Fort Hamby

Fort Hamby. Deserters and Desperados. The site of Fort Hamby is located about half a mile south of here. The two-story log house was not a military fortification. It got its name after 20 to 30 Union and Confederate deserters occupied it at the end of the war. Their leader, who gave his name as Wade and claimed to have been a major in Union Gen. George Stoneman's cavalry, organized raids on the residents of Wilkes, Alexander, Caldwell, and Watauga Counties. Little is known about the gang members, although legends of their cruelty abound. They allegedly shot and killed a child and a woman at long range to test the accuracy of their rifles, threatened and attacked unarmed men and women, and generally instituted a reign of terror here until spring of 1865., On night in early May, a posse under a former Confederate Maj. Harvey Bingham of the Watauga County Home Guard assaulted Fort Hamby, but a gang there killed two and drove off the rest. A week later, Wade and his men attacked the home of W.C. Green, a former Confederate officer, in Alexander County. Green had armed his children and servants, and together they opened fire on the bandits, wounding at least one and chasing away the others. The next day, former Confederate Col. Washington Sharpe led another posse against Fort Hamby and besieged the place. After a standoff, Sharpe had an outbuilding set afire before dawn. When the flames spread to Fort Hamby, the gang surrendered. Wade escaped in the confusion and was never seen again, but others were executed on the spot. The posse then burned Fort Hamby to the ground.