History of Western North Carolina - Chapters 27-28



CHAPTER XXVII.
THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD

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, May 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, N. C. The men of North Carolina were
found dead 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. 171); The Last Capture of Guns,
by E. J. Holt (p. 431), 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.'" 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
amunition, 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. Thev 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 . . . «% 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 Vance 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 strawhad 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 nowcalled the
Bark House and only two miles from Lovens 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. Thev fired on Kirk. Avery was
mortally wounded and «n 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 was 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, harrassing 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. 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.(22) 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 was 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 buyeven 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 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 Galy en 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. Two 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.

(1. See Vol. 1, "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.)

(3. From "Asheville's Centenary")

(4. The New Legal Building, the finest office building in the city, stands
there now)

(5. See Governor Vance's Correspondence, 1863)

(6. Statements of Gen. James M. Ray and Judge J. C. Pritchard)

(7. Literary and Historical Activities in N. C., Vol. I, p. 485)

(8. Series 1, Vol. LIII, p. 326, Rebellion Records)

(9. 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. Win. 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.)

(10. According to Win. Blalock, Kirk's men passed through Crab Orchard,
and went up Chucks 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.)

(11. Letter of J. V. Franklin to J. P. A., March 2, 1912)

(12. From Judge A. C. Avery's account in Vol. IV, N. C. Regiments)

(13. J. V. Franklin's letter before quoted)

(14. Hack Norton of Madison county, N. C., was his name, according to same
letter)

(15. Judge Avery's account, before quoted)

(16. Statement of Col. George Anderson Loven to J. P. A. at Cold Spring
tavern, near Jonas's Ridge postoffice, N. C., June, 1910)

(17. J. V. Franklin's letter before quoted)

(18. Col. G. A. Leven's statement before quoted)

(19. Col. George W. Kirk was born in Greene county, Tenn., June 25, 1837
and died at Gilroy, Calif., February 15, 1905)

(20. J. V. Franklin's letter before quoted)

(21. Captain James W. Terrell in The Commonwealth, Asheville, June 1, 1893)

(22. From an account written by Mrs. Margaret Jane Walker, wife of Wm.
Walker. She was born March 15, 1826. Married October 15, 1844)
(23. Ibid)

(24. From the "Woman's Edition" of the Asheville Citizen, Nov. 28, 1895,
by Miss Fanny L. Patton)

(25. Related by Judge G. A. Shuford)
(26. Ibid)

(27. By S. F. Thompson, clerk of the court, Sparta, N. C.)

(28. Series I, Vol. XXV, Part 1, Rebellion Records)

(29. Vol. II, N. C. Regiments, 1861-65, p. 475)



CHAPTER XXVIII.
POLITICAL

IN THE DAYS OF GOOD "QUEEN BESS." On the 16th day of July, 1584, Sir
Walter Raleigh's colony landed on Roanoke Island, and took formal
possession of the country in the name of the Queen. No day more prophetic
of the love of individual liberty, and no more gallant leader could have
been found for the beginning of a people who afterward fought at Alamance,
drafted the Mecklenburg "Resolves," and "framed the first written compact
that, west of the mountains, was writ for the guidance of liberty's
feet."(1) The first colony was lost; but others followed, and on the 18th
day of August, 1585, Virginia Dare became the first of that sweet and
gentle galaxy of beautiful and exemplary women who have made North
Carolina what it is today. In 1663, by a grant from King Charles II, all
the country lying between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and included
within the 31st and 36th parallels of north latitude, was given to certain
men, and William Drummond was appointed governor of the colony of
Carolina. North Carolina, the State, was modest, therefore, when, after
the Revolutionary War, she claimed all territory west of the mountains to
the Mississippi only. "In 1690 that portion of the province lying north of
the Santee river was styled North Carolina, and the four southern counties
were called South Carolina. From this period began that long series of
oppressions and grievances which finally culminated in the overthrow of
the British and the establishment of the independence of the colony.

CLARENDON. "In 1729 this territory would have been embraced in the county
of Clarendon.(2) At this time the county of New Hanover, with indefinite
western boundaries which seem to have extended to the Pacific Ocean, then
called the South Seas, was formed, and the name of Clarendon as a county
disappears. From New Hanover county in 1738 was cut off and erected the
county of Bladen, whose western limits were left undefined. Again from the
county of Bladen was formed in 1749 the county of Anson, still with
undefined western limits. Here Buncombe's genealogy divides into two
branches, to be united again in her own creation. That portion of her
territory which was taken from Burke may be traced from this point as
follows. In 1758 Rowan county was formed from a part of Anson county, and
up to the beginning of the Revolutionary War continued in its entirety. In
1777 was formed from its western portion a new county called Burke.

BUNCOMBE'S ANCESTRY. "That portion of Buncombe county which was taken from
Rutherford may be traced as follows In 1762 was formed from the western
part of the county of Anson a new county called in honor of the new queen
of England, Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg, by the name of Macklenburg
county. In 1768 the western part of Mecklenburg county was erected into a
new county, and named in honor of North Carolina's notorious Colonial
governor, Tryon county, but during the struggle for independence the North
Carolinians were but little disposed to honor the name of their former
oppressor, and when in 1779 this county had become inconveniently large,
it was formed into two new counties, and the name of Tryon dropped, and
the eastern part called Lincoln, while the western portion received the
name of Rutherford county, in honor of Gen. Griffith Rutherford."

LOCKE'S CONSTITUTION. It is frequently forgotten that for several years
the colony of Carolina was governed by Locke's "grand model" constitution;
and but a few lawyers know that it is set forth in full in the second
volume of the revised Statutes (1837) North Carolina, where can also be
found that much vaunted but little known "palladium" of our liberties,
"Magna Carta." Locke's plan provided that these backwoodsmen were to have
"two kinds of nobles put over them: greater nobles, who were called
landgraves; and lesser nobles, who were named casiques. The head of the
nobles was to be called Palatine."(3)

THE EDENTON TEA PARTY. In Edenton on October 25, 1774, fifty-one ladies
crowded into the home of Mrs. Elizabeth King and signed an agreement to do
all in their power to carry out the wishes of the New Bern convention, and
declined to allow any more English tea to be served on their tables.(4)

