Fort Hamby’s Vigilantes?

   A friend sent me an Instagram post this morning (May 20, 2022) from a North Carolina museum, concerning the episode at Fort Hamby. Fort Hamby, a farm in Wilkes County, became a haven for Union deserters and murderers in the closing days of the war. The Instagram post reads “This Day in History (1865): Confederate vigilantes led by Captain R. M. Sharpe began the siege of Fort Hamby in Wilkes County.” Are the folks trying to rewrite history, or are they just unaware of the baggage being dragged by their choice of words? We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and go with unaware of the problems with their word choice.

   What exactly do you think of when you hear the word “vigilantes”? Does it have positive or negative connotations? In our day and time, vigilantes are often seen in the negative. According to the Cambridge dictionary, a vigilante is “a person who forces obedience to the law without legal authority to do so, or a member of a group that decides to force obedience to the law without official authority.” Possibly the biggest example of vigilantes comes during the first two decades of the twentieth century and American labor history. But does the term vigilante apply to those former Confederates trying to protect their homes in the foothills of western North Carolina during the waning days of the war?

Wilkes and the surrounding counties were deeply embroiled in an inner-Civil War that often pitted multiple groups against each other: pro-Confederate, pro-Union, and a whole bunch of people trying to avoid both armies, many waging their own personal war against whomever they came across. Into this mixture came Stoneman’s Raid in March and April 1865. Whatever scanty shreds of law and order that existed were swept away as Stoneman left. The Confederate army was gone, the North Carolina home guard was in disarray, and the militia had not been re-formed. Thieves, outliers, marauders, bandits, and deserters were everywhere, taking what they wanted.

The Hamby family farm (now located under the waters of the W. Kerr Scott Reservoir) became a haven for deserters and outliers, better known as “Fort Hamby.” Leading the band of outlaws was a Michael Wade, a deserter from the 10^th Michigan Cavalry. The house the outlaws were using was made of logs, and the upper story had gun ports. Due to its location and surrounding topography, those on the inside had a wide range of open ground, an ideal defensive position. There were at least eighteen bandits in the band. One local resident wrote that Wade’s group “showed a spirit of revenge and a desire for plunder. . . they seemed to think they must treat with the utmost cruelty all those who were not in sympathy with them. All the people of Wilkes, therefore, lived in constant dread of them, and consequently were frightened at the mere barking of a dog or the rattle of the leaves. Life was worse than death.” There were also raids into Alexander and Caldwell counties as well.[1]  Another account stated that that the robbers “threatened to shoot Jos. Ferguson, aged 80. . . if he did not give up his money; robbed a lady, traveling from Patterson to Salem, of all her jewelry and baggage; fired at a man and his wife driving along the road, and killed the woman.”[2]

Several attempts were made by recently returned Confederate soldiers to subdue Wade and his band of brigands. Harvey Bingham, former commander of the 11^th Battalion North Carolina Home Guard, led one group to Fort Hamby on March 7, 1865. It seems that Bingham was successful in capturing the group. However, when Wade and his followers asked time to be able to get dressed, they made for hidden guns and killed two of Bingham’s men. A second attempt was made soon thereafter, this time led by Washington Sharpe, a former Confederate and later home guard officer. Sharpe sent to Iredell County for Col. Robert V. Cowan and more men, while another man was dispatched to Lexington, North Carolina, asking the Federal commander there for assistance. Sharpe and about forty men laid siege to Fort Hamby. The day after the siege started, the kitchen was set on fire, and soon the sparks from the fire caught the roof of Fort Hamby on fire. Wade and his cohorts called out for quarter. All were captured save Wade. He escaped. The others were tied to stakes and executed. Not long thereafter, more local men came to help, and eventually, a Federal officer and thirty-one men from Lexington arrived as well. When he was told of what had transpired, the Federal officer approved of Sharpe’s actions.[3]

Besides Wade, who escaped, those possibly a part of the group include William Beck, a Confederate deserter; _____ Church, executed; Theof. Lockwood, deserter, 10^th Michigan Cavalry, executed; _____ Simmons.[4]

Confederate “vigilantes” really is a poor choice of words. This was not a Confederate military action coming with orders from on high. It was only a group of local citizens trying to fill a void (law and order) left by the passage of Federal soldiers through the area. It seems that had Federal authorities had a plan for restoring law and order to each community as they passed through, then the actions of Bingham and Sharpe would have not been needed. But, as often the case, the United States lacked a plan to help ordinary people suffering from extraordinary problems. 

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[1] Statesville Record and Landmark, June 19, 1903.

[2] The Lenoir Topic, April 28, 1881.

[3] Statesville Record and Landmark, June 19, 1903; Linney, “A Battle After the War,” Clark, North Carolina Troops, 5:285-297.

[4] Smith, “Biographical Notes, Company Front, (2010): 41-47.