marched via Bull's Gap, Greenville and Crab Orchard, Tenn., to Camp Vance in North Carolina, six miles below Morganton "where he routed the enemy with loss to them of one commissioned officer, and ten men killed-number of wounded unknown. His own losses were one man killed, one mortally wounded, and five slightly wounded, including himself. He destroyed one locomotive in good condition, three cars, the depot and commissary buildings, 1200 small arms, with ammunition, and 3,000 bushels of grain. He captured 279 prisoners, who surrendered with the camp. Of these he brought 132 to Knoxville, with 32 negroes and 48 horses and mules. He obtained forty recruits for his regiment; but did not, however, accomplish his principal object: the destruction of the railroad bridge over the Yadkin river. He made arrangements to have it done secretly after he had gone, but they miscarried. On July 21, 1864, Gen. Stoneman front-Atlanta thanked and complimented Col. Kirk upon this raid; but instructed Gen. Scofield at Knoxville to encourage Col. Kirk to organize the enemies of Jeff Davis in Western North Carolina rather than undertake such hazardous expeditions."[9]

DETAILS OF THE EXPEDITION FROM THE GUIDE. They were afoot, carrying their rations, blankets, arms and ammunition on their shoulders.[10] They had no wagons or pack animals while going there. They reached what is now Carter county, Tenn., on the 25th, where they- were joined by Joseph V. Franklin, who now lives at Drexel, Burke county, N. C., who acted as guide. They went from Crab Orchard on Doe river-the same place that Sevier and his men had passed on their way to Kings Mountain--crossing the Big Hump mountain and fording the Toe river about six miles south of Cranberry forge, where they camped near David Ellis's. He was a Union man and cooked rations for them. On the 26th they scouted through the mountains till they came to Linville river, which they crossed about one mile below- what is now Pinola, and camped. They- met John Franklin and made him go back a few miles with them, when they released him. The next day they passed through a long "stretch of mountains"[11] and it was evening when they got down on the eastern side; but, instead of camping then, they pushed on, and crossing Upper creek came to the public road leading to Morganton just at dark. This was twelve miles from Morganton, but they marched all night, and at daybreak got to "the conscript camp at Berry's Mill Pond, just above what was then the terminus of the Western North Carolina railroad. Here they formed a line of battle and sent in a flag of truce, demanding surrender of the camp in ten minutes, at the end of which time it capitulated without resistance." Accounts differ as to the number of conscripts in the camp, Kirk's men claiming 300 and[12] Judge Avery giving their number as "over one hundred of the Junior Reserves who had been gathered there to be organized into a battalion."

Kirk "then took a few men and went down to the head of the railroad and captured a train and the depot. We had aimed to go to Salisbury, but the news got ahead of us, and we gave it out … Ç% a had an engineer along for the purpose of running the locomotive and a car or two to carry us to Salisbury, where we intended to release the Federal prisoners confined there, arm them, and bring them back with us; but the news of our coming had gone on ahead of us, and we gave it out."[13] "While the militia and citizens who did not belong to the Home Guards were gathering on the day of the capture, 28th June, one of Kirk's scouts[14] was shot at Hunting creek about half a mile from Morganton by R. C. Pearson, a leading citizen of the town."[15] Kirk then turned back, crossed the Catawba river and camped for the night. The next morning they resumed the march, crossing Johns river, and came into the road leading from Morganton to Piedmont Springs. Following this road they crossed Brown's mountain, where they were fired into by the pursuing Confederates. This was fourteen miles from 'Morganton and one mile from the home of Col. George Anderson Loven, who was one of the party of sixty-five men and boys who attacked Kirk at Brown's mountain. This was about 3:00 or 3:30 p. m.

"Kirk formed a line of battle, putting fifteen or twenty prisoners taken from Camp Vance in front. About fifty of our men fired on Kirk's men, killing one prisoner, B. A. Bowles, a drummer boy- of Camp Vance, who was about thirty years of age, and wounding also a boy of seventeen years of age from Alleghany county, another one of Kirk's prisoners. Dr. Robert C. Pearson was seriously wounded in the knee by Kirk's men. We then retreated, but Kirk retained his position for ten minutes after we had gone. When we fired on them I heard Kirk shout: `Look at the damned fools, shooting their own men,' referring to the Camp V ance prisoners whom he had so placed as to receive our fire. Kirk's men had about sixty horses and mules loaded down with all the best wearing apparel they could gather up through the country, and all the bedding they could find, all of which they had packed into bed ticks from which the feathers and straw had been emptied. After our militia had withdrawn, Kirk's men remounted, the horsemen going around the fence, and the infantry, three hundred or more, going up through Israel Beck's field for a near cut to the road above."[16] According to J. V. Franklin, he, Col. Kirk and several others were wounded at Beck's farm near Brown mountain.

"We then crossed Upper creek," continues Franklin's account, "and came to the foot of Ripshin mountain and went up the Winding Stairs road, where we took up camp for the night." This position is near what is now called the Bark House and only two miles from Loven s Cold Spring tavern. They camped behind a low ridge, which commands the only road by which the Confederates could approach, but down which they could be enfiladed. This was twenty-one mile from -Morganton. At daybreak Kirk's pickets reported that the Confederates were approaching, "when Col. Kirk took twenty-five men and went back and had a fight with the pursuing Confederates. It was here that Col. Waightstill Avery was wounded and several others…. "[17] According to Joseph V. Franklin's letter, "there were twelve Cherokees and thirteen white men who fought Col. Avery's pursuing party.

