My GGUncle James G McAlpin, of Robeson County, joined Company F “the Cumberland Ploughboys”, of the 24th North Carolina Infantry, on July 30th, 1861.
In August, the unit was dispatched to the mountains of western Virginia. They were part of a Confederate force whose mission was to prevent Union troops from advancing further into northwestern Virginia. The 24th North Carolina departed Robeson County travelling most of the way by train and then on foot. The train carried them to within fifteen miles of Meadow Bluff, Virginia, disembarking them at a small town named Union. The Confederate units dispatched to the area were converging at Meadow Bluff for a subsequent move forward to Sewell Mountain to confront the Federals.

Now on foot, the men marched along in a torrential downpour, through mountainous country. The roads became nearly impassable with horses floundering through deep mud and men splattered from head to toe. Rain fell constantly and, because the wagons could not keep up, the men slept in the rain and mud without tents. By the time they reached Meadow Bluff, many fell out sick with measles, mumps and typhoid fever. young men had been raised in rural environments and, as a result, had never developed immunities to the many killer diseases which were prevalent in their time. Thrown together with many other young men and exposed to bad water and the elements, they died in droves.

Somewhere during the march to Meadow Bluff or possibly on the twenty mile march to Sewell Mountain, James became sick and was placed in a Meadow Bluff home that had been converted into an impromptu hospital. It was there on November 7th, 1861, that James passed away.

The flag of the 24th is currently housed
at the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina.