Centennial Spotlight: The hard, cold hand of war
Michael Hardy / (news@averyjournal.com)
Every week in 2011, The Avery Journal-Times is celebrating the 100th birthdays of Avery County and Banner Elk with a Centennial Spotlight compiled by members of the local community. This week, we continue to provide answers to the 100 questions about Avery County posed in our print editions in January and February.
Most of the time, when we think about the Civil War in present-day Avery County, we think about those who marched away to fight for the blue and gray. Or, we think about some of the family affairs, like the skirmish on Beech Mountain or the home guard chasing out the Von Cannon family. However, in June 1864, the real war came to our area, sort of.
The geography and terrain prevented any large-scale movement of troops. It also prevented any large-scale development of natural resources. Iron was mined during the War at Cranberry, but it was an arduous process to transport the wagonloads down the mountain to the end of rail line just east of Morganton.
Camp Vance sprang up near the end of the railroad. The camp was a place for training new recruits and to forward conscripts to front-line regiments.
In June 1864, Maj. Gen. John Schofield, commanding Union forces in and around Knoxville, Tenn., ordered Capt. George W. Kirk to select a group of men to raid Camp Vance. There was not any man in Western North Carolina despised more than Kirk, a homegrown Yankee from east Tennessee. He led countless raids into the area, and the regiments that he recruited, the 2nd and 3rd Regiments of North Carolina Mounted Infantry, are often referred to "A Notorious Band of Thieves and Scoundrels."
Kirk selected 130 men, mostly armed with Spencer repeating rifles, and set out on foot from Morristown, Tenn. on June 13. According to one officer, Kirk's men passed through "traveling in the night and avoiding all roads."
As morning broke across the mountains on June 28, Kirk's men sat poised to capture Camp Vance. As the notes from reveille faded, a group of Federal soldiers marched into the camp, demanding its unconditional surrender. A short skirmish ensued, but before long, the camp had surrendered. The garrison at Camp Vance was composed mostly of teenage boys, in the process of being organized into companies for the recently created junior reserves. While the young men had been formed into companies the day before, they had yet to be armed.
Kirk captured the camp, burning all of it except the hospital. More than 1,000 small arms were destroyed. He then moved on to Speagle's turnout, where the depot, an engine and four cars, along with a large quantity of grain, was torched. Kirk then moved with his prisoners back toward the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, fighting several small skirmishes with Home Guard companies. Among the wounded was Kirk himself.
After crossing over into present-day Avery County, Kirk most likely camped his men in the Crossnore area. According to local legend, two of the men whom Kirk released from the stockade at Camp Vance were Drury and Philson Wise. These two volunteered to go and burn the home of Col. John B. Palmer in the Altamont section, which they did. Philson was later killed by the Home Guard in the Linville Falls area. Also handed down through the generations was the story about how Kirk's men burned the home of Jemima Carolina Wiseman.
John B. Palmer had moved to area in 1858 from Detroit, Mich., and was one of the wealthiest men in Western North Carolina. In 1861, he had formed the Mitchell Rangers to protect locals from just this type of action. However, Palmer's men were later mustered into the 58th North Carolina Troops and sent to Tennessee and Georgia. Palmer became colonel of the regiment, but was later assigned to command the Department of Western North Carolina. It is often written that Kirk had ordered the burning of Palmer's home, considered the finest home in all of the Toe River Valley by Horton Cooper, in retaliation for the burning of the home of Kirk's mother in Tennessee. This was not true, and it is unclear if Kirk actually ordered the home burnt, or if the Wises took this upon themselves.
Kirk's men later moved through the Cranberry area, destroying the irons works and running off, or possibly capturing, the 30 to 40 men who worked at the mines. Regardless, the mines ceased to produce iron ore for the Confederate war effort.
By the second week of July, Kirk was back in Knoxville, Tenn. He had brought some 132 prisoners, and more than 30 African-Americans, along with 40 new recruits for his own regiment. Several men on both sides had been killed and wounded. The greatest loss on the Confederate side was W. W. Avery, a state representative and owner of a large tract of local land. Plus, he had disrupted the work of the conscription bureau, and destroyed a small amount of rolling stock for the railroad and the Cranberry Iron Mines, just one more small nail into the coffin of the Confederacy.
In the end, even Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, Kirk's overall commander in the Western Department, conveyed "assurances of ... appreciation rendered by [Kirk] in his late expedition."