THE REVOLUTION. In 1773, John Harvey, Speaker, laid before the House of
Commons appeals from several other colonies for its concurrence in the
appointment of a committee to enquire into the wrongs imposed by England
on the colonists. In August, 1774, the Assembly or Congress met at New
Bern, in defiance of the proclamation and denunciation of royal authority.
It endorsed the plan for a general congress in Philadelphia in September
following. In February, 1775, John Harvey issued a call for the Assembly
to meet at New Bern on the 4th of the following April, and a notice to the
people to send delegates to a convention to be held at the same time and
place. On the 20th of May, 1775, the people of Mecklenburg adopted a
declaration of independence, a copy of which was sent to the Continental
Congress at Philadelphia. Governor Martin, the royal governor, fled and
the provisional congress met at Hillsboro on the 20th of August, 1775 and
adopted measures for offensive and defensive warfare. On the 4th of April,
1776, the provincial congress met at Halifax, and on the 12th of that
month expressed the readiness of the people to declare their independence
of the Crown, appointing a committee of safety, with Cornelius Harnett as
chairman. On the 12th of November, 1776, a convention of the people
adopted a constitution, which provided for a legislature, judiciary, etc.,
and the election of the governor by the Legislature.(5)

SEEDS of SECTIONALISM. Most of the population was in the east and this
constitution provided that each county should have two members of the
House of Commons, as the popular branch was called, and one Senator. But,
with the rapid settlement of the western part of the State,
dissatisfaction arose, and as early as 1790 efforts were made to remedy
this uneven representation. By 1818 the feeling had grown so intense that
there was talk of a separation into two States. The western members wanted
the members from each county to correspond to the number of inhabitants,
and demanded that the governor be elected by the people direct. Largely
through the efforts of David L. Swain, then governor, the question of
calling a State convention was left to a vote of the people, and adopted
by 5,856 majority.(6)

EARLY LEGISLATION. In the "Laws of North Carolina," as revised by Henry
Potter, J. L. Taylor and Bart. Yancey, Esqs., in two volumes, published in
1821, is found provision for entry takers and surveyors, establishing
courts (1777) and regulating proceedings therein, directing methods of
electing members of the legislature, to encourage the building of public
mills (ch. 122); making parts of Surry county and of "the District of
Washington, now a part of Tennessee, into Wilkes county (ch. 127); while
chapter 154, laws of 1779, prohibits hunting deer in night time with guns
and fire-light;' chapter 212, laws of 1784, prohibits killing deer in
woods on the east side of the Appalachians between the 20th of February
and 15th of August, but permitting the slaughter to continue to the west.
Chapter 227, laws of 1784, empowers the county courts of pleas and quarter
sessions to order the laying out of public roads. Chapter 201 of the laws
of 1784 describes the lands granted to General Nathanael Greene (acts of
1782) to be laid off by Absalom Tatum, Isaac Shelby and Anthony Bledsoe,
beginning on the south bank of the Duck river. That is now a part of Maury
county, Tenn. Chapter 123, laws of 1777, provides a penalty for burning or
setting fire to woods. Haywood's Manual, p. 377, provides for the
enrollment (with certain excepted classes) of all males between 18 and 45
years of age, fixes penalties for failing to attend musters, gives such
members of the militia free passage over all ferries, and exempts them
from working roads on muster days. The confiscation of lands belonging to
all who took up arms against the United States is provided for (ch. 17,
laws of 1777), while chapter 2, laws of 1779, gives a list of those whose
lands have been forfeited (Haywood's Manual, p. 123). Military land
warrants were provided for in ch. 18, laws of 1741 (Haywood's Manual, p.
448), and on page 450 is found the requirement that prisons shall contain
a criminals' room, a debtors' room, a female prisoners' room and a
negroes' room.

PRISONS IN TOWNS AND COUNTRY. But in the year of our Lord, one thousand
nine hundred and twelve there appeared in an Asheville daily newspaper the
following:(8)

"'I have been visiting these places for five years,' said Mr. Crabtree. 'I
have been urging that North Carolina do away with the chains and establish
the merit system. The convicts need help. The work needs evangelists,
chaplains. The prisoners have no encouragement.'

"One of the Buncombe road camps, that in lower Hominy, was visited. The
officials were found to be kindly and courteous. The objectionable double
bunk system is used. White and negro prisoners are kept together, 22 men
packed in a 30 by eight feet iron cage. Sanitary conditions are very poor
as to bed clothing."

There are also laws concerning runaways, slaves, free negroes and
mulattoes.

CONFISCATION. The act of 1779 (ch. 153, p. 384, Potter's Revisal) refers
to an act of 1777 for the confiscation of the property of all persons
inimical to "this or the United States," and provides methods for carrying
that act into effect. A list of those whose property is declared
forfeited, comprising almost an entire page, is given.

FINANCIAL LEGISLATION. In 1783 (ch. 185, p. 435) the legislature declared
that "the opening of the land office and the granting of lands within the
State would not only redeem the specie and other certificates due from
(doubtless meaning 'to') the public, but greatly enhance the credit
thereof (sic)." In 1783 (ch. 187) a table was given showing the scale by
which to determine the value of the depreciation of paper currency,
estimated in specie; and a "table of coins," giving the value in North
Carolina currency of a guinea, a half-guinea, a French guinea, a moidore,
a four pistole piece, a pistole, a double Johannes, French and English
crowns, a dollar, a pistareen and a shilling.

WASHINGTON DISTRICT AND COUNTY. In 1777 (ch. 126, p. 349) the State
recognized the "late district of Washington," the old Watauga Settlements,
by erecting it into a new and distinct county by the name of Washington
county. It was to begin at the most northwesterly part of Wilkes, on the
Virginia line, and run south 36 miles; then west to the ridge of the Great
Iron mountains; thence southwestwardly to the Unicoy mountain where the
trading path crosses, and then south to the South Carolina line, and then
due west to the "great river Mississippi, then up the river to a point due
west from the beginning.", Thus, Washington county embraced what is now
Tennessee.

FOR THE RELIEF OF MORAVIANS, QUAKERS, MENNONITES AND DUNKARDS. In 1780
(ch. 166, p. 406) an act was passed which recited that as an act had been
already passed which required all persons to take an oath of allegiance to
the State or be sent out of it, and deprived of civil rights therein,
which oath certainpersons "pretended" the Mennonites, Quakers, etc., etc.,
had not taken, and had, under this pretext, entered upon and were then
claiming the lands of those sects, it was enacted that all such entries
and proceedings thereon should be null and void.

