Colonel Robert Love is the "Founder" of Waynesville, North Carolina. The Loves played critical
and crucial roles in the formation and economical development of Western North Carolina. Robert Love's brother, General Thomas Love, was also a prominent North Carolina politician.
Meet Colonel Robert Love's Grandchildren
Sarah Jane Burney Love:
She was the granddaughter of Colonel
Robert Love, the founder of Waynesville, North Carolina. Sarah was the daughter of James Robert Love, Sr. and Maria Williamson Coman.
Cherokee Chief William Holland Thomas had a romantic relationship with the young and shy Sarah Jane Burney Love. When Will finally married
his sweetheart, he was 51 and she was 24. Sarah, or "Sallie," was the daughter of William's long time
friend and former business partner James Robert Love, Sr.
Sarah's father, James Robert Love, Sr., was
also a prosperous businessman, vast land owner, and a respected lawyer in North Carolina. The Loves resided in White Sulphur Springs, near present-day Waynesville, and they equaled
the status of Chief Thomas. Chief Thomas's mother was Temperance Calvert, she was the grand-niece of Lord Baltimore and she was also cousin to President Zachary Taylor. One of William and Sarah's three children was Sallie Love Thomas (great-granddaughter of Robert Love), and she married a prominent citizen of Western North
Carolina. Her husband was also brother-in-law to renowned Confederate General Daniel
Harvey Hill. D. H. Hill was one of only thirty-three Civil War generals from North Carolina, and he was one of only two
lieutenant generals from the Old North State. Theophilus Hunter Holmes was the other lieutenant general representing North
Carolina (lieutenant general was the second highest rank in the Confederate Army; Robert. E. Lee was "General" or
what is commonly referred to as full-general)
| Col. R.G.A. Love |
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| Clark's Regiments |
Colonel Robert Gustavus Adolphus
Love:
Lieutenant Colonel James Robert Love II:
James Robert Love II was a graduate of Emory and Henry College,
studied law, and was a member of the North Carolina Legislature. After the war, he was a member of the North Carolina Constitutional
Convention (1868), and later served in the State Senate. The city of Waynesville
was founded by Robert Love, the grandfather of James Robert Love II. J.R. Love II passed from this earthly life on November 10, 1885.
Maria Love:
Maria Love was the daughter of James Robert Love, Sr. and Maria Williamson Coman. She married William Williams Stringfield.
William W. Stringfield initially served as a private in the 1st (Carter's) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, then as a captain in Co.
E, 39th (Bradford's) Tennessee Infantry Regiment, also known as the 31st (William M. Bradford's) Tennessee Infantry Regiment.
After the war, Lt. Colonel Stringfield was elected as a member of the North Carolina Legislature in 1882-1883, and North Carolina State Senate in 1901 and 1905. William
Stringfield died from natural causes on March 6, 1923.
| Matthew Hale Love |
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| (Photographed by the Writer) |
William Hale Love:
Matthew Hale Love was the son of James Robert Love, Sr. and Maria Williamson Coman.
He is interred at Green Hill Cemetery, Waynesville, North Carolina.
On September 27, 1862, Matthew Hale Love was elected captain
of Second Company A (2ndA), Infantry Regiment, Thomas' Legion. 2ndA was Thomas' first "Indian Company" and was organized on April 9, 1862, at Quallatown, North Carolina. William
Holland Thomas was the captain. On September 27, 1862, when the Thomas Legion organized at Knoxville, 2ndA was designated
as Company C and Matthew Hale Love was elected captain. Later when 1stA (First Company A), commanded by Captain Andrew
W. Bryson, transferred to the 39th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, Second Company A was reassigned as First Company A, Infantry Regiment, Thomas' Legion. Matthew Hale Love was
one of many Loves serving the Confederacy.
"Robert Love's House Burned to the Ground by Yankee Raiders"
By 1865 the Confederacy had failed, and Colonel George W. Kirk and the Union's 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment believed it would encounter minimal opposition and resistance as they continued sacking Western North Carolina communities.
However, although the Confederacy was doomed, the Thomas Legion's highest calling was protecting North Carolina's mountain
citizens. In late February and early March of 1865, Union Col. George W. Kirk continued his raids into Western N.C. Colonel
George W. Kirk and the men of the Union Army's 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment (AKA North Carolina Federal Mounted
Infantry) were commonly referred to as "Kirk's Raiders," because they often pillaged and plundered the region. On February
4th Kirk and a small army of 400 cavalry and 200 infantry left Newport, Tennessee, and crossed into Haywood County, North
Carolina, via the old Cataloochee Turnpike on a raid that reached Waynesville, the county seat. Kirk's Raiders (armed with
Spencer repeating rifles) soon entered Waynesville and pillaged stores, stole numerous horses, killed about 20 men, and burned
several houses, including Confederate Lt. Col. James R. Love's house (also the former residence of James Love's grandfather,
the Revolutionary War hero Robert Love). Next they attacked the Waynesville jail, freed the prisoners, and then burned the
jail. Slow and impeded communication, the vastness of Western North Carolina, and few “Home Guard” made it extremely
difficult to defend the area.
The preceding names only touch the surface of the numerous Loves that remained faithful to their state and
the Confederate Cause. North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia provided over 500 Loves to
the Confederate cause. There is no doubt that many of these men can trace their origin to the Loves that originally inhabited
and settled the Region. Numerous Loves also served in the following Western North Carolina units:
Sources:
Official Records
of the Union and Confederate Armies; Robert Love's Pension and Service Record; Mary Love Stringfield of Haywood County,
North Carolina, a descendant of Robert Love-F.D. Love; Love Family Volume I,
First Series, Columbus, Georgia © 2001; Matthew D. Parker (Private Collection); National Park Service; John
Preston Arthur, History of Western North Carolina: Edward Buncombe Chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, Asheville, North Carolina, 1914; John Hill Wheeler (1806-1882), Reminiscences and Memoirs of
North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians; Wheeler's History of North Carolina, Vol. I. 97; Vernon H. Crow, Storm in the Mountains: Thomas' Confederate Legion of Cherokee Indians
and Mountaineers; Walter Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-1865;
National Park Service: American Civil War; Weymouth T. Jordan and Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865; D.
H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865; Christopher M. Watford,
The Civil War in North Carolina: Soldiers' and Civilians' Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865. Volume 2: The Mountains; Library
of Congress; National Archives and Records Administration; State Library of North Carolina; North Carolina Office of Archives
and History; North Carolina Museum of History; E. Stanly
Godbolt, Jr. and Mattie U. Russell, Confederate Colonel and Cherokee Chief: The Life of William Holland
Thomas; Paul A. Thomsen, Rebel Chief: The Motley Life of Colonel William Holland
Thomas C.S.A.
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