North Carolina's Mars Hill College and the War

   Mars Hill. That’s an interesting name for a place. In western North Carolina, in the rugged mountains of Southern Appalachia, is the small community of Mars Hill. It is home to Mars Hills University. Like so many other places across the nation, it has a deep and interesting war-time history.

   The area was a crossroads of sorts, with roads connecting Asheville to the south and Marshall, the county seat of Madison County, to the west. Local people wanted their children to have a better education. There was the Burnsville Academy to the west, but it was a several days’ walk, and was run by the Methodists. People in the area decided to form the French Broad Baptist Institute in 1858. They renamed the school Mars Hill College in 1859, choosing to remember a site in ancient Greece where the Apostle Paul debated the leading thinkers of Athens. The school had over 100 students in the 1860-1861 term.[1]

    In September 1862, the Rev. John Ammons, writing from Mars Hill College, implored fellow Baptists across the South to take up collections for missionaries and colporters for the Confederate army. “It is to you then, Pastors, that we appeal,” Ammons wrote. “Ask your congregations to give and they will do it. Let every pastor lay the matter before his congregation and take collections for Army Colportage for N. Carolina.[2]

    The College remained open the first two years of the war, under the tutelage of President Pinkney Rollins. Rollins was a closet Unionist, who after the war, made his views known. “[T]he rebels said he was a traitor, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and most of them refused to patronize him.”[3] Whether it was Rollins’s political views or due to the continuous draw of Confederate forces upon the male population, Mars Hill College closed its doors at the end of term in the spring of 1863.[4] Shortly thereafter, at least 100 Confederate soldiers arrived and took over the buildings. Colonel James Keith and Lt. Col. Lawrence Allen, often associated with the 64^th North Carolina, used the campus as a base for a short amount of time. The two are often connected with the Shelton Laurel war. Most of the 64^th North Carolina was captured when Cumberland Gap was surrendered in September 1864 (read more about that here.)[5]

   The college campus also became home to the headquarters of the home guard of Brig. Gen. John W. McElroy. One amusing incident occurred when a Confederate officer at home on leave conspired with the home guard commander to test the effectiveness of the home guard. That night, the two officers positioned themselves on a nearby hill and “began to fire. The company became frightened; the commander shouted to his men ‘Fall out’, ‘Attention!’ Whereupon one, Ned Waldrop, stated that he would fight if the captain would let him get where he wanted to be. ‘Where do you want to be?’ responded the captain. “Behind the College building, sir,’ was the reply. It was soon learned that the attack was just a joke, or “training.”[6] 

Missing marker at Mars Hill University 

    On another occasion, one member of the home guard who was working at Mars Hill bragged to another worker about his unit killing three brothers and almost killing the mother. A few days later, the mother’s brother, James Norton, arrived at the site and killed the man. Norton was tried for murder, but acquitted.[7]

    Often, the home guard was away chasing dissidents from the Shelton Laurel area. In late April or early May 1864, one group of dissidents from Shelton Laurel, composed of fourteen men and three women, raided across West Fork, possibly into Buncombe County. They killed one man and beat another to “nearly to death.” The group was caught by the home guard at Mars Hill, with only one man and one woman escaping. “The women were armed with revolvers and took a hand in the murder and robbery,” the newspaper reported.[8]

   In late March or early April 1865, portions of George W. Kirk’s command, the 2^nd and 3^rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry (US) visited the college, ransacking the buildings and burning two of them.[9]

    The college rebuilt after the war and continues, as Mars Hill University. There was a North Carolina Civil War Trail marker on campus denoting the war in the area until recently. Maybe once construction is finished, it will return.

  

[1] Carr, “Mars Hill College,” 6.

[2] The Biblical Reporter, October 1, 1862.

[3] McLeod, From These Stones, 65.

[4] Carr, “Mars Hill College,” 5.

[5] Gaston, Partisan Campaigns of Col. Lawrence M. Allen, 16.

[6] Carr, “Mars Hill College,” 2.

[7] Inscoe and McKinney, The Heart of Confederate Appalachia, 270.

[8] Weekly Progress, May 17, 1864.

[9] Carr, “Mars Hill College,” 5-6.

Trying to find the Shelton Laurel Officers

For the past couple of weeks, I've been poring over the various accounts of the Shelton Laurel event in January 1863.

A little background: in late 1862 and early 1863, there was a band of rogues based in the Laurel community of Madison County. They were rooming the countryside, robbing and shooting at will. On January 8, 1863, they attacked Marshall, then moved back to the Laurel community. Something had to be done. The militia from surrounding counties were mobilized and sent into the area. Then, Henry Heth, commanding the Confederate district East Tennessee, sent Brig. Gen. William Davis to the area with some troops to clean the tories out. Davis set up his headquarters at Warm Springs. With Davis came 200 members of the 64th North Carolina Troops (three companies), a company of cavalry under Capt. Thomas N. Nelson, and thirty Indians from Thomas's Legion mission. Later, William H. Thomas was dispatched to the area with an additional 200 Cherokee to work in Madison, Haywood, and Jackson counties. The three companies of the 64th North Carolina Troops were under the command of Maj. William N. Garrett. 

According to the Official Records, the three companies of the 64th North Carolina are not the ones that entered the Laurel community. It is the cavalry, and Nelson is credited with killing 12 tories on his sweep.

Do you know who is never mentioned in the official accounts? Col. Lawrence M. Allan and Lt. Col. James A. Keith. Allen's participation in the events is very suspect. He was undergoing a court-martial in Knoxville at the time. Keith, on the other hand, is largely blamed for the tragedy. THEORY ON MY PART: is it possible that Keith was acting beyond the limits of authority with a small band of picked men? Some of them might have been in the 64th NC; some of them might have been from other regiments. 

After the elements of the 64th NC returned to east Tennessee, several officers were called before a board for examining officers. Phillip Paludan, in Victims: A True Story of the Civil War, writes: "As the investigation began, it appeared that the officers of the Sixty-fourth were feeling justice hurrying near. Governor Vance had asked Seddon to begin the investigation in late February, and by the end of the month Captain Deaver of the Sixty-fourth had been relieved of command. By mid-April three more junior officers had appeared before investigatory boards. Two of them offered their resignations; the other was relieved of command. For a time, all four of these men remained in the army awaiting action by their superiors." (104)

Paludan, in a note, gives the names of those men as: A. M. Deaver, William Keith, Thomas Keith, and S. E. Erwin. 

So, let's take a look. First, Paludan writes: "For a time, all four of these men remained in the army awaiting action by their superiors." That is actually not unusual. When Lt. Reuben M. Deaver submitted his resignation, it had to go up, through the chain of command, all the way to the Secretary of War, before it was finally approved. I've actually written about this in the past, and you can check it out here. Deaver submitted his resignation on July 15, 1863, and it was accepted on August 6, 1863. I assume that Paludan's A. M. Deaver is Lt. Adolphus E. Deaver, who submitted his resignation also on July 15, 1863, and it was likewise accepted on August 6, 1863. Captain William Keith resigned on April 20, 1863, and it was accepted on May 2, 1863. Lt. Thomas Keith resigned on August 14, 1863, which was accepted on August 29, 1863. Captain Samuel Erwin resigned on July 15, 1863, which was accepted on August 4, 1863. We can infer that Paludan believed these four were involved in the incident on Laurel in some way.

 Let's look at Erwin first. He was actually from Washington County, Tennessee, and enlisted in September 1862. His company, Company K, was stationed at Jacksboro in Tennessee, and is not believed to have been involved in the Laurel incident. There is no muster roll record for January and February 1863, so it is not possible to say where he was. In his resignation, Erwin writes that when he appeared before the officer examination board in Knoxville in April 1863, he was "relieved from further attendance before the board and allowed to report to my com'd. for duty whare I have been ever since..." Erwin then adds on odd statement: He considered it "my duty and [in my] interest to have the service rid of all incompetent officers (according) to the [examining] board's opinion."

Company G was one of the three companies sent to Madison County. Two of those mentioned by Paludan, who supposedly lost their positions due to the Laurel incident, do not appear to have been with Company G at the time. Adolphus Deaver was originally a private in the 16th North Carolina Troops, but did desert in August 1862. He does not reappear until he is appointed a lieutenant in the 64th NC in March 1863. Deaver resigned July 15, 1863, which was accepted on August 6, 1863. He stated in his resignation letter: that like Erwin, he had to go before the examination board. While there, he was "relieved from further attendance before the Board and was allowed to report to my Co for duty where I have been ever since. On Yesterday, July 14th I received a copy of Special Order No 71, suspending me from command... feeling it my duty as a friend to the cause to vacate the position I hold (if not competent to discharge the duties of the Office) I .... most respectfully tender my resignation..." 

