WATAUGA COUNTY, NC - HISTORY - A History of Watauga County, North Carolina
			       Chapter 12, Part 1
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A History of Watauga County, North Carolina

John Preston Arthur


Page 159
Chapter XII
War Times and Afterwards.

A Hopeless Task.--It would take several volumes the size of this to give the
history of the troops sent from Watauga County into the Civil War. Their
record is partially preserved in Clark's North Carolina Regiments, Moore's
Roster and elsewhere. Only some of the principal events which occurred in this
county and in those portions of this section which were once a part of Watauga
County can he given.  There were at least one thousand men from Watauga in the
Confederate army and one hundred in the Federal, Company I of the Thirteenth
Tennessee Cavalry having no less than thirty-three Wataugans in its ranks.
Col. George N. Folk was the first to enlist volunteers in this county, and the
response which his call met with was but the forerunner of many more
enlistments soon to follow. Many men composing the Fifty-Eighth North Carolina
Regiment, Col. J. B. Palmer's, went from this county, though a large part of
it was then embraced in the newly formed county of Mitchell.  Indeed, Colonel
Palmer's home on the Linville River had been in Watauga from the time it was
purchased and the residence built in 1858 till the new county was formed in
1861. The old county line then ran below his residence along Pisgah Ridge, and
a voting precinct, at Levi Franklin's house, now the upper part of Potter
Brown's meadow, is still remembered by some of the older residents of Boone
and vicinity.  It was the most remote of all in the county, and the messenger
bearing the returns usually did not arrive at the court house in Boone till
after midnight. That he managed to get here even as late as that was due to
the practice prevailing at the time, of keeping "tab" on the votes as they
were cast, removing them from the hat into which they were usually deposited,
examining them, and crediting each candidate for whom they had been cast with
the vote to which he was entitled. Thus, the count was kept as rapidly as the
ballots were deposited.

Page 160

But, and this seems to have been an important feature of the matter, some
ballots were always left in the to show that the voting was still going on, or
that the precinct had not closed. Consequently, when the sun set on the first
Thursday in August of election years, there were but a few ballots remaining
to be counted, which was soon done and the messenger dispatched with the
result to Boone.  Captain Willie M. Hodges, still hale and active at the age
of eighty-three, remembers attending that precinct in 1850 or 1852 in the
contest between Michael Cook and Jack Horton for sheriff. He took some of the
juice of the peach with him, a gallon and a half, to be exact, and carried the
precinct overwhelmingly for Cook, his uncle, or, to be exact again, thirty-
eight out of forty votes. Th dancing which took place at Franklin's house
during that day in which barefoot girls and women joined, was the most
vigorous, if not the most graceful, he ever witnessed. He still wonders how it
was that those bare feet did not wear through to the quick.(1)

"Keith" Blalock.--It might seem almost as if the history of the Civil War in
Watauga were inextricably interwoven with the life and adventures of W. M.
Blalock, commonly called " Keith" Blalock, a nic-name given him because of the
fact that Alfred Keith, of Burnsville, was a great fighter during Blalock's
youth, and as he was something of a fighter himself, his boy companions called
him "Keith." Keith and his wife, born Malinda Pritchard, lived "under the
Grandfather" when the Civil War commenced, and both became members of Zeb
Vance's 26th Regiment, he as W. M. and she as Sam Blalock. She wore a
private's uniform and tented and messed with Keith. She watched the men "when
they went in swimming" near Kinston, but never went in herself. Keith was a
Union man and joined only to avoid conscription and in the hope that
opportunity might offer for him to desert to the Union lines. But the fortunes
of war did not afford this chance as speedily as he wished, so he went into
the bushes and covered himself with poison oak. When this took effect the army
surgeons were puzzled as to the nature 
__________ 
Note: (1) He also wonders if one of the Franklins, who had  his tax list 
there, ever got it straightened out after the dance was over and peach-juice 
exhausted.

