Disturbed

I’ve been more perturbed over the events last week at the Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn, Alabama, than I care to even admit. If you are not aware of the events, here is a summary. Last Thursday, Auburn City Councilman Arthur L. Dowdell “was picking up his daughter from Auburn Junior High School near the cemetery when several people told him they ‘had a problem’ with the flags.” The “flags” were Confederate flags placed on the graves of Confederate soldiers in the Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn. Yesterday, April 26, was the annual celebration of Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama. When Dowdell arrived at the historic cemetery, he found it decorated "like a Klan rally or a skinhead rally." Dowdell then took several flags from different graves, broke them, and placed them in his car. “It might have snapped itself,” Dowdell said. “If it did, so what? If I had my way, I would have broke them all up and stomped on them and burned them. That flag represents another country, another nation.” “I’m going on the record that this will never happen again,” Dowdell said. “This will never happen again as long as I’m on the city council.”

Interesting enough, the City of Auburn, via the mayor, soon thereafter released this statement:
The views and actions by participants in that incident in no way reflect the views or policies of the City of Auburn. The flags were placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy on private graves to commemorate fallen Confederate soldiers for Confederate Memorial Day, which is an official state holiday. Their removal was not an action taken by the City of Auburn. I cannot condone the removal of private property from a privately owned grave site. The sanctity of the final resting place of one’s family or forefathers is certainly one of the most intensely private and sacred of things in our society.

It is easy to see that the mayor is trying to put as much distance between himself and Dowdell.

Interesting enough, Dowdell has served on the Auburn City Council since 1995. The placement of flags on the graves of Confederates has gone on for decades. I wonder (actually, I don’t) why Dowdell did not have a problem with the flags in the previous thirteen years he was on the city council. Why does he feel emboldened this year?

Regardless of Dowdell’s actions, the planned Confederate Memorial Day services in Auburn went on as scheduled yesterday. You can check out an article and a video clip here.

Had I not been off to Roanoke for a book signing in Roanoke this afternoon, then I probably would have driven to Auburn yesterday to attend the memorial day service. Why? And what does this have to do with North Carolina and the Civil War? Not only are there numerous Alabama Confederate soldiers buried in the Pine Hill Cemetery, including Col. James F. Dowdell (hmmm, I wonder…) commander of the 37th Alabama Infantry, US Congressman, and one –time president of what is today Auburn University (had two ancestors to fight under him), but also one that we here in North Carolina hold dear: Brig. Gen. James H. Lane.

Lane was a Virginian by birth and educated at VMI. Right before the war began, Lane was teaching at the North Carolina Military Institute in Charlotte. Lane was major and lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers, and then colonel of the 28th North Carolina Troops. He succeeded Branch as commander of the Second North Carolina Brigade after Branch was killed at the battle of Sharpsburg. The Second North Carolina Brigade was composed of the 7th NCST, 18th NCST, 28th NCT, 33rd NCT, and 37th NCT. Lane successfully commanded the brigade until the end of the war, and even taught for while in the Old North State before moving to Auburn where he also taught. The school still owns his house.

That is why I care.

I do find the actions of Councilman Dowdell disturbing. One reason why Southerners were allowed to erect monuments and place flags on graves after the war was to help heal our divided land. The monuments and markers and flags (North and South) were an effort to help remind us of where our inability to work out our problems could lead us: 625,000 dead. And it was people with an attitude just like Dowdell that fanned the flames that led to 625,000 dead Americans. Obviously, here is an individual who wants to make trouble (and unfortunately, there are far too many people willing to rise to his baiting). We can only hope that more reasonable heads will prevail and that Dowdell will be properly shamed for his grave descrecration rather than becoming the target of threats or other responses that only give him what he wants: angry people who fit the stereotype he wants to enforce.

A look around the Old North State

Several interesting pieces in the news this week. There is an article in the Durham Herald – Sun this week about upcoming events at the Bennett Place – you can check it out here.

Last weekend, a monument was placed in Fredericksburg, Virginia, honoring Confederates, including some North Carolinians, buried in now developed parts of the city. You can read about in here in the Free Lance Star.

There is also an article about the marking of graves of soldiers killed in the battle of Whitehall in Wayne County, North Carolina. The article appeared in the Goldsboro News – Argus and you can read about it here.

On News14 from the eastern part of the state, they have a video clip advertising the upcoming events at the battle of Plymouth reenactment. Check it out by clicking here.

What do you think

I think I have said (written) this before: writing history often presents more questions than it does answers. Here is my question of the week: what happened to Col. Washington M. Hardy? Not so much after the war. I wrote about that in a previous post here. What happened to him the last days of the war?

I wrote last Friday in my manuscript about the 58th and 60th North Carolina regiments. The new organization was known as the 58th North Carolina Consolidated, or the 58th North Carolina battalion. The field and staff of the new regiment was made up of just-promoted Maj. G. W. F. Harper, formerly Captain of Company H, 58th NCT and who had commanded the 58th NCT through the battle of Bentonville, and just-promoted Lt. Col. Thaddeus C. Coleman, who had been serving on the staff of General Hood at the rank of Captain.

Actually there are a couple of things I don’t understand. Why promote Coleman, a staff officer (he had started the war in an artillery company), over Harper, who had combat experience, and who had been associated with one of the two regiments since its inception? And why would Johnston, who was aware of Hood’s scathing report about his tenure as commander of the Army of Tennessee, appoint one of Hood’s staff officers?

But, back to my original question: what happened to Hardy? Hardy had served as Colonel of the 60th NCT since May 1863. He had commanded Reynolds’s brigade for a time, and commanded his own brigade at Bentonville. According to what I wrote previously, he was present on March 31, 1865, but nine days later, was gone. I can find no parole papers. I can find no presidential pardon.

So three possibilities. One: Hardy had been ill at other times during the war. Maybe he took this opportunity to go home on furlough and the documentation to prove this is missing. Two: maybe he could not command the new consolidated regiment as colonel because Col. John B. Palmer, 58th NCT, outranked him. Palmer was promoted to colonel in July 1862. However, Palmer had been assigned to the department of western North Carolina since November 1863. He never rejoined the regiment, but was still listed as colonel. Third: Maybe because Hardy’s performance at Bentonville was so poor, he was declared supernumerary and went somewhere else.

Any thoughts?

58th NCT update

I finally finished writing about the battle of Bentonville yesterday afternoon. I think the chapters on the 58th NCT’s involvement at Bentonville, Missionary Ridge, and Chickamauga are the best. Why? Probably do to the amount of secondary sources. Here is my process: I take secondary sources and read through them, take notes, and then compare them to primary sources, like personal letters, diaries, and official reports. Then I write. Often, I agree with the secondary sources. Sometimes, I do not. If I don’t agree, then I will take a end note and tell you why I disagree.

Last evening, I started reading This Astounding Close by Mark Bradley – you know what theat means, the war is almost over.

News and Notes...

Well, time for a look around.

A few days ago, the Winston-Salem Journal ran a short piece on the excavations at Fort Anderson. You can read it here. The short piece is about half way down. My thoughts? If this is the quality of reporting at the Journal, well… no wonder so many newspapers are in trouble. Why might I write this? Well, Fort Anderson is not in Western North Carolina – it is about as far from Western North Carolina as you can get. And I don’t think I saw anything about a cannon being found. Remnants of a platform yes, cannon, no. And, cannons are offensive weapons, not for “personal defense.” Well, it appears my comments are longer than the article.

There is an very interesting article in the Richmond Daily Press about anew marker being installed for Jewish Confederates in the Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond. You can read that article here. I did some further digging and found a list of men in this cemetery. You can view the list here. There are two North Carolinians listed. The first is G. Wolfe and the second is M. Aaron.

The Fayetteville Observer has a article about North Carolina Sharpshooter commander Capt. Benjamin Robinson (Co. A, 5th NCST). You can read the article here.

There is a very article in the New Bern Sun Journal, entitled “Pro-Union connection hard to find.” The gist of the article is that evidence of the strong pro-Union element in New Bern that we have been told was there, may not be true. I wonder if eastern North Carolina has been operating under the same mis-information that western North Carolina has been. You can read the article here.

There is also a blurb (and video) about the end of the war in Raleigh in the Raleigh Public Record. You can find this interesting link here.

On the road again

Greetings folks! Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be speaking tonight (actually the meeting starts a little after five pm) in Boone at the quarterly meeting of the Watauga County Historical Society. The meeting will be at the Watauga County Public Library. Topic will be gravestone art, something I’ve been interested in for 20 plus years. I hope to see you there.

By the way, this is post number 300!

A Wasted Hour

I had the misfortune to watch Gettysburg: The Battle That Changed America on the Military Channel last night. There were a few appropriate-looking actors and a few good special effects (like the guy losing a foot to the cannon ball), but the majority of the program was basically the contents of the old outhouse! I’ll just hit a few highlights: their Meade looked ok, but their Lee looked horrible. They totally left out Federal cavalry commander General Buford's and Confederate General A. P. Hill’s roles in the opening of the battle – I mean totally left it out. There was no mention of the great deeds of the Tar Heel state at the battle, which considering that twenty-five percent of the Confederate losses at Gettysburg were from North Carolina, that at least should get a line or two. Not much attention was given to Longstreet’s role in the battle, just…. I don’t even know where else to go. I let my son stay up and watch this with me – I was constantly telling him what was wrong.

