A Hell Of it's Own

I read a post on Ruminations From The Distant Hills that referred to the corner of Transylvania and Henderson Counties on the South Carolina Border. Gulahiyi spoke of something I had not heard about, a stone pillar marking the N.C./S.C. line. He quoted a passage from what was apparently a Union Soldier. It got me to thinking of what I know of those days here.

Not far as the Crow fly from the place he wrote of, Standing Stone Mountain, in S.C is a place called Jones Gap. My Grand Father told me that when he was young there was a human skull that layed out there. The story was, to his knowledge, that it was where a deserter of one Army or the other had been killed. Supposedly beheaded. Interestingly, as a local ghost story, a headless horseman is supposed to be seen at the bridge on Williamson Creek Road, apparently searching for his head. It's been said he was a Soldier from the War Between the States. My Grand Father never made the parallel to us about the two stories. But then in the mid 1860's, these were rough parts.


My Great Great Granddad had a hole in his side
He used to tell the story to the family Christmas night
Got shot at Shiloh, thought he'd die alone
From a Yankee bullet, less than thirty miles from home
Drive By Trucker's "The Southern Thing"

The Southern Thing - Drive-By Truckers

The day Transylvania became a County (Carved out of some of it's neighbors) the first thing it had to do was build a Company of men. I don't know the numbers or statistics, but as the war went on, it took nearly every man there was. And some chose not to fight for the Confederacy, but the Union. Some may have fought for themselves, who knows?

It was hard on the Women here, with most of the men gone, young boys to do the farm labor, if they had them, and bandits roaming about. Being that Southern Appalachia was out of any aims of the Generals strategies, the place attracted deserters. A second Great Uncle of mine that was coming up during the War Between the States relayed a story in a book he wrote of his Mother, my Third Great Grand Mother, being attacked in the house by these marauding deserters. Her arm was yanked out of socket and one of the boys presented a pistol to them and they promptly left. They lived up on the West Fork of the French Broad and there weren't many neighbors around. Another story is of a woman hiding her silver ware in the bank of the river so the Union Soldiers coming through wouldn't find it. The Union that did come here were like the "Red Legs" you see in the movie "The Outlaw Josie Wells". The remedy for that was The Thomas Legion. A predominantly Cherokee Unit known as the 69th North Carolina Regiment.But, there is allot of land in these Mountains, and they couldn't be everywhere at once.

Swimmer, who passed along many of the stories relayed in James Mooney's "History, Myths and Lore of the Cherokee" served as a Company First Sergeant in the Legion.

Eastern Tennessee had allot of Union sympathizers. Here in Western North Carolina it was spotty. In Transylvania certain families were known to side with the Union, the Gillespies for example. It's been said the Owens's split from the Owens over the two sides. But if you ask them, they laugh and tell you that one side got to owing the other side money so they called themselves Owens's. Forget a "Nation Divided", it was a People Divided. Most for the Confederacy, a few for the Union and some didn't care. As the war ground on people were forced to one side by one event or the other. Thinking of it brings a point brought up by T.E. Lawrence referring t a neutral population. A neutral population can be persuaded by any one event or policy. Something that Col. Thomas tried to persuade the Confederacy from doing. He opposed conscription and suggested that slaves be freed.
An interesting story exists in Twisters Family of a descendant that was taken from the home by Yankees and hung. A couple of the slaves followed them and after the Yankees left him hanging to die, the slaves ran out and lifted him from the rope saving his life.
There's a book I saw down in Buttholeville, at the bookstore, describing how people had mixed emotions. The South was in fractions, and the North probably was as well. I doubt that it was all "those crazy people down South want to start their own Country! To Arms!!!". I'm sure someone said "why don't we leave them the hell alone??".
If the North had occupied the South the way they had after, they would have had allot less sympathetic to them. People don't fight for causes, they fight for reasons. But once it was done, everyone tired of war, and agreeing to peace, they let it lye. The Thomas Legion never surrendered their guns, they just agreed to stop fighting. The whole period is a testament to the people of Southern Appalachia's independence, foolishness, fierceness, meanness and survival. It was an confusing time filled with ironies. It wasn't simple, it was complex and deadly. It was a hell of it's own. It was what war is, painful, and if it's not, you best back up and refight it. But like any endeavor, it could be done differently with better effect. And, if so, less would have suffered.


Below is a picture of Transylvania County Confederate Veterans around 1911. There is another picture I'm aware of that is a little more clear. I descend from a couple of those men.


This photo is of the Confederate Veterans of Macon County, around 1905. I'm not as aware of that side of my family but I stand to have an ancestor in the picture as does Twister. It's a little large and played with the view here, so I linked it.

I found these photos on this page of the UNC Library.

Not that the song is related, but here's some Dead Confederate,"Make Me Laugh".


It's been over a hundred years since all of that happened, Southern Appalachia is still existing with independence, foolishness, fierceness, meanness and survival under the occupation of our own demise.

The Appalachianist