Our State – Our Stories
Martha Caroline Potts Pierson’s Experience with ‘Kirk’s Raiders’
Born in 1858, Martha Caroline, the daughter of Allen Potts and Susan Wade Potts, lived in the Yellow Mountain area of North Carolina. Martha was just about 5 years old when Yankee raiders came to her family's home. They stole what food the family had, and frustrated...
The Norton Family’s Experiences with ‘Kirk’s Raiders’
From April 186l through the spring of 1865, the Civil War exacted a heavy toll on the citizens of Cashiers Valley. The first part of the war saw sons, husbands and fathers joining the Confederacy and marching away to an unknown fate while other families held fast to...
Col. George Washington Kirk: That ‘Scalawag, Bushwhacker Man’
A few decades ago, I was asked by an elderly cousin if I knew anything about the ‘scalawag, bushwhacker man named Kirk’ who terrorized the Cashiers Valley area during the Civil War. She said stories about him had been passed down to her by her...
J.C. Cox: Farmer, Hatmaker, Mill Owner, and Potter
My great-grandfather, Jeremiah Cox, lived close to Shiloh Church near Richland Creek in Randolph County. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. While a soldier, Jeremiah was wounded by a minié ball that could not be removed from his shoulder,...
Randolf County Man Hanged for Avoiding Draft
On June 2, 1976, in an article titled “Civil War Hanging Recalled” from The Courier-Tribune, Ralph L. Bulla wrote about the death of Randolf County man, Alson G. Allred. Men who were already serving in the Civil War “were angered because Allred...
A Quaker Doctor Paid Someone to serve in His Stead
William Stout, born in 1825, was the son of Joseph and Naomi Stout. His father built four-horse wagons, and his mother made the covers for the wagons. The Stouts sold the wagons in Fayetteville for one hundred dollars each. The profits from those sales paid for young...
Finding His Way Home: A Soldier’s Move from Virginia to North Carolina
Originally from Black Lick, Wythe County, Virginia, William Everett Miller found himself displaced and relocated to a new home in western North Carolina after the Civil War ended. His father—Jacob Miller—mother, and siblings had moved to Cashiers Valley, North...
Memoir of Thomas B. Sanders of Kinston
Written by Thomas B. Sanders (Submitted by James L. Gaddis) My parents' farm was in Bentonville Township, Johnston County, N.C. A short distance from our home was the little village of Bentonville. It was in this area that the last major battle of the Civil War was...
Aunt Janie vs. the Yankees — and me
My great-grandfather's youngest sister has been dead for more than 130 years, but she's still driving me crazy. In fairness, she's had a lot of help. Janie Smith, who was living in the house I now occupy when William T. Sherman and William J. Hardee literally brought...
What Lee and Grant didn’t bother to debate
Lee. Grant. Appomattox. The three names have become almost shorthand for an end to four ghastly years of a war, all of whose casualties were Americans turned against one another. It is worth revisiting the correspondence and other documents of April 8, 9, and 10,...
A few Southern perspectives on the Civil War
Near the end of the 19th century, author-journalist Cornelia Ann Phillips Spencer lost patience with what she considered Yankee revisionist history and decided to set the record straight. The result was a North Carolina history textbook that offered a full-throated...
Every good story deserves an audience
Snippets from a war story: Being outnumbered and flanked on our right (Sherman’s left), we fell back in good order to Line No. 3, hundreds of yards from Line No. 2, and there Hardee’s entire corps, so far as I could tell, held the enemy in check until night. ...
Have a boxful of history? Share the wealth!
Thousands of North Carolina boys and men began their Confederate service as members of local militias, some of which had colorful names such as “Scotch Tigers” and “Cumberland Plough Boys.” The names, and the men, were sometimes lost to view as those units disappeared...
Olmsted cast New Eyes on the Old South
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) was in the front rank of this country’s landscape architects, and many consider him the best. But he was other things, as well – farmer, journalist, public works administrator – and he approached all his work with the same vision,...
To Make Them Live Again
“Why are you so interested in history?" Oh, for a dollar for each time I've been asked that. My initial answer went something like this: "I was bitten by the bug when my grandparents took me to an old battlefield close to home." Later, I changed it to, "The people of...
Waterloo and The Civil War
A few days ago, I finished reading an outstanding book about the battle of Waterloo. Titled “WATERLOO: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles,” it was written by Bernard Cornwell. If you know anything about historical fiction, you've probably...
The first to fall for North Carolina
He was only 19. Fate or plain bad luck had brought him to a fight at Big Bethel Church in Virginia, in June of 1861. The young man had enlisted back in April, less than a week after the bombardment of Fort Sumter. The Tar Heel State had not initially joined...
The long road ends at Durham
For more than nine months, some 50,000 troops in the Army of Northern Virginia were dug in at Petersburg, in a situation that none other than Robert E. Lee had early on described, in writing, as “untenable.” During the long face-off, their contributions to the war...
Averasboro, and a civilian view
They're making this easy for me. The week ended with distant artillery at Fort Bragg jarring the foundations of this old house. Then, on Sunday, gunners in the reenactment at the Averasboro Battlefield Museum a few hundred yards south let go a couple of rounds with...
Old myths frustrate modern hopes
If you grew up white, Southern and embedded in the successor class to the Antebellum gentry, you've likely heard it -- more than once: "I was always told that they treated them like family." "Them" meaning slaves. It wasn't a lie; that was in fact what they -- the...
The Day Joe Johnston Stopped the War
The day after I became a teenager in 1960, Look magazine published a piece by American novelist MacKinlay Kantor, titled, "If the South Had Won the Civil War." At the time I found the title intriguing, but the substance eluded me. Having had more than half a century...
