A forgotten memorial returns to the spotlight Retired ranger discoversthe special purposeof a stand of spruces By DAVID PERLMUTT Jim Holbrook worked 33 years for the U.S. Forest Service, and during that time pulled off at the Mount Hardy Overlook, Milepost 422 along the Blue Ridge Parkway, probably a couple of hundred times.Each time, he'd look for a view of Mount Hardy, but never saw the peak rising 6,100 feet. A grove of red spruce trees, mixed with other species, was always in the way. How stupid, he'd often think, to have all these trees blocking the view - one day he'd suggest the trees be cleared.It's a good thing he never did.One winter night a month after he retired in January 2000, Holbrook was reading a history on the area and nearly fell out of bed when he came across an obscure, short sentence buried in the middle of a page.The red spruces, he discovered, were part of a forest memorial to the 125,000 N.C. men who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.It had become a lost memorial. But Saturday, it will be forgotten no more, after the forest of 125,000 spruces planted as seedlings in the early 1940s is rededicated with a new $700 bronze marker to replace the original one stolen decades ago.The ceremony for the Confederate Memorial Forest starts at 10 a.m. at the parkway's Milepost 422 south of Waynesville in Haywood County."I'd never heard of a memorial forest, and I asked people older than me (including his 82-year-old father) if they'd ever heard about it, but nobody knew a thing," said Holbrook, 62, who lives in the Buncombe County town of Avery Creek, seven miles south of Asheville. He is commander of the Zeb Vance Camp 15 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans."I thought, `Lord, what if somebody had taken down those trees.' I had to launch a search."Historical research With contacts from work, the search didn't take long. Another forester with a bent for history found documents explaining the memorial.There's a slow-growing, long-living red spruce for every N.C. soldier who served the cause. The N.C. division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy paid $625 to buy the seedlings in 1940. The Forest Service planted them in 1941, '42 and '43 - World War II slowed the planting - over 125 Haywood County acres in Pisgah National Forest for an additional $741.29. The memorial runs along the parkway for about half a mile.The trees now stand 50 feet tall. When the original marker was dedicated 45 years ago - 14 years after the memorial's official dedication - the trees were barely 7 feet tall. Most of the trees had yet to poke through scrub hardwood that began to grow after the area was cleared by timber companies and a 1925 fire that burned 25,000 acres."The memorial was an effort to reforest land that had been cut over and then burned over," said Cathy Williams, a UDC member from Asheville who remembers hearing about the memorial from her mother."In the 1970s, our state president was contacted by people building the parkway that the marker had been vandalized and they wanted to know what we wanted to do about it."I see in letters that the Daughters thought that if the marker is vandalized once, it would likely be vandalized again. So, apparently, we just dropped the ball."The dedication At the memorial's dedication in July 1942, Raleigh publisher and former Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels was the main speaker at a luncheon at the George Vanderbilt Hotel in Asheville.Seventy-seven years after the Civil War's end, Daniels likened Reconstruction in the South to the plight of European nations occupied then by Nazi troops. During the years just after the Civil War, federal troops were sent to Southern states to keep order and oversee the South's return to the Union. "The Southern people, aided by noble patriots in the North, overcame military rule and regained control of their affairs," he said."They have no doubt the suffering European nations will throw off rule by force and once again order their own way of life." Saturday's rededication will include speeches from politicians and officers from the UDC and Sons of Confederate Veterans, which paid for the new marker. Descendants are expected to attend.Williams and Holbrook will speak. Two trees among the memorial represent Williams' great-grandfathers James Alexander Webb and John Shelby Gragg, both of Buncombe County."Those trees make me proud and humbled," she said.Another tree represents Holbrook's great-grandfather William Alexander Holbrook, a dirt farmer from Macon County who was wounded badly at the battle of Chickamauga in Georgia. He lay in a cornfield for three days, his head resting on a corn hill to keep from drowning after hard rains flooded the field.Years later, Holbrook's father told stories about the old man's leg still draining from the wound because he refused to let doctors take the leg or remove the bullet.If he'd lost his will to live, Jim Holbrook wouldn't be