Ephraim Clayton and the Asheville Armory

   Chances are, you have probably never heard of Ephraim Clayton. For many in Southern Appalachia, he is an important 19^th century carpenter and builder. Clayton was born in present-day Transylvania County, North Carolina, in 1804. His father, Lambert Clayton, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. His mother was Sarah Davidson, and her parents had been killed by the Cherokee in 1776. We really don’t know much about Ephraim Clayton’s childhood, but by the 1830s, he was receiving commissions to construct buildings. These buildings included Asheville Baptist Church (1859); Asheville Presbyterian Church (ca.1847); Buncombe County Courthouse (1848); Caldwell County Courthouse (1843); Calvary Episcopal Church, Fletcher, NC (1859); John W. McElroy House, Burnsville, NC (ca.1845); Mars Hill College (1856-1857); Newton Academy, Asheville, NC (1857-1858); Polk County Courthouse (ca.1853); Ravenscroft School, Asheville, NC (ca.1840s); St. John-in-the-Wilderness Episcopal Church, Flat Rock, NC (1833-1834); Trinity Episcopal Church, Asheville, NC (1850); Tuttle’s Hotel, Lenoir, NC (ca.1843); War Ford Bridge, Asheville, NC (1856); and the Yancey County Courthouse (1840s), along with other buildings in Georgia and South Carolina.

   While Clayton often lived in the communities where he was constructing buildings, he considered Asheville his home. His obituary claimed that he was the first man to bring a steam-powered planing machine to western North Carolina. In 1850, he employed twenty-five men and owned seven slaves. By 1860, he owned eleven slaves, plus employing several free workmen. He also operated a saw and planing mill and a sash and blind factory.[1]

   Asheville was quite possibly the most pro-Confederate town in North Carolina in the 1860s (we’ll save that for a future post). Hundreds of Confederate soldiers had poured forth out of Asheville and surrounding Buncombe County. Governor Zebulon Baird Vance and his brother, Brigadier General Robert B. Vance, came from the area, as did Brigadier General Thomas L. Clingman. Asheville also served as the headquarters of the District of Western North Carolina. As early as July 1861, William L. Henry was writing Gov. Henry T. Clark with a proposal for establishing a plant to manufacture rifles for the Confederacy in Asheville. In August 1861, that idea began to come to fruition. That month, Col. Robert W. Pulliam, the Confederate Ordnance Bureau agent in Western North Carolina, began working with Ephraim Clayton and Dr. George Whitson. In January 1862 the company began producing rifles, and by November 1862, they employed 107 men. Due to the lack of a railroad, materials were sourced locally. That November, they had 200 rifles ready for shipment. Josiah Gorgas, chief of ordnance for the Confederate army, sent W.S. Downer to Asheville to inspect the rifles and the plant. Downer wrote back that while Whitson was a man of “general genius,” he had no “practical knowledge of mechanics.” The tools and machines being used were “makeshift,” and the rifles themselves “worthless.” 

Asheville News, April 12, 1862. 

  The Asheville Arsenal faced numerous challenges, from a lack of skilled workers to the threat of attack by Union forces or “disloyal persons.”  It was a combination of these that eventually drove the Confederate arsenal from Asheville. In January 1863, a locally-led raid occurred at Mars Hill, in Madison County, just north of Asheville. In September, Knoxville was captured by Federal forces. In October came a raid by Union force on Warm Springs in Madison County. In late October, the local commander ordered the machinery to be prepared for moving, which began in late November. The machinery was transported to Columbia, South Carolina. In the end, the factory produced some 900 rifles.[2]   Capt. Benjamin Sloan was assigned to command the armory, and Sloan sought to bring in new machinery and tools. He also constructed two new brick buildings to house the machines and tools. Ephraim Clayton was appointed as general manager, in charge of “all Carpenters work and control of teams and teamsters, wood choppers, Coal Burners and saw mill hands.” Undoubtedly, Clayton’s already-established factory, and the fact that the new arsenal buildings were on his land, played a role in his involvement. There were 123 workers by January 1863, although Sloan fired twenty of them that same month. The men working at the Arsenal were well paid and were exempt from conscription.