FORMATION OF FIRST COUNTIES. In 1791 Buncombe was formed from Burke and
Rutherford counties; in 1799 (Laws of N. C., p. 98) Ashe was formed, and
it is the shortest act of the kind on record: "all that part of the county
of Wilkes lying west of the extreme height of the Appalachian mountains
shall be, and the same is hereby erected into a separate and distinct
county by the name of Ashe." In 1808 Haywood was formed out of the western
part of Buncombe, and it extended to the Tennessee line. The formation of
these three counties required an interval of about ten years between each.
Then followed the dead-lock of twenty years, extending to 1828, when Macon
was allowed to become a county, it having been taken from Haywood. Yancey
was formed in 1833, out of Burke and Buncombe. It had thus taken forty-two
years to get five counties west of the Blue Ridge. But the leaven of
discontent was working, and the convention of 1835 was called by a vote of
the entire people of the State.

CONVENTION OF 1835. The convention met at Raleigh in January, 1835, and
the demands of the west for the election of representatives and governor
by the direct vote of the people were granted; the right of suffrage which
hitherto had been enjoyed by certain "free persons of color"(9) was
abrogated. Catholics were relieved of political disability, the governor's
term was extended to two years, and biennial, instead of annual sessions
of the legislature provided for. But something had been held back, and
that was

"FREE AND EQUAL SUFFRAGE." The first Democratic governor chosen by the
people was David S. Reid, in 1850, who favored what was called "free and
equal suffrage." To understand this phrase it will be necessary to
understand that, under the constitution of 1835, white males, 21 years
old, who had paid their taxes could vote for members of the house of
commons; but they could not vote for senators unless they owned fifty
acres of land. "Free Suffrage" meant to allow any free white man to vote
for a senator, whether the voter owned land or not.(10)

THE FLY STILL IN THE OINTMENT. Thus, the new constitution still left
something to be desired: the senate was to consist of fifty. senators, the
number from each senatorial district being determined, not by population,
but by the amount of taxes paid. That did not suit the white men of the
west at all.

PREVALENCE OF EASTERN NAMES. With the exception of Swain, no county west
of the Blue Ridge is named for a citizen of this section; and, except
Bakersville and Bryson city, no county seat is named for a son of the
west. These honors had to be bartered away to get the legislature to
consent to the formation of every other county west of the Blue Ridge. For
even eastern men admit that we obtained our just dues only by barter and
trade.

SECTIONALISM RAMPANT. Of this period Chief Justice Clark(11) says:

"During the time Capt. Burns was in the legislature (1821 to 1834) the
east had a disproportionately large representation. The west had increased
very greatly in population and demanded an increase in representation,
either by the creation of new counties in the west or by calling a
constitutional convention. These measures were voted down in the general
assembly, or if a new county was created in the west a new one was created
in the east-just as in congress before the war, if a non-slave-holding
state was admitted into the Union, a slaveholding state was admitted to
balance it. Capt. Burns, though he was from Carteret county, on the very
borders of the ocean, his was the odd vote that created Flacon county in
1877. In 1822 he voted for Davidson county. He voted for the creation of
Yancey county in 1827, the vote being a tie. The speaker voted 'aye', but
the bill was lost in the senate. In 1828 he voted for Cherokee, though the
measure then failed, the county not being created till eleven years later,
in 1839. In 1833 Capt. Burns was in the senate and again voted for the
creation of Yancey county, which measure their passed. The grateful west
promptly named the county seat of the new county 'Burnsville.'

"We of this day can hardly realize the bitter feeling that then existed
between the east and west in our State until the inequality of
representation was remedied by the constitutional convention of 1835."

As the Cherokees agreed to go west in 1835 we should have here a----

RECAPITULATION of INDIAN TREATIES, the principal of which, concerning the
mountains of Western North Carolina, may be briefly summed up as follows:

Treaty of 1761, by which the Blue Ridge was made the boundary;

Treaty of 1772 and purchase of 1773, by which the ridge between the
Nollechucky and the Watauga rivers, from their sources in the Blue Ridge
westward, and from the Blue Ridge to the Virginia line, was rnade the
boundary line;

Treaty of Hopewell, 1785, by which the line was moved westward to a line
running just east of Marshall, Asheville and Hendersonville;

Treaty of Holston, 1791, establishing Meigs & Freeman's line;

Treaty of 1819 by which the line was moved west to the Nantahala river;

Treaty of New Echota, or 1835, by which the Cherokees surrendered all
lands east of the Mississippi, and agreed to remove.

FROM 1833 To 1849. Notwithstanding the changes wrought in the constitution
by the convention of 1835, the west made but little progress politically,
as during those sixteen years only one additional county was permitted to
organize, and that was Henderson, taken from the southern part of Buncombe
in 1838. But, although the Senate was to continue to represent the landed
interests till 1857, when the constitution was amended by the Legislature
so as to distribute senators according to population,(12) between 1818 and
1862 seven new counties were established west of the Blue Ridge, viz.:
Watauga, 1849; Jackson, 1851; Madison, 1851; Alleghany, 1859; Mitchell,
1861; Transylvania, 1861; and Clay, 1861.

A NATURAL DIPLOMAT.(13) "In 1848 William H. Thomas entered the Senate from
Macon county, and remained there till 1862. In those twelve years he
accomplished more for western North Carolina than any other man who ever
lived. In addition to securing the creation of the seven new counties
above referred to, he had the Western Turnpike from Salisbury to Murphy
constructed and paid for out of the sale of Cherokee lands; he secured a
charter for the Wextern North Carolina Railroad and saw it finished to
within a few miles of Morganton at the foot of the Blue Ridge, and had the
charter so altered that after the road should reach Asheville it should go
west toward Murphy as rapidly as it proceeded northwest toward Paint Rock.
In addition to this he cawed turnpike roads to be built all through the
mountains, and helped to organize the companies which constructed them, by
giving barbecues and holding public meetings at which he taught the people
the importance of making good roads. And, in the meantime, he was using
his powers of persuasion to induce South Carolina to endorse four million
dollars of the bonds of the Blue Ridge Railroad that was to enter our
State at Rabun gap and proceed down the Little Tennessee to Cincinnati. He
was also engaged at this time in looking after the affairs of the Eastern
Band of Cherokees, by whom he had been adopted when a youth. He lived to
see the railroad completed to Murphy." A monument of bronze is due to his
memory from the people of Western North Carolina.

SECESSION. On the 30th day of January, 1861, the Legislature submitted to
the people the question of holding a convention to consider secession; but
it was voted down. But when, in April, 1861, President Lincoln issued a
proclamation calling on North Carolina, with the other states still in the
Union, to contribute her quota of troops to be used in coercing those
states which had withdrawn to return to the Union, the Legislature voted
for a convention, and on the 20th day of May it unanimously adopted the
ordinance of secession.