If the Military Channel shows this again, don’t bother watching it. The few good special effects are not worth the bad history.

More information on dig at Fort Anderson

For those of you who want to keep up with the dig at Fort Anderson you can check a couple of sources. The first is from WECT TV6 – this post even includes a video. You can find it here.

There was also a small blurb on the web site of WWAT TV3, which you can see here

There is also a small article in the online Star News, which you can find here.

I would personally love to go down and visit the site while the excavation is going on. Maybe even be one of their volunteers, if they would let your humble scribe man a trowel. But alas, Fort Anderson is about seven hours from my house. If you have not visited Fort Anderson and the ruins of Brunswick Town, let me encourage you to go. It has probably been about five years since I was there, but the earthworks are the most impressive that I have ever seen.

William Young Farthing

In the mass of email I have answered today (did I get to yours?) I had someone ask about William Young Farthing. Here is what I know about him:

William Young Farthing was born June 29, 1812, in Orange County, North Carolina. His father was John Farthing, and his mother was Lucy Goss. William Y. Farthing married Annie Watkins on October 29, 1840. He had these children: John S., Mary H., Reuben P., Rachel L., Winfield S., Harriet N., Lucinda W., James E., and Martha E. He was a farmer and lived in the Beaver Dams area of Watauga County. On September 18, 1861, he enlisted in Watauga County in the Watauga Minute Men. He was elected Captain the same day. The Minute Men became Company E, 37th North Carolina Troops, on November 20, 1861. Farthing was captured during the battle of Hanover Court House on May 27, 1862. He was confined at Fort Columbus, in New York Harbor. Later, he was transferred to Johnson’s Island, Ohio, where he arrived on June 21, 1862. He was then transferred to Vicksburg, Mississippi, arriving on September 20, 1862. On November 10, 1862, he was declared exchanged. On November 12, 1862, Farthing submitted his resignation to his superiors, stating that

In 1861 I brought into service my Co. and enlisted it for twelve months. Last April I re-enlisted ‘for the war’ and induced most of my company to follow me. I am fifty years old and have two sons; one of my sons is now a member of my Co. and the other is about to enter the army being subject to the Conscription law. I own no slaves, therefore my wife and daughters are left without any male assistance on the plantation.

Farthing’s resignation was accepted on November 12, 1862. However, he most likely did not know about his release from the army. He died that same day, and is buried in the Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia.

A tragic fate for one of North Carolina’s soldiers.

Johnston County

Since I have been doing quite a bit of reading on the battle of Bentonville, I thought for our next county study we would look at Johnston County.

Johnston County was formed in 1746 from portions of Craven County. The new county was named for Gabriel Johnston, a Royal Governor of North Carolina from 1743 to 1752. The county seat is Smithfield and was established in 1777. Smithfield, formerly known as Smith’s Ferry, became the county seat in 1771, and was formally chartered in 1777.

In 1860, Johnston County had a population of 15,656 people, including 4,916 slaves and 195 free blacks. Johnston County was a major cotton producing area, and in 1854, the railroad linked the cotton growers to major outlets. In the 1860 presidential election, the men in Johnston County cast 974 votes for Breckinridge, 630 for Bell, and 38 for Douglas. Johnston County’s representative to the 1861 Convention was William A. Smith. Smith was a “Union man” and went on in 1864 to serve in the state legislature. After the war, he served in the State constitutional convention and in the state senate.

Johnston County sent an estimated 1,500 men into Confederate service, serving in these companies and regiments: Company C, 5th NCST; Companies C, E and I, 24th NCT; Companies C and D, 50th NCT; Company C, 53rd NCT; Company g, 55th NCT; and Company B, 56th NCT.

Johnston County’s big moment during the war came almost at the war’s end. In mid-March 1865, the armies of William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston collided near the community of Bentonville. Sherman was continuing his drive through the Southland, having already completed treks through Georgia and South Carolina. He was heading north to join with the Federal forces currently laying siege to Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. Johnston, in the words of Mark Bradley, chronicler of the battle of Bentonville, “regarded Confederate defeat as inevitable, and believed that a stunning blow to Sherman’s army might give the South greater leverage at the bargaining table.”

It is easy to look at the battle in hindsight. Johnston should have taken control of the railroads, and more of his scattered forces (like Cheatham) could have been brought to bear against the Federals. Johnston should have told Braxton Bragg to take command of McClaw’s Division, which had been sent to strengthen Bragg’s flank, but he did not. And McClaw’s division, the largest in Johnston’s “Army of the South,” remained idle throughout the battle. Bragg, well what do you say about Bragg? He should have been somewhere else doing something else, and his troops turned over to a more competent leader. I think Bragg does have good traits, but being a battlefield commander is not one of them . Regardless, Johnston was able to catch a portion of the Federals unawares, and drive a portion of them back. All in all, there were just too many Federals for Johnston to cope with, and he was forced to retire from the field. Bentonville produced an estimated 4,738 casualties – 1,646 Federal, 3,092 Confederate.

Bentonville was the largest battle fought on North Carolina soil during the war. You can find a really good web site about the battle, and the battlefield, here.

I have been to Bentonville several times or the past decade, and, as many of you know, I am currently working on a book about one of the Confederate regiments that fought at the battle. If you ever get a chance, make sure you visit the area.

If you visit this link, you can get more information on some of the Civil War Trail markers in the area.

58th NCT in the news...

I meant to comment on this earlier, but time just got away from me. Last week, the Topsail Advertiser, as a part of its North Carolina Minute series, ran a little blurb about Maj. G. W. F. Harper of the 58th NCT. Here is what the reporter wrote


George Washington Finley Harper
(A North Carolinian who made a Difference)

George Washington Finley Harper was born on July 7, 1834 at Fairfield Plantation in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He received a Classical education in the area schools and entered Davidson College in 1855, graduating in 1859. Following college he returned home to help his father who was in the merchandise business.
Harper was serving as County Register and Justice of the Peace when the Civil War started. He waited until 1862to join the Confederate Army and was promoted to first lieutenant of Company H, Fifty-eighth North Carolina Regiment. He first saw action fighting Union forces near Cumberland Gap, Tennessee and also participated action in Kentucky. He later became Captain of his unit.
During 1863 the Fifty-eighth Regiment joined the Army of Tennessee and in September of that year he lead his troops in the Battle of Chickamauga, where one-half of his regiment was killed or wounded.
In the spring of 1864, Harper was wounded in the Battle of Resaca. He was sent home for his wounds to heal. He rejoined his regiment in the fall 1864 and upon returning to duty found that he had been promoted to the rank of major. He fought in the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee and after that battle he was put in charge of transporting 1,700 prisoners to Corinth, Mississippi.
In the spring of 1865, Harper witnessed the Union forces making their big push through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. He was at Bentonville, North Carolina for the last major battle of the war. Harper was with General Joseph E. Johnston when Johnston surrendered to General Sherman on April 26, 1865.
Following the war, Harper returned to Lenoir, a town his father had established. Here he entered public service to help mankind. His political activities included a term as County Commissioner, member of the North Carolina General Assembly and Mayor of Lenoir. Harper died on March 16, 1921 and is buried in the Bellview Cemetery in Lenoir.

This article is misleading in so many different ways. It totally leaves out that Harper was a member of Vance’s Legion, before joining the 58th NCT. The 58th NCT was not really involved in fighting at Cumberland Gap. The regiment was garrisoning the Gap after the Federals pulled out. Any fighting was a bushwhacker here or there taking pot shots at passing troops. The 50 percent loses at Chickamauga is not right, and Harper did not lead the regiment. When he returned from his leave regarding his wounding in the fall of 1864, he did not find out he had been promoted to major. The promotion did not happen until April 1865. Neither Harper nor the 58th NCT was at the battle of Franklin. They did help transport prisoners from Tennessee, through north Alabama, and into Mississippi, but Harper was not in command of the expedition. And, Federal troops did not push through Georgia in the spring of 1865. That would be the fall of 1864. In all of Harper’s post war contributions, they left off his most important – he helped start the furniture industry in western North Carolina, not to mention that he started a bank, worked on getting a railroad into Caldwell County, and was a trustee at the hospital in Morganton, and Davidson College.

Geez, makes me wonder what else is wrong with some of their articles.

Fort Anderson news

Good morning folks! There was an article this morning (or maybe Saturday – I found it this morning) on the excavations being conducted next month at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Park. Check out the article here.

John Hope Franklin

Many people across the nation are mourning the loss earlier this week of the eminent historian John Hope Franklin. The Raleigh News and Observer has a great piece on him, which you can read here.

News and Notes...

Well, how about a look around to see what is going on.

A week or so ago, the Civil War Preservation Trust announced its top ten endangered battlefields list. There were no North Carolina sites on this list, but several sites, like the Wilderness and Gettysburg, where North Carolina soldiers fought. You can check out the press release here. However, of the 15 additional sites at risk, three of those were in North Carolina. They include the battlefields of Aversboro (March 16, 1865); Morrisville (April 14, 1865); and the Yadkin River Bridge (April 12, 1865). The first two are connected the Sherman’s Carolina’s campaign. The last, to Stoneman’s Raid. You can learn more by clicking here. Everyone should be supporting the Civil War Preservation Trust in the work that it does to preserve the battlefields where our ancestors fought.

