The Civil War deeply divided Yadkin County and other western North Carolinians, splitting neighbors and families as Confederate conscription fostered resistance, the mountains sheltered deserters from both sides, and armed bands settled scores with brutality. On June 17, 1861, the Yadkin Gray Eagles, the first Confederate company raised in the county, assembled on the courthouse grounds, where the ladies of Yadkin County presented Capt. John Kerr Connally a flag made from their silk dresses. The company became Co. B, 11th Regiment North Carolina Infantry, later Co. B, 21st Regiment, and finally Co. A, 1st Battalion Sharpshooters. Efforts to enforce Confederate conscription early in 1863 angered many North Carolinians, and in February 1863 a shootout at Bond Schoolhouse near Yadkinville erupted when local militiamen tried to capture Unionist sympathizers there. To support Confederate authorities, Gen. Robert F. Hoke and his command, including the 21st Regiment, passed through Yadkin County on September 10, 1863, rounding up deserters. In July 1864, a Unionist mob stormed the Yadkin County jail and released William Willard, Horace Allgood, and James Reed, and a second mob seized the Home Guard's arms and ammunition. Between 130 and 150 Unionists fled west, 48 reached Indiana, but most were captured and held at Camp Vance near Morganton. About 1,200 Yadkin County men served in the Confederate army, while a much smaller number served in the Union army. Several Yadkin County soldiers were present at Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. The 1st Battalion North Carolina Sharpshooters fought in major battles in North Carolina and Virginia as part of the Army of Northern Virginia and surrendered at Appomattox with 3 officers and 65 men. Capt. Reuben E. Wilson, who did not surrender there, was later arrested for murder in connection with the execution of deserters and confined until December 1865; although acquitted, he remained unreconstructed for the rest of his life and was buried in his Confederate uniform. The Thomas L. Tulbert House, built in 1853, was the first house constructed after Yadkinville was established, and Tulbert's daughter Laura A. Tulbert, born in 1855, was the first child born in the new town and county seat.