NORTH CAROLINA DID NOT FIGHT FOR SLAVERY.(14) "One of the most significant
proofs of the fact that the status of the negro was not, at the South,
regarded as the issue, was the ardor with which the nonslaveholding
portions of the population flew to arms at the call of their respective
states, and the fidelity they exhibited for the cause through' four years
of struggle, self-denial, suffering, death and social destruction.

FEW SLAVE-HOLDERS IN THE MOUNTAINS. "Especially was this true of the North
Carolina mountaineer. In the greater portion of that section of the State
extending from the eastern foot-hills of the Blue Ridge to the western
boundaries of Clay and Cherokee, the slave-owners in 1861 were so rare
that the institution of slavery may be said, practically, to have had no
existence; and yet that region sent more than fifteen thousand fighting
men-volunteers-into the field.(15)

REGIMENTS. "The Sixteenth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-ninth, Fifty-
eighth, Sixtieth, Sixty-second, Sixty-fourth, Sixty-fifth and Sixty-ninth
regiments were composed exclusively of mountain men; and in addition they
were numerously represented in the "Bethel," Ninth, Eleventh, Fourteenth,
the "Immortal Twenty-sixth," the Nineteenth regiments, and other
organizations. This estimate does not include a large number of men from
the same territory, who during the progress of the war were embodied in
independent commands, and did gallant service in the campaigns in
Virginia, in the southwest and in the immediate locality of their homes.
These mountaineers were the descendants of the sturdy, hard-fighting
Scotch-Irish, who, to a man, were Whigs in the Revolution, and by their
stubborn resistance of the British aggressions, contributed so much to the
establishment of the independence of their country. Nor does it include
thousands who joined the Federal army.

NOT REBELS, BUT SONS OF REVOLUTIONARY SIRES. "The men of Western Carolina,
whose sublime devotion and courage, with that of their comrades from other
portions of the South, have made the heights of Gettysburg and
Fredericksburg and Sharpsburg, the plains of Manassas and Chickahominy,
the wilderness of Chancellorsville and Chickamauga, the valleys of
Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee, immortal, had in their veins the blood of
the patriots who fought at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Yorktown,
Savannah, Guilford, Eutaw Springs and Kings Mountain-and, let it never be
forgotten, they fought, and fighting died, for the same great divine right-
the right of a people to ordain and control their own government."(14)

OUR "WAR GOVERNOR'S RIGHT HAND."(16) Governor Vance was the colonel of the
26th North Carolina regiment when he was elected to the high office of
governing his people in the most momentous and troublous time in their
history; but notwithstanding that fact, he realized that he was not a
trained and educated soldier. He therefore, summoned to his side at the
outset of his term that accomplished officer and gentleman, General James
Green Martin, who had graduated from West Point in time to lose an arm in
the Mexican War and to be brevetted for gallantry on the field of
Cherubusco. He was, therefore, continued as adjutant general, to which
position Gov. Clark had appointed him in 1861, and the legislature wisely
gave him great power and put money freely at his command, in preparing our
troops for battle. Without factories and without markets, forty thousand
armed and well-drilled men had been turned over to the Confederacy within
seven months; while in less than one year after North Carolina left the
Union the State had nearly sixty thousand men in camp. He did not stop
then, but as rapidly as possible Gen. Martin added regiment after regiment
until seventytwo regular regiments had been formed. Later in the war three
regiments of boys too young for regular duty were organized. In addition
to these, in the days of sore need, five regiments of old men were pressed
into the service of the Confederacy. Then came the Home Guard, the whole
aggregating 125,000 soldiers.

ARMA VIRUMQUE. And not only did he make soldiers, but he also went
actively into the manufacture of arms. He hired two Frenchmen to make
swords and bayonets at the armory at Wilmington, while workmen in Guilford
made 300 rifles a month. The State took charge of the old United State
arsenal at Fayetteville and made excellent rifle. One powder mill near
Raleigh made weekly 4,000 pounds of powder. Pistols, swords, cartridge-
boxes, gun-caps, bayonets, cartridges, powder, lead, etc., to the value of
1,673,308 were furnished the soldiers before April, 1864.

QUARTERMASTER; ALSO COMMISSARY. The Legislature in 1861 directed Gen.
Martin to clothe the soldiers as best he could, and he started a clothing
factory at Raleigh, and required all the mills in the State to send him
every yard of cloth thev made. Officers were sent into the far South to
buy all the shoes and cloth they could find, while women at home furnished
blankets, quilts and comforts, even cutting up their carpets and lining
them with cotton to be used for blankets. In 1862 Gen. Martin asked Gov.
Clark to buy a still; to run the blockade and bring in supplies from
foreign ports; but as the Governor's term was nearly out, he asked Gen.
Martin to submit his plan to Governor Vance. He did so, and the Governor
approved it; and Gen. Martin sent John White to England, where he bought
the Advance, named in honor of the Governor. This ship brought in many
cargoes of goods before it was captured. The State bought cotton and rosin
and in foreign ports exchanged these for such supplies as were most in
demand. Other ships ran the blockade also, bringing in 250,000 pairs of
shoes and cloth for 250,000 suits, 2,000 fine rifles, 60,000 pairs of
cotton cards, 500 sacks of coffee for the sick, medicine to the value of
850,000 and other articles. For these supplies the State spent 826,363,
663. From these stores North Carolina contributed largely to the
Confederate government, and during the last months of the war we were
feeding one-half of General Lee's army.

GENERAL MARTIN TAKES COMMAND AT ASHEVILLE. His work of organizing and
supplying the troops having ended, Gen. Martin took command of the troops
in and around Asheville in 1864. He spent the rest of his life here, and
died a "mountain man" just as "Zeb" Vance had always been, though his
residence had been in Charlotte for years, and we are proud of their
records.

MANY WELCOME PEACE. The sentiment for the Old Union did not wholly die in
Western North Carolina even during the heat of the armed conflict which
followed secession; and after having in vain asserted by nearly four
years' warfare its conscientious contention that the general government
had no right to force any state to furnish troops to coerce any other
state to remain in the Union, many of the best and most influential
citizens of these mountains, after the defeat of Hood at Franklin,
Tennessee, and the evacuation of Savannah by the Confederates, considered
further resistance as not only futile but a needless waste of blood and
treasure, and that such people at home should make known their sentiments
to the commanders of the Union forces in the South. Their hope was thus to
avert further bloodshed and the destruction of property; and, as Sherman
had not then started on his barbarous march through South Carolina, it is
interesting to consider how much of suffering and loss might have been
spared to the women and children of that State and elsewhere if their
counsel had been followed.

