Our State – Our Stories
William B. Joyner, Company C, 43rd NC Infantry Regiment
SUBMITTED BY: Unknown (click to...
Man born on July 4 recalls Civil War
SUBMITTED BY: Great-granddaughter Dorothy Barr Corbett Dallas Caldwell Berryhill, born 1858, died 1947. See Charlotte News (1942) article at this link: Man born on July...
Sechrest family of Davidson County
AUTHOR: Robert Lee Sechrest Grandmother Mattie was 33 when she married my grandfather who was 66. He fought [in the Civil War] when he was 27 in Company C from Davidson County. He fought at Bentonville and at Fort Fisher. He died at age 73.
Autobiography and Reminiscences by Thomas Perrett
AUTHOR: Thomas Perrett PDFS of parts 1, 2, and 3 are below. Thomas Perrett part 1 Thomas Perrett part 2 Thomas Perrett part...
Ben, Penelope, a Panther, and the Cave
AUTHOR: Roger Hudson My great-great grandfather was Benjamin Allen Staton of Henderson County, NC. He was born in 1837 and served in the 35th Infantry, Company G of the Confederate Army. They were "The Rifles." The regiment trained in Raleigh and eventually joined...
The Search for Thomas Strickland and the Shohola Railroad Accident
SUBMITTED BY: Graham Kent Strickland SUMMARY WRITTEN BY: Mario Benavente The November 1986 issue of The State magazine included the story of Graham Kent Strickland’s thirty-plus year search for information about his great-great grandfather, Thomas Strickland, of...
Captain Wilson Austin White
AUTHOR: Marsha Head Goodwin My 3X Great Grandfather was Captain Wilson Austin White. He was born Jun 30, 1826 in Greensboro, Guilford Co., North Carolina. He was the son of William Austin White and Rebecca White (surnames were the same, no genealogical connection)....
Sharps carbine
AUTHOR AND SUBJECT NAME NOT AVAILABLE My great uncle told me a story his grandfather told him of being in the trenches in Petersburg and was hit by a ricochet bullet in the head lodging it under his scalp. He thought he was dead. At a previous battle he had picked up...
Edward Gray Southard, 45th NC Regiment, “The Madison Grays”
AUTHOR: Unknown Edward Gray Southard (Edwin G.) was born in 1831 and was the son of James and Ruth Gilliam Southard. He was married to Pamela Billingsly on 23 November 1860. He was a private in the 45th North Carolina Regiment called the Madison Greys. He resided...
William Pinkney Southard, 45th NC Regiment, “The Madison Greys”
AUTHOR: Unknown William "Billy" Pinkney Southard, my great-great-great grandfather, was born in 1826 and was the son of James and Ruth Gilliam Southard. He was married to Bertha Ruth Thomas on December 26, 1848. He was the father of 8 children, 5 sons and 3...
William Augustus Parvin escapes
AUTHOR: Unknown William Augustus Parvin arrives in Little Washington on New Year’s Day, 1861, just 21 years old. By birth, he is a Pennsylvanian, but he chooses to settle in a state that is bound for secession in a few months. In March he ships out on the schooner...
Green D. Smith, 48th NC State Troops, Company E
AUTHOR: Unknown Private Green D. Smith was born in 1829 in Union County and there he was conscripted on August 23, 1862 to Company E of the 48th NCST. He had barely joined the company when he became ill with smallpox in the Winter of '62/'63 and Spring of '63,...
James Spence Frazier, Company I, 23rd NC Regiment
AUTHOR: Unknown James Spence Frazier was the youngest child of eight children born to Ephraim and Elizabeth Blackwell Frazier of Granville County, North Carolina. He was the first of his brothers to volunteer for Company I, 23rd Regiment of the North Carolina...
Michael Nathaniel Beaver: “I’d have rather served time in Hell than Elmira”
AUTHOR: Unknown My great-great-great grandfather, Michael Nathaniel Beaver, was born in Rowan County in 1842, a 4th generation American whose great-great grandfather had come from Germany in the 1730's. Following in the tradition of his great-grandfather, Nicholaus...
George M. Crawford: Honored more than 150 years later
AUTHOR: Unknown Private George M. Crawford was born on his family's Iredell County farm in 1828. Never marrying, George spent his life helping his large family run their farm and after losing both parents in his teens, he helped raised his younger siblings. In 1862,...
Thomas B. Frazier, Company I, NC 23rd Infantry Regiment
AUTHOR: Unknown The fourth of five sons of Ephraim and Elizabeth Blackwell Frazier of Sassafras Fork, Granville County, North Carolina. Thomas B. Frazier enlisted in Company I, North Carolina 23rd Infantry Regiment at age 27 on July 8, 1862 or for the war. He...
Charles W. Dry (Drye), 42nd NC Regiment, Company 2nd B
AUTHOR: Unknown Charles Dry was born 1832 in Cabarrus County, NC. He was the son of John and Elizabeth Dry. He resided in Rowan County when he enlisted in the 42nd North Carolina Regiment, Company 2nd B on the 5 February 1862. He was present and accounted for...
Elizabeth Blackwell Frazier: A Mother’s Story
AUTHOR: Unknown Elizabeth Blackwell was born on Blackwell’s Mountain. She was 17 when she married 27 year old Epherium Frazier, 1820. Epherium and Elizabeth lived at Sassafrass Fork, Granville County, North Carolina. They had eight children William, Stephen, Harriet,...
John Thomas Daniels: Soldier of land and sea
AUTHOR: Unknown Orphaned as a young boy, John Thomas Daniels grew up on Roanoke Island where he was born in 1846. Born of salt as his ancestor before him, he took the sea as a small boy and remained there the rest of his life. At the very young age of 15, John...
Female blockade runner Mary “Florie” Maffitt
SUBMITTED BY: Robert Maffitt? [Editor's Note: This is an expanded story of one on the website entitled "John N. Maffitt, 1st Lieutenant in the Confederate Navy."] At Wilmington, there were many Southern merchant ships that ran the Northern blockade during the Civil...
Josiah Blackwell Sams harassed by Kirk’s Raiders
SUBMITTED BY: James R. Phillips, SCV Post 2093 Josiah Blackwell Sams Born 1/27/1829, Died 8/13/1908 Father – James Brown Sams, Mother – Mary Hickman 11 children – 6 boys, 5 girls Married – Rebecca Emaline Murray Sams Gap (where NC and Tenn. Meet on 1-26) named after...
