Watauga blog follow-up

 Usually, when anonymous comments come through on the form, I don’t even read them. They just get deleted (the old file 13). I figure if you can’t put your name on something and claim it as your own, then I don’t have the time to reply. This one, though, caught my attention, more so for its adherence to bad history than for its unattributed authorship. The anonymous poster was referring to a blog I published in December 3, 2014, entitled “A Racially integrated Confederate Military.” You can read the original post here.

Here are the anonymous poster’s comments in whole. We’ll look at some fallacies in the argument below. 

Hi. I’m an Oxentine from Watauga County. First and foremost, I wonder why you’d use Watauga County as your “Test County” for rhe Confederate South of which Watauga County was far from either. Watauga had no allegiance to the Confederacy, period. In fact, we were quite opposed to the Confederacy. We were certainly the opposite of representative of the Confederate South. My god, surely a documented Underground Railroad upon which I was cultivated is not your test county. We had no large plantation, no need for slaves and Watauga County didn't utilize slaves in any sort of imaginable way as slaves were used in the true antebellum south. I would think to use Atlanta as your test county if I were you. And then you might ask the descendants of those minorities in the true south if they wanted to be confederate soldiers or if they were forced. It’s quite concerning that history is written in reference to a people a people by someone other than descendants of the people because it’s not history at all. I know myself. I know our mentality. It is very unlikely that anyone in Watauga County had any kind of true grit loyalty to the Confederacy. Historically, we are the last group of people to get involved in conflict of any kind but the most malicious when we did. We were farmers. We wanted to be left alone. We came here to be left alone. We had no allegiance to society because we hate society. If you don’t know that, because you’re not from Watauga, it’s hard to factor that in. Prior to the civil war, we were already racially diverse, moreso than anywhere in the south, and you comment that we were the least diverse. 1. That’s an assumption on your part based on a single letter placed in a square box. 2. And if we were racially heterogenous, for the most part, you can’t assume that was a precursor to our offering minority confederate soldiers. 3. As an Oxentine descendant, I can tell you first hand that we are descended from the Croatan, Cheraw, and other Eastern Bands of Native American with a more recent linage of African and European. 4. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who was a free person of color was listed as Mulatto, and that includes Native Americans, Swahili or what have you. 5. In the case of the mulattos in Watauga County, or any other true melungeon group, there is no record of Portuguese descent prior to the mid 20th century and actually no Portuguese at all. More bad history. My culture was 100% founded upon European, Native American and African tradition. And that’s it. 6. What if I were to tell you that 99% of people residing in Watauga County at the time were ALL of mixed racial heritage? How would you write your book then? Because that’s how you should write your book. I promise you that.

So, here are my rebuttals:

·         Watauga had no allegiance to the Confederacy, period. In fact, we were quite opposed to the Confederacy. We were certainly the opposite of representative of the Confederate South.

Actually, that is not even close to being true. While Watauga County, like many North Carolina counties, voted against calling a convention to consider secession in February 1861, fewer than six weeks later, they had had a change of heart. What changed their minds? There are several occurrences over that six weeks that are factors: the failure of the Peace Conference, Abraham Lincoln’s babbling first inaugural address, Lincoln going back on his word and sending reinforcements to Fort Sumter, and the call for 75,000 troops to invade Southern states. Watauga County’s response to these events was swift. Early in May, a group of fifty men met and responded, forming a company and pledging “Our Lives, our Properties, and our Sacred Honors to defend the Rights[,] Institutions and Honor of our County, State, and our Common Country, the Confederate States of America.” William Y. Farthing was elected captain.” At the same time, former representative George N. Folk was raising a company for Confederate service. This would become Company D, 1^st North Carolina Cavalry. Both of these companies were raised before North Carolina even left the Union.

 When the vote to leave the Union was held in Raleigh on May 20 to leave the Union and join the Confederacy, James W. Councill, the man who was elected by the county to represent them, voted in concurrence with the others. By the end of 1861, two other volunteer companies of Confederate troops had been formed in Watauga County. With a scattering of other men in regiments connected with other counties, a little over 400 men from Watauga County, about ten percent of the whole population, had volunteered. In total, 793 men served in the Confederate army from Watauga County. Of those, 61 deserted and joined 50 other Watauga County men in the Union army. Many of those “Unionists” actually waited until the closing weeks of the war, once victory had been assured, to enlist. (Military Records, Watauga County, North Carolina State Archives.)