   It is unclear if Ephraim Clayton moved to Columbia or stayed in Asheville. His obituary states that his planing mill was destroyed by fire. This could have happened at the end of the war when Federal forces burned the two brick buildings constructed to house the Asheville Armory.[3] After the war, he operated an iron foundry in Asheville 1867 to 1878, while living in Transylvania County, helping to build the Spartanburg and Asheville Railroad and the Western North Carolina Railroad.[4] Clayton died on August 14, 1892, esteemed as “one of the best known citizens of Western North Carolina.”[5] Clayton was “a man of the strictest integrity, plain and unassuming, and universally respected by all for his admirable traits of character. He took a deep interest in Asheville’s progress, and was always foremost in any project that tended to the advancement of the city-a true public-spirited citizen.”[6] He is buried in the Clayton Family Cemetery, Buncombe County, North Carolina. 

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[1] https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000070

[2] Gordon McKinney, “Premature Industrialization in Appalachia,” The Civil War in Appalachia, 227-241.

[3] Asheville Citizen Times, August 11, 1892.

[4] https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000070

[5] The Asheville Democrat, August 14, 1892.

[6] Asheville Citizen Times, August 11, 1892.

This is so wrong in so many places.

This is so wrong .  Find-a grave can be very useful, but this is a good example of how misleading open-sourced web sources can be. I don't know Russ Dodge, but he does not know very much about the life of Col. Charles C. Lee, and there is no telling how many individuals have been confused by his mistakes. In addition, there is no picture of Lee's actual grave marker, though it would be easy to acquire one. The moral of the story: be very careful what sources you trust! My comments are in red.

Birth:   unknown [Feb. 2, 1834]

Death: Jul. 30, 1862 [June 30, 1862]

Civil War Union Army Officer. [Civil War Confederate Army Officer.] He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1856, and was assigned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Ordnance Department. Serving in that branch for the next three years, he resigned from the Army on July 31, 1859. When the Civil war started, he was residing in his native North Carolina [Lee was born in Charleston, South Carolina], and offered his services to the new Confederacy. Mustered into the 1st North Carolina Infantry regiment, he participated in the conflict's first land battle at Big Bethel, Virginia on June 10, 1861. [Lee was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the 1st North Carolina Volunteers, May 11, 1861. He was promoted to colonel of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers on September 1, 1861. Lee was mustered out of service on November 12 or 13, 1861, and elected colonel of the 37th North Carolina Troops on November 20, 1861] In November 1861 he was promoted to Colonel and assigned to command the 37th North Carolina Infantry regiment. He led his men in the March 1862 New Berne Campaign and the May-June 1862 Peninsular Campaign, commanding a demi-brigade at the Battle of New Berne on March 14 and at the Battle of Hanover Court House on May 27. He was in command of his regiment during the Seven Days Battles in the last week of June 1862, and was mortally wounded on June 30, 1862 at the Battle of Glendale [Frasier's Farm, technically] when he was struck by an artillery shell while leading his men in a charge on Union positions. His father, Stephen Lee, commanded the 16th North Carolina Infantry during the war, and his cousin, Stephen Dill Lee, would finish out the war as a Lieutenant General in the Confederate Army. Interred in Elmwood Cemetery, Charlotte, North Carolina, his family erected a cenotaph for him in Riverside Cemetery, Ashville, North Carolina. [The "cenotaph" in Riverside Cemetery is actually the gravemarker for his father, Stephen Lee. It has the names of his sons on it.]

Three of Asheville's Confederate monuments.