Macklin Southard, 45th NC Regiment, “The Madison Greys”
AUTHOR: Unknown Macklin Southard was born 1824 and was the son of James and Ruth Gilliam Southard. He was a private in the 45th North Carolina Regiment called the Madison Greys. He resided in Rockingham County, NC. He was married to Jane Hutchinson on 2 February...
John L. Southard, 45th NC Regiment, “The Madison Greys”
AUTHOR: Unknown John L. Southard was born 1839 and was the son of James and Ruth Gilliam Southard. He was a private in the 45th North Carolina Regiment called the Madison Greys. He resided in Rockingham County, NC and enlisted in Wayne County on May 8, 1862. He...
Cephus H. Joyce, man of principle
AUTHOR: Unknown Born in Stokes County, North Carolina around 1843, Cephus H. Joyce was eager to join the cause and quickly enlisted in Stokes County in Company H of the 22nd NC State Troops on June 1, 1861 as a Private. He quickly became a leader and was elected...
John F. Agner, Company B, NC 46th Infantry Regiment
AUTHOR: Unknown John F. Agner was born 1833 and was the son of Isaac and Christiana Agner from Rowan County, NC. He was promoted to Full Sergeant on 01 Sep 1862. He was promoted to Full Private on 01 Nov 1862. He enlisted in Company B, North Carolina 46th Infantry...
Labern Isley, 45th NC Regiment, “The Troublesome Creek Boys”
AUTHOR: Unknown Labern Isley was born 1828 in Orange County, NC and moved with his family to Rockingham County. He was the son of William and Sally Isley. He was married to Frances Godsey on 25 September 1851. He was a private in the 45th North Carolina Regiment...
Robeson Soldier’s Line Continues
AUTHOR: Tim A. Sellers, Lumberton, NC [Editor's Note: This is an expanded version of "Death Reached Far Beyond the Battlefield," by Billy Sellers.] Neill Stephen Kinlaw, my great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side, was 38 when he was captured at Fort Fisher. He...
William Councilman, 8th NC Regiment, Company I
AUTHOR: Unknown William Councilman was 1837 in Orange County. He married Lydia Coble on 6 August 1859. He was a private in the 8th North Carolina Regiment, Company I. He enlisted on 5 July 1861 in Alamance County, NC. He was present and accounted for throughout the...
William J. Hill, 49th NC Regiment, Company C
AUTHOR: Unknown William J. Hill was born 1817 in Rowan County, NC. He was the son of Henry and Jane Hill. He was married three times: Milly Pool (1841), Avelina Black (1847), and Rachel Shepherd (17 July 1851). He was the father of 10 children, 6 boys and 4...
Rinehardt Emanuel Beaver: Content to Play the Fife
AUTHOR: Unknown The oldest of three boys to serve for the South, Rinehardt Emanuel Beaver or "Manuel" as he was called, was born in Rowan County in 1837. Manuel was 2nd to enlist on January 25, 1862 in Salisbury in Co. B of the 42nd NC State Troops. He was originally...
Levi Adolphus Beaver, 5th NCST, Company K
AUTHOR: Unknown Levi Adolphus Beaver was born in Rowan County in 1840, one of three brothers who would fight to defend the Southern Cause. Amazingly, all three returned home. "Dolph," as he was called by friends and family, enlisted as a Private in Company K of the...
Imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland
AUTHOR: Unknown Abel Reid Pitts was born to John Henry and Sarah Lolly Rogers Pitts on 30 August, 1826 in Lincoln Co., NC. Abel later lived in Burke Co and enlisted in Catawba Co into Co K, NC 35th Infantry Regiment as a private, age 36, on 15 October, 1861 for the...
Stephen Frazier, Company K, 55th Regiment, NC Infantry
AUTHOR: Unknown Stephen Frazier was the second of eight children born to Epheriam and Elizabeth Blackwell Frazier of Granville County, North Carolina. Stephen’s father died in 1840 when he was fifteen. Stephen helped his mother manage the family’s large farm. In...
William Willis Roberts, Confederate States Navy
AUTHOR: Unknown William Willis Roberts Born 1822 in Craven County, North Carolina. He was the son of John M. and Mary Jones Roberts. He was married to Elizabeth Daves in New York on August 6, 1850. Original entry into the Confederate States Navy, August 26, 1863;...
War is Fickle
AUTHOR: Unknown I am the descendant of four Confederate privates on my mother's side. I haven't researched my father's side yet. Amos Dunn, Nasrow Creech and Noah Parker were conscripted into the 5th NC State Troops on the same day in July, 1862. Two were in Co C and...
Andrew Bostian, Company K, 5th NCST
AUTHOR: Unknown Born in Rowan County in 1824, Andrew Bostian farmed until his conscription to Company K, 5th NCST on August 8, 1862 in Statesville. He would see a fair amount of action with the 5th and would be wounded in the hand at Brandy Station, Virginia. He was...
Lt. Hugh Caldwell Bennett
SUBMITTED BY: Joe Avery Hugh Caldwell Bennett (14 Dec. 1832 - 3 March 1907) was the son of George Stepto Bennett and Elizabeth Newland Bennett of Iredell County, NC. He enlisted in Company F, North Carolina 3rd Cavalry Regiment on 07 Oct. 1861 as a Corporal and was...
Merrell Rimmer: A Young Soldier lost in battle
AUTHOR: Unknown Merrell Rimmer was born to Samuel Richard Rimmer and Elizabeth Blalock Rimmer, of Hurdle Mills, Person County, North Carolina. Elijah Hasten Rimmer, his eldest brother, enlisted in the 50th Regiment, Co. A, on 15 March 1863. Merrell, the next in the...
Samuel Thomas Gann: From Shoemaker to Soldier
AUTHOR: Unknown Samuel Thomas Gann was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina in 1824. He grew up running his own farm and had acquired the trade of shoemaker along the way. As the war approached, his age and family kept him at home when many of the young men...
Elijah C. Frazier, Company K, 55th Regiment NC Infantry
AUTHOR: Unknown Elijah C. Frazier was listed as a farmer in Granville County, North Carolina and enrolled in the Confederate Army on May 6, 1862. He reported to Camp Mangum on May 30, 1862. He was assigned to Co. K 55 Regiment North Carolina Infantry. He is listed...
