~ IN MEMORY OF ~

Benjamin Stiles / Styles, Pvt.

VITAL STATS

b 11 Mar 1848 Persimmon Creek, Cherokee CO, NC d 8 Dec 1930 Tellico Plains, Monroe CO, TN buried Oak Grove Bapt Ch Cem, Cherokee CO, NC per Union military marker
son of William L. Stiles & Telitha "Lithey" Sutton

m 29 Dec 1865 Cherokee CO, NC to

Margaret Carroll b 10 Apr 1847 NC d 21 Feb 1926 buried Oak Grove Bapt Ch Cem, Cherokee CO, NC member of Bapt church 64 yrs, mother of 9, wife of Benjamin Stiles per tombstone
dau of Absalom & Nancy (Ledford) Carroll

Pension File S.C. 929291, filed 14 Jan 1890, provides his birthdate and birth place. His address was Persimmon Creek and Letitia in Cherokee CO, NC. He claimed service in both Capt. Goldman Bryson's Co., Union Vols of 1863 as well as Co. G., 3rd TN Mtd Inf (100 days' Union Army Vols) under Capt. Enoch "Pete" Voyles. His marriage to Margaret Carroll was given as 1 Jan 1865, Cherokee CO, NC. Their children's names and birthdates were listed as follows:

Nancy Styles b 8 Nov 1866
Alice Styles b 22 Mar 1869
W. M. Styles b 17 Oct 1872
Decatur Styles b Dec 1875
Mary E. Styles b 22 Apr 1878
Harriett R. Styles b 25 July 1881
John M. Styles b 18 Sep 1884
Devareaux B. Styles b 12 Apr 1887
Eller M. Styles b 26 Feb 1889

Following his first wife's death, he married Nancy Green 9 May 1927, Cherokee CO, NC. His widow was listed as age 76 and born 14 July 1848, and living at Birch in 1931.

Pension was granted 8 Aug 1896, at $12 monthly. Gradually the amount rose as follows: $13 from 9 Aug 1913; $15 from 11 May 1914; $18 from 11 Mar 1918; $30 from 10 June 1918; and $72 from 9 May 1927, until his death 8 Dec 1930, at Tellico Plains, Monroe CO, TN of septic poisoning caused by burns.

In a series of our interviews, Mitchell Stiles of Hiawassee Dam Community, Cherokee CO, NC recalled that his great-grandfather William L. Stiles died in the Civil War. When a young boy, Mitchell huddled by the fireplace between his grandfather, Benjamin "Ben" Stiles (above), and Ben's cousin John "Black Fox" Stiles. When these two first cousins -- both Union Army veterans -- got together, their conversation eventually centered on their war reminiscences. As each dry log kindled the hearth fire, so each story whetted interest in Mitchell's young, impressionable mind. In old age, Mitchell declared that he could remember those days better than yesterday.

Mitchell recalled in December 1982, the following, which I recorded,

All your gang was Union men and all mine was Rebels except my grandpaw Ben Stiles. Your great-great-grandpaw John Black Fox Stiles and Ben was in together. They kept together and years later they'd get together and that's what they'd talk about -- the Old War -- yeah, the Civil War. So, I was just a little feller, but I'd sit on the floor by the fire between them and listen to them tell all their war stories and what went on back in them days. It was bad -- I mean it was bad! It was fathers fightin' agin sons and brother against brother and cousins killin' each other and people swearin' never to speak or threatin' to kill the other one. They's one gang of sons that actually killed their paw right up here because he was on the other side. Then, they's a gang a bushwhackers weren't on neither side and they'd just kill people and do awful things to 'em. I mean it was awful what they did. They didn't care and killin' a man wasn't nothing to them. So, they didn't know who to trust. Them bushwhackers was the Walkers -- it weren't none of our folks! Them Walkers lived down on Nottly River below Ranger and they's always a vengeance between Sitles and Walkers. They's always into it and they had a fight a goin'. It all just come out in the Civil War then. They got into it and started killin' each other. But then after the war, when Bill Walker married Mandy Stiles, why that just ended the whole thing. They never did fuss or fight no more after that. Mandy was Jim's daughter. My grandpa, Ben Stiles, was a Union man and he stayed in the army four years after the Civil War. His daddy was old man Bill Stiles, and he was a Rebel. He kinda got forced into joining. The Union men captured him, and my grandpa was in the group that captured his own daddy. They took him to Knoxville to prison camp, and there's where he died. My grandpa always talked about his daddy dying up there and always said he worried about his soul and if he was ready to go.

Mitchell Stiles did not remember the date of his capture, imprisonment, or death. However, it could not have been earlier than September 1863 when the Union Army under General Ambrose Burnside occupied and established headquarters at Knoxville, Tennessee. William L. Stiles had enlisted with CO C, 39th NC Regt, CSA as did his youngest brother John B. "Foxy John" Stiles, and oldest nephew Silas Wilburn Stiles. His name never appears on census records after 1860. His wife, Telitha Sutton Stiles, was thereafter listed as widowed and head of household on subsequent censuses.

by
Stephen & Sandra Ratledge
from Benjamin Styles' Pension File S.C. 929291
& 1982 interviews with Mitchell Stiles (deceased) of Hiawassee Dam Community, Cherokee CO, NC

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