A complex sequence of deformation produced the major central and southern trends of the Appalachian fold-and-thrust belt in the Roanoke recess, Virginia. The incipient recess first experienced the Appalachian-wide stress field, then shifted to far-field effects from incremental counterclockwise rotation of the shortening direction, which resulted in the Central Appalachian fold belt, and then shifted to incremental clockwise rotation, which produced the Southern Appalachian fold-and-thrust belt. We analyzed joints, veins, normal and reverse faults, stylolites, and paleoseismites from Mississippian strata at the structural front of the Southern Appalachian fold-and-thrust belt, and the adjacent Appalachian Plateau west of the recess. We...