here.That is why the memorial is so important to him and thousands of other descendants."You walk down there, and you lay your hands on a tree and you feel something," Holbrook said."You feel heat in your heart. You know it's hallowed ground, and it will not be lost anymore."David Perlmutt: (704) 358-5061; <A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</A>.The Civil War and North Carolina Last state: On Feb. 28, 1861, North Carolinians voted down a convention on secession from the Union. Six weeks after the Civil War began, North Carolina on May 20, 1861, became the last state to join the Confederacy. The common refrain: N.C. troops were "First at Bethel. Foremost at Gettysburg. Furthest at Chickamauga. The last at Appomattox." The numbers: The 125,000 North Carolinians who fought for the Confederacy represented a fifth of all Southern troops. The number was larger than the state's eligible voters. More than 40,000 N.C. troops died, about a fourth of Confederates killed in the war. It was double the loss of any other Southern state. The general: Concerned about his family's safety in Virginia, Gen. Robert E. Lee sent his wife and four daughters to White Sulphur Springs in Warren County, north of Raleigh, in October 1862. His daughter Annie Carter Lee died shortly after arriving, and for years was buried there until Lee's descendants had her remains returned to Virginia in 1994. Friendly fire: Gen. Stonewall Jackson, the Confederacy's master tactician, was mistakenly shot by troops from the 18th N.C. Regiment. He died eight days later on May 10, 1863, of pneumonia. Salisbury Prison: On Nov. 6, 1864, the number of Union captives at a prison built for 2,500 prisoners reached a peak of 8,740. Many slept outdoors, digging trenches to shield them from the cold. It was the Confederacy's second-largest prison, behind Andersonville in Georgia. More than 4,000 prisoners died in Salisbury, twice the population of the town. Tar Heels: Writing in 1864 from a camp near Petersburg, Va., Maj. Joseph Engelhard quoted Lee as saying that N.C. troops "stand as if they have tar on their heels." Joy for Ruth

Would love to know how Mount Hardy got it's name!!!! belinda melton hughes www.geocities.com/bjhughes.geo/ > A forgotten memorial returns to the spotlight > > Retired ranger discoversthe special purposeof a stand of spruces > By DAVID PERLMUTT > Jim Holbrook worked 33 years for the U.S. Forest Service, and during that > time pulled off at the Mount Hardy Overlook, Milepost 422 along the Blue > Ridge Parkway, probably a couple of hundred times.Each time, he'd look for a > view of Mount Hardy, but never saw the peak rising 6,100 feet. A grove of red > spruce trees, mixed with other species, was always in the way. How stupid, > he'd often think, to have all these trees blocking the view - one day he'd > suggest the trees be cleared.It's a good thing he never did.One winter night > a month after he retired in January 2000, Holbrook was reading a history on > the area and nearly fell out of bed when he came across an obscure, short > sentence buried in the middle of a page.The red spruces, he discovered, were > part of a forest memorial to the 125,000 N.C. men who fought for the > Confederacy during the Civil War.It had become a lost memorial. But Saturday, > it will be forgotten no more, after the forest of 125,000 spruces planted as > seedlings in the early 1940s is rededicated with a new $700 bronze marker to > replace the original one stolen decades ago.The ceremony for the Confederate > Memorial Forest starts at 10 a.m. at the parkway's Milepost 422 south of > Waynesville in Haywood County."I'd never heard of a memorial forest, and I > asked people older than me (including his 82-year-old father) if they'd ever > heard about it, but nobody knew a thing," said Holbrook, 62, who lives in the > Buncombe County town of Avery Creek, seven miles south of Asheville. He is > commander of the Zeb Vance Camp 15 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans."I > thought, `Lord, what if somebody had taken down those trees.' I had to launch > a search."Historical research > > With contacts from work, the search didn't take long. Another forester with a > bent for history found documents explaining the memorial.There's a > slow-growing, long-living red spruce for every N.C. soldier who served the > cause. The N.C. division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy paid $625 > to buy the seedlings in 1940. The Forest Service planted them in 1941, '42 > and '43 - World War II slowed the planting - over 125 Haywood County acres in > Pisgah National Forest for an additional $741.29. The memorial runs along the > parkway for about half a mile.The trees now stand 50 feet tall. When the > original marker was dedicated 45 years ago - 14 years after the memorial's > official dedication - the trees were barely 7 feet tall. Most of the trees > had yet to poke through scrub hardwood that began to grow after the area was > cleared by timber companies and a 1925 fire that burned 25,000 acres."The > memorial was an effort to reforest land that had been cut over and then > burned over," said Cathy Williams, a UDC member from Asheville who remembers > hearing about the memorial from her mother."In the 1970s, our state president > was contacted by people building the parkway that the marker had been > vandalized and they wanted to know what we wanted to do about it."I see in > letters that the Daughters thought that if the marker is vandalized once, it > would likely be vandalized again. So, apparently, we just dropped the > ball."The dedication > > At the memorial's dedication in July 1942, Raleigh publisher and former Navy > Secretary Josephus Daniels was the main speaker at a luncheon at the George > Vanderbilt Hotel in Asheville.Seventy-seven years after the Civil War's end, > Daniels likened Reconstruction in the South to the plight of European nations > occupied then by Nazi troops. During the years just after the Civil War, > federal troops were sent to Southern states to keep order and oversee the > South's return to the Union. "The Southern people, aided by noble patriots in > the North, overcame military rule and regained control of their affairs," he > said."They have no doubt the suffering European nations will throw off rule > by force and once again order their own way of life." Saturday's rededication > will include speeches from politicians and officers from the UDC and Sons of > Confederate Veterans, which paid for the new marker. Descendants are expected > to attend.Williams and Holbrook will speak. Two trees among the memorial > represent Williams' great-grandfathers James Alexander Webb and John Shelby > Gragg, both of Buncombe County."Those trees make me proud and humbled," she > said.Another tree represents Holbrook's great-grandfather William Alexander > Holbrook, a dirt farmer from Macon County who was wounded badly at the battle > of Chickamauga in Georgia. He lay in a cornfield for three days, his head > resting on a corn hill to keep from drowning after hard rains flooded the > field.Years later, Holbrook's father told stories about the old man's leg > still draining from the wound because he refused to let doctors take the leg > or remove the bullet.If he'd lost his will to live, Jim Holbrook wouldn't be > here.That is why the memorial is so important to him and thousands of other > descendants."You walk down there, and you lay your hands on a tree and you > feel something," Holbrook said."You feel heat in your heart. You know it's > hallowed ground, and it will not be lost anymore."David Perlmutt: (704) > 358-5061; <A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</A>.The Civil War and North Carolina > Last state: On Feb. 28, 1861, North Carolinians voted down a convention on > secession from the Union. Six weeks after the Civil War began, North Carolina > on May 20, 1861, became the last state to join the Confederacy. The common > refrain: N.C. troops were "First at Bethel. Foremost at Gettysburg. Furthest > at Chickamauga. The last at Appomattox." The numbers: The 125,000 North > Carolinians who fought for the Confederacy represented a fifth of all > Southern troops. The number was larger than the state's eligible voters. More > than 40,000 N.C. troops died, about a fourth of Confederates killed in the > war. It was double the loss of any other Southern state. The general: > Concerned about his family's safety in Virginia, Gen. Robert E. Lee sent his > wife and four daughters to White Sulphur Springs in Warren County, north of > Raleigh, in October 1862. His daughter Annie Carter Lee died shortly after > arriving, and for years was buried there until Lee's descendants had her > remains returned to Virginia in 1994. Friendly fire: Gen. Stonewall Jackson, > the Confederacy's master tactician, was mistakenly shot by troops from the > 18th N.C. Regiment. He died eight days later on May 10, 1863, of pneumonia. > Salisbury Prison: On Nov. 6, 1864, the number of Union captives at a prison > built for 2,500 prisoners reached a peak of 8,740. Many slept outdoors, > digging trenches to shield them from the cold. It was the Confederacy's > second-largest prison, behind Andersonville in Georgia. More than 4,000 > prisoners died in Salisbury, twice the population of the town. Tar Heels: > Writing in 1864 from a camp near Petersburg, Va., Maj. Joseph Engelhard > quoted Lee as saying that N.C. troops "stand as if they have tar on their > heels." > > > Joy for Ruth > > ==== NCROOTS Mailing List ==== > Availability of will records in the NC state archives: > http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgenweb/wills.txt -- BJ's Genealogy Site http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/7241/index.html BJ's Craft Page http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Garden/2342/crafts/clinks.html BJ's Poetry Page http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/7241/poetry.html