Appalachian Figures A Harlan County beginning Elbert Benjamin “E. B.” Smith was born in Benham, Kentucky, on May 1, 1921, the son of Elbert and Gladys Smith. Benham was a young company town in Harlan County when Smith arrived, and like many Appalachian families of his generation his early years unfolded in a landscape shaped by coal and community churches.

Appalachian Figures Pine Mountain Settlement School began with a local farmer’s gift and a plainspoken promise. William “Uncle William” Creech of Harlan County wanted a school where his neighbors’ children could learn without leaving the valley. In his own words he had “heart and craving that our people may grow better,” and he put land and effort behind the idea.

Appalachian Figures From Harlan to the Army Carl Henry Dodd was born in Harlan County and came of age in a coal camp world that sent many young men into uniform. Before his eighteenth birthday he worked for the Black Mountain Coal Company, then enlisted in the Army at 18, beginning a career that would stretch across World War II and the Korean War.

Appalachian Figures A Harlan County beginning Jerry Donald Chesnut was born in the railroad town of Loyall in Harlan County on May 7, 1931. Multiple primary records fix his birthplace and date, and they place him in the household of A. B. (Alvin Basil) and Ruby Chesnut in Loyall as a child.

Appalachian Figures Silas Harlan’s short life sits at the crossroads of early Kentucky settlement, George Rogers Clark’s western campaigns, and the last major battle of the Revolution in the Ohio Valley. Harlan helped build a Salt River station, scouted for Clark, wrote home about a plan to fortify the “Iron Banks” on the Mississippi, and fell at Blue Licks in 1782. In 1819, the legislature created Harlan County and named it for him.

Appalachian Figures Wallace Clayton “Wah Wah” Jones grew up in Harlan, Kentucky, and carried Appalachian grit onto some of the biggest stages in American sport. He starred at Harlan High, then for the University of Kentucky in basketball, football, and baseball, and in the summer of 1948 he helped the United States win Olympic gold in London.

Appalachian History Series Why Carter’s Station mattered In the fall of 1863 the railroad crossing at Carter’s Station (often called Carter’s Depot) and the Watauga River fords west of Jonesborough formed the hinge between East Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. Whoever controlled the bridge and the river line could screen Knoxville, pressure Bristol, and menace the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad lifeline.

Appalachian History Series Setting the stage On October 10, 1863, Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Ohio cracked Confederate Brig. Gen. John S. Williams’s line at Blue Springs, between Bull’s Gap and Greeneville. Burnside sent infantry straight at the position while ordering a mounted column to slip to the rear near Rheatown, aiming to block the retreat route along the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad.

Appalachian History Series Why East Tennessee mattered in 1863 When Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside moved into East Tennessee in late summer 1863, his columns relied on thin railroad guards to keep the East Tennessee and Virginia line open. One of those guard posts sat at the Limestone Creek railroad bridge and nearby depot at Telford. A short, sharp fight there on September 8 became one of the most lopsided small actions of the campaign.

Appalachian History Series Where and why Mossy Creek mattered After the siege of Knoxville, both armies probed across East Tennessee’s roads and creek valleys. Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis protected the railroad corridor near Mossy Creek and Talbott’s Station. Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. William T. Martin covered Longstreet’s winter positions and kept pressure on the Federal outposts.

Appalachian History Series Blountville, the old Sullivan County seat on the road between Knoxville and Bristol, saw a sharp engagement on September 22, 1863. The fight came amid Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s East Tennessee operations, when Federal mounted troops probed toward the Virginia line to secure the railroad and pressure Confederate forces back toward the Holston River and the saltworks beyond.