# Kirkland Bushwhackers

The Kirkland Bushwhackers, also known as the Kirkland Raiders, were an irregular military force led by John Jackson Kirkland during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era. Known for their extreme violence, the group operated in the Southern Appalachian region, particularly in what is now Graham County, North Carolina, and Monroe County, Tennessee. The gang targeted Union and Confederate soldiers, civilians, and rival outlaws with Guerrilla tactics, leaving a legacy of fear and infamy.

## Origins and leadership

John Jackson Kirkland, born in 1827, served as a Third Lieutenant in Company B of the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (CSA) after enlisting in Lynchburg, Virginia on June 6, 1861. After his family’s grist mill on Turkey Creek (near Tellico Plains, Tennessee) was destroyed, Kirkland deserted the Confederate Army and formed the Kirkland Bushwhackers, possibly in response to the Partisan Ranger Act of 1861. The gang was comprised primarily of Confederate deserters and disaffected locals with unclear political or military loyalties. As the war progressed, the theater where they operated was plagued by irregular warfare and atrocities committed against civilians and regular forces alike.

## Activities

The Kirkland Bushwhackers orchestrated an ambush at a ford where Buck Highway crossed Citico Creek. Seven Bushwhackers concealed themselves in the brush as eight members of the Union-aligned Laney Gang crossed on horseback. When the gang reached the middle of the creek, the Bushwhackers opened fire, killing seven of the Laney Gang, including leaders Randolph Laney and James Elliot. Only one member escaped.
Near Deals Gap, North Carolina, the gang ambushed a family mistakenly caught in the path of a planned raid on Union soldiers transporting a military payroll. The family’s infant began crying, threatening to reveal their position. In one of the most chilling acts attributed to the gang, John Kirkland killed the child and hid the body in a hollow log.
On September 2, 1864, in Ball Play, Tennessee, the gang ambushed Bob Stratton and Jack Roberts. They lured the men with a piece of paper placed in the road. When the men stopped to investigate, the Bushwhackers opened fire, killing Stratton instantly and fatally wounding Roberts. The Kirklands were reportedly after Stratton's Spencer repeating rifle.
Kirkland's brutality also extended to his own kin. On December 8, 1864, he murdered his uncle by marriage, Bas Shaw, and Shaw's two sons, Jim and Jeff, who served in the 11th Tennessee Cavalry (Union). Shaw had participated in a Union raid on Robbinsville, North Carolina, during which Kirkland's brother, Jesse, was killed.
Captain Joseph C. Gray, a Union officer in the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (Union), was ambushed at his home near the Little Tennessee River on January 15, 1865. The gang murdered Gray and celebrated with a drunken party, during which their women allegedly danced around a campfire wearing Gray's stolen cavalry boots. Years later, Gray's widow, Rachel McCall Gray, reportedly refused to forgive one of the gang members responsible for her husband's death.
They were accused of shooting down Anna Rodgers in Monroe County, Tennessee on March 12, 1865. Although there were several warrants for the sheriff to bring in the accused, the Kirklands had fled into the mountains and were never apprehended for this particular crime. Anna may have been related to one of her killers.

### Hideouts

The Kirkland Bushwhackers used the rugged and remote terrain of the Unicoi Mountains and adjacent Snowbird Mountains to evade capture. Known hideouts included Kirkland Springs near Avey Branch, below present-day Horse Cove Campground, where the gang kept stolen livestock, and the Slickrock Creek Watershed were they often laid ambushes at Big Fat Gap and Yellowhammer Gap.

## Survival, death and legacy

Despite numerous murder indictments, John Kirkland was never arrested or tried for his crimes. After the war, Kirkland lived in Graham County, North Carolina until relocating to Polk County, Tennessee, where he died in 1902 at the age of 75. In 1958, he was honored by Ms. Zella Armstrong, member of the Tennessee Historical Commission and vice-president of the state chapter of the Confederated Southern Memorial Association, and subsumed into the resurgent Lost Cause mythos of the time. To this day, graves scattered across the region mark the remains of their victims.