"The fog was dense as the militia came up the road. Col. Thomas George Walton was in command of the militia. Kirk's men formed on a ridge and behind tree, from which position they could enfilade the column, which had to approach by a narrow road. Kirk men fired on the advance files before the main body had come up. Col. W. W. Avery, Alexander Perry, seventeen years of age, and N. B. Beck were in front. they fired on Kirk. Avery was mortally wounded and Çn old gentleman named Philip Chandler, from -Morganton, also was mortally wounded. Col. Calvin Houck was shot through the wrist, and Powell Benfield through the thigh, neither wound being serious. Col. Avery died the third day after having received the wound. There were said to have been twelve hundred men in the militia under Col. Walton; but only a few were in the advance when they came upon Kirk's camp, as they were scattered for a mile or more along the road down the mountain; and having no room in which to form except the narrow cart-way that `vas enfiladed by the enemy, they retired. Kirk went across Jonas's Ridge unmolested, burning the residence of the late Col. John B. Palmer as they passed about ten o'clock that morning. Two conscripts named Jones and Andrew McAlpin had been detailed by the Confederate government, under the late Thomas D. Carter, to dam Linville river just above the Falls for the purpose of making a forge for the manufacture of iron which was to have been hauled from Cranberry mines; and when they heard that Kirk had passed down, they went down Linville mountain by a trail, and sent two teams and wagons loaded with property from the dam above Linville Falls to follow, only they were to go by the Winding Stairs road, the only one practicable at that time.' These wagoners had gone into camp at the top of the Winding Stairs road when Kirk and his men arrived after their fight at Beck's faun. Of course, they were promptly captured and turned back."[18] The buildings at Camp Vance were burned.[19]

"There were bacon and crackers there which Kirk's men packed on mules which they captured, and took away with them.[20] George Barringer was another man they met on Jonas's Ridge and forced to go a part of the way with them, but he escaped. The yarn thread found at Camp Vance was given to the neighborhood women before the camp was burned.[20] They got back to Knoxville, having lost but one man (Hack Norton) and sent their prisoners to Camp Chace in Ohio. No recruits joined them going or returning. The distance traveled was about two hundred miles."

W. H. THOMAS AND THE UNION MEN OF EAST TENNESSEE. Col. Thomas was not a Secessionist, but claimed that any people, when denied their constitutional rights, if oppressed, always had the right of self-defense, or revolution. It was his desire to keep the Southern people united that induced him to enter the Confederate army, coupled with a desire to keep the Cherokee Indians from joining the Federal army, as some of them had done at the commencement of the Civil War.[21] He wanted to keep them out of danger and to guard the mountain barriers from the incursions of Federal raiding parties from the Tennessee side; for he never doubted that the Mississippi valley would, sooner or later, be in the possession of the United States troops. So, he got an order from General Kirby Smith in the spring of 1862 to raise a battalion of sappers and miners, and enlisted over five hundred of the people of East Tennessee, where the Union sentiment was predominant, and put them to making roads, notably a road from Sevier county, Tennessee, to Jackson county, N. C. This road followed the old Indian Trail over the Collins gap, down the Ocona Lufty river to near what is now Whittier, N. C. He was conciliating the East Tennesseans who had joined his sappers and miners when General Kirby Smith was transferred to another field of activity. The first order of Smith's successor in command required these Union men of East Tennessee to lay down their picks and shovels and join the Confederate army. In 24 hours there were 500 desertions. Then followed the attempt to enforce the Confederate conscript law, which drove these East Tennesseans to join the army of General Burnside. This army soon forced Col. Thomas and his Indians back from Strawberry Plains into the mountains of North Carolina, and the white wing of his Legion to Bristol, Virginia.

COSBY CREEK. After the Confederates lost possession of East Tennessee it was the policy of the Confederate government at Richmond to guard all the passes on the Tennessee boundary so as to keep free and clear their line of communication from Richmond through Danville, Greensboro, Salisbury and Charlotte to Columbia and the South. In order to do so this section of the country was made into the Military District of Western North Carolina and Brigadier General R. B. Vance was placed in command. He had a brigade under his command. They succeeded in keeping the Federals under General Burnside penned up in Knoxville, but never did dislodge them from that city. After Chickamauga, General Longstreet came from Virginia and drove the Federals back into Knoxville and besieged that place. But the exigencies of General Lee's army were such that Longstreet was ordered to return with his army to Virginia. No sooner had Longstreet started with his army for Richmond than Burnside followed him, harassing his men, and it was to draw Burnside off that General Vance teas ordered to make a demonstration by going through Quallytown, up Ocona Lufty and through the Collins Gap down into Tennessee. It was during a cold snap in January, 1864, and fortunately Vance had but two or three wagons; but he managed to take them up the mountain successfully. Still, when the artillery got to the top, following the rough road Col. Thomas had constructed, it had a hard time getting down the other side. The cannon were dismounted and dragged over the bare rocks to the bottom, while the wheels and axles of the carriages were taken apart, divided among the men and so carried to the foot of the mountain, when they were reassembled. The guns were not tied to hollow logs, as in Napoleon's passage of the Alps, but were dragged naked as they were down the steep mountain side. Capt. Theo. F. Davidson had this done.

GENERAL VANCE DIVIDED HIS FORCE. After reaching the foot of Smoky mountain on the western side, General Vance sent Col. Thomas and his Indians and Col. J. L. Henry with his mounted battalion to Gatlinsburg, Tennessee, and taking with him from three to five hundred men went on toward Seviersville. Much to his surprise, he captured an unguarded wagon train of about eighty loaded wagons and their teams and drivers, and immediately started back with them. When he reached Cosby creek Meeting House he stopped his command to eat dinner, but failed to put out pickets to notify him of the approach of the enemy. It was while engaged in eating dinner that a pursuing body of Federal cavalry dashed upon the resting Confederates and captured many of them, including the General himself, who was taken to Camp Chace and kept there till the close of the war. Captain Theo. F. Davidson, who was acting adjutant general, and Dr. I. A. Harris, escaped by going to Big Creek and through Mount Sterling gap into Haywood county, and thence to Asheville. Others also escaped. Colonels Thomas and Henry, learning of the fate of the rest of the expedition, returned into North Carolina by the route they had come, and Col. Thomas' Indians resumed their places near Ocona Lufty.

