Blink and you'll miss the 'battle' of Boone

BOONE, N.C.

 The "battle" of Boone was over so quickly that no one was quite sure what happened. The historical marker at the Watauga County courthouse is correct in describing the action 150 years ago as nothing more than a skirmish.
 Gen. Stoneman barely mentioned it in his official report: "We arrived here in the a.m., ... captured the place, killing 9, capturing 62 home guards and 40 horses."
 Boone actually lost only three men. Stoneman had no reason to exaggerate, given his orders "to destroy and not to fight battles," and it is possible that he meant to use the standard military parlance, "killing or wounding 9," which would have been accurate.
 According to Stoneman's second-in-command, Gen. Alvan Gillem, the Union cavalry was approaching Boone at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 28, 1865, when they learned from locals that the Confederate Home Guard was assembled at the courthouse. Major Myles Keogh, always eager for a fight, led a detachment from the 12th Kentucky Cavalry up Daniel Boone's old Wilderness Trail (now the route of U.S. 321 and West King Street) and they arrived in Boone about 11 a.m. The weather was fair. The impending battle, not so much.

Myles Keogh, "the Irish Knight"

 The Home Guard was preparing for a rumored attack by a small band of Home Yankees. One account says 100 men were conducting drills at the courthouse when the first "blue-jackets" appeared.
 A solitary gunshot rang out from the Home Guard. It may have been a warning shot, or it may have been a muzzle-loader triggered by accident. That was all it took to provoke Keogh and his Yankees to charge down what is now King Street. By the time the Home Guard realized that they were facing an entire army, it was too late.

 A southern apologist named Cornelia Phillips Spencer described the scene in her 1866 book, The Last 90 Days of the Civil War in North Carolina. Her source was probably Sarah "Sally" Councill, the Boone matriarch who was indignant that Stoneman had taken her last firkin of butter:

The village was completely taken by surprise. No one was aware of the approach of an enemy till the advance-guard dashed up the main street, making no demand for surrender, but firing right and left at every moving thing they saw. Mrs. James Councill [Sally Councill's daughter-in-law], hearing the noise, stepped into her piazza with her child in her arms, and immediately a volley of balls splintered the wood-work all around her. She, however, escaped unhurt. The people of this county had been warmly attached to the Confederate cause, and had bravely resisted East-Tennessee raiders and marauders. The county-seat was therefore, perhaps, especially obnoxious; and whatever may have been General Stoneman's policy, there were subordinate officers in his command who were only too happy in the opportunity to retort upon a defenseless and unresisting population. ... Several citizens were shot under circumstances of peculiar aggravation.

 Sarah Councill's nephew was one of those. Jacob Mast Councill was the clerk of court for Watauga County, which exempted him from the Confederate draft. Spencer describes him as "a prudent, quiet man, who had taken no part in the war." But he was a Councill, and he may have paid for the perceived rebel sins of his cousin James, who evidently was not in Boone during the raid.
 James Councill (the son of Sarah and Jordan Councill Jr.) represented the county at a statewide convention in May 1861 and had voted for secession, even though Watauga had voted 536-72 to remain in the Union. No doubt, certain pro-Union families held the Councills responsible for some of their hardships during the war.
 (In defense of James Councill, we should note that the convention came just after two provocative events: the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for North Carolina troops to help suppress the rebellion. Three months after the referendum where North Carolina voters narrowly rejected secession, 47,323-46,672, the convention delegates voted 120-0 to leave the Union.) 
 According to local historian and Councill descendant Terry Harmon, at the time of the raid Jacob Councill was farming in what is now downtown Boone, near the current location of the Jones House on King Street. There's no indication that he was armed or involved in the Home Guard activities that day. The only accusation against him was from a black woman named Phoebe, who told approaching Yankees that Jacob was "an infernal rebel," according to Spencer.  
 Historian John Preston Arthur wrote in 1915, "He had been ploughing and was putting his harness up when one of Stoneman's men came to the door and shot him dead, notwithstanding his protestations." Other accounts say he was shot in his field as he pleaded for mercy. 
 In a terrible coincidence, Stoneman's rear guard was foraging at the home of Benjamin Councill, Jacob's father, at the very same hour that Jacob was killed. Benjamin's house is the spot boldly marked "Council-rebel" on Sgt. Angelo Wiser's map (below). 
 Warren Green, a twice-wounded Confederate veteran, was killed while holding up his hands in token of surrender, according to Spencer. One source suggests that Green may have been killed by the notorious Union outlaw Keith Blalock, using the raid as cover for murder. This does sound like Blalock, but others discount the story. Another account says Green accidentally fired the first shot of the skirmish and then was killed by Myles Keogh. 
 Warren's cousin Calvin Green was pursued and shot at when he tried to surrender, so he returned fire and shattered the arm of one of the Yankees before he was wounded and left for dead.
 Sheriff A.J. McBride fought the invaders until he took a bullet in the chest. Confederate veteran Elijah Norris also held his ground after yelling for his father Ephraim to run and hide in the cliffs on Howard's Knob. As Ephraim Norris fled, he was killed by a shot in the back. Arthur reported that except for McBride, all of those wounded were shot from behind. 

 Thomas Holder was wounded in the hip. John Brown suffered a broken ankle as he tried to get away. Waightstill Gragg, a Confederate veteran who was in the group that fired the first shot, was also wounded but not seriously.

 Elijah Norris led the local Confederate reunions for decades. By 1930, when he was 87, there were only 12 surviving Confederate veterans in Camp Nimrod Triplett. The Watauga Democrat said of him:  

“Captain Norris, known to his many friends as ‘Uncle Lige,’ enlisted in Company D, 58th N.C. Regiment, at the age of 17; was ‘baptized with fire’ at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, witnessed the ‘Battle Above the Clouds’ at Lookout Mountain, and received a gunshot wound at that place which sent him home for seven months,” the article continued. “After his wound had healed sufficiently, he went back to this regiment, was in the skirmishes around Chattanooga, and at the Battle of Lovejoy Station (Georgia) was shot through the hips with an ounce ball. Captain Norris returned to his home near Boone and, being unfit for further service on the battlefront, was made an officer in the ‘home guard.’ When Stoneman’s raiders paid their destructive visit to Boone near the close of the war, his father, Ephriam Norris, was shot down as he ran from the Yankees near the present site of the Daniel Boone Hotel.”

 Jacob Mast Councill's home became a morgue as well as a hospital, according to historian Shepherd Dugger, who was an 11-year-old living near Banner Elk at the time of the raid. Sheriff McBride laid face-down on the plank floor as a Yankee surgeon, operating without anesthesia, cut out a bullet that had followed a rib and lodged near his spine. Calvin Green also was treated and somehow survived. 
 Stoneman did not report his own casualties, which were minimal. There is a credible story of a 15-year-old Boone boy named Steel Frazier who killed one or two Yankees and got away. The Union soldier shot by Calvin Green had to have his arm amputated.
 Among the 69 Confederates captured was First Sgt. Finley Patterson Mast, who was later held as a military prisoner in Louisville, Ky. Sgt. Mast was 30 when he enlisted in the 58th North Carolina Infantry in June of 1862—two months after the beginning of the Confederate draft in April 1862. Most Watauga men were pro-Union and were understandably reluctant to join the rebellion, until they had no other choice. After the war, he returned to Watauga County and was a farmer in the Sugar Grove community.
 As soon as Stoneman gained control of Boone and assessed the situation, he dispatched Gillem and the 2nd Brigade south through Blowing Rock and over the Blue Ridge to raid the Patterson Mill north of Lenoir. The 3rd Brigade followed them later in the day and burned the cotton mill on March 29.
 Meanwhile, some of the soldiers set fire to the Boone jail and burned the Watauga County records. Some blame this on Gillem and say that Stoneman reprimanded him for it. However, Gillem was probably miles away by the time the jail was torched. 
 Stoneman spent the night at Sarah Councill's house, which was located where the downtown Boone post office now stands. The 1st Brigade camped in the bottomland that is now the State Farm field and the Boone Greenway, across the New River from the Blair house, which was built in 1844 and is the oldest house in Boone. Col. William Palmer, commanding the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, probably spent the night at the Blair house.
 That evening, Stoneman sent this report back to Gen. George Thomas in Nashville: "We arrived here this a.m., the Twelfth Kentucky in the advance, captured the place, killing 9, capturing 62 home guards and 40 horses. We are getting along very well. Last night, in crossing Stone Mountain, one caisson and one ambulance fell over the precipice and were lost, several horses and men disabled. I shall be compelled to alter slightly from the proposed route on account of the great scarcity of forage and subsistence for the men. Our advance is the first indication the people have had of our movements. We shall, with ordinary good luck, be out of the mountains to-morrow."
 That would be the last Thomas heard from Stoneman for three weeks. 
 Stoneman and the 1st Brigade marched Wednesday, March 29, via Deep Gap toward Wilkesboro, leaving Boone to be occupied by a second wave of Yankees. We'll have that story April 6.

NEXT➤ "Stoneman has just swept through the country"

RELATED BOONE & WATAUGA COUNTY STORIES

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 

The Blair House was built 21 years before Stoneman's 1st Brigade camped on the farmland nearby.

This map drawn by Sgt. Angelo Wiser shows the families and landmarks Stoneman's Raid encountered on their way into Boone. Notice the crossed sabers at Boone, indicating the site of a skirmish. To see the map full-size, click here. The Taylorsville mentioned on this map is now Mountain City, TN.

Myles to go: Stoneman's rock star

Myles Keogh had been promoted to lieutentant colonel
in 1872 when he posed for this portrait in his dress uniform.

BOONE, N.C.

