On February 11, 1863, in Yadkin County, North Carolina, a small group of men facing the Confederate draft resolved to flee to the Union. As reported by the North Carolina Museum of History, the militia learned that the men were meeting at a local schoolhouse and surrounded them.
A firefight between the two groups the next morning claimed deaths on both sides, and led to bitterness among local families for generations. Although North Carolina played a critical role in the Confederate cause, providing soldiers, supplies and leadership, Union sentiment in the state persisted, especially in the mountainous piedmont regions like Yadkin County, where plantation slavery had made virtually no inroads. In these areas, undermining the Confederate war effort by evading the draft and taxes was by no means exceptional.