A SPARTAN MOTHER.[22] During the last year of the war deserters from both armies, who generally were thieves and murderers, banded themselves together, and were called bushwhackers. About this time three men were murdered twelve miles from Valleytown, near Andrews, and this band of lawless men swore revenge on the best five men in this valley. Mr. William Walker was warned of his danger, but said he was an innocent man, and had fed out nearly everything he had, and he would not desert his family. He was sick at the time, and friends pleaded in vain. "On October 6, 1864, there came to my house at 11 A. M., twenty-seven drunken men.[23] They had stopped at a still house and were nearly swearing drunk. Dinner was just set on the table, but they did not eat, as they were afraid they would be poisoned, but they broke dishes from the table, and went to my cupboards, and smashed my china and glassware. At the time Mr. Walker was warned, I took his papers and hid them, but he was so sure he would not be molested. that he made me put them back in his desk, but they were all taken." In spite of her tears and his pleadings he was taken from her. She followed with her sister the next day on horseback for fifteen miles, beyond which her sister `vas afraid to go; but Mrs. Walker went on six miles further, alone, where friends persuaded her to return home, which she did after one of them had gone to Long Ridge to ascertain if there -were any tidings from her husband there. Nothing was found, however, and she has never had any satisfactory word of him since. She had searches made by the government, the 'Masons, the war department and others, but discovered nothing. When she got back home she found that these thieves and thugs had stolen nearly all her bedding, and had even taken her dead baby's clothing, leaving not even a pin, needle or knitting needle, and tramping her fifteen feather beds full of mud. Still, neighbors contributed to her assistance; but it was three years after the war closed before she could buy even a calico dress for herself. Coley Campbell, a Methodist preacher and a tailor, taught her to cut and make men's clothing and by dint of hard work and strict economy and fine business management she reared five boys into splendid men. She also kept boarders and won the reputation of being the finest housekeeper in the mountains. But she suffered : "I wept for three years," she says in her narrative, "and two pillows were so stiffened by salt tears that they crumbled to pieces. My husband told a woman, Mrs. McDaniel, where he stayed all night after his capture, that he only worried that I might not live to raise the boys; but that if I did, he knew they would be raised right." How nobly she carried out that prediction is attested in the lives and characters of these sons themselves. She died December 9, 1899.

WILLIAM JOHNSTONE. "During the last years of the war the mountains became infested with deserters from both armies, desperadoes, who lived in caves and dens and issued forth for plunder and robbery.[24] Among the number of murders committed by these we recall three of peculiar atrocity. The house of Mr. Win. Johnstone, a wealthy South Carolinian, was entered by six men who demanded dinner; the old gentleman set before them all that his house afforded; after partaking of his dinner and without a word of dispute they shot him dead in the presence of his wife and young children.

OTHER OUTRAGES. "Gen. B. M. Edney, a brave man, was shot down in his own room after making a desperate resistance. Capt. Allen, son-in-law of Mr. Alexander Robinson, a man of wealth and high social position, and a gallant soldier, after the armies had surrendered, while working at a mill near his home trying to earn bread for his wife and child, was murdered in cold blood, and his body stripped of coat and boots and left on the roadside."

"AN OLD MAN, MY LORD." In the fall of 1864 Levi Guy, an old and inoffensive white man who had allowed his sons to shelter at his home when being hunted for their robberies in the neighborhood of Watauga Falls, was hanged by Confederates from a chestnut tree which grew between the present dwelling of David Reece and his barn across the State road. The tree has disappeared. Guy- lived near Watauga Falls, just inside North Carolina. The names of those who committed this act are still known, and all those who have not died violent deaths have never prospered.

MURDERED BY MISTAKE.[25] "Old Billy Devver," as William Deaver was locally known, was killed at the old Deaver place in Transylvania towards the close of the Civil War. It occurred through a mistake. He had a son, James, who was a captain in the Confederate Army and among whose duties was that of the arrest of deserters and outliers from the Confederate Army. He thus had incurred the enmity of men of that class, who were called in that country by the plain and unmistakable word "robbers." One night one of these robbers called at the Deaver home, expecting to find the Confederate Captain within. It seems, however, that he was not at home, but that his father, William Deaver, was. Therefore, when this robber called at the house and Old Man Billy came to the door, the robber asked him if he was Captain Deaver. He said he was, and believing that he was the Confederate Captain for whom he was seeking, the robber shot him dead at his own door.

SHOT THEIR HOST AFTER DINNER.[26] Philip Sitton, near the Henderson and Transylvania line, was shot down by a party of these robbers as soon as they had finished eating a dinner they had ordered and which Sitton had furnished. They left him lying in his blood, believing his wound was mortal, but he recovered.

DEATH of ROBERT THOMAS.[26] Robert Thomas, who lived on Willow creek in Transylvania county, was killed by these robbers in 1864.

JESSE LEVERETT A PENITENT. "In the time of the war there was a very notorious character at large in this part of the State," says Mrs. Mattie S. Candler in her history of Henderson county, "Jesse Leverett. He was known and feared by both sides, as he made a practice of piloting deserters through the Federal lines to Kentucky, taking them through here (Hendersonville) by way of Bat Cave and thence to the Tennessee lines. He was an outlaw and a desperado with such bold working methods that he continued this practice throughout the war, and was not even injured. Later he went to Illinois, discovered the error of his ways, and ended his career as a very earnest preacher."

