North Carolina and the Civil War

Good News!

2009-12-18T17:43:00.001-05:00

Greetings from a very snowy western North Carolina. We have about eight inches right now – expecting about another ten more. I am happy that the book on the Fifty-eighth NCT finally has a front cover. I like it – what do you think?

News and notes...

2009-12-16T21:21:00.001-05:00

I’ve found a couple of interesting items in the last few days that I thought I would share. The 26th North Carolina Troops (reactivated) has released a great new recruiting video. Check it out here.

Great article talking about Mt. Jefferson in Ashe County being used as a refuge for runaways (slaves, Tar Heel Citizens, escaped prisoners) at the Mountain Times. You can check it out here, along with a few comments from your humble scribe.

The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History will be having a special program on North Carolina Women and the War on Thursday evening. You can get more information here.

There is some good information about the town of Mooresville in this article.

Rambling.... again

2009-12-15T08:55:00.002-05:00

If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you have probably noticed that blog posts get kind of slim in the month of December. By December every year, I am tired – tired of writing, tired of blogging, tired of answering email, tired of traveling. This year is a little better. I’ve been tired since October, and I’ve tried really hard to take it easy. I’ve been reading, sitting on my porch, playing with my kids, and reflecting. A lot of reflecting. I have four projects sitting here in my office that are one or two research trips away from the writing process. Three of them focus on North Carolina and the war, and the other on one of the most famous individuals of the war. That project has been ready to go for some time, and I actually have the first two chapters finished, or at least in draft form. For some reason, I’ve not been able to jump and get this one finished. Maybe it is the almost foot-high pile of primary research that needs to be culled through. I’ve also got a fifth project that I’ve been dabbling with the past couple of weeks. To be honest, I will probably not do anything until the first of the year, and then it will be time to go back to work.

As I have written before, there is so much that still needs to be done, researched, and written about to understand the role of North Carolina and the War. I could not begin to tell you the number of emails that I get from people wanting to know when I am going to write about this regiment, or that person. No, I’ll never be able to get to all of it. But I look forward to seeing what I can accomplish.

I am looking forward to next year. I’ve got some “first rate” things that I’ve found recently that I look forward to sharing. And, I’ve a few more trips planned. May try and go back to Gettysburg. The 58th NCT book will be released, and I’ll be traveling around promoting the book. I am hoping to do a mini-reunion at Chickamauga. The plan is to invite all those folks I have corresponded with for the past decade and explore the role of the 58th NCT at that battlefield. Maybe we could do a similar trip to Bentonville.

Well, I’ve probably rambled enough here this morning. – Y’all have a great day.

A trip through the South

2009-12-11T14:05:00.000-05:00

Interesting article today on North Carolina Miscellany blog. The article tells of a true Northern soldier (not one of our home-grown Yankees) who took a little trip through the South, including North Carolina, in 1868. What I find interesting is how this former soldier was treated by the former Confederates. Several months ago, I had a good argument with an acquaintance on this very subject. His premise was that the vast majority of Southerners, following the war, would have rather bushwhacked this chap than give him a carriage ride, or three cheers. Do I doubt that there were some in the South that hated those from the North? No, not one bit. However, to not help someone in need, or to not stretch out the hand of friendship to a passerby, is a strictly un-Southern attitude.

This brings to mind another conversation that parallels the thought above. At one of our recent round table talks, the conversation turned to commanders of the local home guard companies here in western North Carolina. Two of those commanders, the ones for Watauga and Yancey Counties, were forced to relocate after the war. I wonder how many of the others were forced to move out of the area after the war? I know that Watauga County’s Home guard commander, Harvey Bingham, had to leave because of the way he enforced state and Confederate laws. Bingham did return for a short time, but later settled in Iredell County where he ran a law school.

Just random thoughts for today.

You can check out the article at North Carolina Miscellany here.

