The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War (Civil War America) - Softcover

John C. Inscoe; Gordon B. McKinney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807855030 ISBN 13: 9780807855034

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003

Synopsis

In the mountains of western North Carolina, the Civil War was fought on different terms than those found throughout most of the South. Though relatively minor strategically, incursions by both Confederate and Union troops disrupted life and threatened the social stability of many communities. Even more disruptive were the internal divisions among western Carolinians themselves. Differing ideologies turned into opposing loyalties, and the resulting strife proved as traumatic as anything imposed by outside armies. As the mountains became hiding places for deserters, draft dodgers, fugitive slaves, and escaped prisoners of war, the conflict became a more localized and internalized guerrilla war, less rational and more brutal, mean-spirited, and personal--and ultimately more demoralizing and destructive.

From the valleys of the French Broad and Catawba Rivers to the peaks of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, the people of western North Carolina responded to the war in dramatically different ways. Men and women, masters and slaves, planters and yeomen, soldiers and civilians, Confederates and Unionists, bushwhackers and home guardsmen, Democrats and Whigs--all their stories are told here.

About this title

Book Description:

"A much anticipated study of one of the more misunderstood regions of the antebellum and Civil War South. . . . Virtually every facet of life in North Carolina's Appalachian mountains comes forth in [this] well-written and thoroughly researched book that provides another piece in the emerging larger mosaic of the Civil War 'South'. . . . By far the most detailed description of circumstances and events ever presented on the region."-- Appalachian Journal

From the Inside Flap:

A comprehensive history of a non-combat region of the Confederacy, the 17 mountain counties of western North Carolina where loyalties were divided. This area suffered incursions by troops from both sides; attracted draft dodgers, deserters, fugitive slaves, and escaped prisoners; and experienced brutal and demoralizing internal conflicts.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0807855030
• ISBN 13: 9780807855034
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 382