"A HARD ROAD TO TRAVEL OUT OF DIXIE." Such was the title of an article in the Century for October, 1890, giving a very readable description of the escape and vicissitudes of a party of Federal prisoners who had escaped from prison in Columbia, S. C., and made their way to these mountains. They passed through Transylvania county, crossed Chunky Gal mountain between 'Macon and Clay and came down on Shooting creek where they had a fright at the house of a Mr. Kitchin. He had taken them in and was allowing them to sit before his fire when the Confederate Home Guard appeared on the scene, the prisoners escaping through a window. Another story in a later Century told of another party and their adventures on Tuckaseegee river in Jackson county. Col. Geo. W. Kirk began his military career in the Union Army by piloting Union men from these mountains into the Federal lines in Tennessee.

AN UNDERGROUND MOUNTAIN RAILROAD. Just as the Abolitionists before the Civil War had what were called "underground" railroads from Mason's and Dixon's line and the Ohio river to Canada, the Union element of these mountains had their underground railway to Kentucky and East Tennessee from the prisons of the South in which captured Federal soldiers were confined. T. L. Lowe, Esq., in his history of Watauga county, prepared for this work, gives some account of the assistance given by the late Lewis B. Banner, of Banners Elk:

"He was a strong Union man and his home was the home of the oppressed and struggling Union sympathizer trying to get through the Federal lines in Kentucky, and many a time through great personal sacrifice and danger did he pilot men through the mountains so as to avoid the vigilance of the Homeguard. On one occasion he rendered valuable services to a brave Massachusetts soldier, which services were remembered by the recipient for many years. The soldier's name was 'Major Lawrence N. Duchesney. He had been for 13 months a prisoner in the Libby prison, 73 days in the dungeon; was sent to Salisbury, N. C., and from there was being transferred to Danville, Virginia, and while en route jumped from the train and made his way across the country, and finally, foot-sore and weary, he reached the home of Mr. Banner where he was tenderly cared for until he was able to travel, and then Mr. Banner, or '1; Uncle Lewis' as we all are ever wont to affectionately call him, took him on a horse at night through hidden paths through the mountains to a place of safety. Major Duchesny some few years ago paid the family of his deliverer a visit, but his old friend had been dead many years. Major Duchesney had a home at Skyland, N. C., where he and his wife he buried."

ALLEGHANY DURING THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.[27] Alleghany furnished several companies during the war; one, Company F, 22d North Carolina regiment, with Jesse Reeves as the first captain, and Company I, 61st North Carolina regiment, with Dr. A. B. Cox as the first captain. J. H. Doughton, later in the war, organized another company, but when he arrived on the field of service, he found these two companies in such a depleted condition that he disorganized his company for the purpose of recruiting them. Alleghany furnished a great many more soldiers beside these companies, who served in various commands; some in Virginia, some in Tennessee, but mostly in the 37th Virginia battalion. Companies F and I were constantly recruited, but when the war was ended, there were not more than 50 or 60 men in both companies. But Alleghany's greatest trials were caused by deserters and bushwhackers. These men would hide in the mountains in order to evade active service on the battlefield. At first they seemed to have stolen only necessary food and raiment, but later took to robbing and murdering. With the able-bodied men in the army, the women and children were left at their mercy. The few old men and others unable for active service constituted a home guard, but were powerless to cope with these desperate outlaws. Alleghany appealed to Surry county in 1863 for aid-Surry county sent about 100 men to aid the Alleghany home guard; these men crossed the Blue Ridge at Thompson's gap and camped at what is known as the "Cabins." They sent four of their number to Duncan's Mills, about five miles distant for a supply of meal. These four men had passed Little River Church and it was almost dark, when the robbers snatched one of their men (Jeff Galyen) from his horse and hurried him off through the woods. The other men turned their horses and hurried back to the main body. Next morning early the whole force started in search of Galyen and the robbers. They found neither; and, after hanging Levi Fender (the stump of the old sapling on which he was hung can still be pointed out about one and one-half miles east of Sparta), they returned home. Within a few days Galyen was found in a few hundred yards of the place where the robbers had disappeared with him, on his knees by a tree, shot dead. One of the robbers, Tom Pollard, afterwards acknowledged to the killing, and said, he did it while Galyen was on his knees begging for his life. It was decided by the officers to send General Pierce with his soldiers into this section. These soldiers scoured the country, captured a number of the robbers and carried them to Laurel Springs, where a number of them were hung. Among those hung, were Lewis Wolfe and Morgan Phipps. Later Hoke's cavalry was sent into the county, but still robbery, murder and lawlessness continued.

In October, 1864, the fight at "Killen's Branch" took place. This is about one mile Northwest of Sparta, on the main road leading from Sparta to 'Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. Here the Home Guard was ambushed by a band of bushwhackers under Henry Taylor. The bushwhackers were concealed in a dense ivy thicket by the roadside and fired upon the Home Guard as they were passing. The Home Guard promptly returned the fire. The fighting continued for some time, when both sides withdrew. Of the Home Guard, Felix Reeves was killed and Wiley Maxwell, Jesse Reeves and Martin Crouse were mortally wounded. This was the last fight of any importance between the outlaws and the Home Guard.

A CIVIL WAR JOAN OF ARC. It was in this fight that Mrs. Cynthia Parks, wife of Col. Jaines H. Parks, then living in Sparta, who, when she heard the firing and saw the horses, of the wounded men running loose through the streets of the town, mounted her horse and rode to the scene of the combat, in order that she might render what aid she could to the wounded Home Guard. Later on the same day she brought the mail into Sparta. The mail carrier had been fired upon and had deserted his mail. She went to the place where the mail had been left and brought it to the postoffice.