There are have been several recent articles on events at Bentonville, commemorating the 144th anniversary of the largest battle in North Carolina. You can check out articles here, here, and here.

There is an article in the Salisbury Post on the upcoming Prison Symposium, coming up in April. You can read it here.

Also, there is an interesting article on a reenactment in Rockford (near Mt. Airy), recently, in their local newspaper. You can read the article here.

And finally, there is a great article about the two Curtis brothers in the 1st North Carolina Volunteers/11th North Carolina State Troops, in the Kingsport Times-News. The Curtis brothers were from Wilkes County, and many of their war-time artifacts are on display at the Carroll Reece Museum. You can read the article here.

Booger Den

During the war, the numerous hollows and caves in western North Carolina provided numerous places for deserters (from both armies), conscript dodgers, and dissidents to hide out. Probably one of the most famous is Linville Caverns, which I wrote about here.

This past Saturday, I had a chance to participate in the Avery County Community Day, held at Cranberry (the site of an iron mine during the war). I like attending such programs – I always seem to come away with some little bit of knowledge that I did not know. This day was not to disappoint. In conversing with the lady at the booth next to mine, I learned of a place called “Booger Den.” According to people she grew up with, this was a shallow, but large, cave that Civil War soldiers hid out in during the war. That is about as much of the story as I currently have, besides its location – on a trail in the Pisgah National Forest between Roseboro and Grandmother Mountain here in Avery County. I see a hike coming in the near future.

I might never find out who hid there during the war. It might have been used by all sides at different points, maybe even by the Blalocks. So many times that is how these stories come. I’ll give one other example, from Avery County. I’ve been told by several people that there was a skirmish during the war in Miller’s Gap. Miller’s Gap is on the way into Newland, close to where you turn off to go to the high school. But that is all of the story that I can get – just a skirmish at Miller’s Gap. And yes, it probably was not much: someone standing behind a tree shooting at some else who was walking up the road. That is so much of the war in Southern Appalachia.

Neighbors, Kinfolks, and Enemies

I had to go to a meeting last evening, and on the way there, I was pondering this question: why were not the majority of Unionists in western North Carolina forced to flee? In my research for the Brooksville Raid book, I learned that many of those who lived in Hernando County (Florida) who possessed Unionist sentiments were driven from their homes by local Confederates. Many of them fled to Key West and joined the 2nd Florida Cavalry (US). The primary reason of the Brooksville-Bayport raid was to destroy the homes and property of those loyal Confederates who had driven the Unionists from their homes. Here in western North Carolina, there were families who were just as loyal to the Union, but it seems that we seldom hear of them being flat out driven from their homes (or burned out) during the war. Sure, it does happen – Colonel Palmer’s (58th NCT) home was burned toward the end of Kirk’s raid. But why did it not happen more often?

I think, for the time being, I have come to this conclusion: the reason why more families were not driven from the area is that people here were all kin, were all related. Like many other people, my ancestors first came to this area (east of the Blue Ridge) in the 1750s, and after the American Revolution, moved to the west side of the Blue Ridge. They lived in small, isolated groups, and due to the small number of families in the area, quickly became related through marriage. So the people who lived in the hollow over from yours might be kin, and while they might profess feelings for the other side, they were still kin. In contrast, Florida had only recently been open to settlement prior to the start of the war. And while it was also sparsely settled, not enough time had passed for the families to have developed strong inter-family relationships.

What do you think? I really don’t have anything to prove this, just observations.

Henderson County

For our next county survey, I thought we would look at Henderson County. In 1838, the southern part of Buncombe County was taken to create Henderson County. The county is named for Leonard Henderson, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1829 to 1833. The county seat, Hendersonville, is also named for Henderson.

In 1860, Henderson County had a total population of 10,448, including 1,382 slaves, and 85 free blacks. The county boundaries also contained most of present-day Transylvania County. In the 1860 presidential election, Henderson County cast 425 votes for Breckinridge, 496 for Bell, and 4 for Douglas. William M. Shipp was elected over Alexander Hamilton Jones to represented the County during the Secession vote in May 1861. There were actually threats made that men voting for Jones would be shot. Jones later enlisted in the Federal army, and served as Henderson County’s representative at the state convention in 1865, and in the United States Congress.

According to Terrell Garren’s Mountain Myth, Henderson County supplied 1,296 men to the Confederate army and 130 men to the Federal army. Men from Henderson County served in Company I, 16th NCST; Companies A and H, 25th NCT; Company G, 35th NCT; Company G, 56th NCT; and Company D, 60th NCT. On the Federal side, Henderson County men served in the 2nd and 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry (US).

Probably the most interesting aspect of Henderson County’s role in the war actually stems from the area being used as an antebellum summer home for many people from the South Carolina low country. Probably the best example would be Christopher G. Memminger. After growing up in South Carolina, Memminger bought land and built Connemara, his summer home in 1838. Memminger would later become the first Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederacy. He served until 1864, when he resigned. Memminger was replaced by another part-time Henderson County resident: George A. Trenholm, who owned Solitude. It is believed that Trenholm was the model for Rhett Butler in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.

Numerous accounts of bushwhacking in Henderson County survive. We will focus on two main events. On June 10, 1864, Andrew Johnstone was eating dinner with his family when six men showed up at the house, Beaumont, near Flat Rock. After eating dinner with the Johnstones, one of the “bushwhackers” shot and killed Andrew. His thirteen year-old son retrieved the pistol that Andrew was attempting to draw, and then killed two and wounded another of the attackers. Later, Company E, of the 64th North Carolina Troops was sent to Flat Rock to help maintain order.

On April 23, 1865, Some of Stoneman’s men arrived in town, spending the night and quartering their horses in a part of an unfinished college building.

There is much to see in Henderson County today when it comes to the War. Connemara was later purchased by Carl Sandburg, who wrote a Pulitzer-winning biography on Abraham Lincoln. The house has been preserved and is a part of the National Park Service. If you visit the area, also check out the St. Johns in the Wilderness Episcopal Church Cemetery, where Memminger is buried, along with several other officers. This is one of the best cemeteries in all of western North Carolina. If you have time to visit one other place, make sure it is the Henderson County Museum in Hendersonville. Located in the old courthouse, the museum has a fantastic Civil War display. On the grounds of the courthouse are numerous monuments, including a Dixie Highway marker, and a Confederate monument, erected in 1903. Also, in the northern portion of the county, in Fletcher, near Calvary Episcopal Church, is a group of monuments to Robert E. Lee, Zebulon Baird Vance, Daniel Emmett, Francis Key Scott, and O. Henry.

On the road...

Folks – I have a book signing this evening – Spruce Pine Public Library in Mitchell County, 7:00 pm. I have another at Mayland Community College on Wednesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. I hope to see you there.

58th NCT update

Folks – I have finally got the 58th NCT back to the old North State. As of last night, the regiment had just marched through Smithfield. The date – March 15, 1865. I will probably spend the next week getting ready to write about the battle of Bentonville, going over primary and secondary sources.

Round Tables and Ironclads

The Round Table Discussion at the Caldwell Heritage Museum on Monday evening was a smashing success. There were twenty-two people present, and we spent two and a half hours talking about many different aspects of the war. The folks in Caldwell are already talking about holding this program again in the near future. If you are interested in doing this type of program in your area, please drop me a line. I would love to help. To date, I’ve helped with similar programs in Watauga, Avery, Mitchell, Yancey, and now Caldwell counties.

There is an interesting article this morning on Channel 9, out of New Bern, Washington, Greenville, and Jacksonville. You can read the article here. The gist of the article is this: in times of tight economics, do we need to spend money on the SCC Neuse project in Kinston? The reporter is right. We are in tight economic times. If you are not experiencing it, you must live further up the hollar than I do. I think the real question is this: why have we not already finished this project – a decade ago?

I don’t mean to rant off topic here, but there is much that is being spent these days that has no meaningful impact on our society; that it is astounding (and sad). I'll give just one example: we are getting millions in federal dollars to fix old roads and build new roads. And, granted, some of these are worthwhile projects. But at the same time, our schools are being forced to cut thousands of teachers because we don’t have the money to pay their salaries. THAT IS NOT RIGHT! We already have students that have no knowledge of history or the arts, because there is not money in the system to teach those subjects. I could rant more here, but I won’t. I will say that it is not only in the elementary and secondary grades. Our community colleges, those schools that are trying to retrain people who have lost their jobs, are being forced to do with less, including teachers, as are our colleges and universities. Maybe we should stop some of this road construction and shore up our educational institutions so in the future, we will have enough intelligent people to prevent us from getting into this position again. Of course, I could argue that our educational system needs major reforms, but, I guess that is why we home school our kids. And no, we have not cut history or the arts here.

Should we be funneling funds to the CSS Neuse project? As I said, it should have been done a decade ago.

You can learn more about the CSS Neuse here and here.