 For Myles Keogh, the road to glory led from Ireland to the Vatican and from Gettysburg to Little Bighorn—by way of Boone.
 The 25-year-old Keogh was Gen. George Stoneman's most trusted soldier and was at the head of the Federal cavalry when they rode into Boone 150 years ago today.
 Major Keogh was a 19th-century rock star who still has a legion of internet admirers ready to defend him if you dare call him a soldier of fortune or say he spoke with an Irish brogue.
 Keogh exuded courage, confidence, and Irish-spring masculinity. "My great weakness," he once said (imagine these words in an Irish lilt, not a brogue), "is the love I have for the fair sex, and pretty much all my trouble comes from or can be traced to that charming source."
 Try it like this:

"Me great weakness is de lahve i 'ave fahr de fair sex, and pretty moehch all me trooehble combs frahm ahr can be traced to dat charmin sooehrce."

 Think Stonewall Jackson with a dash of Michael Jackson. Keogh was fearless and charismatic, loyal yet vain. 
 Understandably, other soldiers were jealous of him. "We did not like the style of Captain Myles Keogh; there was altogether too much style," Ohio Capt. Theodore Allen said. "He was as handsome a young man as I ever saw. His uniform was spotless and fitted him like the skin on a sausage."
 Yet generals almost universally respected him. Two described him as gallant. Another said, "He was a born soldier." Gen George B. McClellan described him as "a most gentlemanlike man, of soldierly appearance" and praised him for his service at Antietam.

 In Stoneman's division, Gen. George Thomas called Keogh "a young officer of intelligence and integrity," and Gen. Alvan Gillem said, "He has garnered high praise from his superior officers. ... He is unsurpassed in dash."
 Even the crusty Stoneman seemed charmed. "Major Keogh is one of the most superior young officers in the army and is a universal favourite with all who know him," the general wrote.
 So how did the cosmopolitan Keogh wind up in Boone?
 In 1860, at age 20, Keogh was among a thousand Irishmen who volunteered to go to Rome to fight in the Papal Wars for Pope Pius IX. At 22, he answered a call from the Catholic Archbishop of New York, John Hughes, on behalf of Secretary of State William Seward, who was seeking to hire experienced European soldiers to bolster the faltering Union army.

Myles Keogh (left) with the staff of Gen. John Buford (seated)

 Keogh and Stoneman became acquainted through the death of Gen. John Buford in 1863. It was at Gettysburg that Keogh endeared himself to Buford. (In the Gettysburg movie, Buford was portrayed by Sam Waterson). A few months later, Buford became sick with typhoid, the same disease that had killed two of Keogh's siblings. In his final days, Buford moved into Stoneman's rented home on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, where Keogh cared for him as he died. Stoneman led Buford's funeral procession in New York City (attended by President Lincoln) and Keogh personally accompanied the body to West Point for burial.

 (Some of Stoneman's raiders crossed paths with Buford's kinfolk on April 5, 1865, in Virginia near the Peaks of Otter.)

 When Stoneman was given command of the Federal cavalry in 1864, he chose Keogh as his aide-de-camp. The title is French for "assistant in the field" and gave him great authority. The 1862 Army officers' manual says: 

The Senior Aide-de-Camp is attached to the person of the general, and receive orders only from him. Their function are difficult and delicate. Often enjoying the full confidence of the general, they are employed in representing him, in writing orders, in carrying them in person if necessary, in communicating them verbally upon the battlefield and fields of maneuver. It is important that aide-de-camp should know well the position of troops, routes, post, quarters of generals, composition of columns, and orders of corps; facility in the use of the pen should be joined with exactness of expression; upon fields of battle they watch the movements of the enemy; not only grand maneuvers but special tactics should be familiar to them. It is necessary that their knowledge be sufficiently comprehensive to understand the object and purpose of all orders, and also to judge, in the varying circumstances of a battlefield, whether it is not necessary to modify an order when carried in person, or if there be time to return for new instructions.

 Keogh was alongside Stoneman when Confederates captured them July 31, 1864, in Georgia, after they both had horses shot out from under them. They were imprisoned together in Macon and Charleston until Gen. Sherman negotiated their release in a prisoner swap on Sept. 30. "I thank God I was thought enough of by Genl. Sherman to be specially exchanged," Keogh wrote to his sister Ellen. "I should have died in a very short time & as it is I am almost broken down."
 Keogh was Stoneman's point man on his raid the previous December to Saltville, Va., and he was instrumental in organizing and equipping the troops who rode into Boone. Stoneman could ride in the rear of the cavalry because he trusted Keogh to lead the way and make on-the-spot decisions. 
 Keogh made it unscathed through nearly 80 battles and skirmishes during the Civil War. Presumably, he left the raid after Salisbury and returned to Tennessee with Gen. Stoneman, because he is not mentioned in subsequent reports. 
 He became a U.S. citizen in 1869. Following the war, he joined Gen. George Custer in the Indian terrorities. The solitude was hard on him, and like many soldiers of his era, he began drinking too much. He sensed something ominous in the Dakotas. 
 At age 35, Keogh wrote his will and bought a $10,000 life insurance policy. Less than a year later, on June 25, 1876, he and Custer were among 268 U.S. soldiers massacred at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

 Here's an Irish ode to him. 