·         To the question of Watauga County being a representation of the South, actually, it is.

University of Georgia Professor John C. Inscoe explores this topic in his book The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War. He argues that the social and political society in the mountain South was the same as other places in the South, just on a smaller scale. Certainly, there were fewer slaves in Watauga County. But those slave owners were the driving social force in the community. Thomas Farthing, who represented the area in the General Assembly in 1860, was a slave owner. In fact, all of the major movers and shakers in the county – elected officials, store owners, etc., had some enslaved people working in their businesses or on their farms. This includes the Council, Mast, Hilliard, Farthing, Horton, Dobbin, Estes, Hardin, Baird, Green, and Gragg families. Even Unionists, like the Banners, owned slaves. As small as Watauga County was in 1860 – with a population of 4,957 (although several hundred would be carved out of the lower end of the county when Mitchell was finally formed in February 1861) – it still adhered to the same pyramid scale of population as other counties in the South. (Watauga County, 1860 US Federal Census-Slave Schedules.)

·         Documented Underground Railroad?

This is a question I get every couple of years from a reporter or student. So far, there is no documented true Underground Railroad in Watauga County, at least not in the traditional sense of an Underground Railroad for escaped slaves trying to flee through the area and make their way to Canada (because “black codes” prevented them from settling in most Northern states). We did have the other kind of underground railroad, for escaped Federal prisoners and dissidents, during the war years. These men made their way through the area attempting to get to Federal lines in Kentucky, and as the front of the later changed, to Tennessee. Typically, these federal prisoners and dissidents did not encourage the enslaved people whom they encountered to come with them. The militia, and later home guard, were only kind of looking for these men. A missing slave would result in a more serious, focused search.

·         “We were farmers. We wanted to be left alone. We came here to be left alone. We had no allegiance to society because we hate society.”

This idea is largely a post-war creation. The people in the mountains, prior to the war, were a very literate, welcoming society, and somewhat transient. There are numerous stories of families heading west for a while, maybe to Texas or the gold fields in California. Traveling preachers, like Elisha Mitchell, never made mention of a society that wanted to be left alone. The “left alone “part was partially a product of the war, as bands of bushwhackers and thieves roamed the countryside. The raids in the Bethel community and the death of Thomas Farthing come to mind as events that would certainly inspire xenophobia and seclusion. But there were many other factors. Reconstruction did not help foster trust of outsiders. Then came the timber barons who exploited the people and lands.  Thankfully, because of the geology of the land, Watauga County was spared the mineral rights exploitation of the coal fields of neighboring Appalachian states.

·         “Historically, we are the last group of people to get involved in conflict of any kind…”  

Actually, men (and women) have been involved in every military conflict on records, from the War of 1812 to the Cherokee Removal, the Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, and all of the 20^th century conflicts. Have there been conscientious objectors? Of course, there were a few. But Watauga Countians as a whole have always been more than willing to get involved. 

Per the other comments (points) regarding race, the anonymous poster apparently missed the context of the entire post, and other posts I have written in the past, in that, the Confederate army was not all that white. Unfortunately, since NDA testing is still in its infancy, the little boxes checked regarding race (ok, there were no actual boxes to check in the 1860 census; the information that the person told the census enumerators), along with a few scattered letters, are pretty much all we have to go on. And as far as the Cousins/Cossens being of Portuguese decent, all I can say is what Mark Holsclaw wrote to Governor Ellis in his June 1861 letter, trying to obtain the freedom of the two Cousins brothers. Obviously, he got this information from someone. My bet would be someone in the Cousins family. (They did live in Boone, next door to W.W. Fletcher.)

As I have stated before, I would love to see this type of in-depth research on other counties. I’ve worked on Watauga County and a few of the surrounding counties for close to 27 years. Hence, my ability to say with some certitude certain things. If my anonymous poster would like to dig deeply, I encourage him/her to check out my book on Watauga County and War, track down all my sources, and tell me how I can improve. In the end, I am only as good as what the sources tell me.