Surrender Scene

Here stood Dixie Hall, the home of prosperous local merchant Julius T. Siler. A landowner and slaveholder. Siler joined the Confederate army along with about 3,000 other Macon County men and served as the captain of Company E, 6th North Carolina Cavalry. One of the last formal surrenders of the Confederated forces east of the Mississippi River took place near the house on May 12, 1865.



According to Lt. Col. William W. Stringfield of Thomas Legion, this part of North Carolina was the "most inaccessible portion of the Confederacy." There was no telegraph system here, the mountains formed major impediments to transportation, and the nearest railroad was six miles east of Morganton. The Confederates here were among the last in the East to learn of Gen. Robert E. Lee surrender at Appomattox Court House, Va., on April 9, and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrender near Durham on April 26. Military clashes continued in this area, and parts of Thomas Legion and Col. William C. Bartlett 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry engaged Federal troops in Waynesville on May 6-7.



Union Col. George W. Kirk, who had raised the 3rd North Carolina, then advanced on Franklin. There, Capt. Stephen Whitaker commanded the "last body of organized army troops remaining east of the Mississippi, of all those whom the Confederacy sent into battle." When Whitaker learned of the other capitulations, he surrendered his men here to Kirk, who paroled the Confederates and sent them home. After Kirk men occupied and looted Dixie Hall, young Alice Siler spat on Kirk flag from the upstairs porch.



(captions)

(lower left) Surrender at Dixie Hall, painting by Larry Calhoun Courtesy James J. Kirk II Collection

(upper center) Color postcard of Dixie Hall Courtesy Barbara McRae

(lower center) Col. George W. Kirk Courtesy Jane Gibson Nardy; Capt. Stephen Whitaker Courtesy Bruce Whitaker

(lower right) Partial list of Whitaker command, paroled by Kirk Courtesy NC Office of Archives and History

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Show me all markers in:  Franklin, NC  |  Macon County  |  28734  |  North Carolina  |  United States of America

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