 Custer's horse, Comanche, survived the battle and lived until 1891, and you can see him today at the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas. 

 Comanche's fate may remind our readers of the story of Little Sorrel, Stonewall Jackson's horse. 

NEXT➤ Blink and you'll miss the 'battle' of Boone

Only Myles Keogh could steal the spotlight from George Armstrong Custer. In this 1875 photo, Keogh is front and center, and the young lady checking him out is Nellie Wadsworth, who was supposedly Custer's mistress. The famous Gen. Custer is at the far right with an unidentified damsel, while Custer's wife Libbie is on the porch eying Long Soldier, a seven-foot-tall Lakota Indian. Tom Custer (far left) was the first two-time winner of the Medal of Honor and is snuggling up to Emma Wadsworth, Nellie's sister. Boston Custer, George and Tom's kid brother, is getting the cold shoulder from Nellie. Also on the porch are James Calhoun (another Medal of Honor winner) and his wife Margaret, who was the Custers' sister. Officially, this is a portrait of the officers of the 7th Cavalry. Unofficially, they represent "the Custer clan." Keogh, Calhoun, and the Custer brothers all were killed June 25, 1876 at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  The wet-plate photo was taken by O.S. Goff at Gen. Custer's home at Fort Lincoln in the Dakota Territory. I hope you will agree that this picture is worth a couple of hundred words. I find it more intriguing than your average soap opera.

Stoneman's midnight ride takes a wrong turn

It appears that the cavalry followed the Elk River (red arrows) rather than the Watauga (blue arrows), meaning they had to make a midnight climb of 1,500 feet to cross the ridge at Flat Springs.  

POGA, Tennessee?

     Gen. George Stoneman had told his commanding general that he expected to be in Virginia by March 28. One hundred and fifty years ago today, he realized he was going to have to pick up the pace, so he ordered the first of several overnight marches.
     If Stoneman got lost in the mountains between Hampton, Tenn., and Boone, N.C., he wouldn't be the only one. Even today, U.S. 321 can be daunting as it darts along the shore of Watauga Lake and skirts cliffs through the Watauga River gorge. Today's route generally follows a turnpike that was built in the mid-1850s. Parts of the old road (along with the town of Butler, Tenn.) are now submerged in Watauga Lake. 
     At some point during the moonless night, it appears to me that Stoneman's cavalry strayed off the turnpike and wound up having to cross a mountain in the dark. I don't think this was one of Stoneman's feints to confuse the enemy. I haven't found a good map of the original turnpike, and it is possible that it was built over the mountain because the terrain in the gorge was just too rugged and steep. Or maybe the road was washed out. Maybe some of his Tennessee guides thought they knew a shortcut. More likely, they simply missed a switchback and got lost. Stoneman usually rode in the rear and would have been furious if he knew they were off course.
     Capt. Henry Weand from Norristown, Pa., mentioned in his journal that the cavalry's horses went hungry on March 26, which was worrisome considering the mountains ahead. On March 27, Weand wrote:

Moved early to find something for our horses to eat and found a short feed for them on the south bank of the Watauga River. Marched 18 miles and bivouacked on the mountain pass near the top of Stone Mountain at 4 a.m. on the 28th.

Our march this night was one that those who participated will never forget. The road at times ran close to dangerous precipices, over which occasionally a horse or mule would fall, and in like manner we lost one of the artillery caissons, but no man was hurt. Many loyal citizens built fires along the road and at dangerous places, and also at difficult fords over the mountain streams. Looking back as we toiled up the mountain, the scene was grand and imposing as the march of the column was shown by the trail of fire along the road. Occasionally an old pine tree would take fire and blaze up almost instantaneously, looking like a column of fire. It was an impromptu illumination, and the sight of it repaid us for the toilsome night march.

     In the same brigade with Capt. Weand was Sgt. Angelo Wiser, a talented illustrator who drew daily maps of the cavalry's progress. (These are available online at the Library of Congress by clicking here or the link on the sidebar. Stoneman's Raid starts on Page 8. Here are the direct links to March 27 and March 28.)

Sgt. Wiser's map for March 27 shows the cavalry veering southwest away from the Watauga River

     Sgt. Wiser shows the march turning abruptly southwest away from the Watauga River until stopping near the Reese homestead 200 yards from the North Carolina line. (Decades later, the Reese community gave us Frank Proffitt, 1913-1965, who recorded one of the early versions of "Tom Dooley.") Around dawn on March 28, they crossed Beech Creek near Hately's Mill and continued east, returning to the riverside near the Farthing cemetery on the Old Watauga River Road just downstream from Cove Creek. The raiders forded the Watauga River and followed Cove Creek and Brushy Fork through an open valley approaching Boone.
     Sgt. Wiser's map notes for March 27 say:

About 20-odd miles today. The road up mt is very good, but long, winding continually. Traveled up all night and camped about 1 hour before day.

