Books on North Carolina's Confederate Generals

You've probably figured out that I like lists of books. For several years, I've kept a list of North Carolina counties and their published histories of the War. Well, below is a new list, a list of North Carolina-born general officers of the Confederacy (with one exception). There are several names not on this list, like James H. Lane or William Henry Chase Whiting. They were associated with North Carolina, but came from other states. There are also a couple who are buried in the Tar Heel state but who are not on this list, like William R. Boggs. He came after the war. The only exception that I have made is for Collett Leventhorpe. He was born in England, but when he moved to North Carolina (prior to the war), he never really lived any other place, and is buried in Caldwell County. I have also not included state-appointed generals, like John W. McElroy. These men are only Confederate-appointed generals.

Of the 46 men on this list, 26 have no material published on them, save brief pieces in Warner's Generals in Gray, Powell's Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, or Davis's The Confederate General (6 volumes). Of the 18 who do have biographies, three of those are just sketches, usually presented at a monument dedication or a memorial service. For me, that leaves 16 who have bios. Of that number, six have multiple biographies. Braxton Bragg has eight, William Dorsey Pender, Leonidas Polk, and Stephen Dodson Ramseur have four each, and James Johnston Pettigrew has three. Bryan Grimes had two, and the rest, one each.  

As always, this is a work in progress. If I missed someone, or some book, please let me know. At some point, I will probably update this list to include theses and dissertations, and then maybe articles.

Anderson, George Burgwyn, Brig. Gen.  (1831-1862)

            "A Private" Brigadier-General George Burgwyn Anderson (19--?)
Armistead, Louis Addision, Brig. Gen., (1817-1863)

Baker, Laurence Simmons, Brig. Gen. (1830-1907)

Barringer, Rufus, Brig. Gen. (1821-1895)

            Barringer, Fighting for General Lee (2016)
Barry, John D., Brig. Gen. (1838-1867)

Bragg, Braxton, General (1817-1876)

            Bragg, Braxton Bragg: Military Strategist (1998)

            Hallock, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Vol. 2 (1991)

            Hay, Braxton Bragg and the Southern Confederacy (1925)

            Hess, Braxton Bragg: the Most Hated Man of the Confederacy (2016)

            Martin, General Braxton Bragg (2011)

            McWhiney, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat Vol. 1 (1969)

            Seitz, Braxton Bragg, general of the Confederacy (1924)

            Stout, Reminiscences of General Braxton Bragg (1942)

Branch, Lawrence O'B., Brig. Ben. (1820-1862)
Bullock, Robert, Brig. Gen. (1828-1905)

Clingman, Thomas L., Brig. Gen. (1812-1897)

            Jeffrey, Thomas Lanier Clingman: Fire Eater from the Carolina Mountains (1998)

Cox, William R., Brig. Gen. (1832-1919)

            Spruill, A Sketch of the Life and Service of General William Ruffin Cox (1921)

Daniel Junius, Brig. Gen. (1828-1864)

Dockery, Thomas P., Brig. Gen. (1833-1898)

Forney, John H. Maj. Gen. (1829-1902)

            Daugette, The Life of Major General John H. Forney (1925?)
Forney, William H., Brig. Gen. (1823-1894)
Garrott, Isham W., Brig. Gen. (1816-1863)

Gatlin, Richard C., Brig. Gen. (1809-1896)

            Daddis,  Richard C. Gatlin and the Confederate Defense of Eastern North Carolina (2015)
Gilmer, Jeremy F., Maj. Gen. (1818-1883)

Gordon, James B. Brig. Gen. (1822-1864)

            Hartley, Stuart's Tar Heels (1996)
Govan, Daniel C., Brig. Gen. (1829-1911)

Grimes, Bryan, Maj. Gen. (1828-1880)

            Allen, Lee's Last Major General: Bryan Grimes of North Carolina

            Cowper, Extracts of Letters of Maj. Gen Bryan Grimes to his Wife (2014)

Hill, Daniel H., Lt. Gen. (1821-1889)

            Bridges, Lee's Maverick General: Daniel Harvey Hill (1991)

Hoke, Robert F., Maj. Gen. (1837-1912)

            Barefoot, General Robert F. Hoke: Lee's Modest Warrior (1996)

Holmes, Theophilus H., Lt. Gen. (1804-1880)

            Hilderman, Theophilus Hunter Holmes: A North Carolina General in the Civil War (2013)

Johnston, George D. Brig. Gen. (1832-1910)

Johnston, Robert D., Brig. Gen. (1837-1919)

Kirkland, William W., Brig. Gen. (1833-1915)

Leventhorpe, Collett, Brig. Gen. (18815-1889)

            Foley and Cole, Collett Leventhorpe, the English Confederate (2006)

Lewis, William G., Brig. Gen. (1835-1901)
MacRae, William, Brig. Gen. (1834-1882)

Martin, James G., Brig. Gen. (1819-1878)
McNair, Evander, Brig. Gen. (1820-1902)

Pender, William D., Maj. Gen. (1834-1863)

            Hassler, One of Lee's Best Men: The Civil War Letters of Gen. William D. Pender (1999)

            ----The General to His Lady: The Civil War Letters of W. D. Pender to Fanny Pender (1965)

            Longacre, General William Dorsey Pender: A Military Biography (2001)

            Willis, Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory (2013)
Pettigrew, James J., Brig. Gen. (1828-1963)

            Bauer, The Long Lost Journal of Confederate General James Johnston Pettigrew (2001)

            Wilson, Carolina Cavalier: Life and Mind of James Johnston Pettigrew (1990)

            Wilson, The Most Promising Man of the South... (1998)

Polk, Leonidas, Lt. Gen. (1806-1864)

            Parks, General Leonidas Polk, CSA (1992)

            Polk, Leonidas Polk; Bishop and General 2 volumes (1915)

            Robbins, The Bishop of the Old South: (2006)

            White, Confederate General Leonidas Polk: Louisiana's Fighting Bishop (2013)

Polk, Lucius E., Brig. Gen. (1833-1892)
Rains, Gabriel J. Brig. Gen. (1803-1881)

Ramseur, Stephen D., Maj. Gen. (1837-1864)

            Cox, Address on the Life and Character of.... Ramseur (1891)

            Gallagher, Stephen Dodson Ramseur: Lee's Gallant General (1995)

            Kundahl, The Bravest of the Brave: The Correspondence of Stephen D. Ramseur (2014)

            Schenck, Sketches of Maj. Gen. Stephen Dodson Ramseur (2015)

Ransom, Matt W., Brig. Gen. (1826-1904)

            Marlow, Matt W. Ransom, Confederate General from North Carolina (1996)

Ransom, Robert, Jr., Maj. Gen. (1828-1892)

Richardson, Robert V., Brig. Gen. (1820-1870)

Roberts, William P., Brig. Gen. (1841-1910)

Scales, Alfred M., Brig. Gen. (1827-1892)

            Conner, Address on Alfred Moore Scales (1907)

Toon, Thomas F., Brig. Gen. (1840-1902)
Ticker, William, Brig. Gen. (1827-1881)

Vance, Robert B., Brig. Gen. (1828-1899)

Wilcox, Cadmus M., Maj. Gen. (1824-1890)

            Patterson, From Blue to Gray (2001) 

Ft. Fisher anniversary

This weekend, our friends at Ft. Fisher are holding their anniversary events. If you live in the area, please drop in and check out the living histories and special speakers. Two years ago, I was there, with thousands of others, including Ed Bearss and Governor McCory. It was a great event and I really enjoyed being a part of it. Above is the video of my presentation on the 150th anniversary weekend. I'm really looking forward to seeing my spot on Blood and Fury this upcoming Wednesday. At least I will not be in a big thick coat with gloves - kind of cold at Fort Fisher two years ago.