PEACEFUL OVERTURES. In pursuance of this sentiment there is the best
authority for making public the following facts: In January, 1865, there
met in one of the rooms of the Old Buck Hotel at Asheville the following
men: A. S. Merrimon, Weston Holmes, Alfred M. Alexander, J. E. Reid, J. L.
Henry, Adolphus E. Baird, G. M. Roberts, I. A. Harris, and Adolphus M.
Gudger. A paper declaring that the people were tired of further warfare
and desired peace and the restoration of the Union was prepared by Judge
A. S. Merrimon and signed by each of the above-named citizens. Adolphus M.
Gudger undertook to have it delivered to Judge John Baxter at Knoxville.
He did so, and it was put into the hands of the military commander then in
charge of that city. Major W. W. Rollins, nowpostmaster at Asheville, saw
and read it in January, 1865. It doubtless did much good in the saving of
property when the Union forces invaded this territory in April and May
following. Of these men A. M. Alexander, J. L. Henry and I. A. Harris were
officers of the Confederate Army at the time they signed that paper. All
are now dead except Dr. I. A. Harris, who lives at Jupiter, Buncombe
county. This paper is said to be in existence, and its exact wording would
be a matter of great interest at this time when there is so universal a
sentiment in favor of the Union.(17)

AFTER THE WAR. During the Civil War which followed secession, the writ of
habeas corpus was not suspended in North Carolina or New York; but after
peace had been declared Governor W. W. Holden, provisional governor,
suspended it, and appointed Col. George W. Kirk, who had raided the
mountain section during the war, to enforce martial law. North Carolina
sent more troops into the Confederate army than any other Southern State;
and while there were many desertions from the soldiers who had joined the
Confederacy from the West, the mountain section was by no means a laggard
in defence of the cause of the Confederacy.

RECONSTRUCTION. Gov. Holden called a convention which met in Raleigh
October 2, 1865, but its work was rejected by the people by a vote of 19,
570 for and 21,552 against, many of the whites being then disfranchised.
Gen. E. R. Canby, commanding the Second Military District, ordered a
constitutional convention which met January 14, 1868. The office of
lieutenant governor was created, and that of superintendent of public
works; all voters were made eligible to office; the number of the Supreme
and Superior courts was increased and provision was made for their
election and that of magistrates by the people; the County Court system
was abolished and county government by a board of commissioners
substituted. The sessions of the Legislature were changed back to one each
year; provision was made to establish a penitentiary; negroes were given
equal rights before the law with all whites, and a census of the State was
ordered every ten years. A homestead of $1,000 in real estate and $500 in
personal property was exempted from execution; Gov. W. W. Holden was
impeached and removed from office in 1871; and Lieutenant Governor Tod R.
Caldwell succeeded him.

THE EXHAUSTION OF THE JUDICIARY. One of the charges against Gov. Holden
had been the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Alamance and
Caswell counties, during what was called Kirk's War, and the existence of
the Ku Klux Klan in 1869 and 1870, when, Col. Kirk, having refused to
recognize the writs of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Pearson had
declared that "the judiciary was exhausted." Judge George W. Brooks, of
the United States District Court for the eastern district, however, pitted
the strong arm of the United States against this defiance of judicial
authority, and Kirk and Holden yielded.(l8)

CONVENTION OF 1875. There was a Constitutional Convention, against the
calling of which the eastern counties had voted solidly, held in Raleigh,
September 6, 1875, which provided that separate schools should be provided
for white and colored; that there should be criminal and inferior courts;
that there should be a department of agriculture; limiting the per diem of
members of the Legislature to four dollars a day during a session of sixty
days; providing for the election of magistrates by the Legislature;
reducing the number of judges, and disfranchising persons who had been
convicted of infamous crimes. Sessions of the Legislature were again made
biennial. In 1900 an amendment was adopted requiring a quasi-educational
qualification for voters after 1908, except for the descendants of those
who could vote prior to 1860. The period during which that exception was
operative passed in 1908; but the fact that certain "free persons of
color" had enjoyed the right to vote prior to the constitution of 1835,
(19) saved the exception, commonly called the "grandfather clause," from
discriminating against anyone "on account of race, color or previous
condition of servitude."

REGULATING PASSENGER RATES. In 1908 the Legislature passed an act limiting
passenger rates on railroads to two cents per mile; and the railroads,
after some litigation, finally compromised by agreeing to charge not over
two and one-half cents per mile.

STATE-WIDE PROHIBITION. In 1908 the Legislature submitted to the people
the question of prohibiting the manufacture and sale of malt and spiritous
liquors anywhere in the State, and the measure was adopted by a large
majority.

THE "NO-FENCE" LAW. In 1885, pursuant to an act of the Legislature passed
at the request of Hon. Richmond Pearson, member of the House from Buncombe
county, the voters of that county voted to eliminate fences in most of the
townships, and requiring the owners of cattle, sheep, horses and "hawgs"
to keep them in bounds. Buncombe was the pioneer county in adopting this
economic reform; and Richmond Pearson the legislator who had the courage
to secure its enactment. A quarrel grew out of this matter which resulted
in the sending of a challenge to Mr. Pearson by Adjutant General Johnston
Jones; but the day of duelling had passed forever, and the matter was
adjusted.

Upon the election of Hon. Z. B. Vance as governor and a Democratic
Legislature the magistrates were empowered to elect the county
commissioners. This was done to enable the eastern counties to control
their board of commissioners in counties where negro votes predominated.
But it finally resulted in great dissatisfaction, and helped to defeat the
Democratic Party in 1894. The Republicans changed the law, in 1895, making
the county commissioners elective by the people.

SWAIN, GRAHAM AND AVERY. Not much was left to be done in the way of
division of the mountain territory when the Civil War came to put a stop
to legislation along this line. Swain county was formed in 1871 and in
1872 Graham was formed out of a portion of Cherokee because it was cut off
from the rest of the State by two high ranges of mountains on the east and
south and by the Little Tennessee river on the north. Its county seat is
Robbinsville. The county seat of Swain is Bryson City, named for the late
Col.. Thad. D. Bryson who, as a member of the Legislature, secured its
establishment as a county. Avery county was formed in 1911, and its county
seat is Newland, named for Lieut. Gov. Newland of Caldwell. It is at the
Old Fields of Toe, and the court house and jail are completed. In this
county is some of the finest scenery in the South.