     Sgt. Wiser was about four miles behind the head of the column, and when the skirmish in Boone erupted at 11 a.m. March 28, his regiment had stopped to feed at Benjamin Councill's house in a valley now known as Vilas.
     Capt. Weand said they crossed Stone Mountain, while the 13th Tennessee called it Iron Mountain. The ridge split by the Watauga River was labeled on the 1863 maps as Stone Mountain north of the gorge and Iron Mountain on the south side. Weand is probably referring to Little Stone Mountain, which is south of the Watauga River and north of Beech Mountain near the valley community of Poga, Tennessee.
     What seems likely is that in the pitch dark, the cavalry followed the Elk River, which is basically the south fork of the Watauga. Capt. Weand said the cavalry was traveling on the south bank, so that would have been an easy mistake.
      But the Elk River would have taken them away from Virginia. Once they realized their mistake (perhaps from some of the Tennessee cavalry who knew the countryside) they had to turn east and cross the ridge at Flat Springs, elevation 3,500, between Little Stone Mountain and Beech Mountain. That's a climb of over 1,500 feet from the Watauga River.
     The route through the Watauga gorge would have shortened their midnight ride by at least a couple of miles and spared the troops and horses 1,000 feet of climbing. If they had gone that way, they might have raided Boone at dawn, when Stoneman preferred to attack so he could catch the enemy sleeping. Unless he ran into trouble in Boone, it might be possible to reach Virginia on March 28, just as he had promised Gen. George Thomas.
      In his report from Boone March 28, Stoneman described the toll of the overnight march: "Last night, in crossing Stone Mountain, one caisson and one ambulance fell over the precipice and were lost, several horses and men disabled."
      After the exhausting climb to Flat Springs, the cavalrymen and their mounts were allowed to rest only one hour or so before continuing the march. As they approached Boone, they learned that the Home Guard was assembled, and they readied themselves for the first serious action of Stoneman's Raid.
      At the front of the column was an adventurous Irishman named Myles Keogh and the battle-tested 12th Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry. By the time they entered Boone about 11 a.m. on March 28, they were tired, hungry, and sore, and it wouldn't take much to provoke them into a fight.

NEXT➤ Myles to go: Stoneman's rock star

Rallying the Home Guard to fight the Yankees

BOONE, N.C.

     At the dawn of the Civil War, Boone was a prosperous little town with six stores, three sawmills, two hotels, and a saloon. But there was not yet a newspaper, telegraph, or railroad. Gossip was about the only media.
     The talk of the town 150 years ago today was the possibility of a Yankee attack. Residents worried about bands of "Home Yankees" who had become more aggressive as the Civil War tilted in the Union's favor. Nobody could imagine that Gen. George Stoneman and his 4,000 cavalrymen were headed their way, just beyond the western horizon.
     Seven weeks earlier, a band of 100 loyalists from Banner Elk under James Champion had captured and burned Camp Mast, the headquarters of the Watauga County Home Guard, where 60 of the 71 men voted to surrender without a fight. Another notorious Union man named Keith Blalock had been on the warpath since rebels murdered his step-father. Many were worried about another raid by James Hartley, a Union recruiter whose outfit had killed two home guards on the slopes of Beech Mountain in 1864.
     The Home Guard was a local militia responsible for hunting down Confederate draft-dodgers and deserters, as well as Union outlaws such as Champion, Blalock, and Hartley. With most of the men under 50 away in the Confederate army, the Home Guard was largely composed of older men and wounded veterans. 
     Their reputation was as tattered as their personnel. The Watauga guards had blood on their hands, too, and there were rumors that some of their officers had been complicit with the enemy in the Camp Mast debacle.
     Still, the Home Guard was the county's last vestige of law and order and the last line of defense against Union marauders. So Capt. Jordan Cook called a meeting for Tuesday morning, March 28, 1865, to reorganize a company of the Home Guard.
    Among those who were in town that Tuesday:

Sheriff A.J. McBride
(photo from Terry Harmon)

• Sheriff Andrew Jackson "A.J." McBride, 42, a part-time preacher who had been captured at Camp Mast but promptly escaped.
• Jacob Mast Councill, 35, nephew of "the father of Boone," Jordan Councill Jr. The Councill family owned over half the slaves in Boone. As the clerk of court and a mail contractor, Jacob was exempt from the Confederate draft. He had a hillside farm near where the Jones House now stands on King Street, and it was time for spring plowing. 
• Waightstill Gragg, 25, one of 18 children in his family, a Confederate soldier in the famed 1st N.C. Cavalry who was home on furlough from Robert E. Lee's army.
• Thomas Holder, 32, who lived on Howards Creek, several miles from Boone.

