In the Southern Appalachian Mountains, no character was more loved or despised than George W. Kirk. This inured Union officer led a group of deserters on numerous raids between Tennessee and North Carolina in 1863, terrorizing Confederate soldiers and civilians alike. At Camp Vance in Morganton, Kirk's mounted raiders showcased guerrilla warfare penetrating deep within Confederate territory. As Home Guards struggled to keep Western North Carolina communities safe, Kirk's men brought fear and violence throughout the region for their ability to strike and create havoc without warning. Civil War historian Michael C. Hardy examines the infamous history of George W. Kirk and the Civil War along the Blue Ridge.

Five years after the Civil War, North Carolina Republican state senator John W. Stephens was found murdered inside the Caswell County Courthouse. Stephens fought for the rights of freedpeople, and his killing by the Ku Klux Klan ultimately led to insurrection, Governor William W. Holden's impeachment, and the early unwinding of Reconstruction in North Carolina. In recounting Stephens's murder, the subsequent investigation and court proceedings, and the long-delayed confessions that revealed what actually happened at the courthouse in 1870, Drew A. Swanson tells a story of race, politics, and social power shaped by violence and profit. The struggle for dominance in Reconstruction-era rural North Carolina, Swanson argues, was an economic and ecological transformation. Arson, beating, and murder became tools to control people and landscapes, and the ramifications of this violence continued long afterward. The failure to prosecute anyone for decades after John Stephens's assassination left behind a vacuum, as each side shaped its own memory of Stephens and his murder. The malleability of and contested storytelling around Stephens's legacy presents a window into the struggle to control the future of the South.

Tour the Old North State's famous--and not-so-famous--historic sites. "First in Freedom," "First in Flight," and "First, Farthest and Last" are all honorifics that have been used to describe North Carolina's well-known history. Learn the truth behind each of these epithets and other tales from the sands of the Outer Banks to the bustling cities of the Piedmont and the western mountains. Tour the state's famous historic homes, gardens and cemeteries. Dive deep into its military conflicts, from the golden age of piracy to the Second World War. "Join North Carolina's veteran historian, Michael C. Hardy, for an exploration of the many sites, monuments, museums, and public spaces that tell story of North Carolina's history.

Two generations have passed since the publication of Wilma Dykeman's landmark environmental history, The French Broad. In Through the Mountains: The French Broad River and Time, John Ross updates that seminal book with groundbreaking new research. More than the story of a single river, Through the Mountains covers the entire watershed from its headwaters in North Carolina's Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains to its mouth in Knoxville, Tennessee. The French Broad watershed has faced new perils and seen new discoveries since 1955, when The French Broad was published. Geologists have learned that the Great Smoky Mountains are not among the world's oldest as previously thought; climatologists and archaeologists have traced the dramatic effects of global warming and cooling on the flora, fauna, and human habitation in the watershed; and historians have deepened our understanding of enslaved peoples once thought not to be a part of the watershed's history. Even further, this book documents how the French Broad and its tributaries were abused by industrialists, and how citizens fought to mitigate the pollution. Through the Mountains also takes readers to notable historic places: the hidden mound just inside the gate of Biltmore where Native Americans celebrated the solstices; the once-secret radio telescope site above Rosman where NASA eavesdropped on Russian satellites; and the tiny hamlet of Gatlinburg where Phi Beta Phi opened its school for mountain women in 1912. Wilma Dykeman once asked what the river had meant to the people who lived along it. In the close of Through the Mountains, Ross reframes that question: For 14,000 years the French Broad and its tributaries have nurtured human habitation. What must we start doing now to ensure it will continue to nourish future generations? Answering this question requires a knowledge of the French Broad's history, an understanding of its contemporary importance, and a concern for the watershed's sustainable future. Through the Mountains fulfills these three criteria, and, in many ways, presents the larger story of America's freshwater habitats through the incredible history of the French Broad.

Is it possible that the woman who raised Abraham Lincoln was actually his half-sister, and that the man he knew as his grandfather had conducted a scandalous affair with a servant girl? Was Nancy Dude really a murderous witch, or the victim of relentless calamities that would stretch anyone beyond the bounds of sanity? Should Horace Kephart be considered a hero for his work to protect the area of the Great Smokies, where a moutain was named in his honor, or a drunken scoundrel who uprooted families from the homes and farms they’d had for generations? From Sam Houston’s childhood among the Cherokee to the mysterious “road to nowhere”, Great SmokiesMyths and Legends makes history fun and pulls back the curtain on some of this national park’s most fascinating and compelling stories.