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Smith-McDowell House Museum to Dedicate Buncombe County Civil War Memorial on October 21.


The Smith-McDowell House Museum will dedicate the Buncombe County Civil War Memorial on Sunday, October 21 at 2:00 p.m, at the Smith-McDowell House Museum. A reception will follow the dedication ceremony. The event is free and open to the public.

The Memorial honors the 551 men from Buncombe County who died during the Civil War while serving the Confederacy or the Union. It was conceived by Buncombe County native Eric Emory who researched the National Archives and records from the NC Department of Archives & History to create a comprehensive list of the Civil War dead from Buncombe County. The numbers he found are staggering. During the Civil War, some 50% of Buncombe County�s 5,360 male residents served in either Confederate or Union troops. More than 10% percent of those men died in service. It would take the County decades to recover from this loss.

Eric Emory writes, "I believe that several thousand descendants of these men still live in Buncombe County. Many of these men did not have a proper burial. It is not even known where some were buried. It is long past time that these dead be identified and honored with a memorial."

To honor those men, Eric raised funds to create a Memorial that would list the names of these men and once again unite these neighbors who fought on opposing sides during the war.

Consisting of a circle of granite stones, the Buncombe County Civil War Memorial lists the names of the soldiers by unit, and includes members of both Union and Confederate troops. Thanks to tedious hand-digging by volunteers, the Buncombe County Civil War Memorial has now been installed at Smith-McDowell House Museum.

The circa 1840 Smith-McDowell House was home to Major William Wallace McDowell who organized the first Confederate troops in WNC and to George Avery, who served in the 110th Regiment of the US Colored Volunteers. The site was also visited by Kirby�s Raiders and others during the War.

Today Smith-McDowell House Museum is restored as a period house and local history museum located at 283 Victoria Road on the campus of A-B Technical Community College. The Museum is open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $4.50 for adults, and $3.50 for seniors, students, and children ages five to eighteen. Children under the age of five are admitted for free. For additional information about the Museum or the Buncombe County Civil War Memorial, call the Museum at 828-253-9231 or visit www.wnchistory.org.



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