Caldwell County

Since I am going to be in Caldwell County tonight, I thought I would brush up on my Caldwell County history by writing this sketch of the area during the war, a part of my ongoing county-by-county study of the state.

Caldwell County was created in 1841 from portions of Wilkes and Burke Counties. It was named for Joseph Caldwell, first president of the University of North Carolina (there was only one of them at that time). The county seat is Lenoir, named for Gen. William Lenoir, a patriot during the Revolution and early settler.

In 1860, Caldwell County had a total population of 7,497, including 1,088 slaves and 114 free blacks. In the 1860 presidential election, the men in the county cast 229 votes for Breckinridge, 499 for Bell, and 9 for Douglas. Edmund W. Jones represented the county during the secession convention in 1861.

Caldwell County men joined a variety of regiments. They include Company B, 11th NCST; Company A, 22nd NCT; Companies F and I, 26th NCT; Companies E and H, 58th NCT. A large number of men also served in the 3rd NC Mounted Infantry (US). Most people are familiar with the role of the 26th North Carolina at Gettysburg. Of 800 rifles the regiment mustered on July 1, 1863, 588 of those became causalities. The regiment was again in the forefront of battle on July 3, as the Confederates charged the Federal position on Seminary Ridge. At the end of the day, the regiment had lost another 120 men. Every member of Company F (from Caldwell County) was wounded or killed, a loss rate of 100 percent. Of course we could also talk about the exploits of the 58th NCT, but I am sure some of you are tired of hearing about them.

During the war, Caldwell County had a ladies aid society that manufactured or collected materials for soldiers at the front lines.

We could probably boil down the war-time military actions to two subjects: the Blalocks and Stoneman’s raid. Keith and Malinda Blalock live in Watauga County, to the north, at the start of the war. However, they had numerous relatives in Caldwell County. And when the war came, they joined the 26th North Carolina. It was the Caldwell County militia that chased the couple of Grandfather Mountain after Keith recovered from his self-inflicted poisoning (don’t let Steven’s Rebels in Blue mislead you – the home guard did not yet exist and Bingham was still in the regular army). It was into the Globe section of Caldwell County that the Blalocks did most of the “scouting” during the war. But, while the couple are associated with Caldwell County, they, at least after they married, never lived in Caldwell County. I’ve written much about the Blalocks on this blog. You can check out posts here, here, and here.

War really came home to Caldwell County in early 1865. After leaving Boone, Stoneman split his force, with part of it heading east into Wilkes County and the other part heading south. On March 30, the part of the force heading south burned a textile mile in Patterson, north of Lenoir. They then moved north east. One popular story is that they were going to burn Fort Defiance, the home of Revolutionary War patriot William Lenoir. However, when the Union commander saw the Masonic emblem on Lenoir’s grave, they spared the house. The truth of the matter is probably this. They were on the north side of the Yadkin River, which was swollen by rains, and were unable to get across. After Stoneman left the area, a separate brigade of Federals moved into neighboring Watauga County to guard the mountain passes in Stoneman’s rear. One group of Federals was posted in present day Blowing Rock, and they led numerous raids into Caldwell County. On April 15, Stoneman and his band returned to Caldwell County. They brought numerous prisoners which they quartered at St. James Episcopal Church in Lenoir. They used the church because it had a fence around it.

St. James Episcopal Church still stands today. I had the privilege to speak at a dedication of a Civil War Trail Marker there almost a year ago. We also dedicated one at Patterson. You can see an article about that here. If you are going to visit the area, make sure to visit the Caldwell Heritage Museum in Lenoir, and Fort Defiance in Happy Valley.

Two other notes. Caldwell County has a Confederate monument in Lenoir. It was dedicated in 1910. It used to sit in the middle of the road, but was later moved to a corner lot. Why? It kept getting hit. Also, Brig. Gen. Collett Leventhorpe moved to the area after the war. He is buried in the Happy Valley Cemetery, not far from Fort Defiance.

I hope to see you at the museum tonight.

News and notes (and thoughts)

I saw this morning in the Asheville Citizen-Times that the Southern Appalachian Nature Conservatory is helping save more land next to the Vance Birthplace in Buncombe County. Three cheers and a tiger for the Conservatory. You can read the article here.

Metro Magazine has an interesting article on the origins and history of Durham. You can find the article here.

There was an article in the Tulsa World about Capt. James T. Roseborough of the 6th North Carolina Troops. The article can be found here.

The Asheville Citizen-Times also ran an article about a new book on the 25th North Carolina Troops, released recently by McFarland and Company. The 25th NCT was mostly a western North Carolina regiment. You can learn more by checking out the article here.

Also, I received the latest issue of America’s Civil War a couple of days ago. There are a couple of Tar Heel mentions. In one piece, Harry Smeltzer, from the Bull Runnings blog, picks six books off his shelf and “ranks ’em” One of the books that he picks is Victims: A True Story of the Civil War. This book, which Smeltzer likes, is a history of the Shelton Laurel Massacre, which took place in Madison County in 1863. A page over, Gordon Berg reviews the 2003 film Cold Mountain. Berg has two interesting quotations about the movie. The first is from Gary Gallagher “Cold Mountain can best be understood as a feminist antiwar film that turns almost every Lost Cause convention on its head.” I could go with that. It isn't that the events didn't happen. All of the horrible things in the book and movie of Cold Mountain happened (and were chronicled in other books, which Charles Fraiser used liberally without much credit to their authors), but several are skewed (like Inman's fate) for dramatic reasons. The second quote is this: “As local historian John C. Inscoe recently wrote ‘Cold Mountain´ indeed depicts a war and a people that [Rovert E.] Lee would probably would not have recognized; neither gods not generals play much of a role here.” Hmmm, Berg has relegated the eminent John C. Inscoe, Professor of History at the University of Georgia, to the role of a “local historian.” Wow, I’m now in good company, and I don’t even have a Ph.D!

I wrote all of that to tie this in. There is a review of a new book by Steven Woodworth entitled Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West. According to the review (also by Gordon Berg), the books is a 138 page “supersonic” view of the war in the Western Theater. Having spent a lot of time recently in the Western Theater of the war, we really don’t need a new overview. What we need is a set of books that explores those battles from February 1864, through, say October 1864. A good set of books, like Gordon Rhea’s tomes on the Overland Campaign, on battles like Dalton, Reseca, New Hope Church, Dallas, etc.

Ok, enough of a rant. I’m going to work on the 58th NCT book. They are just about to line up in the streets of Columbia, South Carolina.

“Look here… I’m killed” part 2

We will continue with the Turnmire/Triplett story. The authors jump ahead to the battle of Chancellorsville. They write:

“During the fight, on Saturday morning they took our brigade from the front and marched us off in files of four. We marched until three or four o’clock in the evening, then they stopped us in the road in the rear of the enemy. There was a skirt of timber between us and the enemy, and they formed us in line of battle and gave us orders to be perfectly quiet, until we got in plain view of the enemy before we fired. When we got in view of the enemy they seemed to be having a picnic, some were cooking, some were skinning a beef and some playing, the first volley we shot routed them, and we followed them until dark, and then we laid down in line of battle. Sunday morning the officers came and called us to attention. We heard the enemy building breast-works all night and we charged them Sunday morning.
“When we got to the breast-works there was only one man left that we could see. I took him prisoner and started to the rear with him, when a stray ball struck me in the right hip. I went about fifteen steps before I fell and I have not seen that prisoner since… Monday evening the Dr. came and cut the ball out of my side. He wanted me to take chloroform, but I refused to do so, and he said “You cannot do without it.” I said, “Dr. you do not know what I can stand. I stood for it to go in there and I can stand for it to be taken out.”

Peter Turnmire would not return to the army until November-December 1864. He was captured five months later at the battle of the Wilderness, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.

George Triplett was wounded at Ox Hill on September 1, 1862, and was later discharged the following February due to disability from his wounds.

Folks – sorry about the lack of post this week. We took off Friday afternoon to spend a couple of days with the kin folks in Kentucky. I got to attend the Civil War Cavalry conference in Knoxville on Saturday. It was good to spend a couple of minutes talking to Jim Ogden from Chitt-Chatt. Also speaking that day were Dr. Earl Hess and Dr. William Piston, among others. Saturday night, I was back in Williamsburg, Kentucky, watching a production of Hello Dolly at the University of the Cumberlands. On Monday, we headed south to the American Museum of Science and Energy at Oak Ridge for a school field trip. We were planning to head home after that, but considering our home here in western North Carolina had a foot of snow, we headed back to Kentucky, which had no snow. Yesterday, we finally got out of town, back to Newland right after lunch, where we met a dear friend who ferried me up the mountain to get my truck (thanks Dennis – I was dreading that walk). There is still a lot of snow, but they say that it will get above freezing today. We will be back to regular programming here shortly.

“Look here… I’m killed” part 1

When you finish writing a book, you are always worried that upon its publication, some fabulous pieces of information will come forth. No matter how much time you put into telling the community what you are working on, someone will call, or write, “I wish I knew that you were working on that. I have [insert here 100 letters, ten photographs, etc.]” Until this past Tuesday, I was fairly happy with my first book, the one on the 37th North Carolina. Sure, I have, since its release in 2003, come across a couple of photographs that I wish I had had, and I now have copies of the Horton Diary, but this past Tuesday, while doing some research in Lenoir at the library, I came across a piece I truly wish I could have found earlier and gotten into the book.