In Salisbury Tonight

2009-12-09T09:10:00.000-05:00

Folks – I’ll be speaking this evening at 6:30 pm at the Rowan County Public Library in Salisbury. Topic will be my program on Gravestone Art, which includes over 100 images of gravestones that I’ve taken over the past ten years. Drop by and say hi!

Also, do you need books for Christmas presents? I’ve got all of my books in stock – 37th NCT; Remembering North Carolina’s Confederates; the Brooksville-Bayport Raid; Mitchell County Images; Families, Friends, and Felons: Growing Up in the Avery County Jail; and many more. Drop me a line or visit my web page if you are interested. But please order soon…

Sesquicentennial??

2009-12-08T13:10:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday, I was at the Appalachian Authors’ Festival in Old Fort, North Carolina. There were several other authors there, including Richard Russell, editor of Fear in North Carolina: The Journals and Letters of the Henry Family (great book if you don’t already have it!).

I was surprised to see David Madden, founder of the U. S. Civil War Center at LSU and Lincoln Bicentennial Member. We had a very interesting talk about the upcoming sesquicentennial of the War. One part of our conversation centered on what appears to be a lack of community input and participation in our upcoming sesquicentennial plans. Sure, the state has a web page, but look at the North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee – every single person on this Committee works for the state. Look at the plans of the sesquicentennial committee – academic symposiums to be held in Raleigh, Wake Forest University, and (probably) UNC-Wilmington. The committee plans to hold programs and events at thirteen of the state’s historic sites (two each year per site). That’s great. What about the dozens of historic sites across the state that are not within the state’s system? I can think of three historic sites within an hour of my house – has anyone from the state contacted them to see if they are interested?

This is not to bash the folks on the Commission – this is just to say that the focus seems a little one-sided.

I took a look at the Sesquicentennial plans in Virginia. Their commission seems dominated by politicians. While I do not think that this system is the best, at least they are answerable to the people. What is nice to see is that just about every county, and a few of the large cities, have formed their own sesquicentennial committees. Wow – the entire state working together. Sure, I know, some of these committees will be working harder than others, but at least something is happening.

Most you know that I have been working on promoting an open discussion about the war in the western part of the state. I’ve been working in five different counties, trying to get people out and talking about the War, both in terms of the men (and women )who marched away, and the events that took place at home. I am going to continue to do this, and I hope to expand in the next couple of years. As I told Madden on Saturday, I would love to see this type of local dialogue happen in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties. I would love to be a part of each one, which is probably not a very realistic goal. But, if I can work with the counties that are interested and the counties that are nearby, then maybe something can happen to educate and preserve what took place 150 years ago. Maybe I’ll even head down to the next Avery County Commissioners meeting to try and get approval for a local Avery County Sesquicentennial Committee.

Come on North Carolina, you supplied more men and lost more men than any other Southern State. We can do better than what we are doing.

In Old Fort Today

2009-12-05T09:14:00.000-05:00

The Appalachian Authors’ Festival is today in Old Fort in McDowell County, from 12:00 pm until 3:00 pm. It is being held this year in the old Train Depot/Museum. If you are in the area, stop by and say hi!

News and notes...

2009-12-02T10:14:00.000-05:00

Well, let’s have a little look around the Old North State to see what is brewing in the news.

The Sun News (Raleigh) had an interesting article on a soldier in the 15th NCST who suffered from PTSD (even though the article does not quite go that far). The soldier ended up in the NC State Insane Asylum and is buried in the hospital’s cemetery. The article can be found here.

Rob Neufeld continues his writings on western North Carolina and the War with an article on Thomas L. Clingman. It is interesting that while Neufeld calls Clingman that “fire eater from the Carolina mountains” due to Clingman’s stance on secession, he makes no mention of that fact that Clingman owned no slaves. Check out the article here.

Another article dealing with the battle at Deep Creek appeared recently in the PJStar (Peoria, IL). Read more here.

The Mount Airy News reports on a living history held recently Horne Creel Living History Farm. Check it out here.

Check out this article on the cemetery at Mount Bethel Evangelical Church in Summerfield.

