The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War (Civil War America)

381 Pages·2000·3.16 MB·English

by  John C. Inscoe

The Heart of
Confederate Appalachia
Civil War America § Gary W. Gallagher, editor
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill & London
John C. Inscoe & Gordon B. McKinney
The Heart of
Confederate Appalachia
Western North Carolina in the Civil War
∫ 2000 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Heidi Perov
Set in Bulmer and Miehle Classic Condensed
by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Inscoe, John C., 1951–
The heart of Confederate Appalachia :
western North Carolina in the Civil War /
John C. Inscoe and Gordon B. McKinney.
p. cm. — (Civil War America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-8078-2544-1 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. North Carolina—History—Civil War, 1861–1865.
2. North Carolina—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Social aspects.
3. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Social aspects.
4. Appalachian Region, Southern—History, Military—19th century.
5. Appalachian Region, Southern—Social conditions—19th century.
I. McKinney, Gordon B., 1943– . II. Title. III. Series.
e524.i54 2000
973.7%456—dc21 99-056658
04 03 02 01 00 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 5
1 § Antebellum Western North Carolina
A Population So Widely Diversified 12
2 § Secession
To Stand with Either Honor or Safety 30
3 § Mobilization
The Mountains Are Pouring Forth Their Brave Sons 59
4 § Unionists
Lincolnite Proclivities—Matters of General Notoriety 83
5 § Guerrilla Warfare
Rule by Bushwhackers, Tories, and Yankees 105
6 § Political Dissent
We Are Tired of This Desolating, Ruinous War 139
7 § Economic Strain
Laboring under Grate Disadvantage 166
8 § Women at War
Assuming All the Duties of the Sterner Sex 187
9 § Slavery
Many Negro Buyers in This Part of the Country 208
10 § Military Incursion and Collapse
Oh! This Is a Cruel World and Cruel People in It 232
11 § Aftermath
A Peace We Little Expected and Did Not Want 266
Notes 287
Bibliography 329
Index 359

Illustrations and Maps
Illustrations
Asheville in 1851 24
Advertisement soliciting slave labor
for railroad construction 28
Thomas Clingman 33
William Waightstill Avery 39
Zebulon B. Vance, ca. 1860 66
William Holland Thomas 67
‘‘Union Bushwhackers Attacking Rebel Cavalry’’ 116
‘‘Rebel Mode of Capturing Escaped Prisoners’’ 130
William Woods Holden 148
Malinda Blalock, alias ‘‘Sam’’ Blalock 190
‘‘Meeting with Deserters’’ 192
‘‘The Escaped Correspondents
Enjoying the Negro’s Hospitality’’ 227
General George Stoneman 245
Confederate prison in Salisbury 249
Troops moving along the French Broad River 256
Zebulon B. Vance, 1866 268
Blacks registering to vote in Asheville 273
Maps
Western North Carolina in 1860 2
Western North Carolina in 1861 3
Secession vote in western North Carolina, February 1861 54
Stoneman’s raid through western
North Carolina, March–April 1865 246

Acknowledgments
W
e have both benefited tremendously from the camaraderie and collabora-
tions of our friends and colleagues who are also examining the Civil War
in the mountain South: Ralph Mann, Tracy McKenzie, Todd Groce,
Richard Melvin, Martin Crawford, and Ken Noe. We’re especially grateful to
Martin, who has shared with us so much of his extraordinarily rich work on one
of our counties—Ashe, and to Ken, who has edited pieces of our work and
provided an astute and very useful critique of this whole manuscript.
We are equally grateful to other Appalachian scholars who we count as good
friends and whose work has significantly enriched our own: Durwood Dunn,
Altina Waller, David Hsiung, Dwight Billings, Ron Lewis, Paul Salstrom, Mary
Anglin, Wilma Dunaway, John Williams, Ron Eller, Mary Beth Pudup, Curtis
Wood, and Tyler Blethen, all of whom have made nineteenth-century Ap-
palachia such a fascinating place to be. The Appalachian Studies Association
and its annual conferences have long provided us all with an invaluable venue
for exchanging and testing ideas, sharing work, developing friendships, and
much enhancing our understanding of the complexities of the region and
constantly reminding us of the broad and complex whole, of which we are
exploring only a small piece and a short time.
Beyond Appalachia, we are grateful to other colleagues who have supported
our e√orts and influenced our work in significant ways: Paul Escott, Daniel
Sutherland, Steve Ash, Dan Crofts, Thomas Je√rey, Michael Fellman, and Bill
Harris. Richard Melvin of Franklin, North Carolina, has generously shared his
considerable knowledge of the war in that part of the state and of the troops that
served from that area.
Archivists and librarians have been of tremendous help to us. In addition to
the sta√s of the Southern Historical Collection, Duke, and North Carolina State
Archives, we owe a particular debt to Dick Shrader at the Southern Historical
Collection, Michael Musick at the National Archives, Lewis Buck at Ashe-
ville’s Pack Memorial Library, Fred Hay at Appalachian State’s Appalachian
Collection, and especially to George Frizzell at Western Carolina’s Hunter
Library for locating and passing along to us a number of hidden jewels in that
rich collection.