Gen. Sherman’s critical turn of events
As the summer of 1864 gave way to autumn, Maj. Gen.William T. Sherman was restless. What remained of Atlanta was under Union control. Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood had by Sherman's reckoning lost his enthusiasm for head-to-head fighting. Instead, Hood busied himself...
Matters of time and timing
If a 19th-century Time magazine had picked a Person of the Year for any of the war years, Abraham Lincoln would have been impossible to ignore. The mere fact of his election in 1860 stirred South Carolina to declare the Union dissolved and begin expropriating U.S....
Hard times on the home front
Monroe is in the Hospital somewhere sick. Our 1st Lieut. is now Capt. and myself 1st Lieut. J.D. Currie 2nd Lieut. and Toler holds 2nd Lieut.'s place though he is not with us. He is at home, has hemorage (sic) of the lungs. Bill Davis died on his way to the Co. with...
Help tell it like it is, and was
Laws, Ian Fleming's villainous Goldfinger scoffed to James Bond, are merely "the crystallized prejudices of the community." That's harsh, and not entirely accurate. But it makes the useful point that our code of laws, no matter what the credits and credentials of...
Missing some of your history? Check this
Have you hit a dead end in trying to piece together your ancestors’ stories? Has an old cemetery gone missing? Can't find the will, birth or death certificate, or tax record you want? You could be looking in the wrong place. Maybe a county jumped out from under you....
When assets suddenly became liabilities
Not quite two years after the Civil War ended, John C. Smith of Cumberland County found himself in the same predicament as other planters suddenly confronted by the prospect of having to pay the help. The land that had made his grandfather, his father and John himself...
Soldier’s Life Saved by a Hymn
Levi Hefner, my maternal great-grandfather, was a Confederate soldier from Hickory in Catawba County. Levi enlisted in Company C, 28th NC Regiment of the Confederate States Army at the outbreak of the Civil War and fought in the infantry on Virginia battlefields. He...
Tar Heel war stories need a binder
Some call the endless fascination with the Civil War puzzling -- silly, even. They should rethink that. There are no reliable figures for those who were wounded or maimed, or those whose health was wrecked. No one can quantify the grief and privation of families...
The Cave Man and the Confederates
Jeff Brady, my great-great-grandfather, was a farmer near High Falls in Moore County at the outbreak of the Civil War. He lived there with his wife, Mary Ann Moore Brady, and several children. Jeff Brady was a Quaker. He and Mary are buried in the cemetery of the...
The William Sawyer House at the South Mills Battlefield
The following information is from several discussions during 1976-1983 with John Halstead Wilkins Sawyer, son of Edmond M. Sawyer and his second wife, Josephine Wilkins (Forbes) Sawyer. The details were from many recitations to John H. W. Sawyer by his father and by...
The Murder of Joel Holcombe, Home Guard Officer
The Murder of Joel Holcombe by Joe Shelton In August of 1865, Joe Shelton and two other men rode to the home of Joel Holcombe in Madison County, North Carolina and shot him while he was working outside. Then, it is claimed, Shelton proceeded to scalp him. The only...
Treacherous Hosts: A Difficult Journey Home
Solomon David Finger didn't take kindly to the people who wanted to murder him while he was on his way home from Camp Chase, a Union prison in Columbus, Ohio, where he had been a prisoner for nine months. The Civil War had just ended. The surprise of his life was a...
My Family: A Story of Heroes, Tears, Love, and War
The Kuykendall family came into the United States in 1741 at New Albany [Fort Orange], New York. My 5th great-grandfather on my mother's side was Abraham Kuykendall. A Revolutionary War captain, he is buried at Mud Creek Church in Flat Rock; Flat Rock was his land...
Last at Appomattox
My great-great-grandfather was Private George W. Chandler. He was born Jan. 4, 1832, the son of Pleasant and Martha Chandler. He was married to Elizabeth Ligon Boswell Nov. 5, 1857. They owned land, lived and reared their nine children, died and were buried on a...
A Galvanized Yankee went west
A Galvanized Yankee On May 19, 1862, John Henry Smith of Catawba County was mustered into the Confederate army. He was only eighteen years old. Little is known about his experiences as a soldier, only that he was a member of Hoke’s Brigade of the 54th North Carolina...
Exempt or not exempt, Miller did his service
Jesse A. Miller was born on July 12, 1840 in Randolph County, the eldest son of Riley and Rachel Allred Miller. In the 1850s, Jesse's father built the Uwharrie Cliff Grist Mill, later called Millers Mill, on the Uwharrie River. Jesse helped his father run the mill. On...
Blood and Water and Mercy
Levi Herman, my great-grandfather, appears in the Civil War Roster books as Levi Harmon. He also appears on the Federal census with the same name. But when you look at the locations in Catawba County, North Carolina, where he lived, his family’s names, etc. you know...
Oliver Larkin Stringfield
Reminiscences of Oliver Larkin Stringfield (1851-1930): "My great-grandfather was a Virginian of Dutch descent, a soldier in the Revolutionary War -- married Miss Fellows, of Duplin County, NC. Settled there, raised six children. My grand-father, Joseph, married Miss...
Excerpts from the diary of Ellie Carus Beckwith Stringfield (1856-1950)
"This is Ellie Beckwith Stringfield writing. I was born May 2, 1856, in Western part of Wake County, NC. My parents were also born in the same County and State. "My father was Calvin Holland Beckwith and my mother was Ann Hasseltine Holleman. Green Beckwith was my...
Thomas E. Grogan, Private, US Army, 162nd New York Volunteer Infantry, 3rd Regiment, Company E
His name was Thomas E. Grogan. At 32 years of age, on the 11th of June 1862, he enlisted in the 162nd NY Volunteer Infantry, 3rd Regiment, Metropolitan Guard, Company E. He was mustered in as a private. He was my great-grandfather, and I have the journal of his war...