The case is likewise with Thomas W. Keith, a 2nd lieutenant. He was also with the 16th NC, until he deserted in September 1862. He was appointed a lieutenant in the 64th in April 1864. And he also resigned on August 14, 1864, because he had failed the examination before the officer examination board and was "unprepared to take it a second time."

Lastly, Capt. William M. Keith. He resigned on April 24, 1863, stating he really did not feel confident in taking the test whom Paludan singled out, we can't actually place three of them in Madison County as a part of the Laurel incident. It is entirely possible that they truly were not qualified to be Confederate officers, hence their resignations. And William Keith refused to even stand for the examination. Or, maybe all four were on Laurel Creek in late January 1863, and were given the opportunity to resign, under the context of being incompetent. We'll probably never know. 

More on the Laurel War

Last week, I posted excerpts from a letter that appeared in the Semi-Weekly Standard on April 17, 1863, dealing with events between Shelton Laurel in Madison County, and Greenville, Tennessee. The yet-to-be identified author was complaining of the "independent thieves, robbers and tories of Laurel." He lays out several events that took place over a period of 12-months:

1. "They shot and killed one man in his own house, stole and killed horses, robbed the Southern citizens of guns, bacon, meal, clothes, and everything they could lay their hands on." In response, the militia was called out. Some of the loyalists turned themselves in, and others were captured. Some joined the Confederate army.

2. After this event, one of the leaders of the Shelton Laurel band "shot a man down for acting as a guide for some of the forces that were marched into that settlement."

3. Those that had enlisted in the Confederate army eventually deserted, "and brought off their guns and ammunition..." A Federal officer arrived and organized the men into a company.

4. The company then commenced "robbing and plundering private houses in a settlement called 'Flag Pond,' in Washington county, Tennessee, taking money, guns, clothes, meat, and everything they could carry away, making women and children strip off their shoes, socks and clothes..."

5. Then came the raid on Marshall, "where they not only took salt, but they broke open store houses and dwelling houses, and carried off every thing that they could take away."

6. That same night, they robbed the Farnsworth home of "beds, furniture, and clothes..."

A year later, a new article appeared in the Asheville News (June 30, 1864). It was signed "Marshall" and included details about other activities centered in and around Madison County.  The "citizens of this section have suffered enormously, within the last twelve months, at the hands of the 'Laurel Tories," writes the author. "Scarcely a week has passed that has not witnessed the robbery of some poor soldier's family, or the murder of a good soldier or citizen." Some were on the verge of starvation; others had chosen to pick up and move. Like "Elbert's" account, the report of  "Madison" goes on to lay out some individual events.

1.  "Old Bill Shelton" led the group into Washington County where they killed a "landlord and his son, robbed the family of everything valuable... even stripped the clothing from the backs of children...."

2. To combat the Shelton gang, J. A. Keith, former lieutenant colonel of the 64th North Carolina Troops, organized a group known as "Keith's Detail." [It will be remembered that Keith was forced out of the 64th NC after the Shelton Laurel event in January 1863.]

3. Keith's men, serving without pay, were able to kill "two of the worst men living... Russ Franklin and Wiley Gosnell."

4. Keith was also able to catch "Old Bill Shelton," whom they hanged.

The author adds at the end that he could "name various other important duties performed by 'Keith's Detail,' but this article is already too long." Maybe "Madison" wrote the newspaper again about local events. Unfortunately, copies of the Asheville News are sparse after this date.

I don't copy these items trying to justify the actions of Keith. I do draw attention to these events to illustrate this point: there is a whole other war going on in the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.  It is a conflict waged beyond the limits imposed by the Articles of War and later, the Lieber Code. It is a very personal war.

Does this change your perspective on Shelton Laurel?

Recently, I found this piece, written in April 1863, about the Laurel War. Does it change your perspective? For a long time, the running story is that the bad Confederates kept the good Union people from getting salt. The good Union people raided the salt stores in Marshall one evening, breaking into a few stores and homes for good measure. The worst thing they did was to take blankets from the beds of sick children.  Soon thereafter, Confederate forces marched into Shelton Laurel, captured fifteen men and boys and marched them toward the Tennessee line. Before they had gone far, the Confederates lined them up and executed them. The youngest was 13. While there was some outcry, justice was never served on the Confederates. (This is the short version of the story.)

