On February 13, 1864, Maj. Gen. Schofield authorized Major George W. Kirk, Second North Carolina Mounted Infantry, to raise a regiment of troops in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, to be known as the Third North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment. Although the regiment was organized as infantry, Maj. Kirk was authorized to mount the regiment upon private or captured horses. The first company was actually organized on June 11, 1864.

By April of 1864, Kirk, now colonel of the Third, was operating in the Shelton Laurel area of Madison County, N.C. On June 13, 1864, began the Third's best known exploit, the raid on Morganton.

On June 13, 1864, Col. Kirk with about 130 men left Morristown, TN., for a raid on Camp Vance, near Morganton, N.C. The soldiers traveled on foot through Bull's Gap, Greeneville, and Crab Orchard, TN. They crossed into North Carolina and forded the Toe River about six miles south of the Cranberry Iron Works. The crossed the Linville River on the afternoon of June 26 and crossed Upper Creek at nightfall on June 27. They marched all night and reached Camp Vance at reveille on June 28. Camp Vance was a training camp for conscripts; the reluctant soldiers had not yet been issued rifles. The camp surrendered, and 40 of the conscripts promptly enlisted under Col. Kirk. All except the sick and the medical officers were carried off to Tennessee. The medical officers were paroled, but the sick (approximately 70 men) were set free because the Federal soldiers had no time to parole them. One Confederate report implies that the "sick" weren't really ill, but were put on the sick list and admitted into the hospital in a successful effort by the medical officers to prevent their capture. According to one of the Confederate medical officers, "Col. Kirk claimed to be a regular U.S. Officer, carried a U.S. Flag, and his men were all in Federal uniforms." Another Confederate report of this incident says that most of Kirk's men were armed with Spencer repeating rifles. Despite several small skirmishes on the way, Kirk and his men and prisoners returned safely to Tennessee.

In late September of 1864, Col. Kirk and his command were left at Bull's Gap to hold that position while the rest of Gen. Gillem's force drove Confederate forces from Rheatown, Greeneville, and Carter's Station across the Watauga River. By late October, 1864, Confederate scouts were reporting that Kirk and his men had returned to Knoxville.

On December 9, 1864, the Third left Knoxville on a scout into upper East Tennessee. On December 29th, they engaged a body of about 400 Confederate infantry and cavalry under the command of Col. James Keith at Red Banks of Chucky near the North Carolina line. (With Keith in command, no doubt a portion of this body was the 64th North Carolina.) Col. Kirk reported 73 Rebels killed and 32 captured, with his own casualties limited to three wounded. They returned to Knoxville on January 14, 1865.

Kirk's Union Mounted Infantry Engage Thomas' Confederate North Carolina Legion

Stoneman's Cavalry Raid and Kirk's Raiders: Civil War Murders, Depredations, Lawlessness, and Battles

On March 24, 1865, Maj. Gen. George H. Stoneman, initiating Stoneman's Raid, left Morristown, TN., for a raid through southwest Virginia and western North Carolina. The primary purpose of this operation was to disrupt the railroads in Virginia and North Carolina and to obstruct Lee's expected retreat from Virginia. As part of this operation, the 2nd and 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry under Col. Kirk were sent to Boone, N.C., to hold Deep and Watauga Gaps, thus keeping open the roads over the mountains to Tennessee to permit the return of Stoneman's force when its mission was completed.

By 1865 the Confederacy had failed, and Colonel Kirk and the Union's 3rd North Carolina believed it would encounter minimal opposition and resistance as they continued sacking Western North Carolina communities. Although the Confederacy was doomed, the Thomas Legion's highest calling had always been protecting North Carolina's mountain citizens. The Thomas Legion was North Carolina's only Civil War legion, it mustered a massive force of over 2,500 soldiers and consisted of local Highlanders and Cherokee Indians.

In late February and early March of 1865, Kirk continued his raids into North Carolina's most western counties. The Union's 3rd North Carolina was commonly referred to as Kirk's Raiders because the unit often pillaged and plundered the region. On February 4th, Kirk and a small army of 400 cavalry and 200 infantry left Newport, Tennessee, and crossed into Haywood County, North Carolina, via the "old Cataloochee Turnpike on a raid that reached Waynesville," the county seat. Kirk's Raiders, now armed with Spencer repeating rifles, entered Waynesville and pillaged stores, stole as numerous horses, killed 20 men, and burned several houses, including Lt. Col. James R. Love's house-- also the former residence of James Love's grandfather, the Revolutionary War hero Robert Love. Next, the 3rd Union attacked the Waynesville jail, freed the prisoners, and then burned the jail.

