Thanks for spending so much time answering my note. This all sounds right down my alley as I read all I can about the Cherokee and/or the Civil War. I had no luck finding the blog you mentioned so if you don't mind sending it, my email is destinyranch3@yahoo.com

I will certainly be buying your books that you mentioned.

Thanks again,

Ken

My Hall ancestors, five brothers to be exact, served with Thomas's Legion and Company C, 39th Infantry Regiment. Merryman Hall, James B. Hall, Moses I. Hall and Burton Kimsey Hall were all imprisoned at Fort Delaware prison camp. Merryman died while imprisoned. James and Moses were released eventually and Burton released a little over a year later. I do not know how he survived. Burton is the only one I have a photo of in his confederate uniform. According to records at Fort Delaware, they were captured Feb. 18th, 1864. Their brother John A. Hall died in 1862 while serving in Lenoir, TN of disease.

Hi Terrell,

I'm a fellow Henderson-County product, and I'm working on a book about the area, largely centering on Bearwallow Mountain. I'm trying to track down information about Colonel Palmer's trip up the mountain during his part in Stoneman's Raid. I know that you fictionalized his trek in The Secret of War, and I wondered if you had tracked down journals or other records of his time with Bearwallow in researching and writing your novel.

I appreciate any direction you can provide, and I'd love to pick your brain at some point about the area and my project (mostly about land use and identity). I live in Charleston, but I'm up to Hendersonville occasionally visiting family. Feel free to get back at me through this site, or more directly at jeremybjones3@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Jeremy

Hi Terrell,
Email me directly at dawnmarie@citcom.net and I'll send you my McCall database in Word format. My 4th great grand uncle was David Garren who married Margaret Whitaker, then I have Theo Jesse Garren who married Maybelle Frisbee and she was a 5th cousin to me. Then, there is "Uncle" Henry Garren who married Lillie Smathers. As to the McCall line, Sarah Ellen Garren, daughter of Silas Garren and Jane Case married James Gaston McCall, son of Robert McCall and Rachel Glazener. I have transcribed a copy of Silas' will and can send you a copy if you do not already have it... it is in my database as well. Actually, Samuel McCall is both mine and my husband's 5th grandfather... with Kenneth descending directly through the McCall line and my line being through the Glazener's. Anyway... email me and I will be glad to send you what I have.

Terrell,
My apologies for not getting back to you before now. I married into the McCall family in Transylvania County, which as I'm sure you know is kin to the Garren family. I grew up in Etowah, but in the last few years I have focused on my Buncombe/Madison county lineages and have published a book on the family and descendants of Captain Edmund Sams of Buncombe County which I am currently revising.
It may be of interest to you that where I grew up in Etowah, on Brickyard Road was property originally owned by Henry Judson Garren. My great grandmother's second husband, Sylvanus Smathers bought the property from Henry and when Vanus died, it was left to her (Wrinda Boyd Merrell Smathers). From grandma Wrinda it went to my grandmother, Jessie Merrell Jiles. My half-uncle ended up with it (a long and not so nice story) and though it was supposed to go to my son, my half-uncles wife ended up with it and sold it to the Etowah Lion's Club. I still have the deed from "Uncle" Henry to Vanus.
Anyway... now that I have written a mini-novel (seems to be a habit with us writers (smile), I will go... but if I have any info that I can share with you, will be glad to do so.

Linda L Ross
Terrell I think you have me mixed up with Linda L Ross who is indeed a member of the Garren family. She left a post for you..and some phone numbers too..

Hello Terrell Garren

I know you are a Civil War Historian and I wondered if you had ever seen this poem. It was about how Stonewall outflanked the Angels and got into Heaven before them..
It had this line..."The Angels waiting on the other side blew for him tlll their trumpets burst but he slipped so fast around their flanks that he got into Heaven first.." Have you ever seen this poem? I have searched the internet for it..Just wondering..Sallie

Terrel I will call you soon call me anytime cell# 808 3565 or home phone 595 4560 I have some information on the Will Garren side of the family not a lot but that is on my mother's side iof the family. Her grandfather was Lucas Edward Garren I do have a few pictures of that side of the family I also have some pictures of James Manning Garren and family who was Williamson Garren's Son and my great grandfather.

Thank you for the great comment-so glad you enjoyed the Civil War Letter too!

Apologies to all for my absence from the blog for the past several days. Have been busy and still have not developed the habit of checking this website. Please do not interpret my silence as purposeful or disinterested.

Regarding the use of the word “Tories”, I have not delved into the reasons it was used so often to refer to Unionists and other northern sympathizers. Contemporaneous Confederate letters and military records reveal many instances of the derisive use of “Tories”. For example, in the Warm Springs fracas on Oct. 26, 1863 that we have been discussing one or more of the service records read “killed by Tories” for those unfortunate 25th Regiment boys who did not survive the action. However, it is easy to understand how our highlander ancestors might have drawn a comparison between those mountaineers who remained loyal to the union and the American colonists who maintained an allegiance to the Crown.

Terrell, you bring up good points about the use of pickets by Lt. Welch and the 25th as it moved down the Spring Creek road. Although I have not given it much thought, it is still hard for me to imagine a Union force of 2,000 men moving into the WNC mountains. However, Judge Garland Ferguson stated in his brief history of the 25th Regiment (included in Clark’s 1901 Several Regiments ….) that the Tories outnumbered the Confederates by more than 20 to 1. Since it was reported that the Confederate force numbered approximately one hundred or more troops, that could help explain the case that 2,000 Union troops were in the vicinity of Warm Springs. Have you any references to the 2nd N.C. Mounted Infantry in the Official Records that indicate any of their actions? I found a few references to the 2nd and 3rd N.C. Mounted Infantry units but only after the year 1863.

Terrell, if you will send me your mailing address, I will mail a hard copy of Lt. Murray’s letter from Johnson’s Island to Joseph Cathey. I believe you will find it of value and I want you to have it for your research and collection.

By the way, another interesting non-fiction book on the Civil War in the WNC mountains is Inscoe and McKinney’s The Heart of Confederate Appalachia. Also, I just finished reading Fear and found it extremely interesting and intriguing. It really opened my eyes to how the war affected the civilian population in the mountains, even those people of means.

Carroll