Kirk's Raid

On February 1, 1865, Colonel George Kirk of the 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry (U.S.) left Newport, Tennessee, with 400 cavalry and 200 infantry for a raid into Haywood County. Passing through the mountains at Mount Sterling and following the Cataloochee Turnpike up Jonathan Creek Valley to Waynesville, his men killed former Confederates Absolom B. Carver and James E. Rice, burned the home of Young Bennett in Cataloochee, and then burned a school serving as a makeshift hospital for ailing Confederate soldiers. Kirk reached Waynesville on February 4 and sacked the town, ordered the burning of the home of Revolutionary War hero Colonel Robert Love, opened the Waynesville jail, liberated its prisoners, mostly local Unionists confined by Confederate authorities, and destroyed the building. After ravaging Waynesville, Kirk marched toward Tennessee and camped at Balsam Gap, where a small contingent of Home Guards and farmers attacked his raiders. He retreated first to Waynesville and then to Soco Gap, but as he approached Soco Gap, Lieutenant Robert T. Conley's sharpshooters of Thomas's Legion attacked, prompting Kirk to order a swift retreat to Balsam Gap, where the Federals escaped into Tennessee less than a week after the raid began. In 1863, local resident Solomon Finger enlisted in Company E, 29th North Carolina Infantry, at age 44, leaving his wife and five young children at home. He was captured on July 22, 1864, during the Battle of Atlanta and imprisoned in Camp Chase, Ohio. When a flu epidemic later struck Maggie Valley, he was informed by telegram that all five of his children had died. Released at the end of the war, Finger survived a walk of more than 100 miles and a murder attempt during his long journey home. He and his wife, Eliza, later had four more children, and Finger and his entire family are buried nearby.

Maggie Valley, North Carolina · United States