Just who is Colonel Draughon?

It is unusual to come across a Confederate tombstone with so little information on it. However, if you visit Cross Creek Cemetery in Fayetteville, you will find this stone. So, just who was Col. Walter Draughon?

Draughon was born in Sampson County, North Carolina, ca. 1811, and at some point moved to Cumberland County. It was Draughon, then a general of the state militia, whom Governor Ellis ordered to capture the Fayetteville Arsenal in 1861, which he did. On September 26, 1861, Draughon was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 30th North Carolina Troops. However, when the regiment was organized in May 1862, Draughon was defeated for re-election and returned home. It appears that he later enlisted in Company F, 2nd Battalion North Carolina Defense Troops, and was mustered in as a private. At the end of the war, he had been promoted to sergeant. He died ca.1880.

Draughton is buried in the old section of Cross Creek Cemetery. Interestingly, his Confederate stone gives his rank as colonel, has no regimental information, and has only one date: 1880. Why do you think this is? Were his descendants who erected the stone uninformed? or maybe he harbored ill feelings regarding his defeat for reelection? We will probably never know.