Davidson County

2009-11-29T22:21:00.002-05:00

It has been a while since we looked at one of North Carolina’s counties and the war. So, I thought we would pick up and take a look at Davidson County, located in the Piedmont section of the state.

Davidson County was formed in 1822 from Rowan County and was named for William Lee Davidson, a patriot during the Revolutionary War who was killed at the battle of Cowan’s Ford, on the Catawba River, in 1781. The county seat is located in Lexington, named for the 1775 battle of Lexington at the start of the Revolution. The railroad arrived in Davidson County in 1855. Another principal town is Thomasville.

In 1860, Davidson County had a total population of 16,601 people, including 3,076 slaves and 147 free people of color. In the 1860 presidential election, 1,186 men voted for Bell, 728 for Breckinridge, and 15 voted for Douglas. In the February 1861 vote on whether or not to call a convention to consider secession, Davidson County men voted 368 for and 1806 against the convention. Their elected delegates were Benton C. Douthitt and Benjamin A. Kittrell. Douthit was born in 1811 and served in the house of Commons in 1844 and the State Senate in 1858. He was a Unionist who switched when Lincoln called for troops. Kittrell was born in 1831, attended UNC, and studied law under Judge Pearson. He also opposed secession.

Davidson County sent nearly 2,000 men into Confederate service. Some of those men served in Companies B and I, 14th North Carolina Troops; Company A, 21st North Carolina Troops; Companies A and I, 42nd North Carolina Troops; Company K, 45th North Carolina Troops; Companies B and H, 48th North Carolina Troops; and Company A, 54th North Carolina Troops.

There are many interesting sites throughout the county. Several soldiers took advantage of the depot at Thomasville and left for the war from that point. A NC Civil War Trail Marker marks the site. Near Main Street and Salem Street in Thomasville is another marker. This one teaches us about a site nearby that was a hospital and a refugee camp. The hospital started out for Confederate soldiers, but later provided care for soldiers from both armies. Not far away is the Thomasville City Cemetery. There are 36 soldiers interred in the soldiers’ plot. Certain websites write that the Thomasville City Cemetery is the only cemetery in the world where Confederate and Union soldiers are buried together in a single gravesite. Thomasville was also the site of a shoe factory that helped supply Confederate soldiers during the war. In Lexington, the county courthouse was burned in February 1865 and General Kilpatrick stayed at the home of Dr. Holt at the close of the war. General Stoneman was stopped in a skirmish on April 12, 1865, at the Yadkin River bridge, and Jefferson Davis camped in a “pine grove” on April 16, 1865, as he sought to evade Federal troops.

In September 1905, “Several thousand people from Davidson and surrounding counties gathered to witness” the unveiling of Davidson County’s Confederate monument. Among the throngs were an estimated 300 to 400 Confederate veterans. The monument was originally in the center square in front of the courthouse, and it was frequently hit by automobiles. In the 1950s the monument was relocated to a less dangerous place, not far from the original site.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-24T08:01:00.000-05:00

I was hoping to get some things posted before taking a small break for Thanksgiving, but alas, I’ve just not been able to get to anything. I’ve been putting together two notebooks on the Hardy and Glanton families for a family reunion we are having over Thanksgiving. No, these are not my North Carolina families. I did find a slew of ancestors in the 50th Alabama Infantry, along with the ancestors I already knew about in the 9th Alabama Cavalry, and 37th Alabama Infantry.

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving break. We’ll see you on the flip side.

Anniversary

2009-11-20T09:31:00.001-05:00

Twenty-seven years ago this weekend, I went to my first re-enactment. It was held in Orange Springs, on the edge of the Ocala National Forest. I was ten. I don’t remember all of the details. Something in the back of my mind says that site was an actual skirmish site, or maybe the church there was the one that Capt. J. J. Dickinson attended. I don’t remember exactly. I do know this – I’ve been hooked since 1982. I’ve been to scores (hundreds?) of events, from the small to the great, and I’ve meet amazing people (including my darling wife). I would just like to say publicly – Uncle Jeff, my life would have been dull without you.