There is no date on this article, probably from the Lenoir Topic. Since one of the authors died in 1917, it must have been written before that time. The authors of the article are Peter W. Turnmire and George W. Triplett. In 1861, Triplett was living in Wilkes County, and Turnmire was living in Watauga County. Triplett joined Company B of the Thirty-seventh on September 14, 1861, and Triplett four days later.

If you have read my history of the regiment, or know anything about the regiment, you know that the Thirty-seventh was involved in several of the Seven Days battles in June and July 1862. During the battle of Gaines Mill, around 3:30 in the afternoon, Branch was ordered to send his brigade to the support of Gregg’s brigade. I’ll let Triplett and Turnmire pick up the story.

“We threw our pickets along the Chickihominy and crossed and marched up a hill in files of four. About one third of the regiment reached the top of the hill, when the enemy poured a volley into the end of our regiment and we fell back to the foot of the hill. There we formed again and marched up in file of fours; and again they poured a volley into us and again we fell back to the foot of the hill and formed in a line of battle and advanced to the top and dropped on our knees and began firing at the enemy and pretty soon it looked like the Minnie balls had trimmed all the bushes around me.

“I [Turnmire], during the engagement, was standing between Thos. Hodge on the right, and Vincent Greer on the left, a Minnie ball struck Hodge about the heart and I eased him down on the right and Vincent Greer was struck in the temple and I eased him down on my left. When the order was given for us to fall back for reinforcements, I did not hear the orders and Captain Horton came and slapped me on my back with a sword and said we were ordered to fall back. As we went down the hill where we formed in the morning, Riley Triplett’s son Calvin, went down the hill with us and a stray ball struck him in the heart and he pulled his shirt open and said, “’Look here! Capt. Horton, I’m killed,’ and fell back dead.”

More to come….

You can help preserve the flag of the 58th NCT

Late last year, I talked to Skip Smith of the Society for the Preservation of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina about their 2009 preservation project. They were discussing a couple of different projects. If you will recall, back last May I had the distinct pleasure of participating in a program at the History Museum in Raleigh. That program was to welcome home the flags of the 26th NCT, 37th NCT, and artifacts that belonged to Bryan Grimes. The living historians and descendants in the reactivated 26th NCT facilitated those items coming to the North Carolina Museum in History. The great folks in the 26th NCT have raised numerous funds to help with various projects, like the monument on the battlefield of New Bern, and preservation of flags from other regiments, like the 47th NCT.

For 2009, they have chosen to concentrate their efforts on preserving the remnants of the flag of the 58th NCT, an effort that I wholeheartedly concur with.

The Museum of History in Raleigh has remnants of two different 58th NCT flags. The more traditional looking part of the flag comes from, what we believe, the canton of the Second National that the 58th NCT was issued sometime in 1863. The “58” and the “NC” come from a different flag, an Atlanta/Dalton depot issued flag the regiment received probably in February 1864. It would appear that neither flag was captured or surrendered during the war. Both of the above remnants were taken home by Maj. G. W. F. Harper at the end of the conflict, and remained in his family until donated to the museum in 1929.

In my mind, I have that the Atlanta/Dalton depot flag was cut up before the regiment surrendered at Greensboro in May 1865, each member of the regiment receiving a piece of the flag, and Harper taking the “58”and the “NC”. However, I cannot prove that at this time. It would be nice if this could be confirmed.

Would you not consider helping preserve the flag of the 58th North Carolina Troops? You can go here for more information.

A couple of notes.

The Raleigh Telegram has on article on a free program coming up at the North Carolina History Museum. The program, which is this Saturday, deals with the battle of Antietam and archaeology at the battlefield. You can read more here.

There is a upcoming program on North Carolina’s black Confederate pensioners at Zebulon Baptist Church. I could not find a time, but if you are interested, please contact the state archives. Article can be found here.

I also found a small mention on the roll of the United States Marine Corps and the battle of Fort Fisher at an article you can find here.

correction

Correction folks – the Caldwell County and the Civil War Round Table Discussion is on the evening of March 9, not the 10th. I hope to see many of your there.

Off topic - more Shameless Self Promotion

New Book

Folks, for the third time in three months, I am proud to announce the publication of a new book. Mitchell County, a part of the Images of America series, was released last week. This is the fourth book in this series that I have done (Avery County, Caldwell County, and Remembering North Carolina’s Confederates are the others).

Here is the blurb from the back of the book:
Nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina, Mitchell County was created in 1862 and named for Dr. Elisha Mitchell, a University of North Carolina professor who died in 1857 while re-measuring the mountain that now bears his name. Although the appropriately named mountain lies in adjacent Yancey County, Mitchell County has no shortage of claims to fame; it is well known for the Clinchfield Railroad, the Carolina Theater, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Penland School, and the infamous Frankie and Charlie Silver murder case. There is also much more to Mitchell County than its best known sites and figures. Mica and feldspar mining, the orchard at Altapass, churches, the Wing Academy, Bakersville, and Spruce Pine all have their own unique histories.

If you are interested in ordering a copy, please check out my web page at www.michaelchardy.com/books.html

58th NCT update

Time for a little update. Last night, I finished up with the 58th NCT just getting to Branchville, South Carolina, trying to slow down, or stop, Sherman’s march through South Carolina. It took the regiment from January 22 until February 4 to travel from Tupelo to Branchville. That is two weeks.

Here is a little sneak preview from the book (this is still in draft form.) Tupelo was home for the Fifty-eighth for about a week. Orders had come down on January 15 for daily drills to begin again, when the weather permitted. On January 18, more orders came: Lee’s corps was ordered to make preparations to move east. The regiment was to prepare three days' rations, and to have at least twenty rounds of ammunition in the cartridge boxes. At Montgomery and Macon, an additional three days' rations would be available, and at Milledgeville, four days' rations were to await the troops. On the twentieth, the Fifty-eighth drew new clothing in Tupelo, and on the twenty-first, the men were waiting for the train. Finally, about dark on the twenty-second, with rain intermingled with sleet, the Fifty-eighth boarded the heatless freight cars, bound for Meridian, Mississippi. They reached Meridian at 9:00a.m. on Tuesday, January 24. They continued on to Selma, Alabama, arriving at 11:00 p.m., on the twenty-fifth. At Selma, they boarded a boat, which took them to Montgomery. At Montgomery, they once again boarded trains, arriving in Columbus, Georgia, on Sunday, January 29. They made good time the following day, and were in Macon by 4:00 p.m., and then near Milledgeville, where the railroad had been destroyed by Sherman, at 11:00 p.m. “Sandy country” full of “Long leaf pine” greeted the men on January 31. The regiment marched about sixteen miles, passing through Milledgeville during the day. Captain Harper paid someone twenty-five dollars to ride in a carriage on the first of February. At 9:00 a.m. on February 2, the Fifty-eighth was in Mayfield, where they boarded a train for Augusta, arriving at 4:00 p.m. Another two miles was covered that evening before going into camp. Several men were furloughed home on February 3, including Lieutenant Colonel Silver. This would have left Captain Harper in command of the regiment. That evening he moved the Fifty-eighth back to August, where they boarded another train. The next morning, they were in Branchville,South Carolina. (Harper, diary, 2:68-70; ORs, Vol. 45, 2:793)

As of today, the manuscript has 72,500 words, which includes text and notes, but does not include appendices. I have a lot of reading to do over the next few days, including Campbell’s When Sherman Marched North From the Sea and Barrett’s Sherman’s March Through the Carolinas.

Shameless self promotion

Shameless self promotion – check out this article about my book signing tonight in Hendersonville Blue Ridge Now.

I hope to see you there!

More on Lincoln...

We seem to be awash in Lincoln material the past few days. I have been able to catch parts of the celebration of his birthday in the US Capital on Thursday. I only caught the politicians' speeches. I hope the rest of it was better. President Obama’s comments were abysmal. So the Confederates got to take home their guns to shoot crows? I’ll make sure that gets into the 58th NCT book! I also watched about two-thirds of National Geographic’s The Real Abraham Lincoln. Overall, not too bad. However, where were Major Rathbone and Miss Harris when Booth fired his shot? Nicely cast Booth, though. I will probably try and watch some of Stealing Lincoln’s Body this evening on the History Channel.



The North Carolina Biblical Recorder got into the act this week also. The Recorder was founded in 1830, and the issues for the War years (1860-1865) contain a wealth of information. When I did research for the book on the 37th NCT, I used several articles culled from the pages of the Recorder. On the back page of last week’s issue, the faith (or lack thereof) of Lincoln is explored. At least the article is straightforward about Lincoln’s beliefs, writing that “Most historians agree on this much: Lincoln was never baptized, never joined a church, and rarely, if ever, talked about Jesus.” I’ll also add that most historians agree that Lincoln did not become a “Christian” until about six months after his death. Well, Mr. President, that is a decision that must be made on this side of the equation.