ONLY CRUMBS FOR THE WEST. Although Gen. Thomas Love had been in the Senate
and the House from 1793 to 1828, except in 1797-98, and John and Elisha
Calloway and George Bower from Ashe almost as long, it was not until
Governor Swain Was elected by the Legislature a Superior Court judge for
one of the eastern circuits that there was the slightest breach in the
wall of sectionalism. His election by the legislature to the governorship
in 1832 and afterwards to to the presidency of the University followed;
but up to his election to the bench there had never been a judge from vest
of the Ridge and there has never been a judge from this section elected to
the Supreme Court, Judge Augustus S. Merrimon having moved from this
locality long before his elevation to that office. And, with the exception
of Judge Swain, there was never a Superior Court judge from the mountains
till 1868, when Judges James L. Henry and Riley Cannon were elected under
Reconstruction. Gov. Zebulon B. Vance of Buncombe was elected governor in
1862-64, and Gov. Locke Craig of the same county in 1912; but they and
Governor Swain are the only governors this part of the State has ever had.
Hon. James L. Robinson of Macon and Rufus A. Doughton of Alleghany have
been presidents of the Senate, and James L. Robinson was elected speaker
of the House in 1872 and 1874, but it was not till 1901 that Hon. Walter
E. Moore of Jackson was elected speaker. In 1876 Dr. Samuel L. Love was
elected State auditor from Haywood, and the Hon. Robert M. Furman in 1894.
Hon. Theodore F. Davidson was elected attorney general in 1884 and 1888
and R. D. Gilmer in 1900. General Thomas L. Clingman of Buncombe was
elected to the U. S. Senate in 1858, and Judge Jeter C. Pritchard in 1895
and 1897. Col. Allen T. Davidson was elected to the Provisional Congress
of the Confederacy in 1861 and in 1862 by the people. In 1864 Judge George
W. Logan of Rutherford county succeeded him. Hon. M. L. Shipman of
Hendersonville has been labor commissioner for several years.

FELIX WALKER.(20) When the Missouri question was under discussion, Mr.
Walker secured the floor, when some impatient member asked him to sit down
and let a vote be taken. He refused, saying he must "make a speech for
Buncombe," that is, for his constituents. Thus "bunkum," as it is usually
spelt, has become part of our vocabulary. Mr. Walker was born in Hampshire
county, Va., July 19, 1753, and became a merchant. His grandfather, John
Walker, emigrated in 1720 from Derry, Ireland, to Delaware, where his
father, also named John, was born. The younger John moved first to
Virginia and afterwards to North Carolina, settling within four miles of
Kings Mountain. He was a member of the first convention at Hillsboro,
July, 1775, and of the Provincial Congress which met there, August 21,
1775, afterwards serving in the Revolutionary War. He died in 1796. Felix
went with Richard Henderson to Kentucky (then called Louisa), 1774-1775,
where he was badly wounded by Indians. He then joined the Watauga
settlement and became the first clerk of the court of Washington county.
While holding this office he went to Mecklenburg county, and was made
captain of a company of State troops which was placed at Nollechucky to
guard the frontier against the Indians. After serving four years as clerk
he moved to Rutherford county, N. C., where in 1789 he was appointed clerk
of the court of that county. He represented that county in the General
Assembly in 1792, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1806. In 1817 he was elected
member of Congress, and for two succeeding Congresses. R. B. Vance
succeeded him in 1823. Walker was a candidate again in 1827, but withdrew
in favor of Sam. P. Carson, who defeated both Vance and James Graham.
Walker then removed to Mississippi, where he died in 1828, at Clinton.

ISRAEL PICKENS was born in Cabarrus county, N. C., January 30, 1780; moved
to Burke county, receiving limited schooling; State Senator in 1808 and
1809; elected as Democrat to 12th, 13th and 14th Congresses (March 4, 1811-
March 3, 1817); appointed Register of Land Office of Mississippi territory
in 1817; Governor of Alabama, 1821-1825; appointed from Alabama to United
States Senate to fill vacancy caused by death of Henry Chambers, serving
from February 17, 1826, to November 27, 1826; died near Matanzas, Cuba,
April 24, 1827.(21)

JAMES GRAHAM was born in Lincoln county, January, 1793; graduated from
University of North Carolina, 1814; admitted to bar and practiced; moved
to Rutherford county, which he represented in the House of Commons 1822-
1823, 1824, 1828-1829; elected to the 23d, 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th
Congresses, and served from December 2, 1833, to March 3, 1843, excepting
from it March 25, 1836, to December 5, 1836, when a Democratic house
declared the seat vacant, but at a new election Graham was again elected;
defeated for the 28th Congress; elected as a Whig to the 29th Congress
(March 4, 1845, to March 3, 1847); died in Rutherford county, September
25, 1851.(20)

THOMAS L. CLINGMAN was born at Huntersville, July 27, 1812; graduated from
University of North Carolina, 1832; studied and practiced law; elected to
House of Commons in 1835; moved to Asheville in 1836; elected State
Senator in 1840; elected as a Whig to 28th Congress (March 4, 1843 to
March 3, 1845); defeated by James Graham to 29th Congress; reelected to
30th, 31st, 32d, 33d, 34th and 35th Congresses (March 4, 1847-December 6,
1858) when he resigned; appointed in 1858 United States Senator as a
Democrat to fill vacancy caused by resignation of Asa Biggs; was elected
to United States Senate and served from May 6, 1858, to January 21, 1861,
when he withdrew; was formally expelled from United States Senate July 11,
1861; appointed May 17, 1862, brigadier general in the Confederate
service, and commanded a brigade composed of the 8th, 31st, 51st, and 61st
North Carolina infantry; delegate to the Democratic national convention of
1868; was a delegate to the State Constitutional convention of 1875;
explored and measured mountain peaks and developed mineral resources of
several regions; died November 3, 1897; buried in Asheville.