In about a week, I need to submit the paper I am presenting at the Civil War Memory Symposium that is taking place in Raleigh in May at the Museum of History. The paper is on the process of remembering the War in western North Carolina, specifically on the monuments that were erected. So, last night I went to ASU to root out any additional materials from the different newspapers, and I came across a good mystery, which I might have already solved. But the mystery first.

For a long time, I’ve worked on a list of North Carolina-related Confederate monuments. The list is five pages and includes both monuments in the state and out of state. On this list, I have entries for five monuments or plaques in Asheville: one for Willie Hardy, one for Thomas L. Clingman, one for the 60th North Carolina, the large Vance obelisks, and one in the Newton Cemetery. I knew from previous research that the monument to the 60th NCT was dedicated on November 8, 1905.

Last night, I dug out the corresponding Asheville Citizen for the dedication of the monument for the 60th NCT. Not only did the citizens of Asheville erect and dedicate this monument on November 8, 1905, but they also dedicated monuments for Thomas L. Clingman and William B. Creasman. All three were located on the grounds of the Buncombe County Court House in Asheville.

The dedication of the monuments followed the usual routine. About 1,500 people gathered for the unveiling ceremony. The monument to the 60th NCT was draped in white, with eight ribbons hanging from the corners, which were held by eight little girls. As the crowd sang, “In the Sweet Bye and Bye,” the coverings were taken off. The monument to Clingman was unveiled by the UDC and Children of the Confederacy, and the monument to Creasman was unveiled by his descendants.

Due to the weather, the crowd was moved indoors to the courthouse. There, North Carolina governor Robert Glenn addressed the crowd, stating in his opening remarks that he “hoped the day would never come when his tongue would refuse to speak of that glorious cause for which my father died.” After the governor’s address, County Commissioner Locke Craig received the monuments on behalf of the county. At the conclusion, refreshments were served by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

All three of the monuments were designed and manufactured by the Cherokee Marble Works. That being said, I believe all three would have been similar in construction. The monument to the 60th NCT still stands in downtown Asheville. You can see an image of it here. I believe that the monument to Clingman now resides over his grave in Riverside Cemetery. You can view that monument here. So what about the monument to Creasman? And, why did he have a monument?

According to the Asheville Citizen, there were eighteen men who were colonels and came from Buncombe County: Robert B. Vance (29th NCT), Zebulon B. Vance (26th NCT), Thomas L. Clingman (25th NCT), J M. Lowry (29th NCT ), David Coleman, (39th NCT), Robert Coleman (7th NC Cav.), Thad Coleman (58th NCT), Harry Deaver, Washington M. Hardy (60th NCT), James M. Ray, J. Thomas Weaver (60th NCT), Stephen Lee (16th NCST), Philetus W. Roberts (14th NCST), A. H. Baird (5th Batt. NC Cav.), George N. Folk (6th NC Cav.) George W. Clayton (62nd NCT), William B. Creasman (29th NCT), and James L. Gaines (1st NC Cav.). Two interesting points: despite the Citizen’s statements, not all of these men were colonels, and, not all of them hailed from Buncombe County. For instance, George N. Folk lived in Watauga County in 1860 and is buried in Caldwell County. And, why is James S. McElroy, colonel of the 16th NCST, who moved to Weaverville after the war, not included?

And, why is Creasman’s name on this marker, and why did he have his own monument? Creasman was born in Yancey County and lived in Yancey County at the start of the war. He did not move to Buncombe County until the war was over, and actually died in July 1869. By this I am perplexed.

Also, what happened to Creasman’s monument? Is the monument that stands on Creasman’s grave at Bethel Baptist Church in Buncombe County the monument that was placed on the courthouse grounds in Asheville? It does not seem to fit the same motif as the monuments to the 60th NCT and to Thomas L. Clingman. Furthermore, the newspaper article described Clingman’s monument as a “granite-based marble shaft ten feet high” while Creasman’s is described as a “marble block in ornament design.” Maybe this “block” resembled Governor Vance’s tombstone in Riverside Cemetery.