During Reconstruction, Alleghany did not suffer from carpet-bag misrule as did some of the other counties of the State, owing, probably, to the small number of negroes in the county, and to the fact that most of the outlaws had fled. But still, we find instances where such men as Captain J. H. Doughton and Jesse Bledsoe, the first sheriff of the county, were dragged before the court. Feudalism must not have existed to such a great extent as elsewhere in the South, for J. C. Jones, Who Was sheriff of the county during the war, continued to be sheriff under the provisional government.

IN HAYWOOD COUNTY. Owing to the remoteness of Cataloochee creek in Haywood county, raiding parties from both armies figured extensively hereabouts during the Civil War, and several soldiers were killed along the roadsides, among them being Manson Wells of Buncombe, while Lewis Williams, who was with him, escaped. TÇ-o men named Groomes and Mitchell Caldwell were killed just above the point where the Mount Sterling and Little Cataloochee roads join. Henry Barnes was killed one mile east of Big creek. Levi Shelton and Ellsworth Caldwell were killed in 1863 on Caldwell Fork, between the McGee house and the gap of the mountain behind Harrison Caldwell's. Solomon Groomes killed a man named Townshend on Big Creek in 1861 or 1862 with an ax, on account of his daughter's relations with Townshend, and although he pleaded insanity, he was hanged just west of the bridge across Richland creek, and near the present passenger depot at Waynesville, in 1862.

WATAUGA'S EXPERIENCES. When, on March 28, 1865, Stoneman came into Boone he was fired on from the upper story of the house now occupied by Mr. J. D. Councill, opposite the present Blair Hotel, and his men then killed the following: Ephraim Morris, J. Warren Greene, J. M. Councill, and wounded Sheriff McBride, Thomas Holder, Calvin Greene, W. W. Gragg and John Brown. Two days later Kirk's men came into Boone and fortified the court house, which then stood where Frank A. Linney, Esq., now resides, by cutting loop - holes in the walls, and erecting a stockade made of timbers from a partly finished building which then stood where the Blair Hotel now stands and a house which then stood near the present Blackburn Hotel. He remained in Boone till Stoneman returned, when he, too, left. He also fortified Cook's gap and Blowing Rock, cutting the trees away from the road leading up the mountain. He also arranged to signal from mountain-top to mountaintop from Butler, Tenn., to Blowing Rock. Fort Hill at Butler is still visible, and was one of his fortified posts. When Stoneman's men got to Patterson, Clem Osborne of North Fork was there after thread, and the Federals chased him to the top of the factory, firing on him as he ran. Just as he was about to be overtaken he gave a sign which was recognized by a Mason among his pursuers, and his life was not only spared but he was sent back home with his team and wagon and all that properly belonged to him. The people of Beaver Dams had a particularly trying time with the outliers, and many are the harrowing experiences they were forced to undergo for nearly three years. When salt got scarce during the war men cut small hickory saplings from one to two inches in diameter and bound them into bundles and took them by wagon to the Salt Works in Virginia and traded them for salt, the hickories being split and made into hoops for barrels. After the close of the war Union people sued the more prosperous of their neighbors on the border of Watauga and Tennessee for damages for killing, wounding and arresting Union marauders, and in most cases lost, though the expenses of the litigation were ruinous to the Southern men who won. Among those sued were Commodore Perry, father of J. K. Perry of Beaver Dams, and Thomas Dougherty of Dry Run, Johnson county, Tenn.

BUSHWHACKER KIRKLAND. Between Yellow creek and the Little Tennessee in Graham county as it now exists used to live two men by the name of Kirkland, one of whom came to be called before the end of the Civil War, "Bushwhacker" Kirkland, and the other "Turkey-Trot" John Kirkland. They joined the Confederate Army at the commencement of the Civil War, but soon afterwards found themselves members of an independent command which was frequently accused of committing certain depredations upon the property of certain Union-loving citizens living in East Tennessee and in the neighborhood of the Great Smoky mountains. According to John Denton of Santeetla, who had been in their company when they were in the regular Confederate Army, they were brave men physically.

CAPTAIN LYON'S RAID. During the expiring days of the Civil War Captain Lyon of the United States Army came from Tennessee through what is now known as the Belding Trail to Robbinsville, Graham county. That trail was then known as the Hudson trail from the name of the man who first lived where David Orr now lives on Slick Rock creek; but the trail itself had been used by the Cherokees for years when the first white people came to that section. Lyon's men killed Jesse Kirkland, a kinsman of "Bushwhacker" and "Turkey-Trot John," and two other men, one of whom was named Mashburn and the other Hamilton; and probably two or three others. This was done on Isaac Carringer's creek, about half a mile from its mouth. They killed an Indian in Robbinsville, which was then or had recently been the home of Junaluska, the Indian chieftain; and then went up Santeetla, where they spent the night, returning the next day to the Unaka mountains and camping that night on the Bob Stratton Meadow.

COL. KIRBY DRIVEN BACK. From "The Last Ninety Days of the War," chapter XVI, by Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer, we learn that during the second week of April, 1865, a brigade of infantry under Col. Kirby was moved by the Federals from Greenville, Tenn., on Asheville, but were met near Camp Woodfin-now Doubleday-by a part of Gen. J. G. Martin's command, and so successfully repulsed that they turned about at once and returned to Greenville.