I’m still not really working on much. I was in Asheville last night talking to their SCV Camp – good bunch of folks. I’ve been trying to answer email, and I’ve been slowly reading through some material and taking notes for my next project. I am kind of tired and burned out. Working 15+ hours days for about six weeks while I finished the 58th NCT book has taken its toll. So, I am just going to kind of glide for the next month or so. I’ve several appearances to make, and a family reunion to attend. So, blogging will be slow until after the holidays. Maybe I will get back to my county-by-county study soon.

CSS Appomattox found!

2009-11-16T09:08:00.001-05:00

Not much going on in the news related to the war this week except all of the stories connected to the discovery of the CSS Appomattox. According to one of the articles below, the CSS Appomattox was “part of what was known as the Mosquito Fleet — a collection of small armed steamers that defended the northeastern North Carolina sounds during the Civil War. The boat was set on fire in February 1862 by its own crew as they were attempting to escape Federal gunboats after the Battle of Elizabeth City. Though they attempted to get through the Dismal Swamp Canal, the boat proved too wide. Rather than have it captured by the Union Navy, the crew set the boat ablaze…”

You can learn more by checking out these articles:

DailyAdvance.com

Associated Press

The Virginia Pilot

Jacob Evans – US Navy

2009-11-11T12:16:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday afternoon, I took a little ride here in Avery County. I was researching something and got distracted by a couple of cemeteries. One of them was the Fall Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, also known as the Fall Creek Graveyard. In this cemetery, I found the grave marker for Jacob Evans. There was a marker (one of the flat bronze type, stating that he had served in the United States Navy during the war. I did some digging this morning and found Evans in the Navy Survivor Certificates. He has an interesting story. Evans was born in 1847 in Surry County, North Carolina. In 1865, he was living in West Virginia and working on a steamboat. On March 1, 1865, he enlisted in the United States Navy in Cairo, Illinois. He served aboard the USS Nymph, Forest Rose, and Red Rover. He was in and out of the hospital while in service, for a variety of reasons, including diarrhea, lame foot, fever, cough, and influenza. Evans was issued a medical discharge September 1, 1865. Evans moved around quite a bit after the war. He was married for the first time in 1870 in Surry County. His first wife was dead by 1900. In 1906, Evans was living in Cranberry (then in Mitchell County). In 1909, he had relocated to Sullivan County, Tennessee. In 1911, Evans married Jane Greer in Elizabethton, Tennessee. They returned to Elk Park, now in Avery County, to live. In 1913, Evans was in the Soldiers Home in Washington County, Tennessee. Evans soon put in for a transfer and, in 1918, was in Montgomery County, Ohio, in another Soldiers Home. It is that year that he applied for and was granted a divorce, which was granted by a Montgomery County, Ohio, judge. The divorce was based upon the idea (fact) that Mrs. Evans was not fulfilling her responsibilities as a wife, even though it was Jacob Evans that left and removed himself several hundred miles away. When a month Mrs. Evans later was informed that she was no longer married, she wrote the pension office, stating that this was the first time she has heard of it, and that Jacob had abandoned her months beforehand and she had not heard from him. Of course, this is only part of the story. The rest is probably lost. In 1921, Jacob Evans returned to Johnson County, Tennessee, and in 1924, was back in Avery County. He required a nurse, who was Robert Church. Evans died at the home of Robert Church in 1926.

Avery County CW Round Table Tonight

2009-11-10T08:42:00.003-05:00

Not much going on here in the western part of the Tar Heel State. We’ve had some beautiful weather the past week, but it is raining today (and tomorrow). For the first time in a long time, I am blogless– I really don’t have much going on. I’ve kind of been “on vacation” as of late. When I go “on vacation” I read broadly and spend a great deal of time outside.

I had the chance on this past Saturday to participate in a living history here in Avery County for our local home school group. We worked with about 75 kids and parents (and a few people that just stopped by). We set up six different stations that the groups rotated through. These stations included: the war in the mountains, common soldiers, weapons, cooking, children’s lives, and care packages. We all had a great time, and were asked a lot of great questions. I absolutely love this type of hands-on programming.