However, the piece below was written in April 1863 and appeared in a Raleigh newspapers:

"By this time [winter 1863], all who had volunteered from that country [Laurel], had deserted, and brought off their guns and ammunition, and commenced organizing companies, under the command, as they declared, of a Yankee officer, sent from Lincoln's government for that purpose. A company was raised of one hundred men, and they commenced robbing and plundering private houses in a settlement called "Flag Pond," in Washington county, Tennessee, taking money, guns, clothes, meat, and every thing they could carry away, making women and children strip off their shoes, socks and clothes for them, and left many families almost destitute of clothing, bedding or provisions. I did not learn that salt was the object of the thieves. Boys from ten to fifteen years of age were engaged in these robberies, and a gentlemen told me, whose house they robbed,        that they were the most active rogues in company. I did not hear of any salt  being taken.

The next depredation was committed at Marshal, Madison county, N.C., where they not             only took salt, but they broke open store houses and dwelling houses, and carried off everything that they could take away. They broke into A. E. Bair's dwelling house, a large, well-furnished boarding-house, and robbed it of all the blankets and other bed furniture. They also entered Col. L. M. Allen's dwelling house, and abused it at a great  rate-robbing it of all its furniture, and, I have heard made Mrs. Allen even strip off her under clothes, shoes and stockings for them to carry away. I did not hear that they got any salt there. On the same night, some distance from marshall, they entered A.           Farnsworth's house, robbed it of beds, furniture, and clothes, and emptied bed ticks of their contents, in order to pack their stolen goods in the ticks. I did not learn that those "independent, high minded" men packed any salt from there in the bed ticks." (Semi-Weekly Standard [Raleigh] April 17, 1863)

So, for a third time I ask, does this change your perspective on the supposed Shelton Laurel Massacre? There is so much more to this story. 

Shelton Laurel, yet again.

Once again, the Shelton laurel Massacre has raised its unattractive head - this time, in a blog from the New York Times. You can see the article here. Well, let's see what the "rubes" up North think of a bit of our history.

"On Jan. 18, 1863, troops from the 64th North Carolina Infantry under the command of Lt. Col. James Keith lined up 13 men and boys, ranging in age from 13 to 60, made them kneel and shot them at point-blank range. Then the soldiers tossed the bodies into a shallow grave, from where they were later reclaimed by family members for burial."

That is a good one-sided introduction. Where is the mention of the salt raid, or the atrocities committed on local people by the Unionists, or the battle that raged for days prior to the Confederates' arrival in Shelton Laurel, or the other prisoners that the Confederates captured and sent to Asheville?

"This incident in Madison County, N.C., known to history as the Shelton Laurel massacre, was hardly the worst example of violence visited on civilian populations during the Civil War. On Aug. 21, 1863, scarcely a month after the murders in North Carolina first received national press coverage, the Confederate guerrilla leader William C. Quantrill led a raid on Lawrence, Kan., that killed 183 men and boys."

"But Shelton Laurel provides an especially compelling look at the internecine war between Confederate authorities and pro-Union sympathizers in the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Madison County sits on the border with Tennessee and in 1863 was incredibly isolated. "That country," wrote one Confederate officer, "consists of a tumultuous mass of steep hills wooded at the top, with execrable roads winding through ravines and often occupying the bed of a watercourse."

"The county also featured one of the state's sharpest political divides over the issue of secession: the vote to hold a convention lost by a 532-to-345 margin."

Define " one of the sharpest"... There were eighty-four counties that cast votes in February 1862; thirty-five voted against calling a convention. I would consider Montgomery County's vote, 81 for the convention, 870 against, a sharp political divide. And don't forget, Montgomery County is part of the cotton-growing Southern piedmont. In fact, the counties voting against calling a convention run from Pasquotank and Camden in the north east, to Macon in the far mountain west. Other counties, such as Bladen (480-460), Macon (250-259), Tyrell (134-158), and Yancey (556-598) are just as divivded. But, these numbers, taken from a Raleigh newspaper, show us that division in North Carolina is not "just a mountain thing. "

"When the convention did convene, Madison County's delegate was a Unionist. Divergent loyalties continued to characterize the region throughout the war. Those who did fight for the South - between 800 and 1,000 men from Madison County served in the Confederate States of America's 64th North Carolina Infantry - were often of suspect loyalty."