GENERALS MARTIN AND GILLAM AGREE. "When it was found that General Gillam intended to take Asheville Gen. Martin ordered his whole command, consisting of the 62d, 64th and 69th North Carolina, and a South Carolina battery (Porter's) and Love's regiment of Thomas's Legion, to the vicinity of Swannanoa gap …. Love's regiment reached the gap before Gillam did," fortified it and repulsed him. After vainly trying to effect a passage here Gen. Gillam moved to Hickory Nut gap. Palmer's brigade was ordered to meet them there; but Gen. Martin, giving an account of this affair, adds, "I regret to say the men refused to go." They had heard rumors of Lee's surrender. Porter's battery having been ordered to Greenville, S. C., was captured on the road there by Gen. Gillam. On Saturday April 22, Gen. Martin received news of Gen. Johnston's armistice with Gen. Sherman, and sent two flags of truce to Gen. Gillam, one of which met him on the Hendersonville road, six miles south of Asheville, on Sunday. At an interview between Generals Gillam and Martin, Monday, it was agreed that the former should proceed with his command to Tennessee and that he should be furnished with three days' rations. Gen. Gillam reached Asheville on the 25th and with his staff dined with Gen. Martin. The 9,000 rations were furnished him, and that night his command camped a few miles below Asheville, afterwards going on to Tennessee. Col. Kirk and staff had dashed into town while it was in possession of Gen. Gillam's troops, but perfect order was preserved while they were there, and they "were compelled to leave in advance of General Gillam. " The People of Asheville had the mortification of seeing the guns of Porter's battery, that had guarded the crest of what is now Battery Park hill, just captured, driven through by negroes. Following the Federal army was an immense train of plunder, animals of all sorts, household goods and treasures.

"Tuesday night passed quietly. The town was guarded only by Captain Teague's company. A small party of Federals, under flag of truce, passed through during the 26th, carrying dispatches to General Palmer, then approaching from Morganton via Hickory Nut gap. At sunset on the 26th, Gen. Brown, in command of a portion of the same troops that had just passed through with Gillam, suddenly reentered the place, capturing all the officers and soldiers, and giving up the town to plunder. The men captured were paroled to go home, the officers to report to Gen. Stoneman at Knoxville. " This was within 24 hours after General Gillam had assured Gen. Martin that he would give him the forty-eight hours' notice provided for in the Johnston -Sherman truce before renewing hostilities. The residences of Gen. Martin, Mrs. James W. Patton, Judge Bailey, Dr. Chapman, a Presbyterian minister, and others were pillaged. The author adds: "The Tenth and Eleventh Michigan regiments certainly won for themselves in Asheville that night a reputation that should damn them to everlasting fame …. On Thursday, parties scoured the country in all directions, carrying on the work of plunder and destruction. On Friday they left, having destroyed all the arms and ammunition they could find and burned the armory. On Friday afternoon, they sent off the officers they had captured under a guard," but Gen. Brown refused to leave a guard behind for the protection of the town from marauders. On the 28th Gen. Palmer sent a dispatch from some point on the Hickory Nut gap road releasing Gen. Martin, his officers and men who had been captured by Gen. Brown, because Brown had not given the promised notice of the termination of the armistice. General Palmer also prevented two negro regiments in Yancey from entering Asheville.

GENERAL PALMER's DISPATCH. Following is the dispatch referred to:

HEADQUARTERS EAST TENNESSEE CAVALRY DIVISION,
HICKORY NUT GAP ROAD,
April 28, 1865.

General:--I could not learn any of the particulars of your capture and that of Colonel Palmer and other officers and men at Asheville on the 26th, and as my troops at that point were obliged to leave immediately, there was no time to make the necessary investigation. I therefore ordered your release on a parole of honor to report to General Stoneman. On further reflection I have come to the conclusion that our men should have given you, under all the circumstances, notice of the termination of the armistice, and that in honor we cannot profit by any failure to give this notice. You will therefore please inform all the officers and soldiers paroled by General Brown last evening and this morning, under the circumstances above referred to, that the parole they have given (which was by my order) is not binding, and that they may consider that it was never given. Regretting that your brother officers and yourself should have been placed in this delicate situation, I am, general, very respectfully your obedient servant,

Wm. J PALMER,
Brevet Brig. Gen. Commanding.
To Brig. Gen. J. G. Martin, Asheville.

PERRY GASTON BRINGS FIRST NEWS. J. P. Gaston of Hominy walked all the way from Appomattox and showed his parole. This was nearly three weeks after Lee's surrender. Stoneman was besieging Asheville on the South and Kirk's regiment on the north. Gen. Martin went out under a flag of truce and made an agreement to furnish three days' rations to the Federal troops-and furnished them-on condition that they should not disturb private or public property.

GENERAL JAMES GREEN MARTIN. He was the son of Dr. William Martin and Sophia Dange, and was born at Elizabeth City, N. C., February 14, 1819. He entered West Point in July, 1836, was graduated in July, 1840, and was commissioned a second lieutenant of the First regiment U. S. Artillery. In 1842 he served on the frontier of Canada in the Aroostock War, or "War of the Maps," and married at Newport, Rhode Island, July 12, 1844, Miss Mary Ann Murray Reed, a great granddaughter of George Reed, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and also of Gen. William Thompson, a brigadier general of the Revolutionary army. During the three days' assault on Monterey, Mexico, September 21, 22, 23, 1846, he was still a second lieutenant, but he was in command of his battery, with "Stonewall" Jackson as his second in command. At Cherubusco, August 20, 1847, his right arm was shot off. He turned over his command to Jackson, and taking his sleeve in his teeth, rode off the field. He was brevetted major for "gallant and meritorious conduct" at the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco, and presented with a sword of honor by the citizens of Pasquotank county, on which were engraved the battles in which he had taken part. He was then transferred to the staff and appointed assistant quartermaster and stationed at Fortress Monroe, Philadelphia and Governor's Island for several years, when he was ordered to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, where Mrs. Martin died. February 8, 1858, he was married to Miss Hetty King, a sister of Gen. Rufus King of the U. S. Army, and eldest daughter of Charles King, president of Columbia College, New York, and the granddaughter of Rufus King, the first American minister to the court of St. James. He was a member of the Utah expedition with Gen. Albert Sydney- Johnston, and was at Fort Riley, Kansas territory, when the Civil War began. He resigned when North Carolina seceded, and served in this State and in Virginia till the close of hostilities. Penniless after the close of the war he read law and commenced its practice in Asheville in copartnership with the late Judge J. L. Bailey. He died and was buried at Asheville, October 4, 1879.

