AUTHOR: James Paris
I had 3 forefathers and 3 uncles in the same 57th Regiment of North Carolina. John Wilson and George Mack Wilson were father and son. Now George was not even married yet because he was only seventeen years old when he enlisted, but after the war, he married Mary M. Clontz. He served in the Regiment guarding Union soldiers at the prison in Salisbury, North Carolina. One of my uncles was James Clontz, a 32-year-old Union County farmer who enlisted in the 57th in August 1862 …
Also, I’m Lumbee on my mom’s side. I asked my great-grandmother, Nancy Maynard Jacobs, if she was around during the Civil War. She said no but that her mother, Effie Ann Chavis, was. Effie, my great-great-grandmother, had told her that the Confederates came and took everything they could get, and then the Union Army came and took the rest. They about starved to death over winter. She said she did not care for either side.