Terrell Garren, in Mountain Myth, states that there were 1,969 men from Madison County in Confederate service. That is greater than in Yancey County to the east (1,045 in Confederate service) and Haywood County to the west (1,504 in Confederate service).  Only 806 of the 1,969 from Madison County served in the 64th North Carolina Troops. In contrast, Garroe has only 135 men from Madison County who served in the Union army.

"As Maj. Gen. Kirby Smith, commander of the Department of East Tennessee, observed: 'The very troops raised here cannot always be depended upon. They have gone into service, many of them to escape suspicion, prepared to give information to the enemy, and ready to pass over to him when an opportunity arises.' North Carolina led all Confederate states in the number of deserters: during the war more than 24,000 soldiers left the ranks and went home."

North Carolina also sent more men than the other states, so she  should have had more deserters, and more deaths.

"Many men sympathetic to the Union simply never joined, relying on the region's inaccessibility to keep the war at arm's length. Their Unionism had little to do with anti-slavery sentiment: Madison County had no more than 46 slaveholders and 213 slaves, and most residents shared the era's pervasive racism. Rather, it stemmed from an amalgam of class resentment against the slave owners and tenant farmers who had supported secession; a deeply engrained rural suspicion of urban places; and a widespread feeling that the wealthy were threatening hard-working common people."

But how do you know that the majority are Unionists? Couldn't they just as easily have been dissidents, with no interest in either side?

"A traveler to the region immediately after Appomattox captured the character of the Northern sentiment in the region: 'The Unionism of Western North Carolina ... was less a love for the Union than a personal hatred of those who went into the Rebellion. It was not so much an uprising for the government as against a certain ruling class.'

"By the winter of 1862, the war was taking a toll on Madison County. The need for constant vigilance against Confederate soldiers searching for Union sympathizers kept many men from harvesting crops and caring for livestock, and the area's inaccessibility made it nearly impossible to bring in food from other regions. The scarcity of salt was particularly acute. In an era before refrigeration, the mineral was the primary means of preserving meat. In late 1861, the state's governor, Zebulon Vance, established an office of salt commissioner to manage this precious commodity. A year later he placed an embargo on the export of salt from North Carolina."

Um, Vance did not become governor until September 1862. Not sure whom the author is quoting here.

"During an early January night in 1863, 50 men, many of them deserters from the 64th regiment, carried out a raid on Marshall, Madison's county seat. Their primary target was the salt store, and they carried off some 50 bushels of the precious mineral. They also raided several homes, in the process shooting a Confederate officer home on leave; frightening two young children of a second officer who were ill; and carrying off blankets, clothing, food and money before disappearing back into the hills."

Carrying off the blankets that had been covering those ill children, who later died - Let's keep the story straight.

"Coincidentally, at the time of the raid, the 64th Infantry was less than 80 miles away, at Bristol, Tenn., guarding nearby salt supplies. Upon learning of the raid, two of the regiment's officers, Col. Lawrence Allen and Lt. Col. James Keith, immediately petitioned their commanding officer, Brig. Gen Henry Heth, to allow them to lead troops on a mission to punish the raiders. Heth, a native Virginian, West Point graduate and close friend of Robert E. Lee's, had extensive experience combating hit-and-run guerrilla tactics, first in Mexico, then on the Western plains and in the Mormon wars in Utah, and most recently in West Virginia. Keith later recalled Heth's orders: 'I want no reports from you about your course at Laurel. I do not want to be troubled with any prisoners and the last one of them should be killed.'"

But Heth, like so many others placed in departmental command in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, was a failure. Also, only three companies of the 64th NCT, companies B, D, and H, were sent back to Madison County. Company B was from Henderson County, Company D was from Madison County, and Company H was from Greene County, Tennessee.

"Keith and Allen, both of whom were well-to-do residents of Marshall, set out with two columns of troops, absorbing sniper fire and killing 12 of the raiders as they made their way into the Shelton Laurel Valley. Allen pushed on to Marshall, arriving to find that both his 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter, recently terrorized by the raiders, had died from scarlet fever. After quickly burying his children, Allen rejoined Keith and his regiment the next morning and set about locating the raiders.

"As lifelong residents of the region, both officers knew that the families of the men would be able but unlikely to tell them where they were hiding. When the women refused to answer questions, the troops resorted to torture. They beat, whipped, hanged temporarily and robbed 85-year-old Unus Riddle and whipped 70-year-old Sally Moore with hickory rods until her back bled. Other women were treated with equal cruelty, but apparently none provided useful information. Keith's soldiers nonetheless eventually took 15 men prisoner and held them overnight before deciding to escort them to Knoxville for trial."