  

  Elijah Norris

• Sgt. Elijah Norris, 21, and his father Ephraim Norris, 45, from the Meat Camp community. Elijah had been shot five times as a Confederate soldier and came home after a nearly fatal hip wound in September 1864.
• Warren and Calvin Green, cousins once removed. Warren, 27, was a Confederate sergeant who was wounded in battles in 1862 and 1864. He was the father of three young children. The Greens were also related by marriage to McBride and the Norrises. 

     Before long, all these men would be related by Yankee lead.  

     At the meeting the next morning, Elijah Norris would be elected lieutenant of the Home Guard company under Capt. Jordan Cook. And when the first Yankees rode into Boone about 11 a.m. Tuesday, almost on cue, the battle-hardened Norris would be among the first to realize the awful truth. This wasn't Hartley's rag-tag outfit. And the Home Guard didn't have a chance.

NEXT➤ Stoneman's midnight ride takes a wrong turn

'A Yankee gentleman can steal butter'

     If you have ever had a lesson in economics, you are probably familiar with the phrase "guns vs. butter," used to illustrate how a nation balances military vs. civilian spending. 
     Two days from now when Stoneman's Raid arrives in Boone, guns will be blazing, so let's skip ahead to a butter episode that same day that should not be overlooked.
     Bear with me as we set the scene.
     Gen. George Stoneman often commandeered private residences to use as his nightly headquarters, and in Boone he chose the home of Sarah and Jordan Councill Jr. Before the town was named for Daniel Boone, the settlement was originally known as Councill's Store, and Jordan Councill Jr. is regarded as "the Father of Boone."
      Jordan Jr., 65, and his son James Councill, 38, were evidently not at home on March 28, 1865, when Stoneman raided Boone. James had been Watauga County's representative at North Carolina's secession convention in 1861, and he had also served in the Confederate army. The Councill family owned 17 of the 31 slaves in Boone in 1860. Prominent rebel families like the Councills often suffered the worst at the hands of Stoneman's troops.
     On the other hand, the general's personal host was usually safe. Though Sarah Councill was a staunch southerner, she was also known for acts of compassion toward Union prisoners in the Watauga County jail.
     In peaceful times, Sarah Councill and George Stoneman might have had a pleasant visit. But March 28, 1865, in Boone was anything but peaceful. A Saturday morning shootout between Stoneman's troops and the local home guard had left eight local men dead or wounded, including Mrs. Councill's nephew. (We'll have details Saturday.) Later that day, the raiders set the county jail afire. People who had heard what Sherman did in Georgia were terrified of what Stoneman might do to Boone. Gunfire was still ringing in their ears, and the crisp mountain air was choked by the dust and dung of four thousand horses. 
     All that is to set the stage for a story told by Sarah Councill's niece, Mrs. Betty Councill Folk. She was in Salisbury, N.C., when Stoneman raided there on April 12. One of his men assured her, "We are Yankee soldiers, but we are gentlemen. Don't be alarmed." When she heard they had been through her hometown, she asked him if they had done much destruction in Boone. "No, madam, General Stoneman's soldiers are above doing anything mean." 
     In that context, here's the story Mrs. Folk shared about her aunt and Gen. Stoneman, published 45 years later in the Farmer and Mechanic newspaper in Raleigh:

Mrs. Councill had been kind to some Yankee prisoners confined in the jail in Boone sometime during the war, and Stoneman hearing of it when he first came to the place seemed disposed to treat her humanely, although she was strongly Southern in her feelings. He made his headquarters at her house and she treated him as genteely as possible, preparing supper and breakfast for him, out of the scarcity his raiders had left her. He seemed particularly pleased with some fine mountain butter that was on the table and asked her if she had any more of it. She replied that a firkin of it was about the only thing his soldiers had left her and was congratulating herself that her butter was safe, for Gen. Stoneman would protect it. But what was her surprise and mortification to see, a short time after, her firkin of butter put in his provision wagon. According to the testimony of the officer before mentioned, Gen. Stoneman and his men are "gentlemen," but it seems a Yankee gentleman can steal butter. 

     The fact that a Yankee general would take such advantage of his hostess' Southern hospitality show you why so many people in towns like Boone still curse Stoneman's name.
     At the same time, it also illustrates how the Yankee cavalrymen sustained themselves throughout the raid. They didn't have to choose between guns and butter. They simply took whatever they needed, destroyed whatever else the Confederacy might use, and left thousands of families hungry and bitter. To the towns and farms they passed through, they were like a plague of locusts. With 4,000 men, Stoneman's cavalry was larger than any North Carolina town west of Raleigh.