This morning I read an article on the North Carolina State Department of Cultural Resources’ Civil War Sesquicentennial web site about the Tar Heel roots of Abraham Lincoln. The article, by Ansley Herring Wegner, looks into some of the lore that states that Lincoln was born in North Carolina, and that he and his mother, Nancy Hanks, were sent to Kentucky to cover up his illegitimate birth. The article mentions some of the research used in the 2003 book Tarheel Lincoln. The article can be found by following this link.



Lastly, Jerry Goodnight, the author of The Tarheel Lincoln, has written a follow up book, Looking for Lincoln: Amid the Rumors, Legends, and Lies. My work on the 58th NCT has kept me away from topics not related to the Army of Tennessee, so I have not had a chance to read this book. You might want to check it out. Find more information here.



Well, time to get back to the 58th NCT manuscript. The Army of Tennessee is getting ready to cross over the Duck River.

Thoughts on Lincoln.

Last night, I had a chance to watch the PBS program on Lincoln. And, I was pleasantly surprised. Why cannot more documentaries be as even-handed as the one on Lincoln was? No, I did not agree with everything that was said; I seldom do. But it was great to see so many different sides of Lincoln presented. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., did a beautiful job weaving together the varied elements of the presentation, and he did what few documentary makers do: he gave his guests the opportunity to speak for themselves and did not skew his material to give the impression he wanted (like the newscasters who always find the most pathetic and uneducated person to interview, giving the impression that all the people in that community live under rocks…). He is to be commended. I hope I can say as much for the Diane Sawyer program on Appalachia scheduled for tomorrow. I am not holding my breath. My wife, who teaches Appalachian Culture, is already braced for more of the old “poor benighted hillbilly” stereotyping.

I have never liked Lincoln. Maybe it has something to do with growing up in a deep South that was not polluted by modern academia – my dad was the first in his family to go to college, and it was a seminary where perpetuating the Lincoln myth was not high on the minds of the professors. I grew up with the older folks who still remembered their parents, the ones whose homes lay in the path of Sherman and his cohorts. They did not think too highly of Mr. Lincoln, nor his minions. Was Lincoln a tyrant? possibly. Was he guilty of war crimes? probably. Did he overstep his constitutional bounds as president? most certainly. And, it was interesting to hear George W. Bush last night (and I paraphrase) “Lincoln was president during a unpopular war, and I am president during an unpopular war.” True, but the war is not here, in North Carolina, or in New York. Neither did Bush deny American citizens their constitutional rights by throwing people in jail who spoke out against his usurpation of powers.

No, I still don’t like Lincoln. I’ve read several books on him. I went through his letters while working on the Hanover Court House book. I’ve even been to the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. I did research there, and later toured the museum. As museums go, it was incredible. But I disliked the way it made visitors feel that Lincoln needs to be worshiped. If you have been, you probably know what I am talking about. There is a place where you come out of one of the exhibits, and there in front of you is a smaller (but still larger than life) copy of the Lincoln Statute from the memorial. Because of the lighting, and the way it is positioned, you feel like you need to drop to your knees and worship the “Great Emancipator.” That is just wrong.

Well, I’ve mused long enough. I’m sure I’ve given plenty of fodder to those who like to toss around labels.

I thought I would end with a few quotes from the Raleigh Weekly Standard, on how they felt about Lincoln:

Jonathan Worth, in a two hour speech, said “a revolution was upon us by the folly of Lincoln; that it was our duty as patriots to meet it firmly, and resist coercion to the last.” (15 May 1861)

Mr. Wilkerson, House of Commons: “we regard the election of Abraham Lincoln, by purely a sectional party, a great calamity…” (5 Dec. 1860)

Moore County – “That whilst we deeply regret to see a once happy country rent by intestine strife, and lighted up from one end to the other by a blaze of civil war; yet to a brave and honorable people such a prospect has not half so many terrors as are presented by the contemplation of outraged honor, rights assailed, justice withheld and trampled under foot, wrongs unredressed, self and sectional pride humiliated and contemned and the consequent tyranny and insolence of the Black Republic domination…”

No Author – “Our soil must not be polluted by the tramp of the invader. At any sacrifice or cost, the tyrant Lincoln must be vanquished. Hold up, ye brave men..” (25 Sept. 1861)

Sen. Clingman – described Lincoln “as an obstinate, ignorant and fanatical man, an apostle of the irrepressible conflict.” (26 Sept. 1860)

Editorial – “But… better that our State should be reduced to abject poverty, and that want, and famine, and pestilence should afflict and destroy our people, than that they should think even of submitting to the tyranny of Lincoln. Our brave troops are breasting that tyranny on the tented field, and are keeping the calamities of battle from our doors…” (28 Sept. 1861)

Editorial – “ Recently, we have tried to impress it upon our readers that there were no signs of peace – no prospect of a speedy termination of the war. We knew too much about the stubborn, uncompromising and fanatical spirit of Lincoln and his party, to expect anything but a blind and dogged persistence in their wicked designs.” (17 July 1861)

Upcoming events

It is about that time of year when I start going back on the road. I do not do much in the winter time because the weather here in western NC can be quite unpredictable. Please find below some of the events that I have lined up over the next few months. If you would like to me come and speak to your group, please drop me a line at mchardy@michaelchardy.com or use the contact form to the right.

February 17, 2009
Henderson County Heritage Center (Old Court House)
Hendersonville, NC
Topic: NC Confederate Veteran Movement

March 10, 2009
Caldwell County and the Civil War
Round Table Discussion
Caldwell Heritage Museum, Lenoir, NC
Topic: Caldwell County and the Civil War

March 16, 2009
Mitchell County book signing
Spruce Pine Public Library, Spruce Pine, NC
Topic: Mitchell County

April 13, 2009
Watauga County Historical Society
Watauga County Public Library, Boone, NC
Topic: Gravestone Iconography

April 27, 2009
Fincastle Rifles Camp 1326, SCV
Roanoke, VA
Topic: 37th North Carolina Troops

June 6, 2009
Avery County Heritage Festival
Cranberry, NC
Topic: All day book signing

June 9, 2009
Brig. Gen. Micah Jenkins, Camp 1596, SCV
Rock Hill, SC
Topic: TBA

And, already for next year,
June 9, 2010
Central Ohio Civil War Round Table
Columbus, OH
Topic: Battle of Hanover Court House

Warren County

Today, I thought we would turn our attention to Warren County, located in the Northeastern piedmont part of the state. The county sits on the Virginia-North Carolina line. Warren County was created in 1779 from the now-defunct Bute County. The county, and the county seat, Warrenton, were named for Joseph Warren, a patriot and physician killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. Prior to the war, Warren County was one of the wealthiest counties in the Tar Heel State.

In 1860, Warren County had a population of 15,726 people, 10,401 of which were slaves. There 402 free blacks who lived in Warren County. In the 1860 presidential election, Warren County cast 890 votes for Breckinridge, 138 for Bell, and six for Douglas. Weldon N. Edwards, a former state senator and US Congressman, was also Warren County’s representative in the Secession Convention and served as president of the convention.

Warren County sent numerous companies into Confederate service. They included Company F, 8th NCST; 2nd Company C, 12th NCST; Company F, 12th NCST; Company K, 12th NCST; Company A, 14th NCST; Company B, 30th NCT; Company G, 43rd NCT; and, Company C, 46th NCT. One early history of the county estimated that 1,200 men served in the Confederate army.

While Warren County was the site of a skirmish in December 1864, the county is best known for who was born in the area. The Ransom brothers, Matt and Robert, were both Confederate generals. Also, Thomas and Braxton Bragg grew up in Warrenton. Braxton Bragg was a general in the Confederate army and very unpopular with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Thomas Bragg was a United States Senator prior to the war and served as Confederate Attorney General in 1861 and 1862.

During the war, Warren County was home to John White, a Confederate commissioner who purchased blockade runners in England. His house still stands.

Also still standing is the Emanuel Episcopal Church, in which, in 1836, the not-yet=famous Horace Greenly married Mary Youngs Cheney. Greeley would go on to found the New York Tribune.

Probably the singular item that Warren County is best known for in Civil War circles is the final resting place of a daughter of Robert E. Lee: Anne Carter Lee. Anne had been a student at the Virginia Female Institute in Staunton in early 1862, when she took ill. Her family sent her to the sulphur springs in Warren County, in an effort to restore her health. She came down with a fever, and on October 20, 1862, she died while at the White Sulphur Springs. She was interred in the resort owner’s family cemetery. Lee visited the grave in March 1870, just a few months before his own death. In 1994, the grave was exhumed, and what little could be recovered was re-interred in the Lee family crypt in Lee Chapel in Lexington, Virginia.

Today, in Warrenton, there is a Confederate monument, erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1913.

The Pettigrew-Trimble Charge at Gettysburg

Folks – Don Ernsberger was kind enough to email me the particulars of a book signing he is having in Raleigh at the Cameron Village Library on Monday, February 23, at7:00 pm. Don is the author of The Pettigrew-Trimble Charge at Gettysburg, a book that I really look forward to reading once I get my book on the 58th NCT finished. If you are in the Raleigh area, please drop by.