ZEBULON BAIRD VANCE, born in Buncombe county May 13, 1830, attended
Washington College, Tennessee, was clerk at hotel, Hot Springs, North
Carolina; attended University of North Carolina; admitted to bar in
January, 1852, when he was elected county attorney of Buncombe; member of
House of Commons, 1854; elected as a Democrat to 35th Congress to fill
vacancy caused by resignation of Thomas L. Clingman; reelected to the 36th
Congress, and served from December 7, 1858, to March 3, 1861; entered
Confederate Army as captain in May, 1861, and made colonel in August,
1861; was elected governor August, 1862, and 1864; was member of
Democratic national convention of 1868; elected to United States Senate
November, 1870, but was refused admission, and resigned in January, 1872;
he was defeated for United States Senate in 1872 by Hon. A. S. Merrimon;
was elected governor over Hon. Thomas Settle in famous campaign of 1876;
elected to United States Senate in 1879; reelected in 1884 and 1890,
serving till his death in Washington, D. C., April 14, 1894.(20)

ALEXANDER HAMILTON JONES was born in Buncombe county July 21, 1822, was
educated at Emory and Henry College; he was a merchant, a strong Union man
during the Civil War, and in 1863 joined the Union Army and was captured
in East Tennessee while raising a regiment and imprisoned at Asheville and
at Camp Vance below Morganton, and at Camp Holmes and at Libby Prison at
Richmond, Virginia. He made his escape November 11, 1864, and joined the
Union Army at Cumberland, Maryland. After the war he returned to
Hendersonville and was elected a delegate to the State Convention to frame
a new constitution in 1865. He was elected a representative to the 39th
Congress but was refused a seat. He was reelected to the 40th Congress and
was admitted July 6, 1868. He was reelected to the 41st Congress and made
his home in Washington, D. C., till 1876, and in Maryland till 1884, when
he came to Asheville, where he resided till 1890, going thence to
Oklahoma, where he remained till 1897, when he moved to Long Beach,
California, where he died January 29, 1901. He married Sarah D. Brittain,
daughter of William and Rachel Brittain of Mills river, in 1843, of which
marriage five children were born: Col. Thad W. Jones, U. S. A., Otho M.
Jones, and Mrs. J. P. Johnson, Mrs. Thomas J. Candler, and Miss Charlotte
Jones, spinster. His widow died in January, 1913, aged 92.

GEN. ROBERT BRANK VANCE. He was born in Buncombe county, April 24, 1828,
and was the eldest son of David and Mira Vance. When 21 years of age he
was elected clerk of the county court, and reelected till 1858, when he
retired voluntarily. He was a Union man and voted against secession, but
went into the Confederate Army when war was declared. He was first
captain, but soon afterwards elected colonel of the 29th North Carolina
Infantry, becoming brigadier general in 1863, after the battle of
Murfreesborough. He was captured at Cosby's creek, Tenn., in January,
1864, and kept a prisoner till the close of the war. He was elected to the
43d Congress in 1872, and thereafter till 1885. He succeeded in securing
daily mails in every county in his district, and many money-order offices.
He was appointed commissioner of patents in 1885, and obtained an
appropriation for dredging the French Broad river between Brevard and
Asheville, a small steamer having been operated there a short time in
1876. He was in the State Senate in 1893. He was a sincere Christian, and
the most useful congressman who ever went from that district. He died at
Alexander, ten miles below Asheville, November 28, 1899.

EDMUND SPENCER BLACKBURN, born in Watauga county, September 22, 1868;
attended common schools and academies; admitted to the bar in May, 1890;
was reading clerk of North Carolina Senate, 1894-1895; representative in
State Legislature, 1896-1897; was elected speaker pro tem of this
Legislature; appointed assistant United States Attorney for western
district in 1898, and assisted in the prosecution of Breese and Dickerson
in the First National Bank case; elected as republican to 57th Congress
(March 4, 1901-March 3, 1903); reelected March 4, 1905; and died at
Elizabethton, Tenn., March 10, 1912. Interment, at Boone, N. C. Edmund
Blackburn was the first of his family to settle in Watauga, then Ashe
county, and married a relative of Levi Morphew, who is still living on the
New River, well up in the nineties. Edmund's children were Levi, Sallie,
and Edmund, Levi having been the grandfather of E. Spencer and M. B.
Blackburn of Boone. Levi Morphew is a son of Sallie Blackburn. Among the
first Methodist churches in Watauga was the one built by the Blackburn
family on Riddle's Fork of Meat Camp creek, called Hopewell, the
Methodists having worshiped in Levi Blackburn's house prior to that time.
Henson's chapel on Cove creek was probably the first Methodist church in
Watauga. The first church built in Boone was built about 1880.

ROMULUS Z. LINNEY. He was born in Rutherford county December 26, 1841; was
educated in the common schools of the country, at York's Collegiate
Institute, and at Dr. Millen's school at Taylorsville; he served as a
private in the Confederate army until the battle of Chancellorsville,
where he was severely wounded, and was discharged. He then joined a class
in Dr. Millen's school at Taylorsville, of which Hon. W. H. Bower was a
member; studied law with the late Judge Armfield; was admitted to practice
by the Supreme Court in 1868; was elected to the State Senate in 1870,
1872, 1874, and again in 1882; was elected to the 54th, 55th and 56th
Congresses as a Republican, receiving 19,419 votes against 18,006 for
Rufus A. Doughton, Democrat, and 640 for Wm. M. White, Prohibitionist. He
married Dorcas Stephenson in Taylorsville. In 1880 he became interested in
Watauga so much that he bought property there, and in September, 1902, he
bought a tract of land he called Tater Hill on Rich mountain, where he
built two rock houses. He was influential in getting a wagon road built
along the top of the Rich mountain range from the gap above Boone to a gap
just north of Silverstone. He contributed $500 to the Appalachian Training
School. Above the front door of the chief building of this college is
written in marble the following quotation from one of his speeches
delivered July 4, 1903: "Learning, the Handmaid of Loyalty and Liberty. A
Vote Governs Better than a Crown." He died at Taylorsville, April 15,
1910. His mother was a sister of the late Judge John Baxter.

THOMAS DILLARD JOHNSTON was born at Waynesville, North Carolina, April 1,
1840. His father was William Johnston and his mother Lucinda Gudger, a
daughter of the late James Gudger and a grand-daughter of Col. Robert Love
of Waynesville. He went to school to the late Capt. James N. Terrell in a
log school house in Waynesville, when about ten years of age. In 1853 he
entered the school of the late Col. Stephen D. Lee, in Chunn's Cove, where
he remained till the summer of 1857, when he entered the State University;
but, his health failing, he returned to Asheville to which place his
family had removed, and were living in a brick house that stood on the
corner now occupied by the Drhumor Block. He began the study of law with
the late Judge James L. Bailey at his law school near the foot of Black
Mountain, where he remained till the summer of 1861, when he obtained
license to practice in the County Court. In May, 1861, he enlisted as a
private in the Rough and Ready Guards, the second Asheville company to
enter the service of the Confederacy. He was desperately wounded three
times at Malvern Hill, and for a long time his life was despaired of.
Recovering, however, he became quartermaster to Col. W. C. Walker's
battalion and Capt. J. T. Levy's battery of artillery. In 1866 he was
admitted to practice by Chief Justice Pearson. He was defeated in 1867 for
county solicitor by Col. V. S. Lusk, and in 1868 Col. Lusk defeated him
for circuit solicitor. In 1869 he was elected mayor of Asheville, and in
1870 he was elected to the House of Representatives. He canvassed the
Ninth Congressional District in 1871 in favor of a State convention to
amend the Constitution, but the measure was defeated. He was a candidate
for elector in 1872 on the Greelev ticket. In 1875 he again advocated a
similar convention, which was called. He was elected to the Legislature
again in 1872 and in 1876 to the State Senate. On the 10th of July, 1879,
he married Miss N. Leila Bobo of South Carolina. In 1884 he was elected to
Congress, defeating H. G. Ewart, and again in 1886, defeating W. H.
Malone. In 1888 he was defeated for Congress by H. G. Ewart. He died June
23, 1902. He gave the United States the site of the present postoffice in
1888, and assisted in the education of a number of worthy young men. Of
him it has been said that "his word was better than his bond, and his bond
was as good as gold."