Um, how about the ones sent on to Asheville? There were about a dozen of them.

"After marching for a few miles, Keith stopped the column, ordered five of the prisoners to kneel, and had them shot by soldiers standing 10 paces away. An eyewitness account in The New York Times six months later recorded 60-year-old Joe Woods's last request: 'If you are going to murder us at least give us time to pray.' Five more were then ordered to kneel. Thirteen-year-old David Shelton, who was at first only wounded, begged the soldiers, exclaiming, 'You have killed my old father and my three brothers; you have shot me in both arms, but I can get well. Let me go home to my mother and sisters.'  No mercy was shown Shelton, or the three remaining prisoners (two had escaped the previous night).

While the actions of the 64th North Carolina were extreme (yes, they overstepped their bounds and should have been tried for their crimes), what about the crimes of some of the men executed? The homes (not just in Marshall) that were plundered and robbed, citizens who were murdered, and then, there are those dead children. Add the dead children, the cold, frostbite, and having been shot at for what seemed to be every minute from behind every rock and tree for a week. I'm not trying to justify the actions of the 64th NCT, but it is important to see how these terrible events were part of a series of terrible events, back and forth, escalating into the dreadful events at Shelton Laurel. As a historian, I always try to take into account all of the events going on to get a context for any moment in history.

"Upon learning of the murders, Governor Vance called on A. S. Merrimon, an old friend and a prosecutor, to investigate. Within a few weeks, he reported 'that thirteen . . . were killed; that some of them were not taken in arms but at their homes; that all the men shot . . . were prisoners at the time they were shot' and that 'all this was done by order of Lt. Col. James A. Keith.'

"On Feb. 28, 1863, Vance wrote to Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon, urging him to take action against Keith for perpetrating 'a scene of horror disgraceful to civilization.'  Five months later, upon learning that Keith had been acquitted at a court-martial and allowed to resign, Vance wrote Seddon asking him 'to furnish me a copy of the proceedings of the court martial in his case' because 'murder is a crime against the common law of the state and he is now subject to that law.'

"Vance's request illustrates a legal anomaly. According to the 1806 Articles of War, which both Union and Confederate forces followed (the Union would adopt new standards later in 1863), guerrilla fighters like those in Shelton Laurel Valley, unlike soldiers in uniform, could be shot even if they threw down their weapons and surrendered. They had no right to be treated as prisoners of war. But, once they were captured, they could not be executed without legal proceedings before either a military or civilian court. The execution of such prisoners without a trial was murder. Furthermore, the military was obligated to assist civilian authorities in bringing charges against anyone accused of breaking this regulation.

"Vance, who at one point had promised to follow Keith 'to the gates of hell, or hang him,' was ultimately frustrated in his attempts to see the Confederate officer punished. Captured by Union forces at the end of the war, Keith was imprisoned, charged with individual counts for each murder and brought to trial. Acquitted on the first count, he appealed the additional counts on the basis that an 1866 North Carolina amnesty law voided further prosecution. On Feb. 21, 1869, just days before the state's Supreme Court ruled in his favor, Keith escaped. In 1871, the state dropped its prosecution.

"James Keith was the only one ever tried for the murders in Shelton Laurel. His fellow officer, Lawrence Allen, escaped any punishment, although he chose to leave Madison County for fear of reprisals by families of those murdered.

Once again, we are only getting part of the story : about how badly the Confederates treated the overwhelming number of Unionists during the war. As shown by other historians, this idea of overwhelming Unionists is a myth. Maybe overwhelming dissidents, but true Unionisst were in a slim minority, at least in the mountains of western North Carolina. And the Unionists who did run amuck in western North Carolina were just as guilty of war crimes as were the members of the 64th North Carolina Troops.

"Bloody Madison" continued

I was in Madison County this past Saturday, and I took a few photos to help illustrate the Madison County pieces. I hope you enjoy.

North Carolina Civil War Trails Marker on the campus of Mars Hill College.

Site of the Shelton Laurel Massacre (almost seven miles from the marker).

Marker speaking of the Shelton Laurel Massacre.

Home of Col. Lawrence Allen (64th NCT) in Marshall.

Robert E. Lee Trail Marker in front of the courthouse in Marshall.

Bloody Madison

Madison County won a little poll that I put up a couple of weeks ago as the county that I would write about next in our survey of the Civil War and counties across the state. This is really only the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the war and Madison County. Maybe some of my readers will contribute more information.

