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The Proffit Brothers of Wilkes County, North Carolina
SUBMITTED BY: Glenn Land (edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter) (click photo to enlarge) A family connected to my ancestors in Wilkes County, N.C., by marriage, was that of William Proffit (Proffitt, Prophet) and Mary Walsh Proffit. Their daughter, Rhoda, was...
Woodrow Wilson at Davidson College
AUTHOR: JC Knowles (edited by Cheri Todd Molter; vetted by Daniel Whiting and Cheri Todd Molter) In 1873, a sixteen-year-old lad entered Davidson College, a Presbyterian liberal arts college in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. At Davidson he was known as Thomas...
Jackson County’s John B. Queen is Memorialized by his Friend, Elbert Brown
SUBMITTED BY: Elizabeth Lackey Brock (edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter) John B. Queen was my 2x great uncle. He was the son of James H. & Isabel Bryson Queen of Jackson County, North Carolina. John was born in 1836 and was twenty-five years old when he...
Robert H. Jordan: Born and Raised in Hertford County, Made a Home in Tennessee, and Served in the Union Army
SUBMITTED BY: Carroll White (edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter) My 2x great grandfather, Robert H. Jordan, was born in Hertford County, North Carolina. His parents, Robert and Lavenia Jordan, died young, and he moved to Tennessee afterward. When he arrived in...
Catherine Sweet Babington: The Only Woman Master Mason
SUBMITTED BY: JC Knowles (edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter) Along with many other “firsts” to its credit, North Carolina can claim to be the state that the first woman Master Mason in the history of the craft—from King Solomon's Temple to the present day—called...
Finding Brothers William and Levi Monroe
SUBMITTED BY: Rick Monroe (edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter) I've known for quite a while my great-great uncles, William Johnson Monroe and Levi Deaton Monroe, were both killed during the battles for Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864 and 1865. A number of times,...
Long Way Home
SUBMITTED BY: Alan Ashworth (vetted by Cheri Molter) My Great-grandfather John Calvin McFadyen served the Confederate Army in Co E, 38th NCT—the Richmond County Boys. A copy of their unit song is in Rankin Museum in Ellerbe, NC. John's unit was guarding the Southside...
My Civil War Great-Great-Uncle James D. Ellington
SUBMITTED BY: Judy Ellington Stainback; Letters Transcribed by Cheri Todd Molter, Caitlin Crenshaw, Carolina Echeverri, and Daniel Whiting A note from Judy Ellington Stainback: I grew up on a 300-plus-acre tobacco farm in Drewry, Warren County, North Carolina. Part of...
The Winton-Triangle: A Mixed-Race Community’s Civil War
SUBMITTED BY: Marvin T. Jones (vetted by Cheri Molter) The Winton Triangle is a community of land-owning people of color in the Winton-Cofield-Ahoskie area of Hertford County, North Carolina. Originally inhabited by the Chowanoke people, the first landowners of color...
The Story of Lt. William Beavans, Company D, 43rd Regiment CSA
SUBMITTED BY: William R. "Bill" Beavans William “Billy” Beavans, a Confederate soldier from Halifax County, N.C., served in Company I of the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment and with the 43rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment, Company D. He was wounded at...
An Excerpt from Elliot Daingerfield’s Autobiography
SUBMITTED BY: Linda S. Anderson and Julie Dulaney Elliot Daingerfield was born on March 26, 1859 in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). His parents were Captain John Elliot Parker Daingerfield and Mathilda Wickham De Brua Daingerfield. The family relocated...
Jeff Sanders, A Free Black Man Who Served for the Confederacy During the Civil War
SUBMITTED BY: Lakeysha Medlin (vetted and edited by Cheri Todd Molter) (Click images to enlarge) My name is Lakeysha Medlin, and this story is about my 3rd Great Grandfather Jefferson "Jeff" Sanders. Jefferson “Jeff” Sanders was my 3rd Great Grandfather. He was born...
Samuel Spake & Harriet Dellinger Spake: “We are still in the land of the living and trying to do the best we can.”
SUBMITTED BY: Mike Stroupe (written by Cheri Todd Molter) Samuel Spake was born June 23, 1821 in Lincoln County, North Carolina. He married Harriet R. Dellinger, daughter of Peter Dellinger and Margaret Haines Dellinger, around 1842. According to the 1850 Census,...
Wilmington’s Confederate General William MacRae
SUBMITTED BY: Hugh MacRae II (written by Susan Block, edited by Cheri Todd Molter) (Click image to enlarge) William MacRae was born in Wilmington, North Carolina on the ninth of September, 1834. He was the…son of Alexander MacRae, president of the Wilmington and...