Page 161

of his complaint, but they agreed that he was then unfit for service and
discharged him. Then "Sam" presented himself and convinced his colonel, Zeb
Vance, that he was no longer fit for duty either, his lawful tent and messmate
having been discharged. They returned to their home under the Grandfather, but
it was not long till Keith had cured his infirmity by the frequent application
of strong brine to the affected parts, brine being nothing more or less than
strong salt water. Then Confederate sympathizers wanted to know why he did not
return. Keith showed his discharge, and they answered by trying to arrest and
conscript him. He and "Sam" retreated still further up under the Grandfather
and lived in a rail pen. But they were followed even there, and on one
occasion Keith was so hotly pursued that he was shot in the left arm, and had
to take refuge with some hogs which had "bedded up" under the rocks. Keith
then went through the lines into Tennessee and became recruiting officer for a
Michigan regiment stationed in Tennessee.  Whether true or not, Blalock
believed that Robert Green, who then lived in the Globe, but had also a place
at Blowing Rock, was in the party that had wounded him. Accordingly, when he
and some of his comrades met Green one day while he was driving his wagon from
the Globe to Blowing Rock, he shot Green as he ran down the side of the
mountain, breaking his thigh. Green's friends say that Blalock's crowd left
him lying as he had fallen, and that he managed to regain his wagon, turn it
around and drive back home. Blalock's friends say that after he had wounded
Green, shooting him through his wagon body and afterwards bragging on his
marksmanship, he went to him, and finding him unconscious, took him to his
wagon, put him in it, turned the wagon around and started the team in the
direction of Green's home. This is doubted by Green's friends, however. Robert
Green was the father of the late Judge L. L. Green, of this county.

Four Coffey Brothers.-- To go back a little, Keith Blalock's mother had
married Austin Coffey, while Keith was a very little boy, and Coffey reared
him to manhood.  Austin Coffey lived almost in sight of the home of his
brother, McCaleb Coffey, in the Coffey Gap of the Blue Ridge and on the old
Morganton Road.

Page 162

McCaleb was rather a Confederate sympathizer, having a son, Jones, in the
Confederate army. Austin was rather a Union man, though too old to be drafted
into the service. Of course, he sheltered and fed Keith and his comrades
whenever he or they came to his home. But William and Reuben Coffey were
pronounced Southern men, and active  in forcing out-lyers and others subject
to conscription into the ranks of the Confederate Army. Meantime, Blalock was
taking recruits through the lines into the Union army in Tennessee. Thus, a
natural antagonism sprang up between him and William and Reuben Coffey.

Danger from Tennessee.-- Up to the spring of 1864 the Union element in the
mountains had been rather timid, but as the tide of battle turned against the
Confederacy, and recruiting officers, of whom James Hartley was a conspicuous
example, increased throughout the mountain region, Union men and women grew
bolder. Then, too, there had been numerous desertions from the Southern army,
and men not only from these mountains, but from Tennessee, Georgia and
Virginia, were lying out in the mountains almost everywhere. Of course, they
had to live, and if those who could would not feed them, they naturally tried
to feed themselves. To do this they had to pilfer, steal and finally, in
bands, to rob outright. A state of guerrilla warfare was thus imminent, when
an event occurred which almost revolutionized matters in the mountains.   This
was Kirk's raid through the mountains to Camp Vance, six miles below
Morganton. That it had been successful was almost a miracle, and the leaders
of the Southern Confederacy realized the vulnerability of its piedmont region
to like incursions from East Tennessee. It should he remembered that General
Burnside had long been in possession of Knoxville, Tenn., and that he might at
almost any time send a large force through the mountains and destroy the
railroad from Richmond to Columbia, the main artery of the Confederacy.   To
guard against this contingency, General Robert B. Vance, of Asheville, had
been placed in command of the Military District of Western North Carolina, as
it was officially designated. Also, that on the 7th of July, 1863, the General
Assembly of North Carolina had provided for the

Page 163

organization and equipment of the Home Guard, officially designated as "The
Guard for Home Defense," to be composed of all males between eighteen and
fifty years of age. In April, 1864, Gen. John W. McElroy, commanding the
forces around Burnsville, wrote to Governor Vance that "the county is gone
up," and that there was a determination on part of the people generally "to do
no more service in the cause."(1)

