Camp Mast

Camp Mast. Watauga County Home Guard. In July 1863, Gov. Zebulon B. Vance created the Home Guard to protect communities and capture deserters, Unionists, and bushwhackers. The Guard was made up of men not liable for conscription because of age, health, and other reasons. Capt. Harvey Bingham commanded Watauga County's contingent, the 11th Battalion North Carolina Home Guard. Later, Bingham was promoted to major and the unit was enlarged to include two companies: A, under Capt. George McGuire, and B, under Capt. Jordan Cook. The county's first Home Guard camp was located farther up Cove Creek, while the second, Camp Mast, was constructed just across the creek in 1864. While one company manned the camp, the men in the other unit remained at home. , In February 1865, a Federal officer traditionally identified as Capt. James Champion led 103 men from the Unionist stronghold of Banner Elk and surrounded Camp Mast at night. McGuire and the men of Company A, on duty here at the time, were caught by surprise in the morning. McGuire polled his men and found that sixty favored surrender while eleven voted to fight it out. He surrendered, and Champion destroyed the camp and marched his prisoners west through Banner Elk to Ibnnessee. Once they crossed the state line to Shell Creek, the men who had voted to surrender were paroled and set free, while the rest ,were marched to a Federal prison in Columbus, Ohio. , (inset) , Harvey Bingham enlisted in Co. E, 37th North Carolina troops in September 1861, He was promoted to lieutenant in December 1861. Bingham was wounded in the head during the Second Battle of Manassas in August 1862 and resigned soon thereafter. In mid-1863, he was appointed captain (later major), 11th Battalion North Carolina Home Guard. After the war, Bingham moved to Statesville, where he practiced law.