William Brown Avery enlisted after younger brother killed at Yorktown
William Brown Avery, born Nov. 25, 1828, was one of nine children of James and Elizabeth Hollingsworth Brown Avery. He was a farmer by trade and very faithful to his church and family. William Brown Avery ("Will") had chosen to stay home from war to see to the...
Isaac Deal, Confederate soldier
Isaac Deal, the son of William Deal and Malinda (Linda) Pickett, was born on June 12, 1840 in Duplin County, where he resided as a farmer. Isaac married Hannah Susan Henderson in New Hanover County on Sept. 16, 1860. On July 8, 1862, at age 21, he enlisted for the...
Kinsman died in a D.C. prison
My first cousin, five generations removed, was a man by the name of Granville Simpson Holt. He enlisted as a private in Company K of the 6th North Carolina Infantry Regiment on June 21, 1861, at age 35. Like many others in the regiment, he was a farmer by occupation....
“Going home to die no more…”
My great-great-great-grandfather Joseph “Joe” Huneycutt (also spelled Honeycutt) was born about 1823 in Stanly County's Almond Township. He was a family man, farmer and cobbler who, owing to his ability to make shoes for the Confederate army, avoided service for most...
Rockford Inn and Aaron Burr
In my research I found a story. As a boy, my great-great-great-grandfather, Watson Holyfield of Surry County, hung out at the store and inn. It was written and handed down that Aaron Burr, while traveling to Asheville, stopped at the inn to stay. There he befriended...
William Worthington, Confederate Cavalry Lieutenant from Mississippi
William Worthington's family were plantation owners in Washington County, MS, northeast of Vicksburg. William Worthington began his Civil War service as an officer in Company H, 1st Mississippi Cavalry, commanded by Captain William Montgomery. Captain Montgomery...
Franklin Larabee, officer in the US Colored Troops, 27th Regiment
Franklin Larabee was born in Jefferson, OH in 1828. His Civil War story begins in 1861 when, with a wife and 4 children, he enlisted as a private in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His war records indicate that he was 5'11" with brown hair and blue eyes. He was a...
John N. Maffitt, 1st Lieutenant in the Confederate Navy
John N. Maffitt was born at sea on February 22, 1819. The location was Atlantic Ocean longitude 40W, latitude 50N. This exact position is referenced by Rudyard Kipling in his Just So Stories, "How the Whale Got his Throat." The stage is now set for young Maffitt's...
William J. Chisholm, Confederate veteran
William J. Chisholm was born Sept. 6, 1843 in Troy (Montgomery County) North Carolina, to John and Mary Chisholm, the descendants of Scottish immigrants. John’s occupation was listed as both a farmer and a mechanic. William enlisted in Montgomery County on March 1,...
William King White
William King White, CSA Here is the text on William King White from our old Civil War exhibit. (By the way, an image of him, his wife, and two children is in our newly opened chronological exhibit. The state Archives has the image if you have not seen it before.)...
Major James Benjamin White, Superintendent of the Citadel
Major J. B. White is my great-grandfather. He was in the second graduating class of the Citadel. He became a math professor there. When the war began, he became a Major and was the leader of the cadets during the war, leading them into battle. "Old Benny" was much...
Lott Gregory of Swansboro was a private in the Civil War
Lott Gregory was a farmer and commercial fisherman. He moved to Marines, NC and married Martha Caroline Barber. Their children were Charles Leonard, Jason Ernest, Mary Elizabeth, Flora LaDonia, Melissa, and Henrietta G. Millis. Lott served as a private in the Cavalry...
Brothers Elias Fairfax and John Fairfax enlisted at ages 36 and 38
Elias Fairfax was born in 1826. He enlisted in the Confederate Army from Brunswick County at age 36 on April 24, 1862 and served as a private with Battalion A of North Carolina's 2nd Light Artillery. Terms of the enlistment state the period of service was "for the...
William H. Conaway of Onslow County, killed in action June 1, 1864
My great great great grandfather, William H. Conaway, resided in Onslow County and worked as a farmer. He enlisted in New Hanover County, Wilmington, NC, on March 3, 1862 at age 36. He mustered in as Sergeant of the 51st North Carolina Regiment, Company G, Infantry....
Soldier wanted clean water for all
Levi Herman, my great-grandfather, appears in the Civil War Roster books as Levi Harmon. He also appears on the federal census with the same name. But when you look at the places he lived in Catawba County, his family’s names, etc. you know you have the correct man....
Ancestor’s story ends at a POW camp after the war’s close
Daniel J. Herman, my great-great-grandfather, married Sarah (Sally) Tritt on Jan. 14, 1830 in Lincoln County, North Carolina. They had three children, one of these being my great-grandfather Levi Herman. Daniel enlisted on May 6, 1864 in Catawba County in Company C,...
Four Hopkins boys served, and four came home
Four Hopkins Boys "Four Hopkins boys walked off in early November of 1861 to join the fight," my dad related to me after I told him about finding Barney Hopkins -- sergeant, Company H, 38th Regiment of North Carolina -- buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh. I had...
Family receives condolence letter after son dies following war’s first battle
Twenty-one-year-old Henry Harrison Avery, son of James and Elizabeth Hollingsworth Brown Avery of Morganton, North Carolina, enlisted on April 25, 1861 as a private in Company G, North Carolina 1st Infantry Regiment, known as the “Burke Rifles,” later to be known as...
Gettysburg bullet and its victim shared a postwar history
My great-grandfather, George W. Harrell, fought with the North Carolina troops at Gettysburg. He was shot in the upper part of his torso (maybe his back), and walked back to Elizabeth City. The bullet could not be removed. Years later, he experienced pain in his leg...
John Wright Bowen enlisted in Duplin County in 1861
John Wright Bowen was born in rural Duplin County in 1846. He enlisted in 1861 as a private in the 18th NC Regulars. Little is known of his assignments until he was wounded and captured on May 12, 1864 during the battle at Spotsylvania Court House, VA when he was only...