Why do people think Zeb Vance was in the Klan?

A couple of months ago, I was reading a new biography on a North Carolina Confederate general. In this book, the author claimed that North Carolina Governor Zebulon Baird Vance was a member of the Klan, eventually elected to "Grand Dragon" of the Realm of North Carolina. That kind of took me aback, and led me to dig a little further.

Most of the entries I found are like this one from Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan, 1866-1871, by Stanley Fitzgerald Horn in 1969: "Ex-Governor Zebulon Baird Vance was generally supposed to be the Grand Dragon of the Realm; and the testimony of the confessed Ku Klux was to the effect that within the Klan Vance was generally looked upon as the chief of state." (194) Horn, however, gives us no source for his vague notion regarding Vance's involvement. It is quite possible that Horn got his idea about Vance's involvement from a 1924 book by Susan Lawrence Davis. She writes in Authentic History Ku Klux Klan, 1865-1877 that "The Ku Klux Klan, led by Zebulon B. Vance, Grand Dragon of the Realm of North Carolina, succeeded in driving from their soil the 'carpet-bagger' and all other kinds of invaders, and impeached W. W. Holden from the office of Governor." (236) Once again, no documentation. But the words "Realm of North Carolina" appear in all three works. I dug a little further, but I found no reference to Vance and the Klan prior to 1926. I did finds lots of references to Vance being in the Klan referencing Davis or Horn.

Maybe this all stems from a letter that appears in the Testimony Taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Volume 2 (1872). Thomas A. Hope, from Lincoln County in an affidavit, stated that he had "frequently heard it talked among the members that Z. B. Vance was the chief of the State; do not know this of my own knowledge, have only heard it talked of." (400) This was the only mention of Vance I could find. Vance was not called to testify.

So what do the Vance biographers say about the matter? Dowd, published in 1897, is silent on the matter. Weinstein's Zebulon B. Vance and The Scattered Nation makes no mention. Cooper's Zeb Vance: Leader in War and Peace makes no mention.

Gordon McKinney in his 2004 biography on Vance, does discuss Reconstruction-era Klan violence and Zeb Vance. In 1870, when word arrived in Raleigh of outrages committed in Orange County, Vance issued this statement: "I opposed the Ku Klux from the start[.] Refusing to have anything to do with such an organization on the grounds that it was a secret society... I not only refused to approve of it but made a speech in a certain county against such organizations." (287-288)

I checked several other sources, and looked for references to Vance in various US Congressional documents related to the Klan, but I could never find Vance's name. It is interesting to note that Milton Ready, a retired UNC-Asheville history professor, came to the conclusion in an article in 2015 in MountainXpress, that Vance "loathed the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan, condemning its members as cowards and 'ruffians,' its intimidating methods as unlawful."

Maybe, just maybe, it is time to stop putting Vance in the Klan since he was probably never involved with it in the first place.

Charlotte and Stonewall Jackson's LeMat

   In the January issue of America's Civil War, there is an interesting piece on the LeMat revolvers, written by Michael G. Williams. The LeMats are fairly rare nine-shot .42 caliber revolvers that also had a small 20-guage shotgun barrel underneath. Imported during the war, they were owned by the likes of J.E.B. Stuart, Braxton Bragg, Richard H. Anderson, and P. G. T. Beauguard (Serial #8). The article has a sidebar about Stonewall Jackson's LeMat. But as the sidebar states, we don't actually have any proof that Jackson owned a LeMat. Maybe J.E.B. Stuart gave him one, about the same time that he presented him with a new coat, right before Chancellorsville.

The article includes a picture from the collection of the Virginia Military Institute. The photo is of a sitting room or parlor at the home of Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, taken in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mary Anna was from the area and lived in Charlotte twice after the war (she died there on March 24, 1915). In post-war newspaper accounts, she is frequently mentioned exhibiting some of Stonewall's personal effects. A visitor coming to the annual bazaar held each January to raise money for indigent Confederate soldiers could see Jackson's sword and other mementos.  When the national reunion of the United Confederate Veterans was held in Charlotte in 1929, visitors could stop by the home of Jackson's granddaughter and see these same relics.

Pictured in the image are a clock, field classes, epaulettes, sword, and two pistols. One pistol is identified as a British Tranter. The other bears striking resemblance to a LeMat, with its shotgun barrel under the main barrel, ornate trigger guard, lanyard, and "subtle slope atop the gun's frame..." Williams poses the question: "If Jackson owned a LeMat, where is it?"

Jackson's cased Beaumont-Adams revolver, his Lefaucheaux pin-fired revolver, field glasses, and Model 1850 US Field and Staff sword are all held at the former Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. But where is Jackson's LeMat?

Is this Jackson's LeMat? (VMI/America's Civil War)

As a side note, Williams describes the  sitting room as being in Jackson's former home in Charlotte; however, Jackson never actually lived in the home where Mary Anna resided after his death.

Calling for North Carolina's Troops

Leroy Pope Walker,
Confederacy Secretary of War

For the past few days, I've been reading Denis Peterson's Confederate Cabinet Departments and Secretaries (2016). Peterson does a good job detailing the various cabinet officers’ positions, and covering the men who filled those offices. There were several of these men about whom I really did not know much. However, I have now twice come across sections that I feel are wrong. The first was dealing with the last days of the Confederate government in Charlotte. I will not go into the details, since I have written two books on the subject.

The second deals with this statement: "After the Confederate peace commission failed to convince Lincoln to negotiate and in preparation for possible conflict over the fort [Sumter], Walker called on each of the seven states that made up the original Confederacy to supply 3,000 volunteers to meet any military necessity, for a total of 21,000..... Walker immediately ran up against the doctrine of states' rights. Each state wanted its troops to defend their own state... North Carolina's concerns were Forts Hatteras and Clark. Those states did not like the idea of having their troops sent to defend other states." (134)

Two things I see wrong here. 1): North Carolina was not one of the original seven seceding states. It was the last, not leaving the Union until May 20, 1861. The earliest call for troops that I can find is on March 9, 1861. Walker asked for troops from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia (No South Carolina. See Official Records, Series IV, vol. 1, 135). Walker made a second call for troops on April 16, 1861, this time mentioning the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi South Carolina, Texas, and Florida. There is no mention of North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, or Arkansas - they had not left the Union! (Official Records, Series IV, vol. 1, 221-222.)

