Manassass, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Caudill Hill… Whoa! Hold on a minute there! What’s Caudill Hill got to do with those other Civil War battles? Where’s Caudill Hill?

It’s not far from Laurel Springs, but Caudill Hill’s claim to fame has more to do with bushwhackers than that quiet little mountain community. William R. Trotter has written an excellent history of the times and people in his book entitled “Bushwhackers! The Civil War in North Carolina,” (Copyright, 1988, Signal Research, Greensboro, N.C.) available at the Alleghany County Library in Sparta.

Quoting Philip Shaw Paludin from his “Victims – A True Story of the Civil War,” Trotter opens his book with, “In the mountain war the question of allegiance was not easily resolved in the safety of homes surrounded by sympathetic neighbors, secure from far away battlefields. An allegiance was worn as a target over the heart, amid armed enemies, and loyalty could attract both dangerous friends and mortal enemies…

“Although the mountains of North Carolina would have furnished an epic backdrop for a great military campaign, let the reader be aware at once that there were no large battles fought in these mountains during the Civil War... And yet there was no region in the state which endured more violence over a comparable period of time.”

Mountain families had sent their share of fighters to the Civil War’s big battles, lending credence to North Carolina’s sentiment that, “It was a rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.” But while they were gone, renegades ran wild much closer to home. Ne’er-do-wells who fled the more organized fighting, joined deserters and cutthroats serving their own wicked interests, and changed loyalties at will.

“Bushwhackers,” as they were often called, torched buildings, murdered and pillaged, indiscriminately robbing widows, wives, old men and children from Asheville all the way to distant Marshall, in “Bloody Madison” County.

With the men of fighting age off at war, local residents depended upon the security of Home Guard and Confederate soldiers home on leave. Their adversaries were deserters from both sides, and known as “Tories” or “Outliers.” As this violent group grew in numbers and boldness, even law enforcement officers became their targets. When three were murdered near Killian’s Mill, militiamen from Surry County were called to put a permanent end to their threats and lawlessness.

Mr. D.C. Williams, of Scottville wrote a detailed account of that conflict, parts of which are made available here through the Alleghany Historical Society. This summary tells his story: Four members of the militia were sent to Duncan’s mill to buy grain, and “were accosted by a well-armed band of outliers.” One of the militiamen was executed as he knelt in prayer and pleaded for his life. In retaliation, the Home Guard hanged Levi Fender, a husband and the father of six, whom they suspected of having Union loyalties.

The battle of Caudill Hill began on Nov. 27, 1864, near Laurel Springs, where a platoon of the N.C. Cavalry joined the assembling group. Fighting their way west, they drove the offenders onward and captured several men.

The miscreants found refuge quickly behind a rock outcropping on land owned by Johnson Caudill, who was also their leader. Efforts to dislodge them proved futile, so the attackers regrouped.

“I formed my 16 men in single file,” wrote Williams, “and moved quick-time around their right flank, and came in at their rear, right behind them without being seen. My men were armed with double barrel shotguns and heavy pistols. The first thing they knew of us was a volley from our guns right at their backs, and the ‘Rebel Yell’ and a charge that followed, firing our pistols as we ran on them, but when we got to their line there was no line. They had fled in every direction, and some hid in the thick laurel. There were a few men that stood their ground – mostly old men. They refused to surrender and fell with their guns in their hands. They were fighting under a black flag, which indicates no quarters (no surrender, fight to the death). I can’t tell the result of the battle…I saw several dead on the ground. Our men went through the battle without the loss of a man, or a drop of blood. We were outnumbered about three to one. This battle settled the trouble with the Tories and deserters the rest of the war in this section.”

In 1865, Caldwell County’s last renegades had been abandoned by their leader and were about to be executed. A local preacher named Gwaltney was asked to pray for their souls, but refused, citing his reluctance to “come into God’s presence without sincere desires.” Several minutes later, he changed his mind, prayed for the condemned men’s souls and joined the firing squad.