Amos Lee was a neighborhood tooth-puller
Amos Lee lived in the town of Willard in Duplin County. He was a private in the 8th Senior Reserves during the Civil War. After the war, he was a farmer, bridge-builder, and tooth-puller. If anyone had a bad tooth, they would come see Amos Lee. He would give them a...
Russell Daniel Lord enlisted at age 23
Russell Daniel Lord enlisted at age 23 on 26 Sep 1861 as a private in Company A, Georgia, 38th Regiment. He fought in many conflicts from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor and was active around Appomattox. He received a head wound at the Battle of Fredericksburg...
Moses Waddell Dobbins enlisted 24 March 1863
Dobbins enlisted as a private and served in Virginia in the medical corps of the 64th Regiment, Georgia Infantry, Company I. My family history states that he was in the medical corps at General Lee's headquarters and attended to him once when called upon. Dobbins was...
Justinian Evans, age 17, served with Cobbs Legion in Georgia
He joined Company B&G as a private, serving as a scout with Stonewall Jackson. He rode a black horse named Bullet. They both were small, fast, and unafraid, and both returned from the war without a scratch. After the war he met and married Martha Cunningham Polk. They...
Brigadier General William Henry Sebring
William Henry Sebring was born December 25, 1840 in St. Louis, MO. His early years were spent on a farm before he enrolled in an academy in St. Louis. At 18 years of age he became a resident of Memphis, TN where he read law under Thomas D. Eldridge. During the War...
Wilkes County native fought, then made it home
My paternal great-grandmother, Eliza Jane Lail, had a brother named Liler Monroe Lail. Monroe was born about 1843 in Wilkes County, North Carolina to Cynthia and Daniel Lail. At age 18, Monroe was working as a farmer in Burke County when he decided to enlist as a...
The Hidden Confederate
My great-aunt, Julia Haughton Bryan, recounted how during the War Between the States a female family member was asked to hide a Confederate from the Yankees in her house. The lady rolled the young man up in a rug and stuffed him under a bed. When the Union command...
Benjamin Franklin as a “Doc”
On March 1, 1863, at age 36, my great-great-great-uncle, Benjamin Franklin Earney (Arney) enlisted in Burke County, North Carolina as a private in Company K, N.C. 35th Infantry Regiment. This company was known as the “Burke & Catawba Sampsons.” He mustered out...
Gettysburg claims a brother
Two brothers of my great-grandmother, Susan Young, died while fighting in the Civil War. One was Peter E. Young, who was born in 1834 to Henry and Lavenia Martin Young in Catawba County, North Carolina. Peter enlisted in Burke County on May 10, 1861 as a private. He...
William Henry, the third soldier son
William Henry Pitts, my great-great-uncle, was born to John Henry and Sarah Lolly Rogers Pitts in 1841 in Catawba County, North Carolina. He joined two other brothers, Conrad and Abel, fighting the war. William enlisted in Company C, N.C. 28th Infantry Regiment, on...
Soldier deserted but returned to fight at Bentonville
Logan A. Ridge was the great-great-great-grandfather of my wife Flora Jeanette Ridge. He was the original owner of our farm and a member of Company A 10th NC Heavy Artillery. He deserted at the Battle of Savannah, went home to Randolph County, but returned to fight at...
Union soldiers robbed the Grey family farm
Someone came running through the woods to tell my family that the Yankees were coming. We think these were the soldiers who captured New Bern. The whole family--multiple generations--ran through the house and yard, grabbing what they could, and hid under the house in...
Wiley Moore fought at Fort Fisher
Wiley Moore joined the Confederate Army and was sent to Fort Fisher as an artilleryman. When his enlistment ended, he joined the Cavalry and was present when Lee surrendered to Grant. He came home to North Carolina on a poor horse, walking most of the way. When he...
Senator James Knox Polk of the Georgia Legislature
Born 3 Nov 1805, Polk was serving in the GA legislature before, during and after the war. As the family story reads, he moved to Dekalb County GA in 1862, where he purchased the "Old Samuel House" on Peachtree Road in Atlanta, GA. The house was built using slave...
Thomas Mitchell Evins, 38th Regiment, Georgia
Evins was a 1st Lieutenant and served in Texas. He enlisted in 1862 at the age of 42 in the 33rd Texas Cavalry, Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Battalion, Company H. His rank was 1st Lieutenant. When the war was over, he remained in TX and returned "home" some 50 years...
Yankee Raider learned a lesson
"When the Union cavalry's supplies ran short, Captain William Kent and his command foraged the plantations of Major ... Bell and James Scott: both of the plantations were on Body Road (southwest of Elizabeth City)." (Elizabeth City & the Civil War, by Alex...
A Railroad Soldier from Burke County
My great-grandfather, John Martin Butler, was born to William Hall and Jane Saphronia Kibler Butler on Dec. 14, 1844 in Burke County, North Carolina. John married Harriett Ann Simpson (1849-1921) in 1869 in Burke County. On Feb. 15, 1862, at age 17, John enlisted in...
William Hall Butler earned his promotions
William Hall Butler, my great-great grandfather, was born July 24, 1825 in Burke County, North Carolina to John and Rachel Butler. Hall Butler married Jane Saphronia Kibler in 1842 in Rutherford County. He and Jane had ten children, Hall enlisted as a private on Feb....
Soldier’s life ended in a Union prison
David Carpenter was born to Jonathan and Barbara Kistler Carpenter in Lincoln County, North Carolina, on March 18, 1826. As a private he enlisted in Company I, NC 11th Infantry Regiment (the "Bethel Regiment") on May 26, 1862. David was wounded during battle on July...