2): Peterson writes that North Carolina could not send troops because they were concerned with Forts Hatteras and Clark. Construction of these facilities does not begin until North Carolina leaves the Union on May 20, 1861. But, North Carolina is sending troops. On May 17, 1861 (three days before secession), Governor Clark telegraphs Walker, requesting him to accept four regiments of 12-month men. Walker sends word back to Clark, directing that the regiments be sent to Richmond. The 1st North Carolina Volunteers transfers to Virginia between May 16 and May 21. The 2nd North Carolina Volunteers leaves for Richmond on May 22, 1861, the 3rd North Carolina Volunteers leaves for Suffolk, Virginia, on May 29, and the 4th North Carolina Volunteers leaves for Suffolk on June 11. This is all about the same time that the construction of Forts Hatters and Clark begins. While North Carolina would want some of these troops back to defend their state in late 1861 and early 1862 (battle of New Bern), I would argue that the Tar Heel state does not have a problem sending troops to join the regular Confederate army.

I'm not one-hundred percent sure, but I think Peterson is relying upon some older, secondary sources. For the Charlotte problems, he cites Patrick's Jefferson Davis and His General, published in 1944. For the above citation, it is Harris's bio on Walker, published in 1962.

No printed text is perfect, or, as I often say, I am only as good as the material that I find. However, it makes me wonder what I am not catching, because I am not as well read in the lives of people like Walker, or Reagan, or Benjamin. 

Lincoln had a what?

Have you ever been reading something and a word or two, or a sentence, kind of pops out at you? That was me a couple a days ago. I was reading Glenn LaFantasie's "The Paradox of the Gettysburg Address" in the Summer 2013 issue of Civil War Monitor. LaFantasie writes, in reference to the
Gettysburg Address, "None of Lincoln's other speeches--either as president or in his long political career leading up to the election of 1860--leaves more frustratingly inconsistent evidence than the Gettysburg Address." Lincoln had a long political career? I guess if you count when he first entered office, it was long, but not really.

Ok, Lincoln's political career was longer than Washington's and Trump's, and about the same length's as Obama's, but he had not actually been elected to hold any state or national office since 1849. From 1834 to 1842, Lincoln had served in the Illinois House of Representatives, and from 1847 to 1849, in the United States House, but that was it. Ten years, eight of which on the state level. He actually had a longer list of political failures. Lincoln was defeated for the State Legislature in 1832, lost a bid to become speaker of the State House in 1838, lost a nomination for Congress in 1843, was not re-nominated in 1848, defeated for the US Senate in 1854, lost a nomination for Vice President in 1856, and was defeated again for the US Senate in 1858.

For me, a long political career might be someone like Andrew Johnson. Born in North Carolina (see, I worked it in), He had moved to Tennessee as a young man. Prior to being elected Vice-President of the United States in 1864, Johnson had served in the United States House (1843-1853), as the governor of Tennessee (1853-1857), in the United States Senate (1857-1862), and as military governor of Tennessee (1862-1865). That's twenty-two years of public service.

Jefferson David

How about John Bell, also from Tennessee and who was running against Lincoln on the Constitutional Union Party ticket in 1860? He had years of political experience behind him: Tennessee Senate (1817-1819); United States House (1827-1841, speaker 1834-1835); Secretary of War (1841); United States Senate (1847-1859). That's thirty-two years of public service.

How about Jefferson Davis? Davis had served in the United States House (1845-1846); in the United States Senate (1847-1851); as Secretary of War (1853-1857); and then back in the United States Senate (1857-1861). That's sixteen years.

In my opinion, Lincoln was not a long serving political figure. He'd didn't have the experience to back up the job he got. Why else put someone like Simon Cameron in as Secretary of War (Lincoln didn't believe there would be a war - see new Cameron biography). After Lincoln fired George B. McClellan as general-in-chief, Lincoln formed a "War Board" to govern the movements of Federal armies. Lincoln later admitted he didn't have a clue as to what he was doing, and Henry Halleck was brought in as General-in-Chief in late July 1862.

I don't think Lincoln was a long-serving politician and I'll even go a little further: I believe Lincoln's lack of political experience really hurt the country and helped propel us into civil war. You might disagree with my assessment, and that is ok. That's just what my years of reading and research has led me to believe.

If you want to discuss something, how about this: what if Lincoln had failed to win the Republican nomination in May 1860? What if it had gone to Sen. William H. Seward, who won the first and second ballots? Had Seward won the nomination, would he have carried the election? Would South Carolina still vote to leave the Union?  These are questions we can never truly answer, but they are interesting to ponder!

Best book I've read this year - The Yankee Plague.

It should not come as any surprise, but I read lots of books every year. They are for research, for reviews, even for fun. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up Lorien Foote's The Yankee Plague: Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy. This is the best book I have read in 2016.

The Yankee Plague focuses on the last few months of the war - from September 1864 until the end - and documents how escaped Federal prisoners of war, largely from South Carolina, changed the war in both of the Carolinas. No longer was there a home front. The escaped Union POWs, along with those who helped them and hunted them, collectively made the area a new front of a multi-faceted war. Thanks to a bevy of writers, some publishing  their accounts while events were still fresh in their minds, Foote examines men who managed to escape Confederate prisoner camps. Some made their way toward Georgia, trying to link up with elements of Sherman'a army. Others tried to make for the coast, while others still thought the best course was to walk toward the mountains, heading to Knoxville and Federal lines. Foote bounces between different accounts as the men moved in parties, seeking freedom. She also chronicles the people they ran into: slaves wanting to aid the prisoners' plight toward freedom and that third group of people - those who were using the war for their own unjust gains. Toward the end of the tome, she describes how the remaining prisoners from South Carolina held up not only the evacuation of Wilmington and the retreat of Robert F. Hoke's Confederates, but also delayed supplies in reaching Sherman's army as it entered the Tar Heel state.

Foote's narrative is compelling and her prose is clean and fresh. There are numerous primary sources, largely the prisoners' own accounts, coupled with statements from the rarely cited Record Groups 249 and 393 (National Archives).

To me the only draw back is the lack of a mention of Brig. Gen. John W. McElroy, in charge of home guard battalions in western North Carolina. It was his job to coordinate the home guard attempting to coral the prisoners, draft dodgers, and deserters. It might have also been nice to have a little more on the guides these POWs sought out to help them in their quest for freedom.

Overall, this is a fantastic read that greatly increases our understanding of the war in its final months, especially in western North Carolina. 

Looking for 60

In June 1864, Capt. George W. Kirk led a raid from East Tennessee into Western North Carolina. Kirk surrounded and captured Camp Vance near Morganton, capturing around 300 junior reserves. On his return trip, he fought several skirmishes with home guard units, and burned several homes. Various Northern newspapers reported that Kirk captured 30 (and sometimes 60) "negroes," presumably local slaves. (see Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, July 23, 1864)

After tramping back through the mountains, Kirk took his prisoners to Knoxville. The 60 presumably local slaves were said to be enrolling in a local Colored Regiment. The regiment forming in Knoxville at this time was the 1st United States Colored Heavy Artillery. They were recruited to guard railroads and stores and prisoners in East Tennessee, freeing up white soldiers for front line actions. The only time I can find the 1st USCHA moving together as a regiment is during Stoneman's Raid.