Burwell Jackson Moore, lifelong Confederate
AUTHOR: Unknown With little to his name and no family, Burwell Jackson Moore, born near Danville, Virginia in 1846, decided to join in the war effort. He enlisted in Northampton County, North Carolina on January 6, 1863 as a Private in Company A, 5th NC Cavalry (63rd...
Corporal Finley Thomas Sale: A Wandering Soul
AUTHOR: Unknown Corporal Finley Thomas Sale was born in 1836 in Wilkes County, NC. Marrying at 21, he would father 4 children before entering into Confederate service. He enlisted July 7, 1862 in Guilford County as a Private in Company D of the 5th NC Cavalry (63rd...
Alpheus Branch, Company I, NC 1st Infantry Regiment
AUTHOR: Unknown Alpheus Branch was born 1843 in Halifax County. He was the son of Samuel and Mary Branch. He enlisted in Company I, North Carolina 1st Infantry Regiment on 11 Jul 1861. He was mustered out on 12 Nov 1861. He then enlisted in Company G, North...
“Don’t forget what they did to Bryant”: Aunt Nancy tells a Civil War story
AUTHOR: Gary Neil Carden When I was a child, I often went with my grandfather, Samuel Arthur Carden, to visit his mother “Aunt Nancy” Gibson Carden, who lived in Cowee, which is ten or twelve miles beyond Franklin, NC. Aunt Nancy (who was nicknamed "Babby"), was...
Salisbury Prison: North Carolina’s Andersonville
AUTHOR: Joel R. Stegall The American Civil War has been called a lot of things, but two descriptions are rather inventive: The Late Unpleasantness;[1] and, An Objective History of the War of Northern Aggression.[2] Whatever label one may apply to that American...
Letters from Thomas J. Young to his father John Young, Jr. for whom Youngsville was named
SUBMITTED BY: Ginny Kellum Original post about the Young family Kellum - Letter 1 Kellum - Letter 2 Kellum - Letter from Thomas Jefferson Young to his father John...
Henry Monroe Brown, Company E of the 5th Regiment, NC Infantry
SUBMITTED BY: Michael P. Brown He was a volunteer for the Confederate Army, July 3, 1861, at age 20 in Rowan County. He fought in the Battle of Manassas and Williamsburg before he was taken prisoner in Maryland in 1862. He fell ill in prison. He served as a nurse in...
William Everett Miller
SUBMITTED BY: Anne Campbell William Everett Miller's story "A SHORT SKETCH OF MY LIFE UP TO THE CIVIL WAR, WHEN I WAS EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE" (see links to PDFs below): anne campbell anne campbell 2...
Three cousins murdered by Yankees in the Old Albemarle region of North Carolina
AUTHOR: Chip Stokes (from his blog) http://blueandgrayancestors.blogspot.com/2013/08/three-cousins-murdered-by-yankees-in.html
Great-grandmother’s family hid in the woods when Sherman’s army came through Sampson Co.
AS TOLD TO MATTHEW SLISIK BY ALAN ELDRIDGE III Audio file 3 minutes 55 seconds
Great great grandfather Charles Wesley Bernard
AS TOLD TO MATTHEW SLISIK BY CHARLES WESLEY STARLING Audio file 6 minutes 45 seconds "Poor man from North Carolina, did not own slaves and wasn't a secessionist, so I think it gives good context of the average man in the fight." This is a letter he wrote on June 9,...
My great-great-grandfather William Miller, Buffalo, NY, 1st NY Light Artillery Battery I
AS TOLD TO MATTHEW SLISIK BY: David Peglow Audio file 19 minutes 47 seconds
Moses W. Smith, Pvt. in Company B, 1st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry
AS TOLD TO MATTHEW SLISIK BY: Abby Mulliss Audio file: 1 min 15 secs
The Story of Hilliard Gains
SUBMITTED BY: Pat Garber Hilliard Gains was an African-American Freedman who marched to war with his childhood friend, Sgt-Major Newsom Edward Jenkins, and other members of the Roanoke Minutemen, CSA. I first heard of him in stories told by my mother and uncles....
Little known facts on Tar Heel Confederate soldiers in Elmira, NY
SUBMITTED BY: Tom Fagart True to the Tar Heel Confederate Solider Motto: “First, Farthest, Foremost, and Last” Board Member Friends of Elmira Civil War Prison Camp, Elmira, NY. www.elmiraprisoncamp.com, Member Friends of Fort Fisher, Kure Beach, NC,...
The last surviving Fort Fisher man is a Tarheel: Pvt. George Washington Benson
SUBMITTED BY: Tom Fagart Although not a prisoner in Elmira, the story of this Fort Fisher survivor should be told. Pvt. George Washington Benson, Co H, 36th Regiment, 2nd NC Artillery is the last Confederate survivor from Fort Fisher. Pvt. Benson was born 4 Nov...
Pvt. Thomas O. Hildreth, 3rd Company G, 40th Regiment, 3rd NC Artillery
SUBMITTED BY: Tom Fagart Pvt. Thomas O. Hildreth was a native of Ansonville, Anson County, NC. Thomas was born abt. 1820. Prior to the War Between The States, Thomas had served in the Mexican War. In March 1847, he enlisted to serve in the Mexican War as an...
Pvt. Henry Vines, the luckiest Fort Fisher man
SUBMITTED BY: Tom Fagart The luckiest Fort Fisher man just may be Pvt. Henry Vines, 3rd Co G, 36th Regiment, 2nd NC Artillery. Pvt. Vines was born 5 July 1843, enlisted 30 Apr 1862, Brunswick County, Wilmington, NC at age 20. He is listed as prisoner #597 arriving...
From Fort Fisher, North Carolina to Elmira, New York
SUBMITTED BY: Tom Fagart On Christmas Eve, 24 December 1864, the Confederate fortress of Fort Fisher (aka The Gibraltar of The South) located near Wilmington, North Carolina at the mouth of the Cape Fear River came under attack by Union Naval and Army forces. Sixty...