Longstreet's Withdrawal.-- General Longstreet had been detached from Lee's
army in Virginia and sent to East Tennessee in 1863, where, after the Battle
of Chickamauga, he drove the Federals back into Knoxville and besieged that
place. But Lee could not long do without Longstreet, and so, in January, 1864,
Longstreet tried to withdraw from Knoxville and return to Richmond with his
army. No sooner, however, had Longstreet started than Burnside started after
him. In anticipation of this, General Vance was ordered to cross the mountains
through Haywood County and attack Burnside in flank as he pursued Longstreet.
Vance, however, was captured as soon as he reached the western slope of the
Smoky Mountains, and sent to prison, his force of about I,200 men of all arms
retreating back to Buncombe as best they might.  Thus the Military District of
Western North Carolina was left without a general. But Col. J. B. Palmer, of
the 58th North Carolina, asked to be placed in command, and he was accordingly
transferred early in 1864 from his regiment in the western army and placed in
command. But General Lee wanted a West Point man in charge of this most
important region, and assigned General James G. Martin to that position.
Meantime, Keith Blalock was passing hack and forth between the lines and
keeping the Federal authorities informed of conditions around his old home
"under the Grand-father." The mountains were at that time practically
defenseless. Camp Vance with a few hundred recruits was the only force of
moment between Knoxville and Salisbury, where were confined thousands of
Federal prisoners. Blalock had grown up with Joseph V. Franklin, who was
reared near Linville Falls and knew the country like a book. Col. George W.
Kirk was 
__________ 
Note: (1)Rebellion Records, Series SI, Vol. LIII, p. 485.

Page 164

then in command of the Third North Carolina Mounted Infantry, United States
Army, and persuaded the military authorities to allow him to make a raid to
Camp Vance, release the conscripts there, steal an engine and train, cut the
wires, go on to Salisbury, release and arm the prisoners there and turn them
loose on the country. It was a daring scheme, and the wonder is that Kirk was
allowed to make the venture.

Kirk's Camp Vance Raid.-- With 130 men, including twelve Cherokee Indians, on
foot and carrying their rations and arms and blankets, Kirk left Morristown,
Tenn., June 13, 1864, and marched via Bull Gap, Greenville and the Crab
Orchard, all in Tennessee, crossed the Big Hump Mountain and went up the Toe
River, passing the Cranberry iron mine, where from forty to sixty men were
detailed by the Confederate government making iron, when they camped near
David Ellis' house and where rations were cooked for Kirk's men.  On the 26th
they scouted through the mountains, passing Pinola and crossing Linville
River. The following day they got to Upper Creek at dark, where they did not
camp, but keeping themselves in the woods all the time, got to Camp Vance at
daylight. Here they demanded its surrender, which was agreed to. It had been
Kirk's plan to take a locomotive and cars and such arms as he might find at
the Camp and go to Salisbury, where the Federal prisoners confined there were
to be released. Failing in that, he wanted to destroy the bridge over the
Yadkin, but a telegram had been sent before they could cut the wire and that
part of their scheme was abandoned. They captured 1,200 small arms, 3,000
bushels of grain, 279 prisoners, thirty-two negroes and forty-eight horses and
mules. Kirk also got forty recruits for his regiment, and then, after
destroying the locomotive he found there, three cars, the depot and commissary
buildings, he started to return.  R. C. Pearson shot Hack Norton, of Madison
County, one of Kirk's men, at Hunting Creek, but Kirk got over the Catawba
River and camped that night. The next day they crossed John's River and
Brown's Mountain, where they were fired into by pursuing Confederates at 3 :30
pm. Kirk put some of his Camp Vance prisoners in front, and one of them, B. A.