To my knowledge, no one has ever looked for these 60 men who were abducted, or maybe "liberated" by Kirk during this raid, and joined the 1st USCHA. So, I did just that. The compiled service records of the 1st USCHA are online, and went through them, trying to pick out these men. I was hoping that once I did, I could go to their pension applications and find details about their enlistment in the United States Army.

My first clue was a letter in a newspaper, dated July 7, 1864, stating that the prisoners were back in Knoxville, and that the (presumed) slaves were joining a local regiment. So I had a date to work with. As I went through the compiled service records, I found 26 men who enlisted July 6-8, 1864. Fourteen were from North Carolina or Tennessee, from counties that Kirk passed through on his raid. But one of the challenges were the other 12. Thorton Coleman and William Coleman enlisted on July 6 and July 7, 1864. Both were from Richmond, Virginia. Were they brothers? Had they been sold to a slave owner in western North Carolina? Or, maybe brought with someone, sent further South where they had some degree of protection from (yankees), or even rented out. Part of the problem is that the compiled service records tell me where they were born, not where they were living in July 1864.

I thought, after I finished compiling a list of names, I could look for pension applications in the pension index on Fold3.com Then, I could make a decision about a quick trip to the archive in DC to look for other pieces of their story. But alas, the company of the 1st USCHA that I needed has not been digitized.

Of my list of 26, I can find two, George Forney, who was 20 years old in 1864, and Shaesser (Sharp) Caldwell , who was 25 when he enlisted, who appear back in Burke County in the 1890 Veterans Census. I am still looking for the others.

To be honest, I may never find "the rest of the story." But if just one of them left an account of how they were spirited across the mountains and given a chance to join the Union army after Kirk's raid on Camp Vance, then it will be worth the hunt. Heck, I've already gone further than anyone else with this story. I have a list of names, names of men nearly everyone else has forgotten.

1st US Colored Heavy Artillery on parade in Knoxville, TN. 

Lockville and the War.

Kevin Stone asked the other day about the Lockville and Haywood communities in Chatham County during the War. Let's look at Lockville.

Lockville was originally known as Ramsey's Mill. There was a mill, dam, ferry boat, and landing. In the 1850s, owner Alston Jones worked out a deal with the Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company. The Company came in and raised the height of the dam from six to eight feet, and converted the millrace into a canal that made navigation possible over Pullen's Falls. This was apparently completed in 1859, although the War brought work to a halt and backrupted the Company. It is probable that the name "Lockville" referred to the locks on the river, used to float boats up and down near the falls.

There are a few mentions of Lockville in period newspapers. In March 1861, it was announced that the steamer John Dawson had been purchased to haul freight from Wilmington to Lockville (The Daily Journal March 25, 1861). It appears that the canal was the primary way to haul coal from the Egypt Coal Mine to Wilmington.  Even though it was chartered in 1855, a railroad to the area was almost finished by the time Sherman arrived in 1865.

The Lockville Mining and Manufacturing Company incorporated in 1863 and was located in the area; this was a company that purchased the Endor Iron Works in 1864. An ad in the January 7, 1864, edition of The Daily Progress, announced that the company was looking for miners to work in the cooper deposits.

In 1865, Reese H. Butler, at one time a machinist working for Spiller and Burr, but later at the Raleigh Bayonet Factory (Heck, Brodie & Co.), was building "an extensive foundry and machine shop" near Lockville. (Norman, 59)

The final time Lockville appears in war-time newspapers occurs on Mach 28, 1865. W. S. Downer, superintendent of the Lockville Mining Company, had either been to Fayetteville, or talked to someone in Fayetteville. The letter, dated March 17, 1865, read in part: "Fayetteville is ruined. All the Arsenal buildings, the Market House, Court House, printing Office, both Foundries, all the Mills, Cotton Factories, Oil Works, &c., were destroyed. They robbed the people of everything in the way of food..." (Raleigh Conservative).

I could find no mention of a Civil War Trail marker, or a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker in the area.  (There is a marker for the Egypt Coal Mine in neighboring Lee County.)

Lockville, from a 1870 map.

Interview me, Round 1:

Last week, I posted that it was my tenth anniversary as a blogger. As part of my "celebration," I asked a few friends to interview me. Here are a few of their questions (there will be more):

Joe Owens: What NC regiment do you consider displaying the most courage overall in a battle? The 26th NC at Gettysburg? Second question, have you thought about writing a book about a NC Revolutionary War Regiment, or maybe a battle in NC during the Revolutionary War?

Thanks Joe! I think it took a lot of courage for any soldier to stand in battle. Early in the war, they squared off face to face, like the 5th North Carolina at Williamsburg or the 26th Regiment at Gettysburg. That took a serious amount of fortitude. Late in the War, the Confederates were often protected by breastworks, but when they did attack, like the 60th Regiment during the Nashville Campaign, that took real courage. Was one regiment better than the others? No... probably not. They were all pretty tough.

Have I ever thought about writing on a Revolutionary War regiment or battle? There are a few people I find interesting from that time period whom I might write about, but not really any regiments or battles. It has taken me thirty years of reading and researching (and some reenacting/interpretive work) for me to feel confident about what I want to write about (mid-19th century). I'm not sure how many years it might take for me to feel confident enough to change time periods.

Chris: Kolakoski: Wow! Congrats on 10 years! Here's a question: What do you consider to be the essential elements of your research and writing process?

Thanks Chris! Hard to believe it has been 10 years! Hands down, I think the essential element in research is the internet. When I started researching that first book twenty years ago, I used the net to find snail mail addresses to write archives, looking for original source materials. I think I did ok. When Bob Krick reviewed the book, he said that I left "no stone unturned." That has kind of been my "motto" ever since. In many ways, it is so much easier now. The Confederate Compiled Service Records are online, the Official Records are online, Confederate Veterans and the Southern Historical Society Papers are online. Plus, there are millions of pages of newspapers online (and searchable, if you can figure out how someone spelled something). Plus, through several sources, I can search books that I would not have access to. I still use traditional libraries and archives. I still go to the family history section or the local genealogical society newsletters and flip through those books, looking for original letters. But all of the online resources allow me to look at thousands of pages of original material from my home office. And I think I find more stuff now; I have the time to be through since I'm not worried about parking meters or the library closing.

Wade Sokolosky: What aspect of NC CW history do you feel is the least understood or requires further research?

Thanks Wade! I'm really enjoying your new blog. My shelves, like many others, groan under the weight of books about the time period. There are scholarly tomes on the social side of the conflict. Many of the battles have fresh views from a talented array of military historians, and there always seem to be new biographies on the major military and political actors. But at the same time, the general public cries out for books about the places they live in and call home. I think local communities need more histories, as well as some of the minor players, both military and political. It seems we keep rehashing the same old things. There are a half dozen books on Greensboro and the War, but none on Raleigh.

