State

RAIDER STONEMAN Stoncman's Raid, a Union harassing campaign during the Civil War, rained death, destruction and terror on Western North Carolina. Present-day Tar Heels often hear of the raid. Families have passed down legends about it. Historical markers dot the state’s landscape locating General Stoncman's route. But few know what the raid was all about, what role it played in the Civil War big picture. Dr. Ina Wocstcmcycr Van Noppen, a charming Boone woman who dotes on historical research, has set out to get the whole thing into factual focus. To do this, Dr. Van Noppen re-rode much of the trail Stoncman’s horse- riding troopers blazed across this sec¬ tion of the South. The division-size cavalry raid, com¬ manded by West Pointer George Stone- man, began near Knoxville, Tenn., crossed the Blue Ridge, swept through Boone, Wilkesboro, Winston-Salem and Greensboro. It branched northward to Lynchburg, Va., dropped southward to Athens, Ga.. culminating in a chase after Confederate President Jeff Davis. For some of the divisional elements, the raid wound up as a 2,000-milc-long march, the longest without returning to headquarters by any cavalry in the war. The raiders* mission was to cut Southern transportation arteries, de¬ stroy supply producing centers and break civilian morale. It was done by burning, pillaging, killing and humiliating. Supplies came from the land and women were forced Following Sftoneman’s Footsteps Л Boone historian trails famous raider through mountains and Piedmont. to cook for troops. (A Taylorsville woman fried eggs all day long, feeding one table of men after another.) A main Sioncman objective was Salisbury, site of Confederate supply depots, arsenal, hospitals, railroad center and a military prison containing some 10.000 Federal POWs. The prisoners gained release before Stoncman got to Salisbury, but he did burn down military installations. General Stoncman. once captured by the South and freed in an exchange, was successfully doing what Sherman did, but on a "smaller scale." He was destroying the people’s will to fight. For anecdotal coloring, Dr. Van Noppen interviewed scores of old- timers from Dr. Archibald Henderson’s two sisters to mountaineer Jack Norris of Boone, who remembered stories from their parents. The Henderson sisters said that at Salisbury, Mrs. Archibald Hender¬ son, II. saved the family silver by hid¬ ing it between the walls and delayed Federal ransacking of her home by bellowing, "If you put one foot for¬ ward, I will shoot you!" Jack Norris related that residents near Boone toted their hams to moun¬ tain pastures, placed them on big boul¬ ders and camouflaged them with moss covering. Dr. Van Noppen, author of two other books, one on America's westward movement and the other a documen¬ tary history of the old South, dug up some 320 references to document "Stoncman's Last Raid.” She discovered that many Union sol¬ diers conducted themselves gentle¬ manly, usually a reflection of their im¬ mediate commander's personality. A highly disciplined, well-mannered By JOliiN* CORKY Dr. Ino Wotilemeyer Von Nopptn interview! Jock Norrii of Boone, whole dciccndonti bid hom* Irom Stonemon roiders by plocing them on big boulder! ond comoulloging with moi! covering.— (John Corey photo.' outfit was the 15th Pennsylvania Regi¬ ment, led by Colonel William J. Palm¬ er. a Quaker and in civilian life sec¬ retary to the Pennsylvania Railroad president. Palmer controlled the troops so well that a sergeant and 10 men turned in to him a captured Confederate wagon bulging with $200,000 in gold and private valuables belonging to General Beauregard and Macon, Ga., citizens. By contrast, other regiments made up of "Home Yankees," Southerners in the Union Army, were bitter and unnecessarily cruel to populations. The troopers uncovered whiskey stills near Wilkesboro and threw a mass drinking spree. The corn dissatisfied them with horseback riding and they confiscated a conglomeration of horse- drawn vehicles. General Stoncman blamed the offi¬ cers and called for a review of troops along the Yadkin River banks. The review Stoncman saw probably will never again be matched in U. S. Army history. The soldiers rolled by in a mile-long caravan of carriages, stagecoaches and buses, stacked with drunken soldiers, their booted feet sticking out in all directions. Many Tar Heel villages and towns openly greeted Stoncman's men. pointing up some disunity in the South¬ ern cause. At Elkin some 60 girls cm- ( Commut'd on page 16) THE STATE, MARCH B. 19S8 13