When War Wasn't Civil

The Shelton Laurel Massacre an execution of 13 men and boys accused of being Union sympathizers occurred on January 18^th 1863 in Madison County, North Carolina.

In early January 1863 an armed group of Madison County, North Carolina Unionists looted the salt stores in the area and ransacked the home of Confederate Colonel Lawrence Allen.  Allen was the commander of the 64^th North Carolina Infantry.  In response to the raid Confederate General Henry Heth sent the 64^th; temporarily commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James A Keith, to Shelton Laurel Valley to catch the looters.   In the following skirmish 12 of the looters were killed and a number others captured.  North Carolina Governor Zebulon Baird Vance worried about the situation escalating sent orders not to harm the captured looters.

Keith however believed a rumor that there was a Unionist force in the area, and he began looking for them.  Locals weren’t forthcoming with information and so Keith had several women in the Shelton Laurel area rounded and tortured to get information about their male relations.  After rounding up the alleged Unionists, Keith started to march them to Tennessee, but two of the captives escaped.  At this point Keith had the remaining 13 prisoners marched into the woods where on January 18^th 1863 he ordered them shot.  The bodies of the thirteen men; three of them boys under the age of 17 were dumped into a trench.

Family of executed men had their bodies move to a cemetery a little east of the massacre site.  Keith was held for his actions spending two years in jail, before escaping just days before his trial.  The state dropped their case against him.

A Killing in North Carolina

The Shelton Laurel Massacre in North Carolina on January 19^th 1863 left 15 men and boys dead.

The Appalachian area of North Carolina found its citizens of divided loyalties.  Yancey County, North Carolina actually split, with the eastern part breaking away and forming the pro-Confederate county of Mitchell.  As the Civil War continued, the government showed its ineffectualness, and food became short, the residence became violent against one another.

In late 1862 Union sympathizer and Confederate deserters of the Shelton Laurel Valley in Madison County, North Carolina decided to take matters into their own hands.  Looking for promised government rations the grouped moved into Marshall, North Carolina where they made raids on private homes.  The men stole from and destroyed houses along the way.  They took the home of Confederate Colonel Lawrence Allen; who commanded the 64^th North Carolina.  Allen wasn’t home, but the group of men intimidated his wife and children, and took all their food and other supplies.

The citizens of Marshall were infuriated, and they went after the men, hunting them down in the Shelton Laurel Valley.  Most of the men fled, but on January 19^th 1863 fifteen men from the age of 15 to 60 were rounded up.  The men were started back to Marshall.  Somewhere along the way two of the Shelton Laurel Valley group escaped.  The rest of the men were lined up and executed their bodies place in a shallow grave.

When the residents of Shelton Laurel learned of the massacre, they removed their men from the quickly dug grave.  The bodies where decently buried in a single grave by their families.