The Isolation Factor

In Appalachian North Carolina, there has been much debate over sympathies towards the Union or the Confederacy during the Civil War. Many modern historians argue that Western North Carolina was strongly pro Confederate and that most pockets of Unionism were either near the Tennessee border or just random. However, the situation is much more complicated than that. Based on enlistment data of Union and Confederate soldiers in Watauga and Buncombe counties, the elevation one lived at was a much better predictor of Unionism than their proximity to the Tennessee border. Folks living at higher elevations were typically more isolated, poorer, and less likely to own slaves than their fellow residents. Because of these factors, they tended to be more Unionist. Confederate support was generally clustered in areas connected to Southern markets, large river valleys, and in larger towns. Buncombe County was one of the lower elevated counties in the North Carolina mountains that had some of the widest river valleys. It also had the most links to the slave economy especially around Asheville, and the county largely supported the Confederacy outside of a few remote districts. Watauga County, at a much higher elevation, had the lowest population in the state in 1860 and had only 104 slaves while Buncombe County had 1,923. Much of Watauga Country remained loyal to the Union, although it was a hotly contested area full of guerrilla violence throughout much of the war. New research shows similar trends in Yancey and Mitchell counties