Page 165

Bowles, a drummer, was killed and a seventeen year old boy wounded. Colonel
Kirk was himself wounded here with several others of his command. This was at
Israel Beck's farm.  They camped that night at top of the Winding Stairs Road,
where they were attacked next morning. Col. W. W. Avery and Phillip Chandler
were mortally wounded, Col. Calvin Houck was shot through the wrist and Powell
Benfield through the thigh. The attacking party then retreated and Kirk
continued his retreat, passing by Col. J. B. Palmer's home and burning it that
morning. Kirk and all his men escaped without further mishap.  On July 21,
1864, General Stoneman, wiring from Atlanta, thanked and complimented Kirk,
but instructed General Scofield at Knoxville not to allow him to undertake
another such hazardous expedition. Joseph V. Franklin, now living at Drexel,
N. C., was the guide. A man named Beech, who had been wounded, was left at
John Franklin's, near Old Fields of Toe, where he was attended by Eleazer
Pyatt. At Henry Barringer's, on Jonas's Ridge, some of Kirk's men threw off
some of the plunder they had captured, lest its weight should retard their
retreat.  In his "Reminiscenses of Caldwell County" (p. 51), G. W. F. Harper
gives an account of an attack upon Kirk's retreating men by ten men, including
himself, at Moore's Cross Roads, where they captured one prisoner, two mules
and some arms. No mention of this is made in the official report. (See
Rebellion Records, Series i, Vol. XXXIX, Part I, p. 232.) Harper also states
that the detachment which attacked Kirk at the head of the Winding Stairs was
under command of Col. Allen Brown, from the garrison at Salisbury, with
militia and volunteers from Burke County, and was well armed. The pursuing
party was composed of about 1,200 men.

Death of William Coffey.-- Kirk's raid in 1864 emboldened the Unionists in
Watauga County, and Blalock went about in Federal uniform, fully armed.
Between August, 1864, and February, 1865, the people of this section were
harassed beyond measure, for not only had the deserters and outlyers to be fed
by submitting to their thefts and robberies, but a body of men calling
themselves Vaughan's Cavalry, and claiming to be Confederates,

Page 166

came from Tennessee to Boone on their way to Newton for the purpose of
recruiting their horses, it was alleged, but to keep out of danger also, most
probably. These men were worse than Kirk's or Stoneman's men, according to old
people still living, stealing horses and mules and everything else they
fancied. What they did not like they destroyed, throwing out of doors many of
the household goods of the defenseless women and children. Col. W. L. Bryan
and J. W. Councill followed them to Newton and recovered two horses they had
stolen from the latter in 1865.  In these circumstances, there is no wonder
that Blalock hunted out his enemies. Reuben Coffey was first sought, but he
was not at home when Keith called. He and his aids then went to William
Coffey's field, forced him to go half a mile with them to James Gragg's mill,
and to sit astride a rude bench, where he was shot, Blalock turning over that
act to a man named Perkins, because of the fact that William Coffey was the
brother of Austin Coffey, Keith's step-father.  In 1864 Keith also had what he
called a "battle" with Jesse Moore in Carroll Moore's orchard, in which Jesse
was wounded in the heel and Keith had an eye shot out. Pat, a son of Daniel
Moore, had a thigh broken in same fight.  This was in the Globe, in Caldwell,
however.

The Murder of Austin Coffey.(1)-- These activities soon brought some of
Colonel Avery's battalion on the scene, and a party of Captain James Marlow's
company went to McCaleb Coffey's house in the Coffey Gap. There they found
Austin Coffey, who was recognized by John B. Boyd, and arrested. Boyd left his
prisoner with Marlow's men and went on home in the Globe. That was Sunday,
February 26, 1865. Nothing was seen of Austin Coffey after that till his body
was discovered a week later in the woods by searchers sent out by his widow.
All sorts of stories have been circulated as to what really happened to
Austin, and it was only recently that what is probably the true account was
obtained from J. Filmore Coffey, of Foscoe. This gentleman is a son of Austin
Coffey, having been born in 1858. When he became a man and had married he
stopped one 
__________ 
Note: (1) Austin Coffey was the son of Jesse Coffey, and was born 
in 1818, and died on the 27th of February, 1865.