Sam Shapiro asked a couple of good questions. The one about the battle of Wyse Fork I'll get to in another post. His second question was: "How many important battle sites are inaccessible to the public, due to the fact that the sites are on privately owned grounds? And do situations like that ever become contentious? Have there been legal battles to make the sites publicly owned? Isn't part of the Gettysburg Battleground still inaccessible for this reason?"

I guess we need to define "important battle sites." There are some battlefields that are lost - Battery Wagner off the Charleston coast (washed into the sea), while Atlanta and Chantilly have been gobbled up by development. Yet thanks to organizations like the Civil War Trust and various local groups, thousands of acres of battlefields at the major or important sites have been preserved over the past two decades. For example, in 2002 and 2003, the Bentonville Battlefield was identified in the Civil War Trust's annual report History Under Siege as a battlefield that needed to be preserved. Since that time, an additional 1,785 acres, bring the total preserved acreage to 2,100 acres. And the Civil War Trust is currently trying to acquire an additional 503 acres. Now, there are a lot of battlefield properties still in private hands. I wrote a history of the May 1862 battle of Hanover Court House many years ago. Every bit of that battlefield is private. And the owners really don't like having people wondering around their homes at all hours. You ask "do situations like that ever become contentious?" I've come close to being arrested for trespassing a time or two. Legal battles? Yes, but usually in the form of some large corporation buying a tract of battlefield land with plans to build a subdivision, or amusement park, or Walmart on the property. Then, the preservation community usually steps up and puts pressure on the corporation to sell the land. The private entities, like the Civil War Trust, that buy the land try and work hard to build good relationships with private land owners. The corporations can always pay more. The preserved land at Gettysburg has grown significantly over the past decade. One prime example is Lee's Headquarters, which just opened to the public last week. The Civil War Trust purchased the property, tore down the hotel, and restored the original house.

10 years of blogging

Dang... I missed my own anniversary. I started this blog ten years ago yesterday - November 2, 2006. I guess this small post will have to do, in lew of flowers. When I first started writing this blog, I was working on my history of the 58th North Carolina Troops. That book was published in 2010. Since then I have written a few more volumes, including a general history of North Carolina and the War, and histories of Charlotte and Watauga County.

It has been my pleasure to share this journey with you, to let you look into my life as a writer, with all of its joys (like seeing a book finally come into print) and frustrations (like those missing Branch brigade flags from June 1862). I've had somewhere around 500,000 pages in the past ten years.

Looking back, I'm not sure that I have a favorite post... not even sure I remember all of the post. More recently, I liked the one about buildings still standing that witnessed the war. (You can check that one out here). The John Brown discussion was interesting, as was the series I did last year when I was out touring with Capitals of the Confederacy. Any questions that a visitor asked that I did not have an answer for, I looked up and wrote about. I learned a lot, and hopefully helped many of you.

There are all kinds of new things that I want to share - about the role of Tar Heel soldiers in battles, about books, politicians, and places.

I look forward to sharing even more with you in the future! 

Reading about North Carolina in the Civil War: Getting Started.

The new issue of J19 arrived yesterday, and I was reading an essay by Jillian Spivey Caddell entitled "Words of War." The author writes: "This new wave of scholarship suggests that the Civil War has not been so much unwritten as unread." That is an interesting thought. There have been, conservatively, 65,000 books about the war (I'm not sure who has counted, but that's the number passed around). So, if I wanted to read all of them, I would need to plough through about 710 books a year, for 92 years.

Is that what keeps people from digging more into the scholarship of the era? With 65.000+ books, is it too daunting a project to undertake? I don't really feel that is the problem (instead, how about a society that no longer places an importance on its own past. That however, is another post.)

Frequently, I get asked about books - what to read, what I am reading (Sutherland's A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War), etc. So, here is my simple, North Carolina focused list.

1. Bruce Catton - The Civil War (1960)

There are many general histories about the war - Eaton, McPherson, Foote. A lots of people want to start with Shelby Foote's three-volume series, and three years later, they're still reading Foote, or they have given up and gone back to watching Golf TV. While Catton’s history is 55 years old, it is a great introduction to the war (and he could write). This book has been reprinted several times.

2. Bell Wiley - The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (1943)

Back in my early days of interest in the time period (and in re-enacting), I used to read this book once a year. I would consider this volume a foundational cornerstone. The chapters walk you through the enlistment, battle, food, weapons, camp life, religion, etc. There is also a companion volume, The Life of Billy Yank. Both volumes have been reprinted several times.

3. John G. Barrett - The Civil War in North Carolina (1963)

It is hard to believe that the standard, or go-to book about North Carolina and the War was released 53 years ago. But no one has come close to beating it. It is a stout book, but it walks the reader from the secession crisis through the surrender of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. It has also been reprinted many times.

4. Michael C. Hardy - North Carolina in the Civil War (2011)

Is it wrong to have included one of my own books? Maybe. I did not set out to rewrite Barrett's work. What I wanted to do was to write an introduction to the War in North Carolina, for those intimidated by the almost 500 pages in Barrett. My tome is only 158 pages. The two important things about this work, and why it made it on the list, are the chapters about the post-war remembrance movement in North Carolina (veterans groups, monument dedications, etc), and the bibliography. Barrett ends his story in 1865. North Carolina in the Civil War goes beyond, with short chapters on reconstruction and remembrance. Plus, the updated bibliography will allow readers to dig more deeply into the literature regarding the time period.

5. Mark L. Bradley - Blue Coats and Tar Heels: Soldiers and Civilians in Reconstruction North Carolina (2009)

The Reconstruction time period has never held the sway for me as the War years, probably because the South had lost the War, and the North was attempting to remake the South (or something like that). I had tried to read other books on Reconstruction, like Forter's work, but could never really get into it. Bradley's work is well researched and well written, and is very fair in its accounting of the Reconstruction years.

6. Gordon B. McKinney - Zeb Vance: North Carolina's Civil War Governor and Gilded Age Political Leader (2004)

There have been a bevy of books about North Carolina's War-time governor, Zebulon Baird Vance. I have Dowd, Tucker, and several more, but I believe that McKinney's work is the best out there. Since Vance was an up and coming politician in North Carolina, served for about a year in the Confederate army, then was our "War-governor" from 1862 until his arrest in May 1865, he was probably more deeply involved in the time period than anyone else.

So there is my short list, a list that does not include any battle histories, nor place histories, nor regimental/brigade histories. Just a list that I believe is a great place to start building a greater knowledge about North Carolina and the Civil War.

Zeb Vance: from Unionist to Secessionist

Most of us have heard the Vance anecdote - about how he was in the process of delivering a speech for the Union when word arrived of the firing on of Fort Sumter. Vance stated that he was "canvassing for the Union with all my strength; I was addressing a large and excited crowd, large numbers of whom were armed, and literally had my hand extended upward pleading for peace and the Union of our Fathers, when the telegraphic news was announced of the firing on Sumter and the President's call for75,000 volunteers. When my hand came down from this impassioned gesticulation, it fell slowly and sadly by the side of a Secessionist. " (Dowd, Life of Vance, 441-442.)

