Historical Trails, Cherokees, and the Civil War

Posted by Jeff on Feb 12, 2016 @ 5:58 am in Hiking News | 0 comments | Last modified: February 11, 2016

At Wild South, a large part of the Cultural Heritage department’s work is focused on researching and mapping historical trails on public lands. These trails tie us to the past, illustrating how ways of life have changed over time. Many trails and roads are directly connected to the history of the United States. For example, travel ways leading from western North Carolina to eastern Tennessee were regularly used during the Civil War.

Most of the early roads that were used by Civil War troops were based on the ancient Cherokee trail system that had been widened and altered for wagon use in the early 1800s. Wild South has documented the evolution of the trails from Native American utility and trading paths to the Civil War era. When the Civil War began, the U.S. Army updated a map that was made in 1838 to support Cherokee Removal in western North Carolina (see map).

Though most major battles in North Carolina took place in the central and eastern regions of the state, western North Carolina was by no means excluded from the war. Men enlisted and were drafted, and the communities of western NC faced raids from bushwhackers and enemy troops. Like their white neighbors, the Cherokees found themselves in the midst of great conflict.

When it became clear that war was about to break out, William Holland Thomas, a man whose history was deeply entwined with the Cherokees, “mustered two hundred Cherokees into state service, calling them the ‘Junaluska Zouaves’ in honor of their recently deceased hero.” The Zouaves were formed to protect the home front from Unionists.

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