Tonight, I am participating in a Avery County and the Civil War program at the local library. I’ve been a part of this type of program for th epast three or four years in Yancey, Mitchell, Avery, Watauga, and Caldwell Counties. Basically, we sit around in a circle, and for two to three hours, talk about the war, both locally and nationally. While I facilitate the program, I am always learning something. If your historical society, SCV camp, or UDC chapter would like to host this type of program, please drop me a note – I would love to help.

Yes, I am “working” on my next project, but I’m not ready to announce what it is. I’m really just doing some reading and taking a few notes. I’m also working on a couple of article queries. No, I’m not sure when I’ll really start writing seriously again. I’m still “on vacation.”

The photo is our group of interpreters from this past Saturday.

News and notes...

2009-11-06T09:24:00.002-05:00

A lot going on this week, both in the news and with me (see previous entry). Here is what I found on my weekly crawl through the news.

There is a new monument to Confederate soldiers in Weldon. Check out information regarding it and the war-time hospital in this article in the Salisbury Post.

The Statesville Record and Landmark has an article about resources available at the Public Library in Statesville. Check it out here.

Information regarding the skirmish at Deep Creek (Swain County), and effort to place a historical marker at the site, may be found here.

The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources has announced that advanced tickets are available for the 145th anniversary of the battle of Bentonville. Learn more here.

There is some great information on Dr. Edward Warren, a North Carolina born doctor who wrote "An epitome of practical surgery, for field and hospital (1st Edition. Richmond, Va., West & Johnston, 1863)," one of the most widely used guides used during the war by Southerners. You can read more here.

And, there is a new web site devoted to the life of Harriet Jacobs, put together by the Edenton-Chowan County Tourism Development Authority and developed with Historic Edenton State Historic Site. Check it out here.

Book signings and articles

2009-11-02T19:54:00.003-05:00

Lots of news – An article that I wrote a couple of years back (while researching the book on Hanover Court House) on Federal general Irvin McDowell is in the current issue of America’s Civil War. The new issue should be hitting newsstands right about now. Also, I was recently interviewed for an article written by Sharyn McCrumb on Civil War re-enacting. The article is in the current issue of Blue Ridge Country. I saw one on a local newsstand on Saturday, and I encourage you to check it out.

I will be on the road some this week. I am speaking tomorrow night (Tuesday) in Raleigh at the Barbecue Lodge at 4600 Capital Boulevard. Dinner is at 6:30 pm. I plan to do a little research in the archives beforehand. On Thursday evening I’ll be in Barnardsville at the Big Ivy Community Center. The meeting starts at 7:00 pm. I’ll also be participating in a living history this weekend here in Avery County. This event is for our local home school group.

I often comment that I try and take much of October off. I took a good deal of it off, but alas, October is over, and it is time to go back to work.

Book signing in Asheville

2009-10-29T14:54:00.001-04:00

Folks – I received this email yesterday and thought I would pass it along.

Suzy Barile, descendant of Buncombe Co. native David Swain, will talk about her new book, Undaunted Heart: the True Story of a Southern Belle & a Yankee General at Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville, next Friday, Nov. 6 @ 7pm. It’s the story of Ella Swain, daughter of former NC governor and UNC president David Swain, who fell in love with and married the Union general whose troops occupied Chapel Hill at the end of the Civil War. Based on family letters, the book chronicles the challenges of rebuilding lives after the Civil War and the social history of the era. Please help spread the word about this event.

Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt

2009-10-28T16:49:00.000-04:00

We had a great time last night in Bakersville at our Mitchell County and the Civil War discussion. For those in the area, we are doing a similar program in Avery County on November 10 – 6:30 pm at the library in Newland.