The Messer boys survive the war
SUBMITTED BY: Glenn L. Taylor (edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter) Two brothers from Haywood County, William and Lawson Messer, decided to join the Confederate Army together. They served in Co E, 29th Infantry, N.C. Troops. William, or Bill, was thirteen years...
The Cleveland County “Merchant Tailor”: Anonymous W. Quinn’s Civil War Experiences
AUTHOR: Jim Dugan (vetted by Cheri Todd Molter) (Click on images to enlarge) Anonymous William Quinn, LDS ID LC32-RXV, #8845442, (family tradition states he was named Aaron at birth, but he didn't like the name and changed it to Anonymous; another reference states...
The Freedmen’s Bureau Record and Clara Lennon Ashley
SUBMITTED BY: Stephen Pope (transcribed by Cheri Todd Molter) The following is a transcription of the document in the attached photograph (click to enlarge): Office Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands … for Robeson County Lumberton Sept 2nd 1865 This...
The History of First Baptist Church in Fairmont, NC: An Introduction with Slaves Leading the Way
SUBMITTED BY: Stephen Pope (transcribed by Cheri Told Molter) The following is an excerpt from the church history, as written on their web site [The full story can be read here: https://www.firstbaptistfairmontnorth.org/weve_come_this_far_by_faith]: "Pleasant Hill,...
Solomon Keyes’ life during and after the Civil War
SUBMITTED BY: Lee Keyes VETTED BY: Cheri Todd Molter Solomon Keyes (also spelled Kees and Keys) (b. 8/31/1836 on Stony Fork, Wilkes County, d. 1/02/1929 in Caldwell County) enlisted on 9/15/1862 at Camp Holmes, near Raleigh, NC. He became part of Company C 26th North...
A Recollection of a Genealogical Rediscovery from the Civil War Sesquicentennial
SUBMITTED AND WRITTEN BY: Earl Ijames, NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources In July 2014 I had been invited to give the keynote program to commemorate the 150th year since the Battle of Atlanta. The Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum in Georgia wanted...
A grandmother’s recipe for washing clothes
SUBMITTED BY: JC Knowles The following is a recipe for washing clothes, handed down from a grandmother in North Carolina to her granddaughter, who was a new bride. It was found in an old scrapbook and is an exact copy as written—with spelling errors and all: WARSHING...
More Civil War Soldiers
SUBMITTED BY: Linda H. Barnette (vetted by Cheri Todd Molter) As both a genealogist and a member and supporter of the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center, I decided to try to find out how many of my 8 great-great-grandfathers actually fought...
“[H]e will come back to dixey again”: A Letter of Reassurance from a Soldier to his Sister
SUBMITTED BY: Mike Stroupe Written and transcribed by Cheri Todd Molter (Click photos to enlarge letter) Frederick Washington “Wash” Dellinger wrote this letter to Margaret Dellinger Brown, his sister and the wife of William B. Brown. Wash fought for the Confederacy,...
“[M]y Dear I dont expect to git home and if I dont, try and do the best you can”: Letters written by Jacob L. Hartsoe
SUBMITTED BY: Louis Stewart (vetted by Cheri Molter) These letters were written by My Great-Great-Grandfather, Jacob Laban Hartsoe, who served in the Catawba Braves 46th-K. Jacob L. Hartsoe was born on July 29, 1833 and a native of Catawba County, North Carolina. He...
Visiting Ashe County Relatives in 1862: An Excerpt from Francis Marion Wilcox’s Journal
SUBMITTED BY: Christopher Robinson Edited and Vetted by Cheri Molter (Note from Christopher Robinson: There is much information contained in the journal of Francis Marion Wilcox (written in ca 1893) regarding the Civil War period in Ashe County, NC. The author,...
Love in the midst of war
AUTHOR: Roy Ledbetter Out of my 8 great great Grandfathers, 7 of them fought under the Bonnie Blue Flag, they were all from Western NC. One of my maternal Great Great Grandfathers fought in the Shenandoah Valley with Jackson. He was wounded at the Battle of Port...
Joel Elmore (Company A, 40th NC Troops) and the Ft. Fisher shark
AUTHOR: William Everett Elmore Joel Elmore (9/15/1831 – 4/8/1919) was born north of Whitehall in Wayne County but married and moved to Lenoir County in 1855. Early in 1862, Joel joined Company A of the 40th NC Troops (3rd Battalion of Heavy Artillery) and was sent to...
“we donte get husking Suppers here”: Philip S. Baity’s Letter to his Wife, Mary Jane
SUBMITTED BY: Eddie Hinson WRITTEN AND TRANSCRIBED BY: Cheri Molter A note from Eddie Hinson: Philip S. Baity was my 2nd Great-grandfather. So far, this letter is the only physical evidence of him. I know he could read and write and seemed to be a religious person....
