Gen. Alvan C. Gillem
Courtesy Library of CongressAfter a brisk engagement, the Confederates withdrew, and Gillem entered Morganton, where "large supplies of corn and bacon were found," he reported.

Some of Gillem's troopers destroyed courthouse records, while others plundered private property. Slaves assisted the cavalrymen, numbers of whom were "home Yankees" (native Unionists) who exacted revenge against Confederate sympathizers. Almost as quickly as they appeared, however, Gillem and his men vanished, riding west on April' 19, ultimately to Asheville.

(inset)
In 1837, builder James Binnie completed this stone courthouse to replace the first Burke County Courthouse, a wooden structure. From 1847 to 1862, this was the only courthouse outside Raleigh in which the North Carolina Supreme Court convened, to escape the summer heat. The exterior was stuccoed in 1885, and in 1903 architect Frank Milburn raised the porticoes and replaced the simple cupola depicted here with one in the Baroque style. In 1976, the county completed a new courthouse and moved from this building. The Old Burke County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.