This supposedly took place in Madison County, or, according to Tucker, in Bakersville in Mitchell County.

Yet I have found another version of Vance's change from a Unionist to a Secessionist.  An article written by "T. D.," in The Daily Confederate (April 12, 1864) states, "why did [Governor Vance] take it in one night in Asheville; having retired to bed a warm Union man, for he had said so in a strong speech that day--he awoke the next morning a 'fizzing hot secessionist.'"

The first account was written many years afte

r the war. The second, while the battles still raged. What version do you think is correct?

George N. Folk and the raid at Fish Springs.

We tend to write and talk a lot about Tar Heel regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia. And rightfully so. That is where the bulk of North Carolina soldiers served. I am "guilty" of this myself, having written a regimental history of an ANV regiment, a history of a Virginia battle, and an ANV brigade history as well, along with several articles.

There are, however, many exploits to be explored concerning Tar Heel soldiers outside the ANV and Virginia theater of the war. Here is one.

George N. Folk was a Watauga County lawyer and representative in the General Assembly when the war started. In early 1861, he resigned his seat in Raleigh, and spent some time in Asheville before returning to Boone and raising a company for Confederate service. The Watauga Rangers became Company D, 1st North Carolina Cavalry in August 1861. Folk resigned on May 9, 1862. On September 12, 1862, Folk was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 7th Battalion, North Carolina Cavalry. The 7th battalion was composed of seven companies, including two from Johnson County, Tennessee.

On September 26, 1862, Folk was ordered to move from the Asheville area, with three companies, into Johnson County, Tennessee. Folk's orders read in part: "a body of disloyal men who are reported by the Governor of North Carolina to have escaped from that State and are believed to be organizing in the vicinity of Stone Mountain for the purpose of resisting the authorities of the Confederate States and joining the enemy in Kentucky. Should you succeed in capturing them they will be sent under your guard to Salisbury, N.C., and turned over to the provost-marshal at that place."

   Due to the ongoing unrest in eastern Tennessee, various Confederate regiments were sent into the area from time to time in an attempt to curb the violence, and to shut down the routes used by those coming from North Carolina, headed toward Union lines in Kentucky. In September 1862, Lt. Col. George N. Folk, commanding the 7th Battalion, North Carolina Cavalry, moved three companies from Asheville, into Johnson and Carter Counties. His orders were to capture or disperse "a body of disloyal men" from North Carolina, who were said to be organizing themselves into a group to resist "the authorities of the Confederate States and joining the enemy in Kentucky." Captured North Carolinians were to be sent to Salisbury, while Tennesseans were sent to Knoxville. 

1904 map of Fish Springs

   Chief on the most-wanted list was a Jos. Taylor, reportedly a captain in the 2nd East Tennessee Cavalry. According to one story, Taylor had been captured, escaped, and made his way into east Tennessee. He was preparing to take others into Kentucky. However, there does not appear to be a Captain Taylor in the cavalry from Tennessee. William Penland, a member of the 7th Battalion North Carolina Cavalry, wrote in January 1863 that Taylor had collected 70 men, and for some time had "been capturing soldiers, stealing and plundering from the citizens in the counties of Carter and Johnson." This was just the type of rogue that Folk was sent to find. On January 23, Folk was out patrolling along the Watauga River with about 40 of his men. Folk spied the members of Taylor's group on the other side of a river. He ordered his cavalry to swim across. When Taylor's men saw they were being surrounded, they abandoned their camp and moved further up the mountain, positioning themselves on a bluff. As Folk moved in, Taylor's command opened fire.   Thomas Newman, a private under Folk's command, was struck and killed. It is possible that another private, David Wagner, was also killed in the skirmish.

   As Folk's men dismounted and started up the hill, the bushwhackers fled. Taylor was spotted, shot, and killed on sight. Samuel Tatum was also shot while trying to escape, although one account states he feigned death and survived the war. Three others were captured. Two of them, George W. Kite and Alexander Dugger, were quickly tried, found guilty, and hanged on the spot, while a fifth man, just a youth, was sent to Knoxville. There were undoubtedly others who escaped, and several of Folk's men reported that shots came close enough to produce holes in their clothing. It would have been better for Folk to have sent all the guilty parties back to Knoxville. Folk and several others were indicted after the war for murder. However, Unionists sent to Knoxville had a way of being set free by the authorities, and the depredations committed by Taylor seemed greatly to allow him a chance of immunity.

   Folk's 7th Battalion was eventually combined with the 5th Battalion North Carolina Cavalry into the 6th North Carolina Cavalry, and Folk was promoted to the rank of colonel. The 6th North Carolina Cavalry was transferred out of the western theater and spent the remainder of the War along the east coast of North Carolina.

So what's next?

A couple of folks have messaged my lately wondering "what's next?". So, here is what I've been working on since turning in the Branch-Lane manuscript.

Living in western North Carolina and doing a host of interpretive programs (and fielding a host of questions) in North Carolina and Tennessee has shown me a need for a book about the War along the North Carolina-Tennessee border. We have a couple of books about each side, like Inscoe and McKinney's The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War, and Fisher's  War at Every Door: Partisan Politics and Guerrilla Violence in East Tennessee. However, there is not a book that really ties these two places together. For example, everyone is familiar with the actions in the Laurel community of Madison County, North Carolina, in January 1863. Did you know that these actions are just one of three movements by troops in western North Carolina-East Tennessee that month? And another - Kirk's raid into western North Carolina in June 1864 is just one of two Union raids launched from Greenville, Tennessee, on the same day.

George W. Kirk is the ribbon that will run through the text. But, he is just one of many cast members on a stage of unequal bloodletting in the 1860s in the mountain counties of North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. There were no winners in this war.

I've already approached  the History Press about publishing this book, and they have agreed. I'm looking forward to sharing with you more of my findings, and frustrations, as I tackle this new project. 

What Happened to North Carolina's US Representatives and Senators During the War?

On the verge of the conflict in 1861, North Carolina had eight representatives in the US House, and two in the US Senate. Every state has two senators, but house numbers are determined by population. What happened to these men during the war?

William Nathan Harrell Smith was born in Murfreesboro, NC, in 1812 and graduated from Yale University in 1834. He returned to Murfreesboro to practice law. He held several local political offices before becoming a member of the both the NC House and Senate. Smith was elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the 36th Congress, and ran unsuccessfully for the speakership. He went on to serve in the Confederate Congress. After the war, he served as council for W. W. Holden during the 1871 impeachment trial, and as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, from 1878 to 1889. He died in November 1889 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh.

Thomas Hart Ruffin was born in Louisburg, North Carolina, in September 1820. He was a graduate from the law school at the University of North Carolina in 1841 and practiced law for a time in Missouri. In 1853, he was elected as a Democrat to the US Congress and represented NC until March 1861. He served as a delegate to the provisional Confederate Congress in 1861. Ruffin raised a company of cavalry out of Wayne County, and was elected captain. That group became Company H, 1st North Carolina Cavalry. In June 1863, Ruffin was promoted to the rank of major and transferred to the field and staff of the 1st Cavalry. A month later, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In the meantime, he suffered a saber blow to the head at Gettysburg. Sometime around September 1863, Ruffin was promoted to colonel of the 1st Cavalry. At a skirmish at Auburn Mills, Virginia, on October 15, 1863, Ruffin was mortally wounded and captured. He died on October 18, 1863, and is buried in Louisburg, North Carolina.

