Civil War Camps

CIVIL WAR CAMPS IN ASHEVILLE

"During the war on the South, Asheville became in a small way a military center. Confederate troops were from time to time encamped at Camp Patton, at Camp Clingman on French Broad Avenue and Philip Street, at the crossing of Flint Street and Cherry Street on the north side of Flint Street called Camp Jeter, on Battery Park hill then Battery Porter, on Beaucatch[er] Peak now called Beaumont, on Woodfin Street opposite the former site of the Oaks Hotel, on Montford Avenue near the residence of J. E. Rumbough, on the hill near the end of Riverside Drive north of T. S. Morrison's, and on the ridge immediately east of the place where North Main Street last crosses Glenn's Creek, just before reaching French Broad River, once owned by the children of the late N. W. Woodfin. At this last place, on April 5, 1865, a battle was fought between the Confederate troops at Asheville and a detachment of United States troops, who came up the French Broad River. The latter was defeated and compelled to return into Tennessee. (1922. Sondley, F. A. Asheville and Buncombe County, p.161.)

"This was the battle of Asheville." [Historic marker at UNCA campus entrance.] (1922. Sondley, F. A. Asheville and Buncombe County, p. 161.)

"The chief armories of the Confederate States were at Richmond, Virginia and Fayetteville, North Carolina, but there were two smaller establishments, one at Asheville, North Carolina, and the other at Tallahassee, Alabama. (1 Davis's Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, page 480.) (1922. Sondley, F. A. Asheville and Buncombe County, p. 162.)

"The armory at Asheville was in [the] charge of an Englishman by the name of Riley as chief machinist. It stood on the branch immediately east of where Valley Street crosses it. [Historic marker downtown by court house.] About a hundred yards or a little more north of it was the armorer's house on the same lot. Here when North Carolina was one of the Confederate States of America, the Confederate flag from a high flag pole was constantly displayed.... These buildings were burned by the United States troops when they entered the town in the latter part of April 1865. (1922. Sondley, F. A. Asheville and Buncombe County, pp. 162, 163.)

The Western North Carolina Heritage project is 100% supported with federal LSTA funds made possible through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.