One of our visitors last night brought up some questions about iron mines in the Confederacy during the war. Our friend believed that Cranberry ranked second behind the mines in Birmingham, Alabama, for production of iron ore during the war. From my research, I know that iron ore was mined in Cranberry during the war, but only on a small scale, the problem of transportation keeping it from being more productive. According to the family who operated the mine during the war, only one wagon load of ingots was transported a month to the railhead near Morganton.

So, this led me a round of research this morning into iron mines in North Carolina during the war. At the start of the war, there were more than 100 iron furnaces and bloomeries in the South.

I found a long list of localities that were mined in North Carolina during the war. These include, but are probably not limited to:

Bloomery Mine, Nash County
Ore Hill, Chatham County
A mine near Asheboro which produced some of the “most highly prized iron obtained during the war…”
Costner Mine – Lincoln County
Oremond Mine – Gaston County
Widow Bailey Place – Lincoln County
Rodgers Mine – Stokes County
William Ore Bank – Yadkin County
John A. Allen plantation near Mocksville.
Davidson River Iron Works – Henderson County.
Cranberry Iron mines – Mitchell (now Avery) County

So which ones were the largest? I’m not sure. I do know that the Bloomery Mine and the Ore Hill Mine were Confederate operations, meaning, they were run by the Confederate government to some extent. In October 1861, the Fayetteville Observer reported that the Ore Hill Mine was producing 15 tons per week. In 1857, the Cranberry Mines were producing 17 tons a year.

Just another forgotten aspect of a very large conflict.

News and notes....

2009-10-27T08:42:00.001-04:00

Yes, I know, I just did this recently, but several things have come up that you might be interested in.

There will be a Mitchell County and the Civil War Round Table tonight at the Masonic Lodge in Bakersville. Starts at 6:30 pm and everyone is invited to attend.

There is some information on the Cape Lookout Lighthouse in a magazine called Sport Fishing. You can check it out here.

Information about a Tar Heel soldier who served in the 25th NCT and who might have owned a Henry rifle can be found here.

Zeb Vance gets a mention in a article about the Tenth Amendment, which you can read here.

The Gaston Gazette reports on the activities of writer and historian Mark Hughes, who has put together “The New Civil War Handbook.” Check it out here.

There is a upcoming living history at the site of the Fayetteville Arsenal this weekend. Learn more about the Arsenal and the event by clicking here.

This past weekend, there was a memorial service honoring Maj. James Riley, the officer who surrendered Fort Fisher. Check it out here. Andrew Duppstadt has more information on his blog, Civil War Navy, which you can find here.

Lincoln in Asheville

2009-10-23T13:32:00.001-04:00

On Wednesday, I was in Asheville and stopped by Pack Memorial Library to view the current Lincoln exhibit. Interestingly, I would never call myself a Lincoln scholar, and at times, I am even a Lincoln detractor. That being said, I worked through Lincoln’s papers while working on the Hanover Court House book, and I’ve been to the Lincoln Museum and Library In Springfield while working on another project.

The exhibit is entitled “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation” and is located on the main floor. According to a blurb I found online: “The exhibit is sponsored by the American Library Association with underwriting from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is brought to Asheville by Buncombe County Libraries and the Center for Diversity Education at UNC Asheville in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The free exhibit will be on display at Pack Memorial Library in Downtown Asheville and will also feature the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War on the citizens of WNC.”

Besides the standard traveling exhibit, the library had pulled some of its own items out of its collections and placed them on exhibit. These include oil paintings of Lee and Vance, a pre-war painting of Asheville, and a couple of items from UCV reunions in Asheville after the war. There was also some information regarding the battle of Asheville fought at the end of the war.