One of many who didn’t come home
Henry Carpenter, brother to David Carpenter, was born to Jonathan and Barbara Kistler Carpenter in Lincoln County, North Carolina on Aug. 22, 1824. Henry joined the army as a private, enlisting on March, 26, 1863 at age 40 in Company. I, N.C. 11th Infantry Regiment...
Catawba sent its own ‘brave’ to war
Phillip E. Arney was born to R. Henry and Elizabeth Carpenter Arney in Catawba County, North Carolina, in January of 1843. Phillip worked as a farmer during non-war time. At age 19 Phillip enlisted in Co. K, N.C. 46th Infantry Regiment on March 13, 1862. This company...
Catawba family gave three sons to the Confederacy
John Esley Arney, my great-grandfather, was a twin to Jonas Franklin Arney. The two of them, along with another brother, Phillip, all served in the Civil War. John was born to R. Henry and Elizabeth Carpenter Arney on Oct. 29, 1845. He enlisted in Company K, 46th...
The Twin who went to war
John Esley Arney, my great-grandfather, was a twin to Jonas Franklin Arney. The two of them, along with another brother, Phillip, all served in the Civil War. John and Jonas were born to R. Henry and Elizabeth Carpenter Arney on Oct. 29, 1845. Jonas enlisted in Co. K,...
Soldier’s service ended in prison
Abel Reid Pitts, my great-great-uncle, was born to John Henry and Sarah Lolly Rogers Pitts on August 30, 1826 in Lincoln County, North Carolina. Abel later lived in Burke County. He enlisted in Catawba County into Company K, N.C. 35th Infantry Regiment as a private,...
From Catawba County, Another Sacrifice
Conrad Pitts, a brother to Abel Reid Pitts, was born in 1832 to John Henry and Sarah Lolly Rogers. Conrad enlisted in Company C, 28th Regiment of North Carolina Infantry as a private on Aug. 13, 1861, in Catawba County. Conrad was not to survive the war. He mustered...
Buffalo soldiers’ raid had incidental casualties
When a party of Buffalo soldiers raided the family farm in 1863, my mother's two great-uncles were sent into the swamp to hide. Both of the teenage boys died soon after as a result of exposure. This story was told to me by my mother, Margaret Reed Small, who was told...
The Jennings Brothers in “The Pasquotank Boys”
My husband's great grandfather was one of three brothers who joined the Pasquotank Boys to serve in the Civil War. He was James Monroe Jennings (1830-1900), who served along with his brothers, William Harney Jennings (1838-1864) and Decader Cader Jennings (1844-1911)....
Civil War Letter Identified another Relative
My husband's great-grandfather, James Monroe Jennings, left behind a letter written during the Civil War to his mother, telling her of the death of his brother, William Harney Jennings. We discovered it in 2011 in an old chest. In the letter , which describes the...
Those Carpenters answered the call
Jonas Carpenter, brother to David and Henry, was born to Jonathan and Barbara Kistler Carpenter in Lincoln County, North Carolina on June 23, 1820. Jonas enlisted in Co. D, 1st N.C. Infantry Regiment as a Confederate private. It is noted that this regiment fought on...
Five Brothers in the Civil War
Submitted by: Brenda Kay Ledford and Barbara Ledford Wright The shadow of the Civil War loomed over Clay County, North Carolina. Thomas and Eliza Ledford worried that their five sons would enlist and get killed fighting for the Confederacy. Tillman enlisted at...
He Didn’t Have to Go, but
This story was told to me as a youngster in the 1950s by my great-aunt, Kate Dixon Murdock. When I was older I verified it through these soldiers' individual Confederate Army records and other research. Aunt Kate said that when the Civil War broke out her grandfather,...
Jacob Dixon was True Blue
Jacob Dixon was born near Snow Camp (now Alamance County) December 15, 1842. The son of Quakers Caleb and Mary Snotherly Dixon, he was opposed to the war, as were all members of the Society of Friends. The family story passed down from generation to generation was...
Confederate Veteran and Jack of Many Trades
Drury Alston Putnam, my great-great-grandfather, was born Dec. 23, 1830, in Cleveland county, North Carolina, to Roberts Putnam and Lucinda Weaver. He was a “jack of many trades.” The various censuses from 1850 until 1910 show him as a wagon maker, farmer,...
Serving with the 22nd North Carolina
A.J. Dula, of Caldwell County, shared in almost all of the Army of Northern Virginia's travails during the Civil War. After joining the 22nd North Carolina Regiment in Caldwell County in April of 1861, he served in almost all the battles of the Eastern...
David Oliver of Belgrade enlisted July 1, 1861
David Oliver was born in Onslow County where he resided as a farmer. He enlisted on July 1, 1861 at age 21. He was killed in Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. Want To Work With Us? Get involved with our exciting project. [do_widget...
John Humphrey enlisted at age 14
My great-grandfather joined the Confederate States Army in June, 1861. He was assigned to the 10th Heavy Artillery at Fort Lane in New Bern. It was noted in family lore that when he enlisted he was only 14 years old. To get around his age, he wrote "18" on a slip of...
Louisburg resident nursed an ill Union soldier until his death
Union General William T. Sherman met with Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston on April 26, 1865 at Bennett Place near what is now Durham, N.C., and Johnston surrendered his Army of Tennessee. At this time, Gen. Sherman headed back to Washington, D.C. His troops,...
William Moses Loftin walked home after the War
William Moses Loftin was at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. He shook the hand of Gen. Robert E. Lee. His parole paper is still in our family. He walked home from the war. He was a county commissioner in 1868. His ancestor Col. William Loftin was a...
Nelson and Ava Tift volunteered their shipbuilding services to the Confederate Navy
Nelson Tift, my great-great-grandfather, was born in Groton, CT on July 23, 1810. In 1826 he moved to Key West, FL with his brother Asa for business exploration ventures. In 1830 he moved to Charleston, SC to test Southern culture, and in 1835 he moved on to Southern...