I found this on a genealogical web site, from Kevin White in 2000 (this is the original text, without corrections):

Hi Rob,




I dont know what accomplishment earned Col Creasman the monument, but i do recall the monument, which was a granite stone with brass plaques attached to both sides. It was located in the middle of Pack Square in the center of downtown Asheville, maybe 20 yards east of the still extant Pack Memorial obelisk. This was directly in front of the main entrance to Pack Library, where it was then located, and there were benches next to it. I used to wait there on those benches for my mom to pick me up from visits to the library, and i recall her telling me that the Col Creasman memorialized there was my ancestor.


As an adult i developed an interest in genealogy, and i went back to see this monument, only to find that it was gone. Sometime in the late 1970s, the Akzona Corporation (formerly American Enka) decided to relocate its corporate headquarters to Asheville, and built a new building (designed by I. M. Pei) on the north side of the square. The city took this opportunity to "renovate" the square, because among other incentives the city gave to Akzona to induce this relocation was the right to build underground parking under the square for their new building, in complete violation of the original grant from Pack to the City for the square for "public use". At that time the public restrooms ("white" and "colored") under the square had been closed for many years, but now all traces of them were removed, along with the monument to Gen Clingman and Col Creasman, and another monument placed on the square by the Daughters of the Confederacy honoring other persons. I am ashamed to admit how many years passed before i noticed this uprooting of monuments.


Once i was aware the monument was gone i attempted to find out what had happened to it. The Asheville City Parks and Recreation Department, at least at that time, had the responsibility of maintaining the square, and the head of that department since the early 1970s, now in honored retirement, was Ray Kisiah. I spoke to Mr Kisiah, who told me 1) no such monument had ever existed, and 2) the City wouldn't have removed it without first contacting those groups or parties who had placed the monument there. He suggested i contact the president of our local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. This was about 1993, just before Mr Kisiah retired. I did as he suggested and called the president, whose name escapes me, and related to her the substance of Mr Kisiah's remarks, including his assertion that no monument would be removed without first contacting the groups who had placed the monument. She replied "Why, they certainly did NOT do so. If one of our members hadnt happened to be driving by as they were uprooting our monument we would have had no notice at all". It was only a few months before this conversation that the Daughters had succeeded in having their monument reset on the square, after about 15 years in storage somewhere.


But apparetnly, since no one who cared witnessed the City uprooting the monument to Gen Clingman and Col Creasman, the city was safely able to dispose of that monument, and now apparently officially maintains the stance that this monument was never there. Makes me proud to pay my taxes.

Col Creasman is still mentioned on a monument to all the confederate Colonels and Generals from Buncombe county, which is located just beside the courthouse, and is apparently too big and prominent to be safely sanitized.

What do you think? Is the rock at Bethel Baptist Church the monument the one that used to be on the lawn of the Court House in Buncombe County? Or is Creasman’s monument tucked away somewhere in a warehouse, right next to the Ark of the Covenant?

Thomas Lanier Clingman: Fire Eater From the Carolina Mountains

Been traveling as of late, and I’ve been reading – still continuing my “tour” of books relating to North Carolina and the War. I’ve finished two since posting that last review on the biography of Governor Clark.