There was an attempt to focus a little more on slavery locally. Someone had gone through local newspapers and printed out advertisements regarding slave sales and rewards for runaway slaves and placed them in notebooks on a table. The book also mentions the activities of people of color in the local newspaper continuing into the decade after the war. I would have liked to have seen more information about local slaves: how did the lives of mountain slaves differ from the lives of enslaved people in the deep South or along the coastal plain? How about a map showing some of the larger plantations in Buncombe County? Or, There are stories here in my section of western North Carolina of slaves who refused to leave their homes after the end of the war. Are there such stories in Buncombe County? Where there any enslaved men who stole away and joined the Federal army, serving in one of the many black regiments? I also did not see any mention of Sarah Gudger, a Buncombe County slave who was interviewed in the 1930s as a part of what is now known as the Slave Narratives. Maybe I just missed it, but here was a great example of what life was like for someone who lived through being a slave in Bumcombe County. Had I been putting this exhibit together, I would have attempted to find some way to bring this to light.

The exhibit runs through the end of the month. If you are in Asheville, stop by Pack Memorial Library and check it out.

A look around the Old North State

2009-10-21T08:38:00.002-04:00

Is it that time again? Time for look around of mentions of North Carolina and War in the press? I hope you enjoy.

Rob Neufeld writes in the Asheville Citizen about the need for more historical markers, including one commemorating the battle of Deep Creek. Check it out here.

The Garner News has an article that traces the history of the name of the community of Furquary-Varina, including some War-time stories. Check it out here.

Famed historian Edwin Bearss will be speaking at a fundraiser in Rose Hill, North Carolina, in November. Get more information here.

Great article in the Star News on Confederate place-names in Wilmington. Check it out here.

There are a whole slew of Civil War related programs going on at the public library in New Bern. Learn more about their programs here.

There is a exhibit on the life of Lincoln currently being held at Pack Memorial Library in Asheville. Follow this link for more information.

Fred Ray

2009-10-20T15:24:00.001-04:00

I should have mentioned this earlier – Fred Ray, author of Shock Troops of the Confederacy: The Sharpshooter Battalions in the Army of Northern Virginia, will be speaking tonight in Burnsville, North Carolina, at the Town Center at 6:30 pm.

Nathan Allman - 7th NCST

2009-10-19T14:09:00.001-04:00

It has been a very, very busy past two months that have been filled with living histories, Civil War round tables, and other programs. Yesterday, I spoke at a reunion of descendants of Nathan Allman, Co. B, 7th NCST. The reunion was held in Enochville, NC, over near Mooresville. It was my first trip to Enochville.

I started my research for this little talk by looking up Allman’s service record in the Troops books. This is what I found:

Allman, Nathaniel H.
Born in Cabarrus County where he resided as a farmer prior to enlisting in Cabarrus County at the age of 22, July 2, 1861, for the war. Present or accounted for until wounded in the leg at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1863. Company muster rolls indicate he was absent wounded through November, 1864. North Carolina pension records indicate that he “died at home from blood poison.” Date of Death not reported.

Then I went to his compiled service record, which presents another story. If I were writing his record, for the troop books, this is what I would have written:

Allman, Nathaniel (Nathan)
Born in Cabarrus County where he resided as a farmer prior to enlisting in Cabarrus County at the age of 22 on July 2, 1861. Was mustered in as a private in Company B, 7th North Carolina State Troops August 21, 1861. Reported sick in quarters in January and February 1862. Reported left sick in camp in May and June 1862. Reported sick in hospital in Richmond, Virginia, June 30 to November 1, 1862, when he was furloughed home. Returned before the end of the year. On July 20, 1863, Allman was admitted to Chimbarzo Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, due to something wrong with his left hand. Sent to Raleigh, North Carolina, July 25, 1863. Reported absent wounded in July and August 1863. Reported absent sick in hospital September and October 1863. Reported absent without leave November 1863 through February 1864. Reported present in March and April 1864. On May 15, Allman was admitted to Winder hospital in Richmond with an undisclosed wound. On June 7, 1864, he was furloughed home, wounded. This furlough extended through November 30, 1864. On January 1, 1865, Allman was discharged by reason of a slight wound in leg received at the battle of Gettysburg, a wound that never healed, and by reason that he was “an inferior soldier.”