LEWIS M. HATCH. This distinguished citizen and soldier served in South Carolina during part of the Civil War, and, hence, is not mentioned in the records of "North Carolina Regiments." He was born November 28, 1815, at Salem, N. H., but went to Charleston, S. C., in 1833. He joined the Washington Light Infantry, April 15, 1835, and served with that company in 1837 in the Seminole War. He was promoted to the captaincy of that company in 1855, and in 1856 he marched his company to Cowpens, which trip resulted in 1876 in the erection of the Daniel Morgan monument at Spartanburg. He was an expert swordsman, an athlete, and walked from Charleston to New York, when a young man, in thirty days, averaging 30 miles a day. On the last day he walked 60 miles. Gov. Pickens appointed him quartermaster general in 1860, and the fine service from then till 1865 was due to him. In 1861-62 he commanded the 21st South Carolina Infantry. To him was largely due the victory at Secessionville in .June, 1862. He served subsequently in Virginia. In March, 1866, he moved to Asheville, where he died January 12, 1897. While living in Charleston he was in the commission business.

COLONEL JAMES THOMAS WEAVER. He was the youngest son of Jacob Weaver and Elizabeth Siler Weaver. He was born near Weaverville, Buncombe county, North Carolina, on November 30th, 1828. He received such education as the schools of that section would then afford. Later he attended the Burnsville Academy in Yancey county and prepared himself for civil engineering. May 24, 1855, he married Hester Ann Trotter, a daughter of William Trotter of Person county, N. C., but prior to the marriage of Hester Ann, William Trotter with his family moved to Macon county in the year 1846. During the seven years after his marriage, and prior to his enlistment in the army of the Confederacy, James Thomas Weaver was actively engaged in farming and as a surveyor of lands. During this interval he acquired a comfortable competency, consisting of lands, etc., and was considered a thrifty and progressive man in his community. He enlisted in the army early in 1862 as captain of Company A, which he organized, and this company was assigned to the Sixtieth North Carolina regiment. In 1864 he was made lieutenant colonel of this regiment. He served in the Army of Tennessee throughout the war, or until his death. He was in command of the Sixtieth regiment in the second battle near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, occurring between the armies of Hood and Thomas. He was killed in this engagement on December 7th, 1864.

COLONEL EDWARD F. LOVILL. He was born in Surry county, February 10, 1842, married Miss Josephine Marion of the same county February 15, 1866, and moved to Boone in 1874. He was admitted to the bar in February 1885, and was commissioner to the Chippewa Indians from 1893 to 1897. He was captain of Company- A of the 28th North Carolina Infantry, and on the second day of Chancellorsville commanded that regiment in the absence of Col. Samuel D. Low. Of this incident Col. Lowe reported: "While absent, Gen. Stuart again commanded the line forward, and my regiment charged through the same terrible artillery firing the third time, led by Captain (Edward F.) Lovill of Company A, to the support of our batteries which I had just got into position on the hill from which those of the enemy had been driven."[28] Captain Lovill had commanded the same regiment during the midnight attack of the night before. Upon the death of Col. Asbury Speer at Reems Station and the resignation of Major Samuel Stowe, Captain Lovill was senior officer of the 28th till the surrender at Appomattox; and commanded the regiment at the battle of Jones' farm near Petersburg in the fall of 1864, where he was severely wounded. He returned to duty in March, 1865, and was recommended for promotion to the colonelcy of his regiment at the time that James Lineberger was recommended for the lieutenant -colonelcy and George McCauley for the majority, but the end came before these appointments were published. He was wounded in the right arm at Gettysburg. At Fredericksburg "Captain Lovill, of Company A, the right company of the regiment, stood on the railroad track all the time, waving his hat and cheering his men; and neither he nor Martin (who had just shot down the Federal color bearer) was struck."[29] Soon after the battle of Jericho Ford, in September, 1864, Natt Nixon, a seventeen-year-old boy of Mitchell's river, Surry, was desperately wounded, and at night Captain Lovill and Private AI. H. Freeman, a cobbler of Dobson, went to get him, as he had been left within the enemy's lines. They called him and he answered, saying the Federals were between him and them, but had been to him and given him water. Freeman put down his gun and accoutrements and shouting in a loud voice "Natt, I'm coming after you. I am coming unarmed, and any man who shoots me is a damned coward," started. It was night, but no one fired at him, and he brought his stricken comrade back to Captain Lovill; but the poor boy died near a farm house to which he had been borne before daylight. Colonel Lovill is a director of the Oxford Orphanage, having been appointed by Gov. Aycock. He is chairman of board of trustees of the Appalachian Training School and a lawyer of ability.

