122 NorrH CaroLina Troops, 1861-’65.

Tennessee and North Carolina. The four counties of Chero-
kee, Clay, Graham and Swain were disputed territory all this
time. While large bodies of Federals seldom came out, yet
small scouts were constantly depredating upon and killing the
citizens and taking off many to prison. Colonel Walker was
murdered at his home near Murphy on the night of 3 Janu-
ary, 1864, while there on sick leave.

In order to properly realize and appreciate the work done,
the reader should bear in mind how these North Carolina
counties before named, are situated. Cherokee, in the ex-
treme west, is wedged in between Tennessee and Georgia,
its east end between Graham and Clay Counties, the former

with a long, rugged and tortuous, but not impassable moun- |

tain line, bordering on East Tennessee and reaching from
Tennessee river and the great buit end of the “Great Smoky
Mountains” out towards “Hanging Dog” westward, while the
latter—-Clay County—borders on Georgia and crosses the
Blue Ridge, or embraces its western limit.

It should be said of Colonel Walker that he was a man of
more than ordinary ability and influence. He was a member
of the Legislature in 1857-58, and when the “call to arms”
resounded in his State, he raised the first company from Cher-
okee, was soon made Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment
(Twenty-ninth North Carolina), but failing health compelled
him to resign. Recovering somewhat his health, he promptly
assisted his old friend, Colonel W. H. Thomas, in forming the
“Legion,” where he was always regarded as a prompt and
faithful officer and loyal soldier of the South. After his
death, Lieutenant-Colonel McKamy was entitled to the com-
mand of the Eightieth, but he was with Colonel Love in Vir-

ginia, doing valiant service till his capture at. Winchester, ~

Va., 19 September, 1864, where he lost most of his men by
wounds, capture and death.

Let the reader still bear in mind the geography and topog-
raphy of this region. The eastern boundaries of these three
counties practically jut up against the great Nantahala Moun-
tains, connecting the Smoky and Blue Ridge—the culminat-

ing points of both—for really, both do disappear from the
maps hereabouts.

EIGHTIETH REGIMENT. 12s

The Smoky Mountains and Tennessee line “round up” a
few miles east of Tennessee river, at an altitude of about
6,700 feet on “Clingman’s Dome.” This great and grand
mountain, terrible to view from a distance, yet beautiful
and useful in reality on its great broad top, was most of
the time inhabited during the war or occupied by the soldiers
of this regiment, especially the Indians.

The cavalry companies of Neff and Wallace did much ac-
tive service for Generals Bragg and Johnston, and were per-
manently cut off from the battalion as well as the regiment.
After the murder of Colonel Walker and during almost all
the year 1864, the remaining companies of this battalion
were on duty along the mountain gaps and passes, making
and repelling attacks upon and from the enemy similar work
to that heretofore delineated in the sketch of the Sixty-ninth
Regiment.

The cavalry companies of the regiment, especially Wal-
lace’s and Neff’s, did no service in North Carolina at all after
Burnside’s occupancy of East Tennessee, but were attached
to General J. C. Vaughn’s East Tennessee cavalry brigade un-
der orders of General Bragg. They did good service, and
like all soldiers in this East Tennessee and Western North
Carolina Department, were always on the move, and as subse-
quent events have proven, were of invaluable service to the
South.

When Longstreet failed to capture Knoxville, and fell back
up eastwards towards Virginia, he was soon followed by
Burnside, Sherman, and as far as Strawberry Plains by Gen-
eral Grant, with an army of 50,000 men. At this time and
place a “council of war” was held by these three great Union
Generals in the house and at the then home of Lieutenant-
Colonel Stringfield, of the Sixty-ninth North Carolina, of
our Legion, and in a house built by his father for his great
grandfather, Colonel James King, a King’s Mountain hero.

In this council of war the idea was advanced and pressed
almost to a certainty to cut the army into four divisions and
send 10,000 each up Little Tennessee toward Macon County;
10,000 to Waynesville, and 10,000 up French Broad, towards
Asheville and Burnsville, N. C., and 20,000 towards Bristol