Madison County was created in 1851 from portions of Yancey and Buncombe Counties, and was named for President James Madison. The county seat, incorporated in 1863, was originally called Lapland, but was renamed Marshall in honor of Chief Justice John Marshall.

In 1860, Madison County had a population of 5,908 people, including 213 slaves and 2 free persons of color. The returns from the 1860 presidential election were thrown out. In February 1861, 345 Madison County men voted in favor of calling a convention while 532 voted against the idea. In May 1861, when the convention was held, Madison County’s representative was Dr. Joseph A. McDowell. McDowell later served as colonel of the 60th North Carolina Troops, and also owned the Warm Springs Hotel.

Madison County furnished men to the Confederate army that served in Company , 2nd North Carolina Battalion; Company B, 16th North Carolina Troops; Company D, 29th North Carolina Troops; Companies B and I, 60th North Carolina Troops; Companies A, B, D, F, G, I and L, 64th North Carolina Troops; Company I, 6th North Carolina Cavalry; and, Company D, 7th North Carolina Cavalry. Also, many Madison County men joined the 2nd and 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry (US). Terrell Garren, in his book Mountain Myth, believes that there were 1,969 Confederate soldiers from Madison County, and 135 Federal soldiers.

William Trotter described Madison County as the “most disputed and fought-over part of the mountains” during the war. So, we have much to talk about. A riot, followed by a shootout, broke out in May 1861 during the vote to electe McDowell to the secession convention. The sheriff, who was probably intoxicated, stood in the center of town shouting “Hurra[h] for Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy.” A Unionist in the crowd answered with a cheer for George Washington and the Union. The sheriff accused them of being “a set of Damd Black republicans and lincolnites,” drew his pistol, and fired into the crowd, wounding a young boy. The Sheriff was chased into a building, and was later shot and killed by the boy’s father. The father escaped and later joined a Kentucky regiment.

In January 1863, a band of Unionists and deserters raided Marshall, plundering houses and shooting local citizens. Also in January, there was a skirmish between militia and deserters in the Laurel Valley area. This led to the return of the 64th North Carolina, which were assailed from all sides as soon as they entered the county. A couple of skirmishes were fought in Shelton Laurel itself. When the Confederates could find no men in the area, they started interrogating and torturing the local women. Eventually, fifteen men, some old, others young, were captured. Two escaped before the column set out for Knoxville. Around January 13, the other 13 and the Confederates set out. At a pre-selected spot, the prisoners were halted, lined up, and executed. The commander of the 64th NCT, Col. James A. Keith, was arrested after the war, and spent two years in prison awaiting trial before escaping. This is known as the Shelton Laurel Massacre, and is the subject of a book by Phillip Paludan called Victims: A True Story of the Civil War.

Later that same month, Thomas’s Legion was in Madison County looking for deserters.

In mid 1863, Confederate forces commandeered portions of Mars Hill College and used it as a base and staging area for the rest of the war. Later in 1863, men from the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry (US) attacked a meeting of the local Baptist Association not far from Mars Hill College, killing two men and wounding another.

There was a skirmish in October 1863 in Warm Springs (now Hot Springs). Federal forces captured the town and the resort. A few days later Maj. John W. Woodfin led his cavalry battalion into the area in an attempt to recapture it. He was shot from his horse. Brig. Gen. Robert B. Vance (the governor’s brother), then led several attacks to regain the area, and the Federals pulled out late in the month.

In April 1864, George Wiley Grooms and his brother Henry Grooms, along with Henry’s brother-in-law, Mitchell Caldwell, were captured while out working a field. They were marched across Mt. Sterling, on the Cataloochie side. As the family story goes, either Henry or George was forced to play the fiddle before being executed. George was a private in the 11th Tennessee Cavalry (US). All three are buried in a common grave in the Sutton Cemetery #1.

In March 1865, some men reportedly belonging to the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry (US) burned the buildings at Mars Hill College.

On April 3, 1865, an expedition led by Col. Isaac M. Kirby of the 101st Ohio moved through Warm Springs (now Hot Springs) and Marshall, towards Asheville, with 1,100 men. This resulted in the battle of Asheville on April 6, and with the retreat of Kirby’s force back through Madison County.

There is going to be a program on Madison County and the regiments from the area at Mars Hill College on April 5. You can learn more here. If you would like more information on the events at Shelton Laurel, click here.