William Sharpe marched with Gen. Sherman from Atlanta to the sea
William Sharpe was my great-great-great-great-grandfather. He was born August 26, 1842 in Hendricks County, Indiana. He enlisted in Company C, 70th Regiment, Indiana Infantry Volunteers, on July 22, 1862 in Clayton, Indiana. He served in the 20th Corps, 1st Brigade,...
Pvt. William Townsend of Robeson County
William Townsend was born in 1842 in Robeson County. He was 6 feet, six inches tall and a private in the 18th North Carolina Regiment, 8th Volunteers, Branch and Lane Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. After the war he farmed, and lived to age 86 in the town of St....
Pvt. William Baxter Tucker, Company I, 54th NC Infantry, CSA
William Baxter Tucker, great-great-grandfather of William Herbert Martin Tucker, was from Guilford County, North Carolina. He enlisted in Wake County on April 1, 1864. He was wounded at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia about May 22, 1864. He had a bad ankle wound and was...
50-year-old soldier served with three of his sons
John Duckworth Morrison (1813-1892) was my great-great-great-grandfather. He married Fannie Epley (1813-1914) and they had eight children, all born before the beginning of the Civil War and his enlistment. He had four sons who fought for the Confederacy. Three...
Iredell Cavalry Officer Saw Action
My great-great-grandfather, Hugh Caldwell Bennett (14 Dec. 1832 - 3 March 1907), was the son of George Stepto Bennett and Elizabeth Newland Bennett of Iredell County, N.C. He enlisted in Company F, North Carolina 3rd Cavalry Regiment as a corporal on 07 Oct. 1861...
Ancestor served, but had little to say
"My great-grandfather was named William Cahoon, but my grams called him Bill. He served in the Confederacy but my dad said he never heard him talk about it. My great-grandmother did receive money for a while after the war, and that helped them keep up part of the...
gun found on Hatteras
I once knew a man who had a gun he swore was found on the beaches of Hatteras, washed up after the Yankees came through the inlet. I never knew if he was pulling my leg, but he was proud of his gun! Want To Work With Us? Get involved with our exciting project....
A Novelist’s ties to Hyde County
Taken from stories written by William Stryon: "I've always been surprised by my direct link to the Old South -- the South of slavery and the Civil War. Many southerners of my vintage, and even some of those who are considerably older, can claim an ancestral connection...
Romance Kindled During Union Occupation of Fayetteville
As characteristic of the military presence in the Fayetteville area throughout the years, soldier boys met, fell in love with, and married local girls. This was true not only in the case of my parents, but also in my family's history. It was not long after General...
Grandmother’s locket
There are no records of when my grandmother was born, but her father was away fighting for the Confederacy. When he received news of her birth, he used that month's payment to buy a locket inscribed with the date 1864. That was the only record of her birth, and she...
A Deserter’s Story
George Deans (1831-1839), a Wayne County farmer, was a loyal Union man and bitterly opposed to the war between the states. In May 1862 he was conscripted by the Confederate army and taken from his home by about 15 armed men and sent to Richmond, Virginia. He was...
Pvt Drewry A. Mewborn made it home to North Carolina
Drewry Aldridge Mewborn, son of Parrott Mewborn and his wife Mary Aldridge, was born June 14, 1840. Drew was declared unfit for duty twice due to poor eyesight. However, on October 21, 1862 he was enlisted as a private in Company C, 47th North Carolina Infantry...
Pvt. Thomas Lafayette Morrison: farmer, soldier, POW, survivor.
T.L. Morrison, my great-great-grandfather, enlisted as a private in Company A of the 6th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, on Sept. 22, 1862. Between Nov. 6 and Nov. 12, 1863, he was captured during a battle near Brandy Station in Virginia and taken to Point Lookout,...
Tried to hide his son from the Draft Board
Daniel Christenberry Kirk, my great-great-great-grandfather, was a farmer on Morrow Mountain along the Pee Dee River. When the war broke out, Daniel's two oldest sons, James and George, enlisted in the Confederate Army. Daniel was sick and crippled. We don't know the...
The Soldier’s Choice
A Confederate soldier is given an assignment to lie in wait for a Union courier who is carrying important papers. The Confederate is, "at all costs," to bring those documents back with him. The Union courier is singing a beloved hymn as he unknowingly approaches the...
Confederate POW Died on Johnson’s Island
Levi Branson Williams, was the son of Ezekiel Randolph and Agnes Williams, of Guilford County. Born on November 13th, 1837, at an early age, he was left an orphan and in the care of his grandfather, Nathan Williams, passed the happy days of childhood. Of an earnest...
Family stories of the Underground Railroad
Excerpted from "Ramblings of a Country Boy," by Stephen Arthur Cohagan (my grandfather), written 1953. (Private papers) "Grandfather (John Pugh Jay) and Grandmother (Rachel Commons Jay) maintained a station in 'the Underground Railroad' and back of the fruit bins...
Killing Yankees in the Hog Pen
My great-great-grandfather, James B. Vause, served with the "Lenoir Braves." He was captured at Hatteras Island and held as a prisoner of war at Fort Warren, Massachusetts, until his release in a prisoner exchange in 1862. His brother, Robert B. Vause, was killed at...
Jacob Wagner’s Civil War
Jacob Wagner, my great-great-grandfather, was a member of Wiedrich's New York Light Artillery from Buffalo, NY. He came alone from Germany at age 16 and joined the battery on his 21st birthday. His first battle was Gettysburg, where he fought the three days on...
Wounded at Appomattox
John Murphy Walton, son of Col. Thomas George Walton and Eliza Murphy Walton, was born at the family home "Creekside" in Morganton in 1844. When war was declared in 1861, he left military training at Hillsborough Academy at age 16 to enlist in the 6th Regiment, North...