For men, women and children living along the Toe and Linville rivers, the hard, cold hand of war became all the more oppressive, and the name of George W. Kirk became more hated.
Most of the time, when we think about the Civil War in present-day Avery County, we think about those who marched away to fight for the blue and gray. Or, we think about some of the family affairs, like the skirmish on Beech Mountain or the home guard chasing out the Von Cannon family. However, in June 1864, the real war came to our area, sort of.
The geography and terrain prevented any large-scale movement of troops. It also prevented any large-scale development of natural resources. Iron was mined during the War at Cranberry, but it was an arduous process to transport the wagonloads down the mountain to the end of rail line just east of Morganton.
Camp Vance sprang up near the end of the railroad. The camp was a place for training new recruits and to forward conscripts to front-line regiments.
In June 1864, Maj. Gen. John Schofield, commanding Union forces in and around Knoxville, Tenn., ordered Capt. George W. Kirk to select a group of men to raid Camp Vance. There was not any man in Western North Carolina despised more than Kirk, a homegrown Yankee from east Tennessee. He led countless raids into the area, and the regiments that he recruited, the 2nd and 3rd Regiments of North Carolina Mounted Infantry, are often referred to "A Notorious Band of Thieves and Scoundrels."
Kirk selected 130 men, mostly armed with Spencer repeating rifles, and set out on foot from Morristown, Tenn. on June 13. According to one officer, Kirk's men passed through "traveling in the night and avoiding all roads."
As morning broke across the mountains on June 28, Kirk's men sat poised to capture Camp Vance. As the notes from reveille faded, a group of Federal soldiers marched into the camp, demanding its unconditional surrender. A short skirmish ensued, but before long, the camp had surrendered. The garrison at Camp Vance was composed mostly of teenage boys, in the process of being organized into companies for the recently created junior reserves. While the young men had been formed into companies the day before, they had yet to be armed.
Kirk captured the camp, burning all of it except the hospital. More than 1,000 small arms were destroyed. He then moved on to Speagle's turnout, where the depot, an engine and four cars, along with a large quantity of grain, was torched. Kirk then moved with his prisoners back toward the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, fighting several small skirmishes with Home Guard companies. Among the wounded was Kirk himself.
After crossing over into present-day Avery County, Kirk most likely camped his men in the Crossnore area. According to local legend, two of the men whom Kirk released from the stockade at Camp Vance were Drury and Philson Wise. These two volunteered to go and burn the home of Col. John B. Palmer in the Altamont section, which they did. Philson was later killed by the Home Guard in the Linville Falls area. Also handed down through the generations was the story about how Kirk's men burned the home of Jemima Carolina Wiseman.
John B. Palmer had moved to area in 1858 from Detroit, Mich., and was one of the wealthiest men in Western North Carolina. In 1861, he had formed the Mitchell Rangers to protect locals from just this type of action. However, Palmer's men were later mustered into the 58th North Carolina Troops and sent to Tennessee and Georgia. Palmer became colonel of the regiment, but was later assigned to command the Department of Western North Carolina. It is often written that Kirk had ordered the burning of Palmer's home, considered the finest home in all of the Toe River Valley by Horton Cooper, in retaliation for the burning of the home of Kirk's mother in Tennessee. This was not true, and it is unclear if Kirk actually ordered the home burnt, or if the Wises took this upon themselves.
Kirk's men later moved through the Cranberry area, destroying the irons works and running off, or possibly capturing, the 30 to 40 men who worked at the mines. Regardless, the mines ceased to produce iron ore for the Confederate war effort.
By the second week of July, Kirk was back in Knoxville, Tenn. He had brought some 132 prisoners, and more than 30 African-Americans, along with 40 new recruits for his own regiment. Several men on both sides had been killed and wounded. The greatest loss on the Confederate side was W. W. Avery, a state representative and owner of a large tract of local land. Plus, he had disrupted the work of the conscription bureau, and destroyed a small amount of rolling stock for the railroad and the Cranberry Iron Mines, just one more small nail into the coffin of the Confederacy.
In the end, even Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, Kirk's overall commander in the Western Department, conveyed "assurances of ... appreciation rendered by [Kirk] in his late expedition."
For men, women and children living along the Toe and Linville rivers, the hard, cold hand of war became all the more oppressive, and the name of George W. Kirk became more hated.
Additional Images
);)
);)