The death of two Tarheel Confederate brothers and only sons
SUBMITTED BY: Tom Fagart This is the story of Franklin and William Cauble, the only sons of Joseph and Nancy Hudson Cauble of Albemarle, Stanly County, NC I am sure that when Franklin Cauble of Albemarle, Stanly County, North Carolina was earning his living driving a...
Uriah R. Parish
AS TOLD TO MATTHEW SLISIK BY: Mark Love Audio file 2 minutes 35 seconds Uriah Parish was a farmer. He lived with his father and family; he was one of 10 children on a farm in Moore Co (now Lee Co). At the time of the war he signed up for Company I, 19th NC, 2nd NC...
William Andrew Love / John Wesley Love
AS TOLD TO MATTHEW SLISIK BY: Mark Love Audio file (4 minutes 5 seconds) They were from Moore County and lived on a farm with their father and siblings. Their mother died in 1854. In the 1860 census J. W. Love is still living with Jesse, but between 1860 and 1862 he...
Sampson the enslaved man
AUTHOR: Billy A. Dunlap Our family owned slaves before the Civil War. One of them named Sampson came to great-great-grandpa James Dunlap after the war and told his former master that he did not know anything about freedom or what it meant. He had been born on the...
Aunt Loudy Wright
AUTHOR: Bill Arthur Dunlap Aunt Loudy Wright was the oldest sister of John Washington Dunlap, my grandpa's daddy. She was born in 1822 and lived to 1920. Mr. Wright's sister married my great-great-grandpa, thus becoming J. W. Dunlap's mother. I.e., brother and sister...
Looking Backwards, by F. L. Castex, Sr.
SUBMITTED BY: John McKinnon (The original copy was written in 1934 when Papa, Mr. F. L. Castex, Sr., was 82 years old. His birthday was February 14, 1852: therefore his recollections of the Civil War were of a child nine to thirteen years old.) I have been asked a...
Yankee demanded a drink
SUBMITTED BY: John McKinnon I asked my brother Sandy, who knew my great-grandmother, if she ever told stories of life during the War. She would have been in her 20's during the War, and her husband was off fighting. He said only one [story] about throwing buttermilk...
Letter written by David Black (1836-1876) to his older brother Alex (1828-1905) during the Civil War
SUBMITTED BY: Ruth Dutton Hill [Note: David Black was a teacher, farmer, and Major in the Civil War.] Sunday night, December 25th, 1864, Alex Black Dear Sir: Christmas night finds me home again all lonely and peacefully situated. We have had company today saw Betty...
My great-grandfather, General Edmund Kirby-Smith, last Confederate general to surrender
AUTHOR: Kirby Brown I've always been glad that my name was Kirby. My great-grandfather, General Edmund Kirby-Smith, a West Point graduate, was the last Confederate general to surrender at the end of the Civil War. There were only seven full generals, and he was one...
Virginia Lee Binns of New Kent County, VA
AUTHOR: Julia Breckinridge My grandmother Virginia Lee Binns was the 13th child born at Silver Hall, New Kent County, VA, just up the road from Jamestown. I saw the original charter for her family's land grant signed by King George in 1624. Yankee soldiers came up...
James Jarrell
SUBMITTED BY: James Jarrell I was born in Guilford County. My grandfather was a slave in the Guilford area of Pleasant Garden which is not very far from James Haley's roots in Alamance County. I did not grow up hearing a lot of stories and related memories of Civil...
A Southerner learns she is kin to President U. S. Grant
AUTHOR: Betty Bowles Haywood You might call me one-quarter Yankee. My great-grandfather, Major Hiram Grant, came to Goldsboro as part of the Army of Occupation after the Civil War. He was first cousin to General U.S. Grant. Hiram had four children whom he sent to New...
John Henry Stone and Martha Ann Baughn
SUBMITTED BY: Catherine Bowers Southworth This document is an excerpt from “Letters Home to Baughn’s Mountain” transcribed in 1979 by Ellen Flythe Frontis Cross, great-granddaughter of John Henry and Martha Ann Baughn Stone. Some of these letters are heart-wrenching;...
Point Lookout, MD claims another soldier
SUBMITTED BY: Katrina Anne Herman Avery Two brothers of my great-grandmother, Susan Young, died while fighting in the Civil War. One was John Young, born in 1843 to Henry and Lavenia Martin Young in Catawba County, NC. At 19 years old, John enlisted in the...
Needham Brown, one of six sons who enlisted in the Confederate Army
SUBMITTED BY: Leisa Greathouse Needham Brown was one of twelve siblings. All six sons enlisted in the Confederacy. He enlisted in Wayne County, NC in 1863. He epitomized an average North Carolinian. He was in Company D and Company L, 66th Regiment. He survived the...
Western NC Confederates: The Laughter Family of Henderson County
SUBMITTED BY: Jack Travis The Laughter family of Henderson County, NC provided the Confederacy with nine men, two brothers and seven cousins, to fight for Southern independence. They were all farmers. Many of the cousins were in their teens and enlisted together in...
William J. ‘Billy’ Parker, Caney Fork Confederate Soldier
AUTHOR: Dan Johnson Billy Parker was the first born son of John A. Parker, and his second wife, Nancy Phillips.(1) John married Nancy on 18 November 1844(2) in (what was then, still) Haywood county. Billy followed less than 3 months later being born on 18 February...
John Aiken of Caney Fork, Jackson County, NC
AUTHOR: Dan Johnson JOHN H. AlKEN, son of THOMAS (1825-ca 1900) and REBECCA (HOXIT) AlKEN (1831-1912)1 was born January 8, 1855 in Cherryfield, Henderson Co., NC, the fifth of what would be eight children. His father left the family sometime between 1860 and 1870....
Uncle Wah Clark of Crossnore, NC
AUTHOR: Dan Johnson Words like 'colorful,' 'unique,' 'rugged individualist,' etc. come to mind in trying to diplomatically describe my ancestor Warsaw Columbus 'Wah' Clark of Crossnore, NC but the honest truth of the matter would bring us closer to 'unsavory,'...
Granny Beck Aiken: The Witch of Caney Fork
AUTHOR: Dan Johnson Genealogical research often reveals some interesting, even contradictory characters and such is the case with "Granny Beck" Aiken. Nothing is known about her childhood or youth. Although the census taker for Jackson co. in 1880 declared that...
