Civil War in Graham County

During the Civil War, Graham County, then part of Cherokee County, gave scant support to secession even though both ardent Confederates and staunch Unionists lived there. Because the region was not financially dependent on slavery, most families wanted to remain neutral, but pressure to choose sides left them suffering from both Union and Confederate raiders. Renegades and bushwhackers were especially troublesome in the rugged terrain. Confederate Capt. J.W. Cooper’s Company H of the 69th North Carolina Infantry occupied Camp Cheoah on Rhea Hill, at the site of present-day Robbinsville Elementary School, as part of Col. William H. Thomas’s Legion defending western North Carolina from Federal incursions. In November 1864, Companies C and G of the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (U.S.) fought Cherokee soldiers of Thomas’s Legion there; the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry was made up largely of Confederate and Union deserters. Several members of the Kirkland family joined that force but later acted independently as the Kirkland Bushwhackers under John Jackson “Bushwhacking” Kirkland, whose band ambushed, robbed, and murdered innocent people throughout the area. After the principal Confederate surrenders in April 1865, Maj. Stephen Whitaker of Thomas’s Legion issued parole papers to Confederate troops at Thomas’s Store on May 14, making them among the last troops in North Carolina or east of the Mississippi River to surrender, eight days after one of the last engagements in the East on May 6 at Hanging Dog Creek in Cherokee County.

Robbinsville, North Carolina · United States