Kirkland Bushwhackers

The gang targeted Union and Confederate soldiers, civilians, and rival outlaws with Guerrilla tactics, leaving a legacy of fear and infamy.

[1] John Jackson Kirkland, born in 1827, served as a Third Lieutenant in Company B of the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (CSA) after enlisting in Lynchburg, Virginia on June 6, 1861.

[1] As the war progressed, the theater where they operated was plagued by irregular warfare and atrocities committed against civilians and regular forces alike.

[1][5] Near Deals Gap, North Carolina, the gang ambushed a family mistakenly caught in the path of a planned raid on Union soldiers transporting a military payroll.

In one of the most chilling acts attributed to the gang, John Kirkland killed the child and hid the body in a hollow log.

[1][5] In 1958, he was honored by Ms. Zella Armstrong, member of the Tennessee Historical Commission and vice-president of the state chapter of the Confederated Southern Memorial Association, and subsumed into the resurgent Lost Cause mythos of the time.

3LT John Jackson Kirkland, CSA.
Grave marker for an anonymous victim located off the Cherohala Skyway .
Bas Shaw’s Death Memorial.