Neighbor to Neighbor: A Memoir of Family, Community, and Civil War in Appalachian North Carolina
SUBMITTED BY: Larry Dale Wilson This anthology was printed in 2007 by the Center for Appalachian Studies, Appalachian State University, Boone NC 28608 edited by Sandra L. Bullard and Leila E. Weinstein. This publication chronicles the story of my GGG Grandfather, Lt....
John H. Hopkins
AUTHOR: Howard J. Sparks, Sr. My great grandfather John H. Hopkins was from Patrick County, Virginia. John was the son of William Hopkins and Sarah/Sallie Snyder Hopkins. Between 1850 and 1860 it is believed the family moved just across the state line into Stokes...
The Deposition of William Jacobs of Rockingham, NC, for the Southern Claims Commission
SUBMITTED BY: John Jacobs My ancestor William Jacobs was a mulatto farmer in Richmond County during the Civil War. He was known in the county to be a Union loyalist. His father, Zachariah Jacobs, was a patriot of the Revolutionary War, from Brunswick County, NC, and...
My 2g grandfather: Union League Commander Austin Flood
AUTHOR: Shelton Tucker Genealogy: My sister Dee, the genealogist of the family, told me that a respected historian in Greenville, NC said that my 2g grandfather, Reverend Austin Flood, was like the MLK of his day. Every since that time, we incessantly started...
Alson Gordon: The Persistent Soldier
SUBMITTED BY: Phyllis Gordon Womble In June 1861, Alson Gordon of Haywood county left his wife and three children behind to join Company F of the 25th NC Infantry Regiment: a company that enlisted three of my other ancestors on the same day. Gordon’s time in the 25th...
Beyond the Battlefield: the Inman Brothers of the 62nd Regiment
SUBMITTED BY: Phyllis Gordon Womble The story of Haywood County’s Inman family has reached far beyond the Carolinas, thanks to the star-studded cast of 2003’s Cold Mountain. While the film was inspired by the true story of William Pinkney Inman and two of his brothers...
The Cold Mountain Men: The Inman Brothers’ Civil War Story
SUBMITTED BY: Phyllis Gordon Womble The Inman family of Haywood County, NC possesses strong ties to the American Civil War having committed all six sons to the Haywood Highlanders Company in 1861 as a part of the Confederate Army. Most famously, William Pinkney...
Daughter of the Confederacy
SUBMITTED BY: Shirley Corn Reagan My husband's great grandmother was a daughter of Confederacy. She was a Franklin from Elkin, NC. My husband passed this past May 15, 2018. I have to research her story. Her name could have Ann or Elizabeth Franklin. I'm sure she went...
Yankee Spy – Timothy McKean or Is It Charles Hawkins?
SUBMITTED BY: Stokely Caldwell There is an interesting Civil War story regarding a young man from New Hampshire named Timothy McKean who, after many adventures, ended up in North Carolina and changed his name to Charles Hawkins. Timothy R. McKean was born in 1839 in...
Private A. S. (Amos Snyder) Ross
SUBMITTED BY: Stokely Caldwell Amos Snyder Ross was born in 1837 in Union County North Carolina, the son of Thomas Griffin Ross (1806-1873) and Ola Maness (1809-1865). Amos married Mary A. Kiser, daughter of Marcus Kiser and Mary Howell Kiser with a Cabarrus County,...
Ransom Naylor, A Civil War Soldier
AUTHOR: Durin Naylor The Year was 1840 when Ransom Naylor was born to Washington and Amy Naylor in the Mingo Township district of Sampson County, North Carolina. Ransom had 9 siblings, 4 brothers and 5 sisters. As a young boy Ransom worked the family farm. By 1850...
Miles Howcott and Family
SUBMITTED BY: Francis Howcutt From the website "Howcutt and Howcott Family History," copyright 2018. Miles Howcott was a soldier and farmer. He is an ancestor of a large proportion of the present-day Howcotts in America. Miles and his son William Henry were...
“I aimed a bullet at his heart”
AUTHOR: Edward S. Alexander, Emerging Civil War SUBMITTED BY: Deborah England I found this story about my GG grandfather on the blog, Emerging Civil War. It was written by Edward S. Alexander. As a descendant of the original settlers of Western NC, on both sides of...
Simon D. Davis statement to his granddaughter
SUBMITTED BY: Lisa Jillani My aunt, Esta Davis Serber, was born in 1900 and alive when her grandfather, Simon D. Davis,talked to her about his time in the Sandy Run Yellow Jackets out of Cleveland Co. She passed the statement on to me that Simon told her. He said, "I...
Nelson Tift: Confederate Navy Captain
SUBMITTED BY: W. S. Mann (see also "Nelson and Ava Tift" story) Nelson Tift was born in Groton, CT on July 23, 1810. In 1826, he moved to Key West, FL with his brother, Asa Tift, for business exploration ventures. In 1830, he moved to Charleston, SC to test Southern...
Archibald McNeill, Sr. and the Moore County Independents
SUBMITTED BY: Norma Blake Jones Archibald McNeill Sr. was born March 4, 1818 in the Bensalem area of Moore County, NC. He was married to Jane Brewer, and they had eight children (born between 1842 and 1865). McNeill enlisted in Moore County on July 11, 1862 as a...
The Skirmish at Wilson’s Store
SUBMITTED BY: Richard Harding Davis Less than a quarter mile North, as the crow flies, from Perry Brown's Furniture Factory Outlet World on 200 South lies a historically significant location in Union County. On March 1, 1865, near the intersection of Bigham and Brady...
“A Wagon Train Once Camped on the Public Square”
SUBMITTED BY: Richard Harding Davis A Wagon Train Once Camped on the Public Square – from the June 28, 1910 issue of MONROE JOURNAL (Union County, N.C.) The fine elms that surround the public square, none of which should ever be cut down, were planted before the war....
Oliver Arms, Sr.
AUTHOR: Joe Mode Oliver Arms, Sr. is my 3rd great grandfather, whose daughter, Melissa Arms, married Wade Green (Cocke Co., TN) Wade Green is my 2nd great grandfather and member of Company C, 8th Tennessee Infantry, U.S. Melissa Arms m was born on 5 November 1851-2,...
My great-grandfathers in the Civil War: Page/Ringgold, maternal great-grandfathers
SUBMITTED BY: Joel Ringgold Stegall My fourth great-grandfather, John Sampson “Samp” Page, the son of John and Mary Autry Page of Sampson County, was single, 24 years old and living with his parents when the war broke out. He enlisted and was assigned on 04 Nov 1861...
