Union and Confederate Raiders

During the Civil War, Graham Country (the part of Cherokee County) offered scant support to the secessionist cause, although both ardent Confederates and staunch Unionists lived here. The region was not financially dependent on slavery. Most families wished to remain neutral but were pressured into choosing sides and then suffered from both Union and Confederate raiders. Renegades or bushwhackers were especially troublesome here, where the rugged terrain offered a haven.



Confederate Capt. J.W. Cooper Company H, 69th North Carolina Infantry, occupied Camp Cheoah on Rhea Hill, site of present-day Robbinsville Elementary School. Col. William H. Thomas Legion, of which Cooper company was a part, defended western North Carolina from Federal incursions. An engagement occurred here in November 1864 between Companies C and G of the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (U.S.) and Cherokee soldiers of Thomas Legion.



The 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry consisted largely of Confederate and Union deserters. Several Kirkland family members joined but later operated independently here as the Kirkland Bushwhackers under John Jackson "Bushwhacking" Kirkland. His band of outlaws terrorized the area, ambushing, robbing, and murdering innocent people.



After the principal Confederate surrenders in April 1865, Maj. Stephen Whitaker of Thomas Legion issued parole papers to Confederate troops here at Thomas Store on May 14. They were among the last troops in North Carolina or east of the Mississippi River to surrender, eight days after one of the last engagements in the east on May 6 at Hanging Dog Creek in Cherokee County.



(captions)

(lower left) Cherokee veterans of Thomas Legion at the 1903 Confederate Reunion in New Orleans. Courtesy The Mountaineer

(upper center) William H. Thomas Courtesy North Carolina Office of Archives and History; Stephen Whitaker Courtesy Bruce Whitaker

(upper right) Union bushwhackers attacking Confederate cavalrymen, engraving by Junius Henry Browne, 1865.

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Show me all markers in:  Robbinsville, NC  |  Graham County  |  28771  |  North Carolina  |  United States of America

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