The Obituary of Sergeant Clark Allen
SUBMITTED BY: Eddie Hinson I found this obituary for Clark Allen in the personal effects of my Aunt Ethel Hinson. It was passed down from Larkin Allen, a brother of Clark’s and my 2nd Great-grandfather. Clark’s Civil War headstone is in Pleasant Hill Baptist Church...
A. W. and Delilah Hughes Bryant
SUBMITTED BY: Andrew Bryant, Jr. RESEARCHED AND WRITTEN BY: Cheri Molter Delilah G. Hughes Bryant was born on October 24, 1888 in Cumberland County, North Carolina. She was the daughter of Sallie McMillan Hughes and James Hughes. She had two siblings: Armetta and...
The Story of William B. Brown: A Confederate Soldier & a Union Soldier, including Transcriptions of a Letter to Margaret, His Wife
SUBMITTED BY: Mike Stroupe WRITTEN AND TRANSCRIBED BY: Cheri Molter William B. Brown was born in Lincoln County, North Carolina in 1840. He was a farmer when the war started and twenty-one years old when he enlisted in the Confederate army. On October 25, 1861, he...
Hamilton Chamberlain Jones, Jr.: He Made a Difference
SUBMITTED BY: JC Knowles Hamilton Chamberlain Jones was born on November 3, 1837 in Salisbury, North Carolina. He received his education at the Ben Sumner School in Rowan County. He studied law at the University of North Carolina and graduated in 1858. When he...
Wounded, Taken Prisoner, and Survived: William J. Nott’s Story
SUBMITTED BY: Caitlin Crenshaw William J. Nott enlisted in the Confederate Army on May 9, 1862 when he was 21 years old. William lived in Cumberland County, North Carolina and served as a Private in Company I of the 51st Infantry (North Carolina). William was wounded...
The Nott Family in Fayetteville
SUBMITTED BY: Caitlin Crenshaw Elizabeth Gaylord, the daughter of Samuel Gaylord and Azubah Atkins, was born in Middletown, Connecticut on January 6, 1791 (Middletown Upper Houses Genealogical Book). In April 1809, Elizabeth married William Nott; William Nott was...
That Story and Dear John
SUBMITTED BY: Sandra White Hinton Lyman Abbott White, my grandfather, was well known around Salemburg and Roseboro as a great storyteller. When I was a little girl, he would set me on his knee and tell me about Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox. I loved my grandfather's...
Public Hearings and Meetings
The North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center is not something we just dreamed up last year and decided to build. In fact, we have held numerous public hearings and meetings with public officials, etc. Click the links below to download a list of the...
Prominent African American Scholars and Academics Advising the History Center
Prominent African American Scholars and Academics Advising the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center: Dr. James Anderson, retired Chancellor and faculty, Fayetteville State University, member of our Board of Advisors Dr. Spencer Crew, former...
Questions and Answers
You've got questions. We've got answers... Q.We don’t like the name A: Change it. The N.C. Civil War & Reconstruction History Center was chosen by the N.C. Civil War & Reconstruction History Center Foundation to refer to the proposed facility and...
The Vause Family in Lenoir County during the Civil War and Reconstruction
SUBMITTED BY: Roland Franklin Vause (Click picture to enlarge) Antebellum The future looked promising to Robert Bond Vause in March of 1861. He was living on a prosperous farm in the Wyse Fork community of Lenoir County with his wife Susan Adaline Jackson. The Vause...
Researching my family of soldiers at the National Archives and Records Administration
AUTHOR: Marvin T. Jones (Reprinted from the Fall 2011 newsletter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.) "Seventeen members of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) in my family, our own stores, a fairground and our own airstrips--that is what...
“Take Charge of My Farm” & “I Want [the Children] Raised Right”: Levi McCasin’s Letters to his Family
SUBMITTED BY: Mike Stroupe These are letters written by Levi McCasin to his brother and his wife. He was a husband, father, brother, and soldier who was obviously concerned with how things were being handled back at home while he was stationed at Camp Mangum, near...
Lawrence O’Bryan Branch
SUBMITTED BY: JC Knowles Lawrence O’Bryan Branch was born at Enfield, North Carolina on November 28, 1820. When he was five years old, his mother died. After her death, he and his father moved to Tennessee where his father then died in 1827. Following his father’s...
My Father was Raised by His Grandmother, who had been Enslaved: The Story of Amanda B. Powell
SUBMITTED BY: Sherry Jackson My father, James Powell, was a little boy when his grandmother told him the stories, but he remembers bits and pieces. This is what he recalls: His grandmother, Amanda B. Powell, was born into enslavement in the 1800s in Franklin County,...
