James Caudill holds two of his works, "Basin Cove, The Caudill Family Story" and "Yadkin River Run."

Caudill records two books for posterity

Meeting James Caudill, one would learn that family is something he holds very dear. It is because of that fact Caudill has written and self-published two books.

The first book, "Basin Cove, The Caudill Family Story,” was published in 2002. The inspiration behind the writing of it was his granddaughter, Lena.

"I want my granddaughter and my daughter to know about their family,” he said.

The book focuses mainly on Caudill family history.

"My family's from (Alleghany County) and I got interested in Basin Cove because my grandfather was born in Basin Cove, in Cabin 167, I think,” said Caudill. "No one knew anything about their history. I remember what my grandmother and grandfather used to tell me, so I basically wrote down what they told. I really enjoyed doing it.”

Basin Cove tells the story of the Caudill family that settled in Basin Cove during the Civil War.

His great-grandfather's two brothers didn't want to fight in the war. "They were actually considered deserters. They had a proclamation in 1863 from Governor Vance that basically said if you harbored a deserter, your land should be seized and you basically should be shot. They couldn't go home, so they hid out and that's where they started Basin Cove. More and more moved into the cove and at one time, before the 1916 flood, they had 75 families living in and around the cove. Almost every family in Alleghany County has ties, one way or another, to the families in Basin Cove.

Caudill noted that not much information about the true situation in the mountain counties during the Civil War has been printed.

"Really what happened, in some cases, as much as 90 percent of the people in the mountain counties didn't want to secede from the union. They barely passed seceding from the union.”

Caudill explained that a home guard was placed in each county. These men ranged from 35 to 45 years of age.

"They stayed in each county to collect farm tithes for the confederacy to feed the confederate army, also to look for deserters or anyone who had union sympathies. That's the way it started,” he said.

"There were abuses on both sides. It finally led to a sheriff being killed in Laurel Springs and maybe a couple of confederate officers. When that happened, they formed a contingent of North Carolina Calvary Confederate Soldiers home on leave and the (soldiers and the) home guard scoured the countryside of Laurel Springs and went down through Basin Cove and they supposedly killed 14 people.

"It finally culminated on Caudill's Hill in Wilkes County, that's where they had the battle.”

He felt a book that made several references to the battle, "Alleghany County History, 1859 to 1976,” was a little one-sided.

"That's why I wrote the book. I wanted to show there were two sides to every story. (The Caudills) were basically good people. They had a church that was established in 1888 and it was a cornerstone of everything those people did. They were deeply religious, hard-working.

"In 1916, they had a terrible flood that killed three people.

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