     Stoneman had strictly ordered his men not to take private property, but many yielded to temptation or vengeance. His quartermasters were supposed to give vouchers for seized property, but the families being raided didn't know to ask for them. Years after the war, many families filed for compensation through the Southern Claims Commission, but Confederate sympathizers were rejected.
     Stoneman's army was tiny compared to Grant's 120,000, but Grant's soldiers were amply supported by trainloads of food, ammunition, and other provisions. Sherman's 60,000 men lived off the land during their march across Georgia and South Carolina, but by this time they were being resupplied and reinforced from the North Carolina coast.
     Meanwhile, Stoneman's cavalry spent six weeks without any supply lines. The first three days out of Knoxville, they got daily provision from railroads. On March 23 at Morristown, Tenn., each man received five days' rations and four horseshoes. Horse-drawn supply wagons kept up with them them for two more days, but as Gen. Alvan Gillem reported, "On the 26th the command moved, cutting loose from all incumberances in the way of trains. One wagon, ten ambulances, and four guns with their caissons, were the only carriages that accompanied the expedition."
     Beyond that point, starting 150 years ago today, Stoneman's troops were expected to feed themselves and their horses by foraging the countryside. They cleaned out "tithe depots," a part of the Confederate tax system where families were required to deposit one-tenth of their agricultural products. Raiders freely confiscated horses, potatoes, and grain, ultimately preventing many families from having much of a harvest in 1865.
     The economic repercussions of Stoneman's Raid would last for years. 
     If Sarah Councill's firkin of butter was not safe, nothing was. 

———

EVEN WORSE? Cornelia Phillips Spencer's 1866 account dates the butter episode during Stoneman's return trip through Boone April 17, rather than on March 28. If that's the case, it is even more heartless, because by that time:

• Stoneman had left the raid and was well on his way back to the comforts of his headquarters in Knoxville.

• Mrs. Councill's home had been all but destroyed by the rogue troops of Union Col. George Kirk, who occupied Boone after Stoneman left.

NEXT➤ Rallying the Home Guard to fight the Yankees

To destroy and not to fight battles?

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn.

     What was George Stoneman fighting for?
     That ought to be as simple as reading his marching orders. Most historians give these two directives:

• To destroy and not to fight battles.

• Dismantle the countryside to obstruct Lee's retreat.

     But with Stoneman, nothing is simple. The first order was given by Gen. Ulysses Grant on January 31, 1865, seven weeks before Stoneman's Raid started. Back then, the plan was for him to invade South Carolina. After February 17, when Sherman left Columbia in ashes, Stoneman's mission changed completely, and presumably so did the orders. 
     The second is documented in several histories, but I could not find it expressed as an order or directive in the 112-volume Official Records of the War of the Rebellion (which you can search online at Ohio State or Cornell.) I did find that phrase in two post-raid reports, the first signed by Gen. Alvan Gillem, Stoneman's second-in-command; and the second by Stoneman's commander, Gen. George Thomas, who was probably quoting Gillem. 
     More specific orders were expressed March 18 in a message from Gen. Thomas to Gen. Ulysses Grant. 

I have directed Stoneman to pass out of Tennessee by the head of the New River Valley, then move down that valley to Christiansburg and destroy the railroad beyond Christiansburg, about 10 or 15 miles, where there are numerous trestles and small bridges, but not to destroy the bridge over New River west of Christiansburg. Should he ascertain that there is not a large force of the enemy in Southwest Virginia, and should he ascertain on reaching Christiansburg that Gen. Sheridan has captured Lynchburg, as is now reported in the papers, he will not destroy any of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, but to move in the direction of Danville and threaten that place, should it be garrisoned by a large force; but if it be weakly garrisoned, to attack it and destroy as much of the railroad as he can; then withdraw toward Tennessee and observe the movements of the enemy, reporting to me at once all his operations.

Gen. George Thomas,
 "the Rock of Chickamauga,"
was Stoneman's commander

     Gen. Thomas' description of how Stoneman should approach Danville seems to affirm Grant's original plan "to destroy but not to fight battles." Indeed, Stoneman went out of his way to avoid confrontations, including 150 years ago today when he skirted past Jonesborough, Tenn. 
     This looked cowardly to some Confederates who were unfamiliar with Stoneman's orders. At least three times (at Wytheville, the Yadkin River bridge north of Salisbury, and Swannanoa Gap) his forces backed off from well-defended targets and allowed the Confederates to claim pyrrhic victories.
     Gen. Thomas did not pre-approve (at least not in writing) the raid on Salisbury, which turned out to be Stoneman's greatest victory. He had also nixed Salisbury as a secondary target for Stoneman's 1864 raid into Virginia. Stoneman wanted to free the Union prisoners at Salisbury, but Thomas knew that was a potential blind spot for Stoneman, who had been captured the previous year while trying to liberate the Andersonville prison. Nor did Thomas authorize Stoneman to march via Wilkesboro, which delayed his arrival in Virginia by several days. 
     Grant was upset with Stoneman for taking so long to organize and equip his cavalry. However, in a Feb. 27 message, he gave Stoneman more latitude to destroy the railroads than Thomas did:

General Stoneman being so late in making his start in East Tennessee, and Sherman having passed out of the State of South Carolina, I think now his course had better be changed. It is not impossible that in the event of the enemy being driven from Richmond they may fall back to Lynchburg with a part of their force and attempt a raid into East Tennessee. It will be better, therefore, to keep Stoneman between our garrisons in East Tennessee and the enemy. Direct him to repeat his raid of last fall, destroying the railroad as far toward Lynchburg as he can. Sheridan starts to-day from Winchester for Lynchburg. This will vastly favor Stoneman. Every effort should be made to collect all the surplus forage and provisions of East Tennessee at Knoxville, and to get there a large amount of stores besides. It is not impossible that we may have to use a very considerable force in that section the coming spring. Preparations should at once be made to meet such contingency. If it had been possible to have got Stoneman off in time he would have made a diversion in favor of Sherman, and would have destroyed a large amount of railroad stock, cut off and left in Northwest South Carolina. It is too late now to do any good except to destroy the stock.

     To put Grant's original orders in context, here is how he envisioned the raid back on Jan. 31:

As this expedition goes to destroy and not to fight battles, but to avoid them when practicable, particularly against anything like equal forces, or where a great object is to be gained, it should go as lightly as possible. Stoneman's experience in raiding will teach him in this manner better than he can be directed.

     As Stoneman rode past Jonesborough 150 years ago today, he knew that if he continued northeast up the Holston Valley into Virginia, he would probably have to fight his way through fierce Confederate resistance in the gap between Marion and Wytheville. Studying his maps, he decided it would be better to march east across the mountains to Boone, N.C. From there, it appeared it would be simple to follow the New River northeast to his target in Christiansburg, Va.
     But as we said previously: With Stoneman, nothing is simple.

➤NEXT: 'A Yankee gentleman can steal butter'

  

This 1863 map used by Stoneman shows Knoxville TN in the lower left, Boone NC between the ridges toward the lower center; and the primary target of Christiansburg VA at the top right. Stoneman veered off the direct route (yellow arrow) following the Holston River toward Marion VA and Wytheville VA, as well as the route recommended by Gen. Thomas (blue arrows) following the New River from Boone past Jefferson NC and Independence. Instead, he continued east across the Blue Ridge (green arrows) to Wilkesboro and Jonesville NC and then turned north across the Blue Ridge via Cranberry Plain (now Hillsville VA) and Jacksonville (now Floyd VA). Click on the map above to see a larger version, or click here to see the original map in the Library of Congress.

No news is good news

BULLS GAP, Tenn.

 On Friday, March 24, the main column of Stoneman's Raid passed through Bulls Gap in eastern Tennessee and Gen. Alvan Gillem wrote in his report, "Nothing of interest transpired on the 24th."
 No news was good news, especially for Gillem, who had fought rebels on this very road twice in the past seven months. The previous September, he had led a successful manhunt to kill the notorious Confederate raider, Gen. John Hunt Morgan in nearby Greeneville. In November, Confederate Gen. John Breckinridge had routed Gillem's forces after a four-day battle in Bulls Gap.

Gen. Alvan Gillem, a 'Home Yankee'

    The 34-year-old Gillem was a native of Gainesboro, Tenn. (on the Cumberland River east of Nashville), a West Point graduate like Gen. George Stoneman, and an elected member of Tennessee's legislature. During Stoneman's Raid, he was the commanding officer for all three brigades.
 Gillem reported to Stoneman, who had broader responsibilities as the commander of the Department of Tennessee. Stoneman exercised total command over the raid during the 28 days he was there, and he reprimanded Gillem at least twice for excessive destruction. After Stoneman returned to Tennessee April 17, Gillem commanded the mop-up actions that continued in Stoneman's name. Discipline broke down after Stoneman left, culminating in the looting of Asheville on April 26 and Anderson May 1.
 At Bulls Gap, Stoneman divided his forces and sent his all-Tennessee 3rd Brigade northeast toward Bristol to raise havoc and force the rebels to defend an area that the Yankees actually had no plans to invade. This was the first of many feints and diversions Stoneman used to confuse and diffuse the enemy. 
 Meanwhile, Stoneman and Gillem led the 1st and 2nd Brigades (units from Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania) eastward past Greeneville and Jonesborough into the mountains. At the Doe River Cove (modern-day Hampton) they reunited with the 3rd Brigade and followed the Watauga River into North Carolina on a winding road that was the forerunner to U.S. 321.  
 Every peaceful morning, Gen. Gillem awoke on the lookout for trouble. He had 4,000 troops itching for a fight. But almost all the able-bodied men in the South were away on the front lines, leaving the home front undefended. Except for a few random bushwhackers, the Confederate resistance in eastern Tennessee evaporated like the dew.
 At least Gen. Gillem didn't have to worry about his old Bulls Gap nemesis, Gen. Breckinridge, who was now Jefferson Davis' secretary of war. Their next confrontation, so to speak, would be one of the more amusing episodes of Stoneman's Raid. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, April 21.

NEXT➤ To destroy and not to fight battles?