MAJOR HARVEY BINGHAM. In the winter of 1864-65, the Home Guard battalion of Watauga was camped on Cove creek near what is now Sugar Grove, the name of their camp having been Camp Mast. Harvey Bingham was the major, and Geo. McGuire, who had been absent from the county for a long while before his return and election, was captain of Company A. Jordan Cook was captain of Company B, of which Col. W. L. Bryan of Boone was first lieutenant. Major Bingham and his adjutant, J. P. Mathewson, left camp to go to Ashe to confer with Captain McMillan, who commanded a cavalry company there, about cooperating with his battalion in a raid he then contemplated. During his absence Company B, under command of Lieut. Bryan, was camped at Boone; and Captain McGuire sent him word about. dark that he expected an attack on Camp Mast that night. Lieut. Bryan, however, did not start for that place till the following morning, and when he got near it, discovered the cabins in smoking ruins and all of Company A absent. McGuire had surrendered them to Col. Champion of the Federal Army the night before. They were taken to Camp Chase and kept till the close of the war. It is said, however, that McGuire was not treated as a prisoner, but was allowed a horse and rode away with the officers to whom he had surrendered his men. It was thought at the time that McGuire had betrayed his men to the enemy, and he certainly had surrendered them under the protest of many of his subordinate officers; one of whom, Paul Farthing, told him that if the company was surrendered Farthing's life would be surrendered, meaning that he would not survive captivity. He, and a nephew who was surrendered with him, shortly afterwards died in Camp Chase. After the war Major Bingham was a candidate for the State senate before a democratic convention held at Lenoir, and the late W. B. Farthing stated that Bingham was suspected of complicity with McGuire in the surrender of the troops at Camp 'last, and that if he was nominated the people of Watauga would not support him. This led to his defeat and there was talk of a duel between these two; but both decided it was best to leave the issue to the future rather than to two leaden bullets, and the matter was dropped. But feeling still ran high against Major Bingham, and he and his wife, a daughter of John B. Miller of Wilkes, left Watauga together and rode on horseback to one of the western counties, where they taught school till a better feeling pervaded their home county, when they returned. He soon removed to Statesville, where he studied law and practiced law. He died there, a respected citizen and able lawyer, and time has fully vindicated his memory of the unjust suspicion that once drove him from his home; and no one now doubts his entire loyalty to the cause of the Southern Confederacy.

POST-BELLUM TROUBLES. Soon after the surrender deserters from both armies committed depredations in and near Jefferson. The citizens of Jefferson sent a delegation to Salisbury for protection, and returned soon afterward with Captain Wills of New York, who organized a home guard in every voting precinct. Union and Confederate soldiers who had served honorably were admitted, but their ranks were closed to deserters from each army. Jonathan Osborne was made captain of the North Fork company. Order was soon restored but not before 40 or 50 of these deserters had started into Jefferson, the leader of whom carried a United States flag. They came up Helton street, but when opposite the jail they were met by Joshua Baker, who had been sheriff. Single-handed and alone, he seized the flag, and and swore that no such gang of horse-thieves should disgrace it by carrying it. His brother, Zack Baker, stood near and told him to hold on to the flag. These two intrepid men cowed the band of outlaws and the flag was yielded up and given into the keeping of a Union man. Zach Baker was equally brave, and no deserter ever entered his dwelling near Creston till negro soldiers belonging to the regular United States army came at the close of hostilities and did some pilfering. Mr. Baker had sent word to these white marauders that he was waiting for them with a welcome they would not soon forget. They tried to take some of his horses once, but he defied them to do so; and on another occasion, after they had secretly stolen a few horses, he followed them to Tennessee, identified the horses as his property, and took them back with him in spite of the threats of the robbers to kill him.

NOTES:

  1. See Vol. I, "Literary and Historical Activities in N. C., 1900-1905," pp. 427 to 484.
  2. From The Morning Post, Raleigh, May 11, 1904.
  3. Co. A of this regiment went from Ashe county, and the "Wilkes Volunteers" from Wilkes. Z. B. Vance was its first colonel, but was soon elected governor of the State.
  1. From "Asheville's Centenary."
  2. The New Legal Building, the finest office building in the city, stands there now.
  3. See Governor Vance's Correspondence, 1863.
  4. Statements of Gen. James M. Ray and Judge J. C. Pritchard.
  5. Literary and Historical Activities in N. C., Vol. I, p. 485.
  6. Series 1, Vol. LIII, p. 326, Rebellion Records.
  7. Condensed from Rebellion Records, Series 1, Vol. XXXIX, p. 232. The guide, J. V. Franklin, says Kirk had only 130 men; but J. C. Chappell, who was with Kirk also, says he had 300 whites and 26 Indians. Wm. Blalock, who saw them at Strawberry Plains, says Kirk had 200 men. The official report says the number was 130. It was supposed by the people of Burke that Kirk intended to take an engine and car and go to Morganton and release and arm the Federal prisoners there.
  8. According to Wm. Blalock, Kirk's men passed through Crab Orchard, and went up Chucky river, passing through Limestone cove, and crossing the mountain at Miller's gap, two miles from Montezuma, then called Bull Scrape. They then got to the Clark settlement, two and one-half miles from Montezuma, and camped there in a pine thicket. Next day they passed through the Barrier Settlement on Jonas's Ridge.
  9. Letter of J. V. Franklin to J. P. A., March 2, 1912.
  10. From Judge A. C. Avery's account in Vol. IV, N. C. Regiments.
  11. J. V. Franklin's letter before quoted.
  12. Hack Norton of Madison county, N. C., was his name, according to same letter.
  13. Judge Avery's account, before quoted.
  14. Statement of Col. George Anderson Loven to J. P. A. at Cold Spring tavern, near Jonas's Ridge postoffice, N. C., June, 1910.
  15. J. V. Franklin's letter before quoted.
  16. Col. G. A. Loven's statement before quoted.
  17. Col. George W. Kirk was born in Greene county, Tenn., June 25, 1837 and died at Gilroy, Calif., February 15, 1905.
  18. J. V. Franklin's letter before quoted.
  19. Captain James W. Terrell in The Commonwealth, Asheville, June 1, 1893.
  20. From an account written by Mrs. Margaret Jane Walker, wife of Wm. Walker. She was born March 15, 1826. Married October 15, 1844.
  21. Ibid.
  22. From the "Woman's Edition" of the Asheville Citizen, Nov. 28, 1895, by Miss Fanny L. Patton.
  23. Related by Judge G. A. Shuford.
  24. Ibid.
  25. By S. F. Thompson, clerk of the court, Sparta, N. C.
  26. Series I, Vol. XXV, Part 1, Rebellion Records.
  27. Vol. II, N. C. Regiments, 1861-65, p. 475.