Martha Caroline Potts Pierson’s Experience with ‘Kirk’s Raiders’

Born in 1858, Martha Caroline, the daughter of Allen Potts and Susan Wade Potts, lived in the Yellow Mountain area of North Carolina. Martha was just about 5 years old when Yankee raiders came to her family’s home. They stole what food the family had, and frustrated because there was so little food for them to steal, the soldiers took Susan Potts’ dishes outside and broke them on rocks. According to Martha, the dissatisfied raiders then stripped her father and whipped him in front of the terrified family. After they left, Martha’s mother went out into the yard and picked up what was left of her dishes.