The first book I finished was Thomas E. Jeffrey’s Thomas Lanier Clingman: Fire Eater From the Carolina Mountains (University of Georgia Press, 1998). This is actually a re-read for me. When this book came out in 1998, I checked out a copy from the library and spent several days within its pages. I recently acquired my own copy (not a cheap book, either), and enjoyed my re-read. There is not much to say about Jeffrey’s book except that it is a really, really good biography. Jeffrey explores every facet of Clingman’s life, from his early days in the US House and Senate, to his services during the War, to his work as a promoter and inventor, along with his quest after the war to regain his position in the Senate. Clingman was born 1812 in Surry County, and was a graduate from the University of North Carolina. Clingman’s greatest claim-to-fame, at least the one he is best remembered for, came during the pre-war period of his life. Clingman got into an argument with one of his former professors, Dr. Elisha Mitchell, over who had measured the highest peak in the Black Mountains in Yancey County. Mitchell went back to re-measure the peak, and fell to his death in the process. Today, Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, bears his name, while Clingman’s name is attached to a peak in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Clingman is hailed as “Prince of Politicians” and in 1889, “one of the most remarkable men who have figured in politics in North Carolina…” Clingman was a rival of North Carolina’s more famous son, Zebulon Baird Vance. Clingman died in Morganton in 1897 and was originally buried in Concord. He was later reinterred in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, not far from the grave of Zeb Vance. One thing that does puzzle me is this: Jeffrey’s title proclaims Clingman as a “Fire-Eater” Yet in the last paragraph of the conclusion, Jeffrey’s states that “Clingman was never a fire eater in the Rhett-Yancey mold.” If that is true, then it is an interesting sub-title. You’ll need to read the book to judge for yourself if Clingman was truly a fire-eater.

The next review will be on Travis’s history of the Rowan Artillery. I’m currently reading Escott’s North Carolinians in the Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Lincoln in Asheville

On Wednesday, I was in Asheville and stopped by Pack Memorial Library to view the current Lincoln exhibit. Interestingly, I would never call myself a Lincoln scholar, and at times, I am even a Lincoln detractor. That being said, I worked through Lincoln’s papers while working on the Hanover Court House book, and I’ve been to the Lincoln Museum and Library In Springfield while working on another project.

The exhibit is entitled “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation” and is located on the main floor. According to a blurb I found online: “The exhibit is sponsored by the American Library Association with underwriting from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is brought to Asheville by Buncombe County Libraries and the Center for Diversity Education at UNC Asheville in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The free exhibit will be on display at Pack Memorial Library in Downtown Asheville and will also feature the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War on the citizens of WNC.”

Besides the standard traveling exhibit, the library had pulled some of its own items out of its collections and placed them on exhibit. These include oil paintings of Lee and Vance, a pre-war painting of Asheville, and a couple of items from UCV reunions in Asheville after the war. There was also some information regarding the battle of Asheville fought at the end of the war.

There was an attempt to focus a little more on slavery locally. Someone had gone through local newspapers and printed out advertisements regarding slave sales and rewards for runaway slaves and placed them in notebooks on a table. The book also mentions the activities of people of color in the local newspaper continuing into the decade after the war. I would have liked to have seen more information about local slaves: how did the lives of mountain slaves differ from the lives of enslaved people in the deep South or along the coastal plain? How about a map showing some of the larger plantations in Buncombe County? Or, There are stories here in my section of western North Carolina of slaves who refused to leave their homes after the end of the war. Are there such stories in Buncombe County? Where there any enslaved men who stole away and joined the Federal army, serving in one of the many black regiments? I also did not see any mention of Sarah Gudger, a Buncombe County slave who was interviewed in the 1930s as a part of what is now known as the Slave Narratives. Maybe I just missed it, but here was a great example of what life was like for someone who lived through being a slave in Bumcombe County. Had I been putting this exhibit together, I would have attempted to find some way to bring this to light.

The exhibit runs through the end of the month. If you are in Asheville, stop by Pack Memorial Library and check it out.

Col. Washington M. Hardy

If you dig long enough, you can usually find information on a person. I’ve done it for Col. John B. Palmer. I started with a paragraph from the troop books and over the past ten years, I’ve been able to collect about three inches of material.

However, mounds of information on Washington M. Hardy, colonel of the 60th NCT, seem to elude me.

I am distantly related to the colonel. He and I share a common grandfather, a Revolutionary War soldier from Virginia. Washington’s family moved to Edgefield District, South Carolina, and mine to Limestone County, Alabama.