Confederates stalking Confederates
A good shake of the family tree often brings down a hail of Civil War soldiers, each good for at least one war story pieced together from unit records or one personal anecdote preserved in a letter or diary entry. But what did it mean to belong, as did several of my...
Confederate veteran testifies to help Unionist neighbors
My great-great-grandfather, Samuel Bowman, was a farmer from Burke County. On October 7, 1861, he joined Captain Thomas G. Walton’s company of volunteers, the Davis Dragoons, a cavalry unit which would eventually become Company F of the 41st Regiment...
Ivey Lee’s Encounter with Yankee Bummers
Mr. Ivey Lee's Encounter With Yankee Bummers The time was the day before the last major battle of the War of Northern Aggression, the "Battle of Bentonville". Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Bummers inflicted not only property damage to one Southern Farmer...
The South before the war: an island in time
The first thing a modern time-traveler would notice, on arrival in the antebellum South, would most likely be the silence. There might be movement among dry leaves, or the snort of a horse. Bird songs, surely, and, somewhere, a barking dog. But no dense overlay of...
William Paul Roberts: The Youngest Confederate General
In 1861, 19-year-old William Paul Roberts, a Gates County native, enlisted in Company C, 19th Regiment, North Carolina Troops, which would later be designated 2nd Regiment, NC Calvary. Having served with distinction during regimental operations in the state, but with...
Special Private Tour of Chancellorsville Battleground
Come join us on August 15. Click here for Tour Details! Want To Work With Us? Get involved with our exciting project. Phone: 910-491-0602 Email: info@nccivilwarcenter.org 824 Branson Street Post Office Box 53865...
Henry Groner paid dearly for his service
Henry Lafayette Groner, my great-great-grandfather, enlisted for the Civil War on March 13, 1862 in the 20th North Carolina Infantry, Cabarrus Guards, at age 22. He was wounded in the left leg and captured at Fox's Gap, South Mountain, Maryland, on or about September...
Virginian served on land and sea
Clarence Cary, Confederate States Navy, was born in March of 1845, the son of Archibald Cary and Monimia Fairfax Cary, grandson of Thomas Fairfax, ninth Lord Fairfax of Cameron. He was a direct descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe and the Plantagenets of England....
Disease, Not Lead, Found This Trooper
Joseph W. Boys was a private in the United States Army, serving with the 112th New York. (A regimental history written by a chaplain with the 112th can be found online.) Joseph, a mortician, survived the action at Fort Fisher but was physically disabled by lung...
Coming Home Was Hard, Too
Private William Peoples, U.S. Army, served in Pennypacker's Brigade, in the Pennsylvania 203rd Regiment. He was from the part of Pennsylvania where Pennypacker lived. He survived both Fort Fisher and the war, but died at the age of 28 and appeared to have been in...
Junior Reserve Officer Saw Serious Action
Second Lieutenant George M. Glass served in the 4th Battalion, North Carolina Junior Reserves. He was stationed at Battery Buchanan, then went to Fort Holmes. He fought at Wise's Forks and then at Bentonville. He surrendered at Greensboro. After the war, George was a...
Long Walk Awaited P.O.W.
Elihu Weaver, a resident of Ashe County and my great-great-grandfather, enlisted in the Confederate army on July 8, 1862. He was part of the 5th North Carolina Cavalry Battalion that was organized in Jacksboro, Tenn. in the fall of 1862. He was promoted to Corporal in...
Persistence vs. Sherman’s Army
A story tells about General Sherman and his troops coming down Old Stage Road in Wake County through Willow Spring, to the Hugh Rias Blalock homeplace on what is now Highway 42 East. Sherman's men took mules, horses, wagons and other supplies. They ransacked the home,...
A “family history” like no other — the musings of blogger David Ivey
My Civil War commemoration began four years ago, on April 12, 2011. I watched from The Battery at Charleston Harbor as a giant spotlight sent a beam into the night sky above Fort Sumter. At 4:30 a.m. that beam split in two, signifying the moment the first shot of the...
John C. Fann Family Lost Four Sons
John C. Fann and Bythenia Kelly married and raised a large family, including seven sons. Six of their sons were soldiers in the Civil War. Four of them did not come home. James, John, and Owen enlisted in June and August of 1861. They were in Company I, 20th North...
Oldest son lost
Clay County was established in February 1861, mostly taken from Cherokee County. Because of the war, it wasn't fully organized until around 1868. But most of Company B, 7th Battalion, North Carolina Cavalry was made up of Clay County men and was commanded by Captain...
A Rough Knock on A Capitol Door
In the 1960's I would often go with my father, G. H. (Jerry) Elliott, then the Press Secretary to Governor Dan K. Moore, to his office in the Capitol in Raleigh. I would always stop to look at one of the first-floor doors which, along the bottom board, still bore the...
Great-Great-Grandfather Found
About 1990, I visited my great-aunt, Elsie Foster. Since she was the oldest living relative, I asked her about our family. She told me that her grandfather died in the Civil War, and that she and a sister (Sylvania, who had moved to Raleigh) had visited the grave in...
Shot in the Head at Gettysburg
My great-grandfather, John Bowden Hood, joined the Confederate army in Sampson County on Sept. 9, 1861. He was sent to the coast defense at Fort Fisher. Later, he was transferred to Stonewall Jackson's brigade and became part of Jackson's famous "foot cavalry." As a...
Wartime Letter Raises Question
My family left North Carolina for Alberta, Canada, in 1904, so little is known about my great-great-grandfather William Cheek's Confederate service. Born in Ashe County Apr. 14, 1844, he enlisted in Co. I, 61st North Carolina Infantry in Alleghany County in 1862. He...
Close Calls for Cumberland Trooper
James Larkin Bedsole, of the Cedar Creek area in Cumberland County, was a private in the Confederate States Army, serving in the 36th North Carolina Regiment, 2nd company C. I have found his name on records that show him transported from Fayetteville to Wilmington by...