JAMES MONTRAVILLE MOODY. He was born February 12, 1858, in Cherokee, now
Graham, county, but while he was yet an infant his parents moved to and
settled on Jonathan's creek, Haywood county. He attended the neighborhood
schools and at seventeen years of age went to Waynesville Academy under
the tutelage of John K. Boone, after which he went to the Collegiate
Institute at Candler, Buncombe county. He was admitted to the bar in 1881,
and in 1886 was Republican nominee for solicitor, and defeated Judge G. S.
Ferguson for that position, serving four years. In 1894 he was elected to
the State Senate from the 34th District, then composed of Haywood,
Buncombe and Madison. He was appointed major and chief commissary and
served on the staff of Major General J. Warren Keifer in the
SpanishAmerican War of 1898. In 1900 he was elected from the Ninth
District over W. T. Crawford, Esq., a member of Congress, and was
renominated in 1902 by the Republicans, but was defeated by Mr. J. M.
Gudger, Jr., two years later. On May 20, 1885, Mr. Moody married Miss
Margaret E. Hawkins. He died February 5, 1903.

WILLIAM THOMAS CRAWFORD. He was born on Crabtree creek, Haywood county, N.
C., June 1, 1856. He attended the public schools of this neighborhood, and
in 1882 the old Waynesville Academy. In 1885 and 1887 he served as a
member of the House of Representatives in the State legislature. In 1888
he was Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket, and in 1889 he
served as engrossing clerk of the House. In 1889 and 1890 he studied law
at the University of North Carolina. In 1890 he was elected to Congress.
In 1891 he was admitted to the bar. On the 30th of November, 1892, he was
married to Miss Inez Edna Coman, daughter of J. R. Coman and wife, Laura
McCracken, daughter of David V. McCracken. J. R. Coman's father was that
scholarly and eccentric gentleman, Matthew J. Coman, son of James Coman,
of the city of Raleigh, N. C. Matthew J. Coman was a classmate of
President James K. Polk at the University of North Carolina, was a fine
classical scholar, and was born in Raleigh in 1802. In 1892 Mr. Crawford
was again elected to Congress, defeating Hon. Jeter C. Pritchard. He was
defeated for the 54th Congress. Was re-elected to the 56th Congress, but
was unseated by Hon. Richmond Pearson by a majority of one vote. He was
defeated for reelection to Congress in 1900. He was Presidential elector
on the Democratic ticket in 1904. He was elected to the 60th Congress
(1907 to 1909). He practised law in Waynesville till his death, November
16, 1913. Even his political rivals admitted that he had more strength
before the people than any man since the death of his near kinsman, the
late Col. William H. Thomas, for whom he was named. His widow and seven
children survive.

JAMES LOWERY ROBINSON. He was a son of James and Matilda Lowery Robinson,
was born September 17, 1838, married Miss Alice L. Siler, daughter of
Julius T. and Mary Coleman Siler, October 12, 1864. He died July 8, 1887.
On his mother's side he was descended from the Lanes and Swains, his
mother having been a niece of Gov. D. L. Swain. He attended Emory and
Henry College of Virginia, volunteered as a private in the Confederate
army and was promoted to a captaincy, fighting gallantly till discharged
because of a wound he carried all his life. He represented Macon in the
House from 1868 to 1872, inclusive, when he was elected speaker, to which
position he was reelected in 1873 and 1874. A silver service presented at
the end of his service as speaker was inscribed: "From the Republicans and
Democrats of the House: a testimonial of ability, integrity and
impartiality." From 1876 to 1879, inclusive, he served as State Senator
from the then 42d District, composed of Jackson, Swain, Clay, Macon,
Cherokee and Graham counties; and on November 20, 1876, was elected
president of the Senate by a vote of thirty-six to six. He was nominated
for lieutenant governor by the Democrats in 1880 and elected, serving as
governor in September, 1883, during the absence of Governor Jarvis from
the State, and many important grants and State papers bear his signature
as "Acting Governor." His first official act as governor was to pardon
James J. Penn, sentenced from Cherokee for perjury. But his great work was
in his efforts to secure the construction of railroads through the western
part of the State. He was appointed Inspector of Public Lands. From 1886
to 1887 he was Special Indian Agent. He was a good man as well as being a
statesman.

(1. Constitution of the Watauga Association)

(2. From "Asheville's Centenary")

(3. Hill, p. 43)
(4. Ibid., p. 152)

(5. Polk)

(6. Hill, 249)

(7. Col. Byrd, in his Writings, calls fire hunting driving game to a
central point by means of fires set around a circumference.)

(8. Gazette News, November 30, 1912)

(9. Gazette of North Carolina, by L. L. Polk, p. 22)

(10. Hill, 263)

(11. Address of Judge Walter Clark at Burnsville, July 5, 1909, unveiling
statue to Captain Otway Burns)

(12. Hill, p. 264)

(13. Capt. James W. Terrell in The Commonwealth, Asheville, June 1, 1893)

(14. From "Thirty-Ninth Regiment" by Lieut. Theo. F. Davidson in Vol. II,
of "Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North
Carolina," p. 699)

(15. According to Wheeler's "History of North Carolina" there were only 4,
669 slaves in 1850 in this entire mountain region)

(16. From Ch. 37, of Hill's "Young Peoples' History of North Carolina.")

(17. In "The Last Ninety Days of the War," Ch. 16, when Federal General
Gillam was approaching Swannanoa gap Love's regiment and Porter's battery
went there and fortified it; and "Palmer's brigade was ordered to meet
them there; but," Gen. Martin adds, "I regret to say the men refused to
go.")

(18. Hill, 357, 358)

(19. Polk, 22)

(20. The Biographical Congressional Director