So as I concluded my work on Watauga County and the War, I
have come up with one final question: is Watauga County the best-written about
county in North Carolina when it comes to the War? The short answer, in my
opinion is, yes... probably.... Here is
why I think so.
Just about every regiment that had a large number of men to
come from the county and serve, has some type of regimental history. On the
Union side, we have:
History of the
Thirteenth Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry (1902, 1973) Scott &
Angel
Kirk's Raiders: A
Notorious Band of Scoundrels and Thieves. (2000) Bumgarner [2nd and 3rd
North Carolina Mounted Infantry]
A History of the Third
Mounted Infantry Volunteers, U. S. A. (2008) Killian
On the Confederate side, we have:
Stuart's Tarheels:
James B. Gordon and His North Carolina Cavalry in the Civil War. (2011)
Hartley
The Thirty-seventh
North Carolina Troops: Tar Heels in the Army of Northern Virginia. (2003)
Hardy
The Fifty-eighth North
Carolina Troops: Tar Heels in the Army of Tennessee. (2011) Hardy
The 5th and 7th
Battalions North Carolina Cavalry and the 6th North Carolina Cavalry.
(1995) Weaver
Added to all of this is a chapter in John Preston Arthur's A History of Watauga County (1915); two
chapters in Shepherd M. Dugger's War
Trails of the Blue Ridge (1932); a short chapter in History of Watauga County (1949) by Whitener; several mentions in
Altmayer's A Family History of Watauga
County (1994); and two chapters in
my own A Short History of Old Watauga
County (2005).
You can also add three books on Stoneman's Raid: Van Noppens
(1961); Hartley's (2010), and Blackwell and Bostick (2011).
And then there are a host of fictional accounts, like Sharyn
McCumb's Ghost Riders (2004) and Robert Greene's Haversack and Hog Rifle (1992).
Finally, there is my newest book, due out some time later
this year, entitled, Watauga County and
the Civil War (The History Press).
So - what do you think? Is Watauga County, Civil War
speaking, the best written about County in North Carolina?
Have to agree with you ! I've read Hartley's book on Stoneman's Raid & the history of the Union 13th TN Cav. I'd like to see you do a project on Alexander, Caldwell, and ( mainly ) Wilkes Counties. My roots are there!
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