Washington Morris Hardy was born February 8, 1835, in Buncombe County, North Carolina. His father was Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, the noted Asheville physician. His mother was Jane Patton. Washington was educated as a lawyer prior to the war.

With the dissolution of the Union, and the prospect of war at hand, Washington joined the Buncombe Riflemen on April 27, 1861. Washington was elected 1st Lieutenant on the same day. The riflemen became Company E, 1st North Carolina Volunteers, also known as the "Bethel Regiment" for their participation in the battle of Big Bethel, Virginia, in June 1861. Washington was mustered out of service on November 12-13, 1861.

Returning home, Washington commenced raising a new company. On January 27, 1862, he was appointed captain of the Buncombe Light Artillery. Hardy’s company became Company A, 60th North Carolina Troops, and on March 1, 1863, he was appointed major, to date from February 21. On June 10, 1863, Hardy was promoted to colonel of the 60th NCT, to rank from May 14, 1863. According to the troop books, Hardy was with his regiment in May and June 1863, and November 1, 1863, until August 23, 1864. However, it appears that Maj. James T. Weaver was in command of the regiment during the battle of Chattanooga. The troop books also state that Hardy went home on leave on August 23, 1864, and that there is no further record. That it not exactly true.

During part of the Atlanta Campaign, Hardy is listed as in command of Reynold’s brigade (AofT). During the Carolinas Campaign, Hardy commanded a brigade composed of the 7th North Carolina Reserves, the 10th North Carolina Battalion, and the 50th North Carolina Troops. On March 31, 1865, he is listed as being back in command of the 60th North Carolina. However, once the 58th and 60th NCT are consolidated (on April 9, 1865), Hardy is not listed as the commanding officer.

Washington married Rebecca Carson. After the war, he worked as either a librarian, or assistant in the documents room for the United States House of Representatives. Hardy died in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in March 1880. His simple obit, in the March 31, 1880 edition of the Carolina Spartan, read:

Col. W. M. Hardy died last Sunday night at the residence of Mrs. Carson of this place. He was a native of Asheville, a son of Dr. Hardy. For several years he has been in Washington. His health failing, he returned to the South a few months ago. He was continued in his room several weeks. He was buried in the Episcopal Church yard Tuesday evening.

Asheville

Last week was another busy week. I had book signings in High Point (Tuesday) and Albermarle (Thursday). Wednesday was a research day.

This past Saturday, I had the distinct privilege of leading a group of people on a tour of Civil War-related sites in Asheville/Buncombe County. We started out at the Vance Birthplace near Weaverville. It is a beautiful place with several restored cabins. If you are in the area and get a chance, please visit. After a picnic at the Birthplace, we headed to the campus of UNC - Asheville. We visited the breastworks used on April 6, 1865, to ward off an attack by the 101st Ohio Infantry.
This was followed b

y a trip to Riverside Cemetery to visit the graves of Gov. Zebulon B. Vance, Brig. Gen. Robert B. Vance, Brig. Gen. Joseph G. Martin, Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Clingman, and Col. Stephen Lee 916th NCT), along with many others.

Finally, a few of us visited Newton Academy Cemetery. There are 29 unknown Confederates buried here, along with five Federals who died during the reconstruction days. There is a monument to the Confederate soldiers dedicated by the UDC in 1903.

It is interesting to note that Asheville has a remarkable Confederate history - Governor Vance was from Asheville, the town was headquarters for the Department of Western North Carolina, the town was a training ground for new soldiers, had a armory that manufactured rifles, had a hospital, has a cemetery with three generals and many others officers, and had a battle, but does nothing to capitalize on this history. How sad...

This week is almost as busy. I’ll be speaking tomorrow night in Lancaster, South Carolina, and Thursday night in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina. I’m going to try and sneak in some more research time also.

The picture above in the 1903 Confederate monument in Newton Academy Cemetery in Asheville.