The Kirkland Bushwhackers

This week, we tell a story from the lawless mountain border between western North Carolina and east Tennessee during the Civil War. As great battles raged elsewhere, outlaws and deserters came to the mountains to hide, to rob and to turn old trails and creek crossings into killing grounds.

At the center of this story is John Jackson Kirkland and his gang, whose violence touched soldiers, civilians, rivals, and even their own kin. This is a story of a war without sides, and justice that never came.

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