My great-grandfathers in the Civil War: Stegall/Stack, paternal great-grandfathers
AUTHOR: Joel Ringgold Stegall By the time the Civil War began in 1861, Great-Granddaddy Thomas Bottom Stegall was already 47 or 48 years old, too old for combat duty. As the war dragged on, and North Carolina began to run out of young men to give their lives for this...
Gathings Family of Anson County
SUBMITTED BY: Steve Bailey I was told by my cousin Emma Gathings Goodwin years ago that our ancestor Charles Gathings died in the early 1860’s when he was about 70 years old. When Sherman’s Army marched through Anson County during the time period of March 3rd through...
Jordan Bennett
AUTHOR: Charles Brown My wife's great grandfather, Jordan Bennett, was from Duplin County, North Carolina. He is listed in Family Search as being a member of the 8th US Colored Heavy Artillery. He enlisted on Jun 25, 1864 at Paducah, KY as Corporal; he was 20 years...
The Swallows
AUTHOR OF THE PDF AT THE LINK BELOW: Albert Ross Hogue (1873-1978), The History of Fentress County, Tennessee SUBMITTED BY: Mona Vorhees Mehas My Civil War Connection (one of many): I am an amateur genealogist. I retired from teaching in the public schools in 2010,...
Jacob Bryant: Reportedly the Only Documented Lumbee Indian to have Fought in the Confederate Army
SUBMITTED BY: Phyllis Bryant Lowry Here is a story about my Native American ancestor Jacob Bryant, from an article that was published in The Robesonian on May 29, 2009: In Red Springs, Cannon fire echoed through the trees at the Long Swamp Indian Cemetery on a recent...
Letters from Anthony Brisson to Wife Nancy
SUBMITTED BY: Shannon Walters Jacobson This is my 4th great uncle who wrote letters to his sisters and wife, Nancy. He also mentions my 3x great grandfather, Paris Guyton, and my 4th great Uncle Joseph Guyton. All lived in Bladen County. His last letter was December...
Prusha’s Story – A Slave Memory
AUTHOR: Barbara Krebs [This is in response to a] post of June 13 on the Tyrrell County Genealogy page [on Facebook] asking for Civil War era stories. The following is from a story that my grandmother used to tell me in my childhood during the 1960s, one which I...
William Flack Family
AUTHOR: W. Edgar Flack (sent by LuVerne Haydock) This appears in Ivarea Flack's "Flack Family Heritage" and was written by W. Edgar...
Aunt Mary’s Cow
AUTHOR: Dorothy Killian My Grandmother b: 1877 told me this story: Some Union soldiers came to her Aunt Mary Watson Triplett's house in Wilkes County, N. C.They made her cook a meal for them. One Union soldier sat in the kitchen while she cooked with his gun laying...
Civil War service records of James Parker and his brothers
AUTHOR: Jarrod Parker James Parker, the son of John and Balinda Parker, was born between 1827 and 1833 in Laurens County, South Carolina. He moved with his family to Buncombe County, North Carolina between 1845 and 1850. They settled in the Lower Hominy Valley, near...
Professor Luther Rice Mills of Wake Forest University
AUTHOR: Kristina (last name not provided) I am a descendant of Lieutenant Luther Rice Mills of the 26th Virginia Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia. While he lived in Virginia at the time of the War, I thought that you might find his story interesting as after the...
Company H, 26th NC Regiment
AUTHOR: Lacy Garner, Jr. I have done considerable research on Moore County's Company H, 26th NC Regiment, known as the "The Moore Independents." I have put all that info into a website, http://www.companyh26th.com. There are several good stories referenced on my...
My Grandfather: Benjamin Greene
AUTHOR: Mary Caroline Greene Robbins My grandfather Benjamin Greene was born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina on August 1, 1844. He had a twin brother named Joseph. Benjamin Greene fought in the Civil War for the Confederate Army. I do not know rank or where he...
First Lieutenant Valentine Jackson Palmer, MD, C.S.A. 09 February 1819 – 23 June 1915
AUTHOR: William Lea Palmer, Colonel, Infantry, US Army, Retired, Great-Grandson of First Lieutenant Valentine Jackson Palmer, MD, C.S.A. Valentine Jackson Palmer, MD, born in Marion County, South Carolina, a graduate of Jefferson Medical School, Philadelphia,...
First Lieutenant / Captain David Ramsour Hoyle, C.S.A. 15 December 1830 – 13 June 1914
AUTHOR: William Lea Palmer, Colonel, Infantry, USA, Retired David Ramsour Hoyle of Lawndale, Cleveland County, North Carolina, joined the Army of the Confederate States of America [C.S.A] commissioned a 1st Lieutenant of Infantry, 10 October 1861, promoted to...
A Wife’s Letter to her Husband during the Civil War
AUTHOR: Michael Stroupe October 20 [no year] State of North Caroliner Dear husbe [husband], I take my pen in hand to drope [drop] you a few lines to let you no [know] that we are all well at this time. I pray to God these few lines may find you well and doing well. I...
Griffin Family of Anson County, NC
AUTHOR: Steve Bailey Griffin Family History by Fred M. Griffin, Raymond C. Griffin, & Lee Griffin – Published in 1949 – Alexander Griffin, son of William Griffin & grandson of Thomas Griffin, joined the Union Army in Mississippi when Sherman’s Army marched east from...
The Story of Bryant Pridgen
AUTHOR: Britt Pridgen I found information about my great-great-grandfather, Bryant Pridgen (spelled Pridgeon in his military records) on a website. He was born in Moore County, but lived in Robeson County as an adult, working as a laborer prior to joining the...
Three Musketeers of Haywood County
AUTHOR: Deborah Ashe Greene James Anderson Singleton was my 3rd great-grandfather. The Three Musketeers of Haywood County North Carolina. In the hectic days of 1861, when news of the first real battle of the War between the States had trickled through to the Pigeon...
The Foley Brothers of Skinnersville
AUTHOR: Bobby R. Spruill Historians tell us that during the Civil War brother fought against brother and sometimes fathers and sons fought each other. That would not be the case of the three Foley brothers from the Skinnersville District of Washington County, North...