Warren Winslow was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1810. He was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and then studied law, practicing in Fayetteville. In 1854, Winslow was elected to the state senate, and elected as speaker. When Governor Reid accepted an appointment to the United States Senate, Winslow became acting governor, and is recognized as the 33rd governor of the state. Winslow then served in the US from 1855 to 1861. When Governor Ellis became ill, Winslow was a part of a three-man board appointed by the governor to advise him on military and naval matters. Winslow went on to represent Cumberland and Harnett Counties in the 1861 convention. Winslow died in Fayetteville in August 1862, and is buried at Cross Creek Cemetery.

Lawrence O'Bryan Branch was born in November 1820 near Enfield, Halifax County. He lived in Tennessee for a brief amount of time before being adopted by his uncle, John Branch. John Branch had already served in the General Assembly, and as governor of North Carolina (1817-1820). When Lawrence joined his uncle, he was living in Washington, D.C., serving as a United States Senator, and then later, as Secretary of the Navy under his friend Andrew Jackson. Lawrence grew up in Washington, D.C., and was tutored at one time by Salmon P. Chase. Lawrence attended the University of North Carolina for a while, eventually graduating first in his class at Princeton. He studied law in Nashville, Tennessee, where he also owned a newspaper. Branch was admitted to the bar in Florida, but married and moved back to Raleigh in 1852, practicing law and becoming president of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad Company. Branch was elected as a Democrat to three terms in the US House, starting in 1855. He was not running again in 1860. He also declined a position of Secretary of the Treasury by President James Buchanan. Once North Carolina joined the Confederacy, Branch served as Quartermaster General for North Carolina, and then as colonel of the 33rd North Carolina Troops. He was appointed a brigadier general in November 1861, and in April 1862, his brigade joined the army in Virginia. Branch was killed at the battle of Sharpsburg on September 17, 1863. He is buried in the Old City Cemetery in Raleigh.

John Gilmer was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, in November 1805. He studied in local schools, taught school, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1832. Gilmer was a member of the State Senate from 1846 to 1856, and in 1856, was an unsuccessful Whig candidate for governor. He served in the US House from 1857 to March 1861 as a member of the American, and later Opposition parties. He was considered by Lincoln for a cabinet position. Gilmer served in the Secession Convention. In November 1863, he won an uncontested race as a representative to the Second Confederate Congress, and was chairman of the Committee on Elections. He opposed many of the laws that advanced the powers of the central government, and was an active peace advocate, persuading Davis to send a delegation to Hampton Roads to talk to Lincoln. Gilmer supported Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction program after the war. He died in Greensboro in May 1868, and is buried in the Presbyterian Church Cemetery behind the Greensboro Museum of History.

James Madison Leach was born in January 1815 in Randolph County, North Carolina. He attended the Caldwell Institute in Greensboro, and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1838, going on to study law. Leach practiced law in Lexington, North Carolina, and served in the General Assembly from 1848 to 1858. In 1859, Leach was a representative in the US House. Once the war commenced, he served in the 21st North Carolina, and then as a member of the Second Confederate Congress. Leach is probably the most famous peace advocated in the Confederate Congress. According to one sketch, Leach "fought all administration programs. He voted to override every presidential veto and approved resolutions declaring Secretaries Benjamin, Memminger, and Regan incompetent... by April 1865, he was urging North Carolina to begin separate state negotiations." After the war, Leach served four terms in the NC Senate, and in 1871 to 11875, in the US House. He died in Lexington on June 1, 1891, and is buried in Hopewell Cemetery.

Francis Burton Craige was born near Salisbury in March 1811. Craige graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1829, edited the Carolina Watchman, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1832, and served in the NC House before being elected as a Democrat to the US Congress, serving from 1853 to 1861. Craige was a delegate to the secession convention in May 1861, introducing the Ordinance of Secession. He was also a delegate to the Confederate Provisional Congress, supporting the central government in their effort to win the war. He declined to run for the regular Confederate Congress, and apparently retired from public life. Craig died in Concord on December 30, 1875, and is buried in the Old English Cemetery in Salisbury.

Zebulon Baird Vance was born in Buncombe County May 30, 1830. He was the youngest of the North Carolina delegation sitting in the US House in March 1861. Vance was educated at Washington College, and then at the University of North Carolina. He began practicing law in Asheville in 1852, and was elected county solicitor. He served in the NC House  in 1854-1856, and in the US House 1858-1861. Vance was elected captain of a company from Buncombe in May 1861, and then colonel of the 26th North Carolina Troops, in August 1861. He led the 26th Regiment through the battle of New Bern and Seven Days. On being elected governor in August 1862, Vance resigned his commission and led the state through the war years, until being arrested on his birthday in Statesville in 1865. After the war, he practiced law, again becoming governor of North Carolina (1876-1878), and then serving in the US Senate from 1878 until his death in Washington, D.C., in 1894. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville. Vance is North Carolina's most honored politician, with a state historic site, several monuments, and a host of biographies.

In the US Senate were Thomas L. Clingman and Thomas Bragg. Surprisingly, both had only served a couple of years prior to the start of the war.

Thomas Lanier Clingman, the "Prince of Politicians," was born in 1812 in Yadkin County, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1832, and began practicing law in Huntsville in 1834. Clingman was elected to the NC House in 1835, and then a year later, moved to Asheville. In 1840, he represented the area in the NC Senate. He was elected as a Whig in 1843 to the US House, but was defeated for re-election in 1845 (possibly having something to do with his duel with William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama.) Clingman again served in the US House from 1847 to 1858, and in 1858 to 1861, in the US Senate. At the start of the War, Clingman was elected colonel of the 25th North Carolina and later commanded a brigade composed of the 8th, 31st, 52st, and 61st Infantry regiments. His brigade bounced around between the defenses in eastern North Carolina and those in Virginia. Clingman never regained public office after the war, although he was frequently in Washington D.C, sitting in the visitors' gallery in the Senate. He worked as a tireless promoter of western North Carolina, and mined in the area, looking for silver in present-day Avery County. Clingman's Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is named in his honor. Clingman died in Morganton North Carolina in 1897, and is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, not far from the grave of Zebulon Vance.

Thomas Bragg was the older brother of Confederate General Braxton Bragg. Thomas was born in November 1810 in Warrenton, and studied at a military academy in Middleton, Connecticut, now known as Norwich University. He was admitted to the bar in 1833 and commenced practice in Jackson, North Carolina. He served a term in the NC House (1842-1843) and was elected governor for two terms (1855 to 1859), before being appointed to the US Senate, serving from 1859 to 1861. Jefferson Davis appointed Bragg as Confederate attorney general in 1861, and he served until 1862. Bragg continued to practice law until his death in 1872. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh. 