News, notes, and happenings

Folks, I thought we would take a few moments to look around and check on current events relating to the War in the Tar Heels state.

There is an article in ENCToday about the plans to move the original CSS Neuse to new facility. You can read about it here.

This Saturday, living historians from the 1st North Carolina Cavalry will be at the Gov. Aycock birthplace museum in Fremont. For more info, check here.

Also this weekend, the Museum of the Albermarle will hold its annual Civil War Living History. For details, check here.

And, starting next week, and running for six days, the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh will be displaying three unique items in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday. One of those items is the original telegram that Lincoln sent Governor Ellis asking for troops from North Carolina to go into South Carolina and suppress the rebellion. Also, on February 12, the Museum of History is hosting a Symposium on Abraham Lincoln. If you would like more information, check here. (I wonder if my mountain will be thawed out enough for me to attend?)

My other brother, Darryl

Companies in Confederate and Federal service were made up of men who knew each other. They came from the same locations and were often related. I had a breakthrough last night on my work on two individuals in the 58th NCT.

Andrew Jackson Harmon was born July 16, 1833. He was working as a farmer and living in Watauga County when he enlisted on July 7, 1862. On July 29, 1862, his company became Company D, 58th North Carolina Troops. Harmon was AWOL in March and June 1863, but returned the next month. He deserted on September 20, 1863 (walked off the battlefield at Chickamauga?). He later served as sergeant in Company E, 13th Tennessee Cavalry (US). He died on November 16, 1904 and is buried at the Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Watauga Count., North Carolina.

His cousin was, of course, also named Andrew Jackson Harmon. This Andrew J. Harmon was born October 20, 1839. He also was a farmer, living in Watauga County, when he enlisted on August 7, 1862. Harmon was mustered in as a private in Company I, 58th North Carolina Troops. On November 15, 1862, Harmon was given a furlough. He was reported absent on furlough in January and February, 1863, and was listed AWOL in May /June 1863. On January 20, 1864, he was dropped from the rolls of the 58th NCT. Prior to that date, he had enlisted in the 13th Tennessee Cavalry, serving as a sergeant in Company E. Harmon died November 15, 1913, and is interred in the Merideth/Daniels Cemetery in Avery County, North Carolina.

Up until last night, I knew that there was an Andrew J. Harmon buried at Zion Hill, but I did not know which one. After going through some old cemetery records, I found the other. Now, if I could just come to the same place with the four men named John Wilson or the three men named John Vance or the two named John Thompson. (There are also three William Smiths.)

Clay County

Folks, I started this county survey long before the holidays. I am just now finishing it. I could not find much that took place in Clay County during the war.


For this county study, we are going to turn our attention to the far southwestern corner of the state and look at Clay County.

Clay County was created in 1861 from Cherokee County and named for the Kentucky politician Henry Clay. The county seat, Hayesville, is built on the site of the former Cherokee village of Quanassee, and was not incorporated until 1913.

Clay County, population wise, was a small place during the war. Since the county was formed in 1861, there is no 1860 census. In 1860, the area of Cherokee County was listed with a population of 9,166, including 519 slaves. In 1870, Clay County had just 2,461 people living within its borders.

Men from the area served in Company G, 25th North Carolina Troops; Co. E, 39th North Carolina Troops; Co. B, 7th Battalion Confederate Cavalry (6th NC Cavalry); and a company in Walker’s Battalion in Thomas’s Legion.

There is not a lot of information about the war and Clay County. Apparently, the people in that corner of the state hard a hard time getting their mail during the war (see Raleigh Weekly Standard 30 Dec. 1863).


An interesting letter was in the Weekly Standard in July 1863. It read, in part, that crops were generally poor, due to the amount of rain and the lack of hands to work the land. The writer, “S.,” concluded with this:

Will you be so kind, Mr. Editor, as to inform Jeff. Davis and his Destructive coadjutors, that, after they make the next draw of men from this mountain region, if they please, as an act of great and special mercy, be so gracious as to call out a few, just a few of their exempted pets from Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina, to knock the women and children of the mountains in the head, to put them out of their misery. Assure Mr. Davis that his pets in such a campaign will be in no danger; the poor women and children will be so weak they can’t hurt them.

If I find more about Clay County, I’ll revise this post.

58th NCT update

Update #1
I thought it was time for a little 58th NCT update. I finished writing about the battle of Jonesboro, GA, the day before yesterday. I thought yesterday I could breeze through most of September, since the Army of Tennessee did little, at least until the end of the month. But, once again, I appear to be stymied. All of the secondary sources (Connelly, Horn, Castel, etc.) write that Lee’s corps was charged with holding the McDonough Road open so the rest of the Confederates could evacuate out of Atlanta. That is pretty much the extent of their comments, no real ideas as to where exactly Lee was, or how he deployed his divisions, or how many times he made contact with the Federals. I was happy with just having Lee’s corps on the McDonough Road. However, the regiment sustained several wounded and captured on September 1: two captured and four wounded. There were another four captured on September 2, including one man that was wounded. So I have gone back to the Official Records, and I am trying to figure out just what Federals were nearby (Schofield’s corps and some cavalry) and if they wrote anything definitive about their actions. So far, nothing.

But I did come across this clue in the Official Records: On September 1, Lee laid out his order of march: Clayton’s division, Stevenson’s division, and Johnson’s division. On September 2, he was ordered to leave a brigade behind to cover the rear of his column. I surely wish I knew what brigade he chose...

Update #2
I was fortunate, not long ago, to receive copies of letters written home by Drum Major John C. Blair, of Caldwell County. Blair, for the battle of Jonesboro, records 27 killed and wounded. He mentions two killed: Maj. Alfred T. Stewart, regimental command, and “Lt. Estes of Co. E.” Stewart’s death is recorded in the NC Troop book that covers the 58th NCT. “Lt. Estes” is not. I believe that Blair is referring to Brevet 3rd Lieutenant Doctor W. T. Estes, “Doctor” being his given name. Estes last appears on the records of the 58th NCT on July 11, 1864. I looked carefully to find any mention of him after the war (like on census records), but I could not.

Update #3
Cenantua has been prodding me to examine the records of the 58th NCT who joined the Federal army. Out of the hundreds (maybe 1000+) deserters from the 58th NCT, I have 135 who joined the Federal army. Almost all of these joined either the 13th Tennessee Cavalry or the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry. I do have eight who joined an organization called the United States Volunteers. There were six regiments of the United States Volunteers, which were composed of former Confederates who took the oath and volunteered for service. These regiments were largely assigned to do duty out west, thereby relieving regular troops for service back east. Apparently, five of the eight former members of the 58th NCT who joined the US Volunteers did not much care for that organization. Here is the breakdown:

Eastridge, Barnabas Co. G, 6th USV, deserted May 20, 1865, from Golden Gate
Elliott, Stephen Co. H, 3rd USV, discharged Nov. 29, 1865
Fletcher, Thomas Co. C, 6th USV, deserted 26 Sept. 1865, from Ft. Kearny
Higgins, Amos Co. I, 2nd USV, (I could not find his record)
Howell, James H. Co. F, 5th USV, deserted 27 Aug. 1866, from Camp Collins.
Hughes, William J. Co. C., 6th UCV, deserted 4 May, 186, from Chicago, IL
Thomas, Hezekiah Co. C, 6th USV, deserted 21 Sept. 1865, from Ft. Kearny
Watson, Noah Co. G, 6th USV, mustered out on 10 Oct. 1866.

For anyone who thinks that the hundred, nay thousands of former Confederates who enlisted in the Federal army were doing so for noble, or “patriotic” reasons, the above list should help enlighten a little. Need further proof? Check out the words of one of the above, Hezekiah Thomas. He was captured at Jonesboro, Georgia on September 5, 1864, and soon found himself at Camp Douglas. He joined the Federal army on May 5, 1865, probably not knowing that the war was all but over. Thomas wrote after the war that he and “thousands more” were taking the oath and joining the Federal army because “we were all about to starve to death.” He was taken to Nebraska, “to make hay for the Government and while there some of the Government horses was stolen…” Thomas and another man were detailed to go and “hunt for the horses; so we followed the horses about 400 miles, and after we got there we decided to come home and we never went back to get our discharge. “

John Newland Maffitt

This morning, I found a interesting article on John Newland Maffitt (by Chris Fonvielle) on the Wrightsville Beech Magazine web site. You can check it out here.

Two news items of interest, one good and one bad.

Bad News
I received an email over the weekend saying the marker honoring the 26th North Carolina Troops on the New Bern battlefield has once again been vandalized. It appears that last Thursday night or Friday morning, the North Carolina seal on the 26th NCT monument was removed. This is the second time that I can recall that the monument (which is what, two years old?), has been vandalized. I wrote about the other occurrence here.