Tom Baggett’s life after the War
AUTHOR: Penny Beasley I have a love of history and have retraced some of my great-great-grandfather’s, James Tom Baggett’s, steps across the battlefield (See story titled “Tom Baggett and the Grey Patch!”). His post war life is fascinating as well… My grandparents...
The Retelling of an Oral Tradition: Tom Baggett & the Grey Patch!
SUBMITTED BY: Penny Beasley Whilst being reared down on the Custawhiskey Creek on the Northampton/Hertford County line near Woodland, North Carolina, James Thomas “Tom” Baggett learned to fish, trap, and hunt. Tom helped his parents around their farm; the old log...
James Clontz: A Union County Man Who Fought for the Confederacy
AUTHOR: James Paris James Clontz was a farmer in Union County, North Carolina before the Civil War started. On July 4, 1862, when he was thirty-two years old, he enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private. He served in Company H of the 57th Infantry (North...
George MacKinnon “Mack” Wilson
AUTHOR: James Paris George MacKinnon “Mack” Wilson was seventeen years old and a resident of Cabarrus County, North Carolina when he enlisted in the Confederate Army on July 4, 1862. He was a private in Company H of the 57th Infantry, North Carolina. His father, John...
John Newton Wilson, Sr.
AUTHOR: James Paris A forty-seven-year-old resident of Union County, NC, John Newton Wilson Sr. enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army on July 4, 1862 in Rowan County. He served in Company H of the 57th Infantry, North Carolina alongside his son, George...
Forefathers who Fought and a Foremother’s Opinion
AUTHOR: James Paris I had 3 forefathers and 3 uncles in the same 57th Regiment of North Carolina. John and George Wilson were father and son. One of my uncles was James Clonts… Now George was not even married yet because he was only seventeen years old. He served in...
William Gaston Lewis: He Made a Difference
AUTHOR: JC Knowles It is said that Lewis was the last Confederate officer wounded during the Civil War and that he laid on the battlefield as dead. However, some soldiers saw him and took him to safety. He survived the war. William Lewis Gaston was born in Rocky...
Judy Ellington Stainback’s Civil War Great-Great Uncle, Byrd Ellington
SUBMITTED BY: Judy E. Stainback I grew up on a 300-plus acre tobacco farm in Drewry, Warren County, North Carolina. Part of the farm had belonged to the Hilliards but was later bought by my great-grandfather, George W. Ellington (sometimes I refer to the farm as...
Ten Days of Hell: Sherman’s Army in North Carolina
SUBMITTED BY: Joel Rose WRITTEN BY: Jerome Tew “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell.” - William T. Sherman The Ohio State Journal reported General Sherman's “War is Hell” speech on August 12, 1880. By that date he...
David Jesse Farthing
SUBMITTED BY: Ben Setser David Jesse Farthing, older brother of my great grandfather James King Farthing, enlisted in Company A, North Carolina 6th Cavalry Regiment on 1 Oct 1864. His brother James also joined the 6th Cavalry three months later on Dec 24, 1964. After...
James King Farthing
SUBMITTED BY: Ben Setser 7 May 1848 - 17 Apr 1931 (1910 photo)
The Old Home Place of Ephraim D. Setser
SUBMITTED BY: Ben Setser
Fessenden’s Radio Experiments
SUBMITTED BY: JC Knowles In 1901 and 1902, the man some consider "America's Greatest Radio Pioneer," Reginald Fessenden, was conducting successful experiments on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. As a young man Reginald Fessenden secured a job as assistant tester at...
Zerald Crowder: A Stone Cutter and Confederate Soldier
SUBMITTED BY: Judy E. Stainback - Written by Joyce L. Granger Zerald Crowder was born about 1818 in Petersburg, Virginia but lived in Warren County, North Carolina for the later part of his life. His name was recorded in a variety of different ways: Zerald (the most...
Anne “Annie” Carter Lee (1839-1862)
SUBMITTED BY: Judy E. Stainback Mary Ann Randolph Custis Lee (Mrs. Robert E. Lee) and her daughters, Mildred, Agnes, and Anne Carter, were guests at the White Sulphur Springs in Warren County, North Carolina in the late summer of 1862. In October of 1862, Anne “Annie”...
The Daguerrotype
AUTHOR: Linda H. Barnette It all began many years ago when my grandmother, Blanche Dwiggins Smith, gave me a daguerreotype of one of her ancestors who was killed in the Civil War. I wish I had asked her more about it, but being young and busy earning a living, I did...
Elizabeth G. Nott: A Woman of Fayetteville, NC
SUBMITTED BY: Jadaea Mills During the 1820s, Elizabeth G. Nott and her family lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Elizabeth was the daughter of Elizabeth Nott and William Nott, Sr. and born in 1810. She also had a younger sister named Margaret A. Nott. Elizabeth...
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