Slow, impeded communication, the vastness of rugged Western North Carolina, and few Home Guard made it extremely difficult to defend the area. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 32, Part II, p. 553; hereinafter cited as O.R..

Lt. Col. Stringfield, of the Thomas Legion, stated that "it had been reported in Tennessee that Kirk’s troops would be welcomed in North Carolina. They were, but with bloody hands to hospitable graves." Lt. Col. Love's Regiment, Thomas' Legion, fought Kirk's Raiders in Haywood County, and Lieutenant Conley's Sharpshooters (Thomas' Legion) engaged and forced the enemy to retreat across the Balsam Mountains at Soco Gap, which has an elevation of 4345 feet and is located 13 miles northwest of Waynesville. The Cherokees refer to Soco Gap as Ahalunun'yi or Ambush Place.

In April 1865, according to O.R., 1, 49, pt. II, pp. 407-408, General Davis Tillson (Stoneman's Raid) ordered Colonels Bartlett (Union's 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry) and Kirk (Union's 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry) to advance through Western North Carolina and suppress the remaining Confederate forces in the mountains. General Tillson had attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and because of a severe foot injury his foot was amputated and, subsequently, he left West Point.

On May 10, 1865, Union troops capture Confederate President Jefferson Davis near Irwinville, Georgia. Cherokee Chief Thomas, the commanding colonel of Thomas' Legion, had surrendered on May 9, 1865.

May 12, 1865, was the "The Final Surrender" for Thomas' Legion. The First Battalion's Company E soldiers signed the parole papers beginning on May 12, with the last signature recorded on May 14, 1865.  

Captain Whitaker and Company E, First Battalion of Thomas' Legion were stationed at nearby Franklin, North Carolina. Whitaker and his company had recently Skirmished at Hanging Dog, Cherokee County, and were advancing toward White Sulphur Springs to reinforce Thomas when they were intercepted. General Tillson had ordered Colonel Kirk and the Union 3rd North Carolina to Franklin (O.R., 1, Vol. 49, pt. II, p. 689), and, when they approached the battalion, Whitaker formed a skirmish line. Consequently, he received word of Thomas and Martin surrendering at Waynesville, and then Whitaker and his company also surrendered. On May 14, 1865, the Legion's soldiers finished signing the paroles and they viewed Whitaker roll them up, tie them, place them in a Haversack, and give them to Col. Kirk's Courier.

"And thus at 10 o'clock in the morning of May 14, 1865, our Civil War Soldier Life ended and our Every Day Working Life began," exclaimed John H. Stewart of the Thomas Legion. The soldiers surrendered to Kirk understanding that additional fighting was futile and senseless, and finally the aftermath embraced the region. The Union forces never subjugated Western North Carolina, and to this day the Eastern Band of Cherokee bestows honor and gratitude to their great white chief.

Sources: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; nctroops.com, Vernon H. Crow, Storm in the Mountains: Thomas' Confederate Legion of Cherokee Indians and Mountaineers; John H. Stewart Papers (Private Collection); John G. Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina; Vernon H. Crow, The Justness of Our Cause; Walter Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-1865; National Park Service: Soldiers and Sailors System; Weymouth T. Jordan and Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865; E. Stanly Godbolt, Jr. and Mattie U. Russell, Confederate Colonel and Cherokee Chief: The Life of William Holland Thomas; The Thomas Legion Papers (thomaslegion.net/papers.html); The Civil War Diary of William W. Stringfield, Johnson City, TN: East Tennessee Historical Society Publications; D. H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865; North Carolina Division of Archives and History; National Archives and Records Administration; Library of Congress; State Library of North Carolina; North Carolina Museum of History; Digital Library of Georgia; Museum of the Cherokee Indian; Official Website of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation; Duke University; University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill); University of Tennessee (Knoxville); Tennessee State Library and Archives; Western Carolina University; North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources; John R. Finger, The Eastern Band of Cherokees.