756 NortH Caroiina Troops, 1861-65.

up into the night, protecting our wagons and guns, as best we
could.

A little sober second thought would have spoiled a lot of
war monuments, mounted them differently and faced them
the other way. But such is life and war. Early generally
managed his retreats well and did this after the first after-

noon.
RETURN TO NORTH CAROLINA.

This was the last trip of the Sixty-ninth up the Valley.
Upon reaching Staunton the long delayed order to go to West-
ern North Carolina was received. From seven hundred re-
duced to about 100, was a terrible tale to tell, a heroic record.
Here the war practically ended with these noble fellows, and
while the very last to actually surrender in North Carolina
(at Waynesville, 10 May, 1865) they came on to their own
loved mountain homes and turned up again later on. As
mentioned heretofore the writer of this arrived at Asheville
about 1 November, 1864, and took command of this part of
the regiment, now largely increased in numbers and extend-
ing from the French Broad river in the east to Notlay, be-
yond Murphy, in the west.

The department was under the command of General Jas.
G. Martin, with Colonel John B. Palmer in the field. I can
only detail operations that connected my men with the com-
manding general. There had been some friction between the
head officials of the various regiments on duty in these moun-
tains. I took no part in any of it. I simply tried to dis-
charge my duty, both to those above me and to those under
me. ‘That part of the regiment with Colonel J. B.* Palmer
that operated in East Tennessee between Hot Springs, N. C.,
and Morristown, New Market, Newport and Bull’s Gap, etc.,
and along the foot of Smoky Mountains by Sevierville, Mary-
ville, ete., is reported to have done faithful service under
Lieutenant-Colonel B. G. McDowell, of the Sixty-second, who
had refused to surrender at Cumberland Gap and was a gal-
lant officer.

The enemy in the meanwhile were not idle, but were not
having the pienie that they expected anywhere. Raids were

Srxty-Ninto REGIMENT. 757

made up all the rivers towards and into the North Carolina
mountains. Several parties of this kind nearly reached Ashe-
ville. Two reached Waynesville, one came to Bryson City
and still others were made up the Tennessee river, Hiawas-
see and Valley rivers to Murphy, but no permanent lodgment
was made or held by them.

KIRK.

Colonel J. R. Love after recruiting up a week or so arrived
at Asheville and made a trip into Yancey county, heading off
the notorious Kirk. About the same time the writer went
with 300 men up into Greene and Washington counties, Ten-
nessee, heading off Kirk also, below the “Red Banks of
Chuckey,” nearly opposite, and about ten miles south of
Jonesboro, Tenn., about where the town of Unicoi is now
located. This was about 1 January, 1865, and a snow fall
of eighteen inches on the mountains and near the same in the
Valley, made locomotion quite difficult. It also made the
pursuit of war difficult and hazardous. This it will be re-
membered, was the enemy’s country indeed. We . were
greeted with no cheers from the brave or smiles from the fair.
Meeting with neither disaster or success, I felt it my duty to
retrace my snow-trodden pathway to Paint Rock and thence
soon on to Waynesville, Webster, Quallatown, near Cherokee,
in Swain county, on down Tuckaseegee, passing the present
site of Bryson City at Bear’s Ford, thence to the Tennessee
river at the mouth of Tuckaseegee and mouth of Nantahala,
up the same crossing the Cowee Mountains and finally the
Nantahala Mountains at Red Marble Gap and down the Val-
ley river to Murphy. I left behind me all the troops under
Colonel Love, who went into winter quarters at Locust Old
Field (Canton, N. ©.) This was my task the balance of the
war, a lonely, perilous and desolate one, often travelling
twenty, thirty to fifty miles absolutely alone. This was then
almost a pathless wilderness. Now the pathway of the West-
ern North Carolina Railroad, it was then a wild section,
sparsely settled, especially along the route named.

INDIANS FAITHFUL.

Fortunately for our country, the Cherokee Indians inhab-