Good News
The second is a bit of good news. It appears that the United States Senate recently approved legislation that will study the Shepherdstown, West Virginia, battlefield, with the intent of saving the battlefield. Shepherdstown was fought on September 19 and 20, a rear guard action as the Army of Northern Virginia attempted to cross the rain-swollen Potomac River. The battle involved a fair number of North Carolinians, including Pender’s brigade (16th, 22nd, 34th, and 38th NCTs) and Branch’s brigade (7th, 18th, 28th, 33rd, and 37th NCT), then under the command of Col. James H. Lane. A member of the 37th NCT, John B. Alexander, left this embellished view of the end of the battle some sixty-years after the fact. He wrote: “the 37th N. C. Regiment in command of the rear guard was ordered by Gen. A. P. Hill to about face and charge the enemy as they essayed to cross the river; one color-bearer after another was shot down, the flag staff cut away, [when Col. William M. Barber] seized the bunting and waved it aloft rushed into the thick of the fight; he was surprised by a slap on the shoulder by Gen. Hill, who asked what troops are these, he replied a part of Lane’s brigade, the quick rejoinder was ‘brave men-brave men.’”

You can read the actual press release from the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Society here.

Obadiah Sprinkle - 58th NCT/US Navy

I believe that I have finished my search into the Widow Navy Pension records (on footnote.com) relating to men in the 58th NCT. There appear to be sixteen men who at one time served in the 58th NCT and later joined the United States Navy. Only three have files in the above source.

The last one that we will look at is Obadiah Sprinkle. Sprinkle’s file is huge – 349 pieces, and it has taken me about three days to get through it. The files of Felix Sluder and John W. Hilton contained some really good information. Both Sluder and Hilton had to give statements regarding their prior service in the Confederate army. There is no such document from Sprinkle. What we do have are statements from some of Sprinkle’s contemporaries.

Obadiah Sprinkle was from Wilkes County, North Carolina. It has been written that Wilkes was the strongest pro-Union county in all of North Carolina. That not to say that Wilkes did not have men in the Confederate army: it did, lots of them. Sprinkle was born in 1823. Prior to the war, Sprinkle was a store owner and postmaster.

In March or April 1861, as the story goes, Melton Sparks, Obadiah Sprinkle, and Obadiah’s son, had set fire to some of James Gwyn’s property. Sparks and the Sprinkles were captured by a “vigilant committee” formed by Gwyn. Sparks and Obadiah were “stripped… of their clothes and scourged…upon their naked backs…” Fletcher A. Harris, who was present, wrote that the men received twenty lashes. Barney, in his lackluster history of Walter W. Lenoir, writes that they received 39 lashes. Then, the two men had the half of their heads shaved, and were carted off to the Wilkes County jail. (The same jail that would later hold Tom Dula). The younger Sprinkle was released. Later, Sparks and Obadiah were sent to Wilmington, then to Fort Johnson, and finally Charleston, South Carolina, where Sprinkle was conscripted into Child’s Company of South Carolina Artillery. According to the compiled service records, Sprinkle was present in July 1861, but on November 5, 1861, had been discharged due to sickness.

We must assume that Sprinkle made his way back to Wilkes County. In 1863, Sprinkle would have been 40 years old and still liable for conscription. According to his wife, Sprinkle “was conscripted by the Confederate authorities[,] arrested and carried off in October or November 1863. [W]as carried to Raleigh, NC. There placed in what was called the Soldier Home. Then transferred to Gen. Braggs Division[ army,] the 58th or 60th NC Regiment….” Sprinkle was mustered into service at Camp Holmes on November 12, 1863. He was assigned to Company G, 58th North Carolina Troops, as a private. On November 25, 1863, during the battle of Missionary Ridge, Sprinkle was captured. He was taken to Louisville, Kentucky, where he arrived on December 11, 1863, and transferred to Rock Island, Illinois, where he arrived on December 14, 1863. On May 23, 1864, he took the Oath of Allegiance and joined the United States Navy. Sprinkle served as a landsman on the USS Ohio, Magnolia, and North Carolina, and was discharged from the service in May 1865, on account of disability.

Sprinkle, and his spouse and children, would claim that his treatment during the war led to his being permanently disabled. Sprinkle died on July 4, 1885, at his home in Rhonda, Wilkes County, North Carolina.

I am not sure how I am going to integrate the stories of Sluder, Hilton, and Sprinkle into the book. Much of the book is chronological in nature. Should they go right before the battle of Missionary Ridge, where all three men were captured? Or, I had thought about an essay in a special appendix that deals exclusively with the deserter problem in the 58th NCT. Heck, I could probably write an entire book just on the deserter problem in the 58th NCT.

And the winner is….

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the little poll that I ran while I was gone.

The 18th North Carolina received the most votes. The 18th NCST’s claim to fame is that they were the regiment that mortally wounded General Jackson (whose birthday was yesterday) at the battle of Chancellorsville. In their defense, they did not know that Jackson and his staff were in front of them that night. As the regiment marched up that afternoon, they could see the remnants of the Federal cavalry charge, and they were nervous as they came on line that evening. There was already a lot of firing to their right, and well, Jackson and his staff were moving at a brisk rate in their front through the dry underbrush. No one, not the 18th NCST, nor their officers, nor Brig Gen. James H. Lane, were ever officially blamed for the mistake.

I guess the other interesting fact about the 18th NCST is the large number of immigrants within the ranks. Company A of the regiment was known as the “German Volunteers” and you will find men from Hanover, Wurttemberg, Prussia, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse Nassau, Konigsberg, Cologne, Oldenburg, Ludwighafen am Rhein, Lubeck, Garmstadt, Luxembourg, and Bremerhaven in Germany. Other countries represented in Company A include Prussia, France, Bavaria, Denmark, and England. Company B’s first captain, Robert Haft, hailed from Haddington, Scotland. Company E had a man from Ireland (Edward Stanton). Company F had a fellow from Italy (Lewis Capalini). Lt. James D. McPeake of Company G was from County Derry, Ireland, Pvt. Samuel I. Dyer was from Guernsey, England, and Henry Webb was from Stratford on Avon, England. Company K’s first captain was George Tait, from Haddington, Scotland, and Pvt. Daniel Sullivan was from County Cork, Ireland, not to mention men from Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, New York, Florida, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and South Carolina.

Could there be a more cosmopolitan unit in the Confederate service--men from eight different counties and twelve different states?

Thanks again to everyone who voted.

Slightly off topic – new book!

Well, I have returned from the war. I actually split Saturday evening, and came home Sunday, but I did not feel like doing much on Monday. I had a great time. My 92-year-old grandmother fixed me breakfast on Friday! She lives in a mother-in-law apartment behind my mom and dad’s house. Mom and Dad were already gone, and when I went over to check in on her, she had already fried bacon and baked biscuits, and when I got there, she scrambled a couple of eggs for me. It’s not every day that you can say that your 92-year-old grandmother fixed you breakfast. We call her “Old Granny,” for obvious reasons. She was born in Wise County, Virginia, and spent many a year living in coal mining camps. She also lived in Elizabethton during WWII, working at a parachute manufacturing factory.

I was in the Sunshine state for the release of a new book that I co-wrote with my dad. The book is about the July 1864 Brooksville-Bayport Raid. The Raid was an attempt to cut the flow of cattle through Florida and into the Confederate armies in Georgia and South Carolina. Even more so, it was a raid in which several members of the Federal army were able exact a measure of revenge on those Hernando County Confederates that had driven them from their homes. The principals involved were two companies of the Second United States Colored Troops, two companies of the Second Florida Cavalry (US), and one company of the First Battalion, Special Cavalry (FL, CS). The raid started on the Anclote River, north of Tampa, and moved north, towards Brooksville. After dropping off the ground portion of the attack, the Federal navy moved on to Bayport, which they captured without a fight. The ground portion was involved in several skirmishes throughout the three days they were inland and burned several homes. They actually did not go to Brooksville, but turned off a mile from town and headed east to Bayport. Had they ventured on to Brooksville, they would have found the cannons from Bayport, and a shoe- manufacturing operation.

If you have ever been to the annual Brooksville Raid re-enactment, you know that it bears no resemblance to the above description. The actual raid involved about 240 Federals (not counting Navy), and an unknown amount of Confederates (70-100). The Raid celebrated its 29th anniversary this year, and drew approximately 3,500 re-enactors from all over the southeast. While the exact number of spectators is unknown, there were records set both days for attendance. I heard 4,000 for Saturday, and more on Sunday. We were all worried about the recession – but, it did not have an effect on the numbers we had.

It was a tremendous honor putting this book together with my dad. He commands one of the largest reenacting organizations in the south, with approximately 1,800 members.

The book is small, with just 58 pages, but includes a map and several illustrations. If you are interested in ordering a copy, please visit my web page.

What would you like to see?

Folks – I will be out of town for the next few days – I’ll be back Sunday night and we’ll see if I can get something posted on Monday.

I thought, as an interlude, we would take a little poll: which North Carolina regiments need a modern regimental history. The poll buttons are on the right.

Out of 70+ regiments, I chose these as serious contenders

1st North Carolina Cavalry
4th North Carolina State Troops (I have heard of three different people working on this)
7th North Carolina State Troops
14th North Carolina State Troops
18th North Carolina State Troops
26th North Carolina Troops (Covered with Glory, while a great book, does not count)
29th North Carolina Troops
33rd North Carolina Troops
49th North Carolina Troops
50th North Carolina Troops
60th North Carolina Troops
64th North Carolina Troops
Latham’s Battery

So what do you think?I look forward to reading your thoughts when I get back.