Then there are those two little sentences at the end: “North Carolina pension records indicated that he “died at home from blood poison.” Date of Death not reported.” Well, that is true. According to the family, Allman was out plowing his field, and had a nail from his boot puncture the bottom of his foot, which caused his death some weeks later. The way the listing reads, this occurred during the war. It did not. Allman died in 1890.

I’m not quite sure where the great folks in Raleigh came up with their entry for Allman. There is a lot more information in his record.

Allman is buried in the St. Enoch Cemetery in Enochville.

John Brown, conclusion

2009-10-15T13:08:00.001-04:00

There seems to be a lot of John Brown in the news today – and since we sit on the edge of the 150th anniversary of the event, I thought maybe we should get back to our discussion. My apologizes for not getting this finished – something else stepped up and took its place on my importance list.

A recap – we’ve had a very good discussion on John Brown and his role in American history: was he a political activist, or was he a terrorist? I even placed an impromptu poll up on the blog, asking you what you thought. In this unscientific poll, most of you thought he was a terrorist. However, given that the majority of my readers are Southerners, that should be no surprise. Next, we looked at North Carolina’s reaction to John Brown’s Raid. Since the A. P. wire did not exist, local newspapers were forced to reprint what had appeared in other newspapers. Their own thoughts were often limited. Through the newspapers we examined, we find both disdain for the political party thought to have backed the attack (the “black Republicans”), and warnings regarding suspicious characters in local communities. There were even a few references to men being detained and tried. I was going to post next on the ties of North Carolina to the Raiders, namely that John A. Copeland, Jr., and Lewis S. Leary were both born free persons of color in North Carolina. Josh Howard did a good job with that, and if you have not yet seen it, you can read his article here.

As I sit and write this morning, a thought kind of sticks out above the others: just how is John Brown being taught in schools across North Carolina this week? Is he getting a mention at all? Or, are the upcoming dates just going to be something else that goes by largely unnoticed like so many of the others? Granted, it has been a while since I was in school (junior-senior high, at least). And while I do not really remember what the text said, I do remember the illustration. It was the one that I posted on the original John Brown post.

Ok, I took a break yesterday from writing this and did another informal survey. I posted a query on both my facebook and myspace accounts, asking people who were educators, students, or parents of students, if their schools were doing anything regarding the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s Raid. To say that the response was underwhelming would be an overstatement. For the few folks that did comment back, they knew of nothing going on at their schools.

So I want to propose this question: it the larger scheme of things, has John Brown been forgotten? Will there be anything in local newspapers this week to commemorate the event? Or, will there be any discourse at the local library, local community college, or public university about Brown’s role in history? Or, has the matter largely been replaced by other events? Probably not a fair question for a blog that deals with that period of history. We here all remember the actions of Brown, some of us with pride, some with disdain and contempt.

I guess I should apologize. I could (and probably should have) put together a program that examined the life of John Brown in one of two of the local venues that I mentioned above and I did not. The work on the 58th NCT book kept me distracted. I am going to start work today on some programs that look at the war itself and make sure those years are not forgotten.

Good Weekend

2009-10-12T10:42:00.002-04:00

Well, it was a rather exciting weekend. On Friday, I was speaking at the Friendship Luncheon of the North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Fayetteville. This was their annual meeting, and I was speaking on the importance of remembering the common soldier. After I finished speaking, they presented me with the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal for my book, Remembering North Carolina’s Confederates. The Medal is presented for “furthering the study and preservation of Confederate history…” I am honored and would like to thank the wonderful ladies of the North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy for this unexpected reward.

But that is not all, the North Carolina Society of Historians recently saw fit to honor two of my local history books with their Willie Parker Peace History Book Award. This makes the fifth and sixth times that I have won this award. The books for which I won this year are Families, Friends, and Felons: Growing Up in the Avery County Jail, co-authored with Jimmie Daniels; and Images of America: Mitchell County. Once again, I am truly honored.

So what’s next? I am going to work on trying to get my email caught up, and we are going to work on expanding the shelving on in our library this week. Interestingly, when I talk about moving our books around, everyone I know sort of seems to disappear until I announce that I’ve finished.