Joseph Minzy Davis of Madison County, North Carolina
AUTHOR: Joe Mode Joseph Minzy Davis was born in Madison County, North Carolina (then Buncombe County) circa 1825 and is my fourth great grandfather like his brother John R. Davis. He died of “Chronic Diarrhea” on 20 August 1864 at the Post Hospital at Cumberland Gap,...
Sylvanus and Jane (Transou) Davis
AUTHOR: Jeanette Yarbrough Sylvanus David Davis was born in Surry County, North Carolina on September 8, 1832. Before the Civil War, around 1857, Davis came to Pfafftown, North Carolina and lived in the home of A. C. Transou. Afterward, he met Jane Transou, who was...
The Story of Daniel J. Nichols, according to family legend
AUTHOR: James Franklin Macon County resident Daniel J. Nichols was only 18 years old when he joined the Confederate army. He was enlisted on March 25, 1862 in Company I of the 39th NC Infantry. Family legend has it that Daniel was captured around the battle of...
Lewis Franklin, A Burke County Man Held as a Prisoner Of War
AUTHOR: James Franklin According to the 1860 US Census, Lewis Franklin lived in Burke County, NC with his wife "Fanny" Perlina and their children: Sidney S. (5), Julia A. (2), and Alfred N. (9 months old). On September 22, 1862, at the age of 33, he enlisted into...
James Thaddeus Nichols, A Macon County Civil War Veteran
AUTHOR: James Franklin James Thaddeus Nichols, the son of Daniel Nichols and Martha Griggs of Macon County, NC, was twenty-three years old when he joined the Confederate Army on March 25, 1862. He was enlisted as a Private in Company I, 39th NC Infantry, CSA. His...
Great-Great-Grandfather Blanton, Civil War Survivor
AUTHOR: Susan Shuler My great-great-grandfather's last name was Blanton, and he was from Jackson County. He fought with Colonel Springfield from the Haywood County unit.
My Great-Grandfather William Cole Williams
AUTHOR: Leslie F. Cashwell His home: Black Ankle area of Eastern NC Enlisted at age 18 (Aug 27, 1861) Assigned to Third Artillery (40th State Troops) Captured at Fort Fisher NC on Jan 15, 1865 POW at Point Lookout, MD - Arrival on Jan 22, 1865 Released on June 21,...
Relentless Rothrock
AUTHOR: Phyllis Jacobs Charles Rothrock was a citizen of Forsyth County in the Friedberg community and a member of the Moravian Church there. When the war came he entered the service of the Confederacy, being a member of Company I, 33rd Regiment. Charles was severely...
Two Brothers and a Ghost
AUTHOR: Tony L. Crumbley Benjamin and Jane Pinion had eight children, all born between 1839 and 1867. The Pinion family resided in Stanly County, North Carolina. On August 8, 1862, two of their sons, Thomas W. and Joe Darling Pinion, joined Company B of the 5th N.C....
John B. Evans’ Encounter with Union Soldiers
AUTHOR: Greg Dickie My great-great-great-uncle was John B. Evans. He fought in the Confederate Army. After the war he returned to his home near Williamsboro in Granville County (now Vance County). A group of Union soldiers rode up to his home one day. The captain...
Affair at Toqua: The Williams Boys During the Civil War
AUTHOR: Bill Baker In Memory of George - Bartley - Jesse and Marion Williams, of Company H In June of 1861, George, Bart, Marion and William Williams, the sons of Bill and Triphena Williams of Cherokee County, North Carolina, enlisted in the Twenty-Ninth North...
The William Jackson Carter Family
AUTHOR: Linda Carter Turman In what was at the time Rutherford County, North Carolina, in the year 1831, William Jackson Carter, Sr. married Amey Alice Hastings. Their marriage produced five known children, 4 boys and 1 girl: John Wesley Carter, b. 1837 James C...
Escaped Slave joins Co K, 37th Regt., USCI
AUTHOR: Kenneth Whitehurst My great-great-grandfather Toney Boyd was a slave of Frederick Boyd at a place called Long Acres near Bath, NC in Beaufort County. He married my great-great grandmother Harriett Ann Windley, a slave of John Windley also near Bath in Beaufort...
North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center: The Journey from Disunion toward Reunion
By Philip Gerard Prologue The Civil War breaks over North Carolina with the fury of a natural disaster. Yet it is a man-made calamity with roots going back to the founding of the state. The state is the last to secede, in fact votes against even holding a secession...
History Center’s 2018 Progress to Date
Our latest newsletter: History Center's 2018 Progress to Date! There's much to tell you! We're proud of the progress we've made in the first five months of 2018. Dear Friend of the History Center: There's much to tell you! We're proud of the progress we've made in the...
N.C. Civil War & Reconstruction History Center To Sponsor ‘Juneteenth’ Presentation by Historian Hari Jones
The North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center is sponsoring a presentation by Hari Jones, one of the foremost authorities on the role of African Americans in the Civil War, who will speak on the topic: “How the Civil War Made America Great.” The...
Groundbreaking Ceremony Speeches
Our Speakers From The North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center Groundbreaking Ceremony in Fayetteville, NC on April 18, 2018. Chancellor James A. Anderson The Honorable Patricia Timmons Goodson Senator Tony Rand Commissioner Michael C. Boose Mayor...
NC Civil War and Reconstruction Groundbreaking Ceremony
North Caarolina Civil War & Reconstruction Groundbreaking Ceremony on April 18, 2018 at 824 Branson St., Fayetteville, NC...
NC Civil War History of the Fayetteville Arsenal Site
Earlier this year, we commissioned two local university students, one from FSU (Dorien Caldwell) and the other from UNC-Pembroke (Angel Garcia) to do a three-part video history of the Fayetteville Civil War Arsenal site. They did all the filming, research and...
Making history, one march at a time
Louis Leon is not, like many famous generals of the Civil War, a household name. That’s because he wasn’t one of them…
Update on the History Center’s 2017 Progress
If things have seemed quiet at the History Center, there’s been a reason: We’ve been busy! Since we wrote you last year, we’ve raised more than $20 million in new, firm commitments…
Uniting a divided history
From the robust public discussion about North Carolina’s legacy of Civil War monuments, it’s clear that — a century and a half after its close — we’re still sorting out how to make sense of that war…
Sherrod Family Celebrates Home of Patriarch, a Former Slave
Built as a wood structure in 1886, the entire building has been encapsulated into brick and has had multiple additions over the years, but Leonard Paul Sherrod Jr., great-grandson of the builder, knows what’s underneath.
Sherrod and other family members are preparing for a grand reunion on Sept. 1-3 to be held at the Sherrod homestead.
“We are refurnishing, repairing, remodeling when necessary and getting it ready to be used as a venue for the upcoming September reunion,” said Sherrod, who was born in Wilson in 1933 and graduated from Charles H. Darden High School in 1952.
A picnic and a banquet are planned at the event, which Sherrod has titled “Exploring Our Family History.”
“There is so much history,” Sherrod said. “Not only is it family history, it is African-American history, and in some small portion, American history.”
Grey Little Brown (1831-1907)
Before he enlisted in the Civil War, Grey Little Brown was a farmer and teacher in Edgecombe County. After the war, he returned to farming and teaching.
He became a “certified teacher” in 1871 as the state began to set standards (see copy of certificate).
His interest in education established the first school in Edgecombe County. He also sent three of his daughters to college in Greensboro, N.C. (the State Normal and Industrial School, aka Woman’s College aka UNCG).
Robert Andrews Sellers (1847-1905)
(Source: Contributed by Paula F. Kermon) Robert Sellers' childhood is very sketchy, but according to his widow, his father died when Robert was a young child. When his mother remarried, his stepfather bonded him to a farmer. The 1850 Census for Brunswick County listed...
Almon Leonidas Fountain (1842-1907)
(Source: Contributed by Paula F. Kermon) When Almon was 18 and attending the Dow Eagles School in Edgecombe County, his 24 year old teacher Lorenzo Dow Eagles, closed the school and enlisted in the Civil War. On 8/31/1861, Eagles formed a company of boys/men at Sparta...
Thomas Davis Rice
(Source: contributed by William D. Kenerly) Thomas Davis Rice was my great grandfather. He enlisted and was a private in the Civil War. After the War, he signed the Oath of Allegiance to the United States in Salisbury. He became a farmer and businessman in the...
Brothers Bill and Daniel Cole, Confederate soldiers
William Richard "Bill" Cole and Daniel Francis Cole were uncles of my grandmother, Gertrude Elizabeth Thompson Croom (Mrs. William Cyrus Croom), of Sandy Bottom in Lenoir County. Both Bill and Daniel lived in the eastern part of Coffee County near Douglas, GA. They...
William Allen Croom and wife Ann Maria Jackson Croom
During the Civil War, Ann Maria (pronounced Mariah) and her husband lived at "the Margaret Croom Place" at Moss Hill in Lenoir County. Once, when the Yankees came through the area, Ann Maria was fixing supper, and one of the Yankees invited himself to eat with them....
Joel Elmore (Company A, 40th NC Troops) and the Ft. Fisher shark
Lieutenant D.A. Black was one of the "Carolina Boys" of Company K, 38th Regiment of the North Carolina Troops, under the command of Captain M. McR. McLauchlin. On May 3, 1862, Lieutenant D.A. Black wrote to a friend in North Carolina from his camp at Milford Station...
Peter Garner: The Hunter
Peter Garner, a native of southeastern Randolph County, was born about 1831. He was a son of Peter Garner Sr. and Elizabeth Morgan. Garner married Susannah Latham on February 26, 1857. She was a daughter of James Latham and Lucretia Garner. Peter and Susannah had four...
A Tale of Two Men
Corporal John Campell Bass was an ancestor on my mother’s side. He joined the war effort in 1864. On March 16, 1865, he fought at Averasboro, North Carolina. A few days later, in the battle of Bentonville, he was killed. In March 1865, Private Troy Eldridge fought in...
Six Sons Served and Six Survived
Blackledge Harper, my great-great-grandfather, was born on April 20, 1813. He was a farmer from Deep Run, North Carolina. His farm, in excess of a thousand acres, was worked primarily by family members, but when additional help was needed, he hired slaves from...
Where did all the treason trials go?
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless…
A summer of change, a long winter of resistance
As hopes and honeysuckle bloomed, a century and a half ago, forces were massing to ensure that the dreams of newly liberated slaves and their white supporters would never take root. At the federal level, slavery had been abolished by constitutional amendment. But...
Some Lived to Tell the Tale
(Source: Contributed by E.W. Smith) Of fifteen children who spent their childhood at the Harnett County house called Lebanon, eight soldier brothers served the Confederacy at one time or another while four surviving sisters did their best to keep track of them and...
Far From Home, at Home
(Source: Contributed by Gene Smith) “You would not feel at home tonight if you could step in and see our family circle so small, no one at home except Pa, Sarah, Janie, little Mary and myself,” Bettie Smith wistfully wrote to brother Curtis as spring stirred in 1864....
Barden [Bardin] Family Private Papers, 1822-1920
(Source: Contributed by Maude P. Smith) "The Barden [Bardin] family were planters who farmed in the Sampson and Duplin County area of Southeastern North Carolina before and after the Civil War. While this collection contains few items of correspondence, the contents...
Our Latest Newsletter!
March 2017 Dear Friends, The North Carolina Civil War History Center has been making great progress! In this newsletter are some of our recent and upcoming activities. We thank you for your continued support and, as always, we encourage you to contact us if you have...
A Woman’s Perspective: While the Men Were Fighting
(Source: Contributed by Ms. Julia Moody Britt) Mary Susan Morrow and David Vanhook died of typhoid fever within a week of each other, leaving four small children to be reared by the maternal grandparents, Ebenezer and Paletiere Clement Morrow. When Sarah Jane, the...
From Warrior to Renowned Artisan
(Source: Contributed by Roger H. Futrell) William Henry Hancock (1844-1923)[1] of Randolph County, North Carolina, was a Confederate veteran who worked as a potter in the eastern Piedmont between 1865 and 1900. Examples of his pottery are in the collections of The...
Phone: 910-491-0602
Email: info@nccivilwarcenter.org
824 Branson Street
Post Office Box 53865
Fayetteville, NC 28305
Phone: 910-491-0602
Email: info@nccivilwarcenter.org
824 Branson Street
Post Office Box 53865
Fayetteville, NC 28305