In late April 1865, Green River Plantation was visited by a detachment of U.S. cavalrymen, likely part of Col. William J. Palmer’s brigade in Union Gen. George Stoneman’s raid, a campaign that began on March 24, 1865, when Stoneman led 6,000 cavalrymen from Tennessee into southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina to disrupt Confederate supply lines by destroying sections of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, the North Carolina Railroad, and the Piedmont Railroad. After striking Boone on March 28, moving into Virginia on April 2, and returning to North Carolina a week later, Stoneman’s raid ended at Asheville on April 26, the same day Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham. Hungry soldiers and horses needing forage filled the plantation yard, and family tradition held that horses quartered in the house left footprints in the parlor floor. Union Gen. Alvan C. Gillem’s brigade entered Polk County from Rutherford County and rode through Columbus on April 22 after Confederate forces blocked Gillem’s path to Asheville at Swannanoa Gap. Gillem ordered Palmer, who was taking another route, to establish his headquarters in Rutherfordton and then follow his force. Palmer stayed in Rutherfordton until April 26, then marched about ten miles west to this vicinity and bivouacked. The next day Stoneman ordered Palmer to join the pursuit of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who had fled south from Virginia, and Palmer turned around and took up the chase into South Carolina. Green River Plantation had also received another Union foraging party in November 1863. Margaret Carson Weaver, who owned the property, wrote on November 14 that Federal troops had taken stored food and demanded that chickens be killed for their supper, and that after leaving within about an hour they said they would return, leaving the household feeling less safe. Joseph McDowell Carson, born at the Carson House in McDowell County, built the house early in the 19th century. It reflects Federal-style architecture later remodeled about mid-century in the Greek Revival style. Carson died in 1860. His son, John Montazuma Carson, enlisted in Co. B (Butler Guards), 2nd South Carolina Infantry in May 1861 and was wounded in the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861. Within hours of the battle, trains carried many casualties to the general hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, where John M. Carson died of his wounds about a week later, and his body was returned home for burial in the family cemetery.