Marshall – In addition to our series on state historical markers, we are excited to announce the inclusion of another type of historical marker whenever possible. We will be incorporating markers from the North Carolina Civil War Trails program, which is a component of a larger five-state trail system.
This program offers the chance to explore a wide array of sites connected to one of America’s most significant events. Spanning over 1,500 locations, these markers recount the poignant tales of civilians and soldiers who lived through the triumphs and tribulations of the Civil War era, but we will only include those from Western North Carolina.
We start this week with our first North Carolina Civil War Trails marker found on South Main Street in Marshall, NC, next to the First Baptist Church and where Madison County’s nickname “Bloody Madison” got it start from actions taken in the Civil War against citizens by other citizens of the county. It’s also why many past citizens became staunch Democrats or Republicans. This marker is named “Divided Loyalties.”
For those that may not know that North Carolina was not easily enticed to leave the Union, an article on NCpedia.com by Robert Tinkler explains, “[A] bill provided that voters would get to decide whether a convention would be called. On January 29, North Carolina’s convention bill passed in the General Assembly. The bill provided that voters would get to decide whether a convention would be called. In the late February election, unionists defeated the convention measure by about 650 votes out of nearly 94,000 cast. North Carolina was not yet in favor of secession.”
After President Lincoln’s refusal to withdraw Union troops from Fort Sumter and the South fired on the fort in April, that’s when a call for a secession convention was invoked in Raleigh.
The marker picks up the narrative: “On May 13, 1861, voters gathered here in Marshall, the Madison County seat, to elect a delegate for the Secession Convention to be held in Raleigh. The citizens were divided in their loyalties. [Madison County] Sheriff Ransom P. Merrill and others were later described as ‘husawing for Jeff Davis & the Confederacy,’ while men of different opinions were shouting for “Washington and the Union.” One witness later noted that ‘a good Deel of Liquor had been drank that day.’ When a dispute broke out between some Unionists and the sheriff, Merrill drew his pistol and shot and wounded Elisha Tweed. Neely Tweed, Elisha’s father and former clerk of the superior court, then shot Merrill with a double-barreled shotgun and killed him. The Tweeds later joined the 4th Tennessee Infantry (U.S.), Neely died of fever in 1862. The voters elected secessionist J.A. McDowell to the state convention.”
As you can see, it was neighbor against neighbor even before the war started here in the state, with Sheriff Merrill wounding the son of Tweed, the former clerk of the superior court, and in turn, Tweed killing the sheriff and not long after going to Tennessee, a Union stronghold in the South, partly out of loyalty to the Union and maybe out of avoiding being indicted of killing the sheriff.
The marker goes on to state, “The local “war within a war” had escalated in the mountains by January 1863, when Unionists from the county’s Shelton Laurel community were deprived of salt. A band of 50 or 60 Union soldiers and civilians raided Marshall, taking from Marshall. Meeting resistance, the Confederates summarily executed at least 13 prisoners, men, and boys, in what became known as the “Shelton Laurel Massacre.”
The Shelton Laurel Massacre is a story for another time, but the truth is that hard feelings over what happened in the War Between the States lingered for decades after official hostilities were over, causing some to leave the county and even the state.
Such was the case of one of the ancestors of the author of this article. David Franklin Bradburn left the county before for the war in a gray uniform but, when caught at Cumberland Gap and given a choice to head north to a prison camp or swear allegiance to the Union and put on a blue uniform, did the latter. After the war, things got so bad that he left for Greeneville, TN, and never looked back.