Page 167 night in 1882 at the house of a man named John Walker, near Shelby.
When Walker learned Coffey's name and that he was the youngest son of Austin
Coffey, Walker told him that he, Walker, had been a member of Marlow's company
when Austin was turned over to them; that they had taken him to a vacant house
about half way between 'Shull's Mills and Blowing Rock, known then as the Tom
Henley place, where Nelson Coffey now lives, one-half mile west of the Blowing
Rock Road. There a fire was kindled and Coffey went to sleep on the floor
before it. While he was sleeping this John Walker was detailed to kill Austin
Coffey, but refused. It was then that a base-born fellow, named Robert Glass,
or Anders, volunteered to do the act, and while the old man slept shot him
through the head.  The body was taken to a laurel and ivy thicket near by and
hidden. One week later a dog was seen with a human hand in his mouth. Search
revealed the body. Glass, after suffering much mental torture, died long
before 1882 in Rutherford County. J. F. Coffey acquits both John Boyd and
Major A. C. Avery of all complicity in his father's death.

Other "Activities."-- About this time Levi Coffey, a son of Elisha, threw in
his fortunes with Blalock and his companions, and when Benjamin Green and his
men tried to arrest Levi at Mrs. Fox's house, above what is now Foscoe, the
latter ran out of the house and was shot in the shoulder, but he escaped. This
was during the autumn of 1864, as well as can now be determined. This caused
the bushwhackers, as Blalock and his followers were called, when they were not
called robbers outright, to turn against the Greens, and finding that Lott
Green, a son of Amos, was at his home near Blowing Rock, they went there at
night to arrest or kill him. Lott was expecting a physician to visit him that
night, and when someone knocked at his door, he, thinking that the doctor had
arrived, unsuspectingly opened it. Finding who his visitors really were, he
drew back, slamming the door to. It just so happened that there were at that
time in the house with Lott his brother, Joseph; his brother-in-law, Henry
Henley, the latter of the Home Guard, and L. L. Green, afterwards a judge of
the Superior Court, then but seventeen

Page 168 years old, but also a member of the Home Guard. The bushwhackers are
said to have been Keith Blalock, Levi Coffey, Sampson Calloway, son of Larkin,
Edmund Ivy, of Georgia, a deserter from the Confederate army, Adolphus
Pritchard, and ---------- Gardner, of Mitchell. Blalock demanded that all in
the house surrender, whereupon Henly asked what treatment would be accorded
them in case they surrendered, and Blalock is said to have answered: "As you
deserve, damn you." Henley then slipped his gun through a crack of the door
and fired, wounding Calloway in the side. The bushwhackers then retired, and
the Green party, who followed, saw blood. Calloway was left at the house of
John Walker, two miles above Shull's Mills. Henly led the party at Green's
house, excepting L. L. Green, to Walker's, and surrounded it. Henly was at the
rear and shot Edmund Ivy as he ran out, killing him. Blalock called to a woman
to open the gate, and Mrs. Medie Walker, born McHaarg, did so. Through this
gate Blalock and his company escaped.  A little later on, February 26, 1865,
Captain James Marlow's infantry, expecting to unite with a detachment of
cavalry under Nelson Miller at Valle Crucis, went to Austin Coffey's house and
arrested Thomas Wright and Austin, Alex. Johnson, who claimed to be a
recruiting officer for Kirk, having just left and gone to McCaleb Coffey's
house.(1) The infantry followed, taking Wright with them, but Wright's wife
and Blalock's mother, then Mrs. Austin Coffey, went a nigh-way and gave
warning to the inmates of McCaleb's house before the infantry arrived by
calling out in a loud voice that the "rebels" were coming. Thereupon, Johnson
dashed out of the door, and although fired on, escaped unhurt. Most of the
infantry followed Johnson, but John Boyd, in charge of four or five men,
entered the house, where they found Sampson Calloway, he having been removed
from the Walker house which Henly had attacked. Calloway got into bed and was
not arrested, but Austin Coffey was arrested, as before related.   All now
agree that Austin Coffey did not deserve his fate: that he was a big-
__________ 
Note: Brooks and Smoot, "two preacher men." also engaged in
piloting Union men through the lines to Tennessee, via Elk Cross Roads,
Sutherland and Cut Laurel Gap, were killed on the left of the road to Blowing
Rock, beyond where Kilby Hartley lives, by the Home Guard.

(Chapter 12 continued)