The first to fall for North Carolina

Jul 17, 2016 | News

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...

The long road ends at Durham

Jul 17, 2016 | News

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...

Averasboro, and a civilian view

Jul 17, 2016 | News

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...

Old myths frustrate modern hopes

Jul 17, 2016 | Antebellum era, News

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”...

The Day Joe Johnston Stopped the War

Jul 17, 2016 | News

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...