Remembering Robert B. Vance

Today, I had the opportunity to attend the unveiling of a marker remembering Robert B. Vance in Crosby, Tennessee. The marker was installed by the Maj. James T. Huff Camp 2243, Tennessee Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.

We seldom remember Robert Brank Vance. He gets lost in the shadow of his younger brother, Zebulon Baird Vance. Robert was born in 1828. He was a merchant in Asheville, a farmer, and a clerk of court in Madison and Buncmbe Counties. On September 11, 1861, Vance was appointed colonel of the 29th North Carolina Troops. The regiment moved from Asheville to Raleigh in October 1861, and then after the bridge burnings to Jonesboro, Tennessee, in late November 1861. The winter months were spent in Cocke County, Tennessee, and then along the East Tennessee and Georgia and East Tennessee and Virginia Railroads. On February 20, 1862, Vance and the entire 29th were ordered to Cumberland Gap, serving there until late April, and in east Tennessee until Bragg's Kentucky campaign. The 29th Regiment fought at Murfreesboro in December 1862/January 1863.

Vance was promoted to brigadier general on March 4, 1863. When the Department of Western North Carolina was created, Vance was tapped as its commander. Around the end of 1863, Vance was ordered to Raleigh. Before he left, he was ordered to make a demonstration into Tennessee, hoping to distract Burnside who was looking to engage with Longstreet. Vance and his command captured a supply train, but on their return and after a small skirmish near Crosby, Tennessee, Vance was captured. He spent time in the prisons at Nashville, Louisville, Camp Chase, and Fort Delaware. Vance was finally paroled on March 14, 1865, and returned to North Carolina.

After the war, Robert Vance served in the General Assembly and in the US House of Representatives, and then in the patent office. He was married twice: first to Harriet McElroy, and then in 1892, to Lizzie R. Cook. He died at his farm near Asheville and is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville. His grave is right in front of that of his brother.

If you are heading down US321, towards Gatlinburg (from the east), take a moment, pull over, and learn a little more about the life of Robert B. Vance, and the skirmish at Shultz's Mill.

Branch-Lane brigade book off to the publishers...

Well, it's gone. I emailed the Branch-Lane manuscript to Savis Beatie this morning. No, I have no idea when it will be published. It took longer to write than I thought. But I think it is good. Detailed. And it’s even under my 150,000-175,0000 word estimate (just barely). Twenty years of research went into that one.

I can't really put my finger on just when I commenced my research into the brigade. Of course, it began when I started working on the history of the 37th NC regiment. That was my first book. But I don't have an actual date. It was in Boone, in the Belk Library at Appalachian State. And it was probably something like, "hey this regiment was local (two companies from Watauga County), and hey, there is no book about them." So, I set out to tell their story.

Given all the years that I have spent as an interpreter and reenactor, like the book on the 37th NC the Branch-Lane brigade history is written from the soldiers’ perspective. It is not a top-down approach, looking at grand maneuvers and the theories of war. Instead, it comes from the smoke-filled trenches and vermin- infested winter quarters that the soldiers shared with family and friends. As I've said all along, it is their story. I'm just trying to fill in the pieces surrounding them as they tell it.

Over twenty years, I've collected thousands of pages of material, many that never got used. When I started working on the 37th NC book, I found and photographed as many graves of members of that regiment as I could. I think I used two, maybe three in the final manuscript. So I've got maybe three hundred photos of graves that never made it. I took all of the primary source material that I collected and put it in six three-inch notebooks, one for every regiment, and one for the brigade. This does not include books of letters or diaries, like Harris's book on the 7th NC, or Speer's 28th NC letters which was published several years ago. At some point, I'll probably break down those notebooks, moving the contents to other notebooks for future projects. For now, they'll probably stay here next to the desk, the same spot where they've been for two and a half years.

But then, this project is more than just words. It's been a part of my life. I've visited every field where they fought, save Ox Hill (figured I'd probably just get arrested). I really can't tell you how many times I have driven Jackson's flank march, or stood next to the North Carolina monument at Gettysburg, looking across that field (Lane's brigade was to the left of that piece of bronze and stone). I've been to the graves of Branch in Raleigh, and Lane in Auburn, and countless other cemeteries like the ones in Winchester and Spotsylvania. I've had the chance to portray members of the brigade at reenactments and living histories, like Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and seemingly countless other sites. And, on a few occasions, I've given tours, speaking about the brigade and its members at New Bern, Hanover, and at Pamplin Park.

It's kind of odd, sitting here, able to see the top of my desk. I've still got some filling away to do, but almost everything is back in its notebook. There they sit, waiting for me to pick it up, and trace down some source that I had jotted in my notes.

I'm going to take a little time off from the ANV. Not too much, but a little time. I've already got another ANV project on my mind, but I need to go and write something else in between (that is the ADHD in me). And when I get started on this new ANV project, I'll be building upon my research in the Branch-Lane brigade, it will be the foundation stone for this new idea (you'll probably not hear anything about this one until the first of the year).

Hard times after the war.

Recently, I was looking through the records of the African-American Freedmen's Bureau, attempting to flesh out my knowledge of a local family who were Unionists, and slave owners. While that quest was unfruitful, I did find an interesting piece.

Like most of the South, North Carolina was in a state of flux after the war. People were trying to figure out and adjust to whatever the new normal was. I often tell the story of Harvey Bingham, former member of the 37th NCT, and after mid-1863 major in the 11th Battalion, North Carolina Home Guard. Bingham did such a good job after the war, rounding up deserters and conscription-dodgers, that he was forced to move from the area. He relocated to Statesville and opened a law school. While looking through the Freemen's Bureau records, I found another case, albeit from a different angle.

On May 19, 1866, Lt. P. E. Murphy, the Freemen's bureau agent in Asheville, wrote to Col. Clinton Cilley in Salisbury. His main question concerned with what to do with children who were under 14 and were orphans, or had been abandoned by their parents. But he had another problem. Murphy writes: "There is a colored woman here with four small children who is very destitute and the people about will not give her work for the reason that her husband gave some information to our troops when they came in here. The husband was obliged to leave this place and is now in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and she wants to get to him. Is there any means by which she could be helped[?] Her name is Adelaide Walker."

Next, I looked in the 1870 census for Buncombe County, but no Adelaide Walker. Maybe she finally made it to Chattanooga. Maybe she remarried, or, maybe she died.

It is not possible to know how many times the story above was repeated in North Carolina in the years right after the war: Confederate soldiers returning home to discover loved ones dead or farms burned; Union soldiers unable to deal with the strife the war generated with their pro-Confederate neighbors and family; or people simply wanting to put the past behind them. They all left, taking their stories with them. 

War-time photos of James H. Lane

As I sat working on captions for photographs for the Branch-Lane book today, I got to wondering about how many war-time photos there are of Brig. Gen. James H. Lane. Auburn University has several post-war photographs, including one of Lane in his general's coat with the button covered, but how many war-time images are there? I could only find three. The first you will sometimes find reserved, but I believe it is the same photo. Did I miss any?