Pull to Service Runs Deep
William Bright Cole was born in Bentonville on the Cole plantation, the son of Willis Cole, who is buried on the farm. This farm is the site of the first day's fighting in the Battle of Bentonville, March 19, 1865. It includes the main line of the Army of Tennessee....
This Northerner Came To Fight
Corporal Samuel V. Mount, U.S. Army, served with the 112th New York Infantry. Wounded in battle at Richmond, he came back to fight in the first and second expeditions against Fort Fisher. He came in with sailors on the beach, under heavy fire, and died at the fort....
Thomas Jefferson Pitchford Jr. — 12th NC Troops
T.J. (as he was known) was one of six sons of Dr. Thomas Jefferson Pitchford (North Carolina state legislator during the Civil War). All six sons served in the Confederacy: three in the 12th N.C. Troops, two in the Mississippi Light Artillery and the youngest in the...
Great-Grandfather was soldier, POW
Richard Smith, my great-grandfather, was born in Bladen County in December of 1833. His family were among the earliest settlers in North Carolina in the early 1700s. He enlisted in the Confederate army in Bladen County on Oct. 19, 1861 as a private in Co. I, 2nd...
Back to the Farm – the Hard Way
John Foster Landreth, my great-great-great-grandfather, was born Jan. 18, 1826 in Stokes County. He was the eldest documented son of Obadiah Landreth and Mahalia Branson Landreth. Like his father, he was a farmer. His family did not own slaves. John married Eleanor...
Man Knew How To Make a Point
Thomas Jefferson Bulla, my great-great-grandfather, had 200 men under his command when Union troops surrendered the U.S. Arsenal in Fayetteville to the state. The story that my grandfather told me when I was a child was that when Capt. Bulla and his men marched to...
Gesture of Peace Across the Years
Corporal James E. Reid, U.S. Army, was on picket duty along Wilmington Road and present at the magazine explosion, but did not participate in either assault at Fort Fisher or in the Wilmington Campaign. He wrote a series of more than 100 installments about his...
Soldier Gave Enough, or Had Enough
I got this information on James Salter Blount, my great-great-grandfather, through genealogy search. My family did not have any stories. James joined the Confederate army at age 19, mustering in in Beaufort County as a sergeant in the 36th Regiment, 2nd Company G. On...
Then It Became Civilized
Six days before his birthday Captain Ezra Lewis Moore, U.S. Army, was detailed to the staff of Joseph C. Abbott. As the battle for Fort Fisher was winding down, Capt. Moore and another officer were walking down towards the Mound Battery when they were approached by...
Brothers Separated by War
John McLaurin lived in Anson County. He was the son of Scottish immigrants Daniel and Nancy Ann (Stewart) McLaurin. John was a farmer. He never married. John joined 3rd Company G, 40th Regiment, North Carolina 3rd Artillery, in 1863 after his brother Daniel was...
Some Quiet Diplomacy at Elmira
Gideon Tyson, a private in the Confederate army, was captured at Fort Fisher. He was sent to the Elmira prison camp in New York, where a guard caught him stealing food in the kitchen area in the middle of the night. Gideon overpowered the guard with a knife, but did...
He Didn’t Lead from Behind
Col. Alonzo Alden enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1861 in the 169th New York Volunteers. He served in 29 battles and engagements during the Civil War. He was wounded at Edenton Road on April 24, 1863, at Cold Harbor on June 1, 1864, and at Fort Fisher on January 16,...
Civil War Veteran Held Civil Offices
Daniel James Clark was a captain in the Confederate States Army. He survived both the second battle for Fort Fisher and the war. After the war, he married Jemima Perry. They lived in Rosindale, in Bladen County, where he was a merchant and a farmer. Daniel was elected...
U.S. Colored Troops Active at Fort Fisher
Franklin K. Larabee, 1st lieutenant, U.S. Army, was born in 1828 in Ashtabula Ohio. In June of 1861 he enlisted for two years in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Franklin re‐enlisted in 1863 as a 2nd lieutenant in the 27th United States Colored Troops in Ohio and was...
Confederate Prowled Carolina Coast
Jesse Wilson, a private in the Confederate army, was born May 26, 1831, in Pitt County. In 1856 Jesse married Margaret Ann Lay, with whom he had nine children. By 1860 he was a Brunswick County resident. From 1861‐1864, Jesse served in "Galloway’s Coast Guard," whose...
To War and Back
Thomas Hickman lived near Calabash in Brunswick County and enlisted in the Confederate army along with his neighbors and several relatives, including his brother, Henry. Lt. Hickman survived the Fort Fisher battle and imprisonment. He was paroled on March 5, 1865. He...
Still Plenty of Time To Die
Henry Hickman, who lived in the Calabash area in Brunswick County, enlisted in the Confederate army on February 19, 1862, five days after the fall of New Bern. The news of the attacks along the Outer Banks was thought to be the impetus for a large number of...
There’s No Refuge in Wartime
Lawrence L. Lancaster moved from Craven County to the Lockwood Folly region of Brunswick County, where he enlisted as a private with Company K, 36th Regiment North Carolina State Troops. Lawrence was captured defending Fort Fisher on January 15, 1865. While confined...
“Deserter” came back to fight
Moses Tyson was residing in Columbus County when he enlisted in the Confederate army on March 7, 1862. Shortly after he was assigned to Company E, 36th Regiment North Carolina State Troops (3rd N.C. Artillery), he was listed as having deserted from Fort Caswell. Moses...
Phone: 910-824-7282
Email: info@nccivilwarcenter.org
824 Branson Street
Post Office Box 53865
Fayetteville, NC 28305
Phone: 910-824-7282
Email: info@nccivilwarcenter.org
824 Branson Street
Post Office Box 53865
Fayetteville, NC 28305