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Stoneman's Raid historic markers are ubiquitous in western North Carolina, and there is a new one in Boone, where the fighting began on March 28, 1865. These markers inspired The Stoneman Gazette, an anachronistic online newspaper I published in 2015 to mark the 150th anniversary of the final battles of the Civil War.
The new marker is part of the Civil War Trails program, a six-state initiative is designed to promote Civil War tourism. This program is separate from the state historical markers. One of those has stood in Boone since 1940.
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| The new marker maps the location of the war-era courthouse and the retreat of the Home Guard toward Howard Knob. |
Historian Ina Van Noppen at the 1940 historic marker in Boone.
The new marker was unveiled April 21, in a ceremony in front of the downtown post office on King Street in Boone. Back in 1865, that location was the home of Jordan Councill, the father of Boone. Boone was not incorporated until 1873 and the Watauga County seat was then known as Councill's Store.
The Civil War Trails marker quotes Stoneman's report to his command back in Tennessee: "We arrived this a.m. with the Twelfth Kentucky in the Advance, captured the place, killing 9, capturing 62 home guards." Actually, only three local men were killed, including Jordan Councill's nephew, Jacob Mast Councill.
The new marker says Stoneman commanded 6,000 troops. There were probably no more than 4,000 in Boone.
The 1940 state historical marker stands a block west at the Watauga County courthouse.
Watauga County had voted pro-Union in the 1860 secession referendum, but there was a Confederate militia organized as the Home Guard. These men were drilling at the original courthouse on Linney Street the morning that Union Major Miles Keogh led the blue-coated cavalry into town, after an overnight march up the Watauga River.
Boone was only a waypoint, as Stoneman's troops were headed to Virginia to fence in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
The Civil War Trails program already marks sites in Cove Creek (Camp Mast), Patterson, and near Linville (the graves of Keith and Melinda Blalock).
Jan. 25: The month they drove old Dixie down
Feb. 1: Abraham Lincoln and the Horn of Freedom
March 23: Stabbing the Confederacy in the back
March 26: 'A Yankee gentleman can steal butter'
March 27: Stoneman's midnight ride takes a wrong turn
March 27: Rallying the Home Guard to fight the Yankees
April 6: Meanwhile, back in Boone
April 17: Historical marker finally finds its way home
