~ IN MEMORY OF ~

Benjamin Stiles, Pvt.

VITAL STATS

b ca 1848 Cherokee CO, NC d after 1926 buried Oak Grove Bapt Ch Cem, Cherokee CO, NC per Union military marker
son of William L. Stiles & Telitha "Lithey" Sutton
m 29 Dec 1865 Cherokee CO, NC to
Margaret Carroll b 10 Apr 1847 d 21 Feb 1926 buried Oak Grove Bapt Ch Cem, Cherokee CO, NC member of Bapt church 64 yrs, mother of 9, wife of Benjamin Stiles per tombstone
dau of Absalom & Nancy (Ledford) Carroll

In a series of interviews, Mitchell Stiles of Hiawassee Dam Community, Cherokee CO, NC recalled that his great-grandfather William L. Stiles died in the Civil War. When a young boy, Mitchell huddled by the fireplace between his grandfather, Benjamin "Ben" Stiles (above), and Ben's cousin John "Black Fox" Stiles. Every time the two first cousins, both veterans of the Union during the Civil War, visited their conversation eventually centered upon their war reminiscences. As each dry log kindled the fire, so each story whetted interest in Mitchell's young, impressionable mind. In his old age, Mitchell declared that he could remember those days better than yesterday.

Mitchell recalled in December of 1982,

All your gang was Union men and all mine was Rebels except my grandpaw Ben Stiles. Your great-great-grandpaw John Black Fox Stiles and Ben was in together. They kept together and years later they'd get together and that's what they'd talk about -- the Old War -- yeah, the Civil War. So, I was just a little feller, but I'd sit on the floor by the fire between them and listen to them tell all their war stories and what went on back in them days. It was bad -- I mean it was bad! It was fathers fightin' agin sons and brother against brother and cousins killin' each other and people swearin' never to speak or threatin' to kill the other one. They's one gang of sons that actually killed their paw right up here because he was on the other side. Then, they's a gang a bushwhackers weren't on neither side and they'd just kill people and do awful things to 'em. I mean it was awful what they did. They didn't care and killin' a man wasn't nothing to them. So, they didn't know who to trust. Them bushwhackers was the Walkers -- it weren't none of our folks! Them Walkers lived down on Nottly River below Ranger and they's always a vengeance between Sitles and Walkers. They's always into it and they had a fight a goin'. It all just come out in the Civil War then. They got into it and started killin' each other. But then after the war, when Bill Walker married Mandy Stiles, why that just ended the whole thing. They never did fuss or fight no more after that. Mandy was Jim's daughter. My grandpa, Ben Stiles, was a Union man and he stayed in the army four years after the Civil War. His daddy was old man Bill Stiles, and he was a Rebel. He kinda got forced into joining. The Union men captured him, and my grandpa was in the group that captured his own daddy. They took him to Knoxville to prison camp, and there's where he died. My grandpa always talked about his daddy dying up there and always said he worried about his soul and if he was ready to go.

Mitchell Stiles did not remember the date of his capture, imprisonment, or death. However, it could not have been earlier than September 1863 when the Union Army under General Ambrose Burnside occupied and established headquarters at Knoxville, Tennessee. William L. Stiles had enlisted with CO C, 39th NC Regt, CSA as did his youngest brother John B. "Foxy John" Stiles, and oldest nephew Silas Wilburn Stiles. His name never appears on census records after 1860. His wife, Telitha Sutton Stiles, was thereafter listed as widowed and head of household on subsequent censuses.

by
Stephen & Sandra Ratledge
from interviews with Mitchell Stiles (deceased)
of Hiawassee Dam Community, Cherokee CO, NC 1982