"The Civil War Era in Southern Appalachia" Topic

"Colonel Lawrence M. Allen was near the end of his rope in early January 1863. His 64th North Carolina Infantry Regiment had marched into their native western North Carolina to help quash bands of pro-Union citizens along the North Carolina and Tennessee border. One such group of "disloyal" men had recently raided Marshall, the county seat of Madison County. Ostensibly in search of salt, the raiders stole a variety of items from people's homes—including the blankets warming Colonel Allen's dangerously-ill children. Weeks of bushwhacking and sniping, plus the fresh emotional wounds inflicted by the death of their colonel's children, heightened the gray-clad infantrymen's exasperation. Rounding up a number of suspects, the Confederate soldiers marched toward the Tennessee border. A few miles outside of town, however, the soldiers halted and lined their civilian prisoners along the road. Forcing them to kneel, the regular Confederate troops shot their defenseless prisoners. Their thirteen victims ranged from thirteen to sixty years old.[1]

The Shelton Laurel Massacre, as it came to be known, captures many of the salient experiences of Southern Appalachians during the Civil War. First, governmental power constituted a distant entity for most southern Appalachians. Although politically active, Appalachians rarely felt the direct application of state power. As a result, wartime conscription officials, tax collectors, and regular military organizations represented an "invasion" against mountaineers accustomed to a more localized power structure. Second, the Civil War divided the Southern Appalachian population. Unionism in the highland South has often been exaggerated (only East Tennessee can claim a Unionist majority within the Appalachian portion of the Confederacy), but strong pockets of dissent formed in the mountains. Distant government and divided loyalties contributed to a third major component of the Civil War in Appalachia: guerrilla warfare. Colonel Allen's regiment represented an exception rather than the norm. For the most part, the Civil War combat in Appalachia pitted smaller regular commands against each other or state militia against guerrillas. With notable exceptions such as the battles in West Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and East Tennessee, smaller forces fought for largely local objectives across the mountain South…"

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Armand

Had a great uncle that had mustered out due to wounds from the CSA/ Alabama forces. He was known to tell his wife that he was going hunting and looking for Yankees or squirrels. Which ever he found first. This was in Talladega county. (Known Clay county.)