First Wednesdays – Mass Uprising

By April 1862, the Confederacy faced the prospect of its armies disintegrating in the face of potential Union offensives in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. This disintegration would result from the mustering out of nearly 148 regiments of twelve-month volunteers, whose enlistments were to expire prior to the summer of 1862. To prevent the wholesale destruction of its forces, the Confederate Congress passed the first of three conscription acts to retain these twelve-month volunteers in service and to call into service more of its white male population to defend the fledgling country.

The idea of conscription was not a new concept in American military history. A number of states employed conscription to fill their quotas in the Continental Line during the American Revolution. The rise of Napoleon in France brought about the idea of “Levee en massee,” which is roughly translated as the “mass uprising,” which means that everyone will fight and serve as a soldier for their country, and in the case of the Confederacy, included all white males. This concept of universal military service has continued and evolved as a part of modern revolutionary movements led by leaders such as Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh.

The new Conscription Act mirrored the age restrictions of most state militia laws by drafting all white males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years of age. Existing companies of men were given the option of reenlisting for three years or for the duration of the war, and were also given the opportunity to reorganize and elect their own officers. Those who were conscripted could avoid military service by hiring “substitutes,” who would serve in their place. A number of exemptions were put into place to exclude individuals who were officials, ministers of the gospel, and employed in certain trades from participation in combat.

Our “First Wednesdays” document highlights the passage of the First Confederate Conscription Act in April 1862. Confederate President Jefferson Davis signed the act into law on 16 April 1862. The document is from the John Thomas Conrad Manuscript Collection at the State Archives. John Thomas Conrad served as a First Lieutenant in the “Yadkin Boys,” Company F, Twenty Eighth North Carolina Troops, which served as a part of Brigadier General Lawrence O’Bryan Branch’s brigade. Conrad served with the Twenty-Eighth North Carolina Troops in its engagements at Hanover Courthouse, Virginia on 27 May 1862 through to his hospitalization for fever after the regiment’s participation in the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia on 9 August 1862. He was sent home and was eventually dropped from the rolls of the regiment by August 1863. Roughly a year later, he reenlisted in the First Regiment of North Carolina Cavalry (Ninth Regiment North Carolina State Troops) and survived the war.

Letter: John Thomas Conrad to Sallie Conrad, 17 April 1862.

James Henry Harris Papers

Back in February, I came across the James Henry Harris Papers and I spent February and March scanning, transcribing and creating metadata for the collection which is now available online.

James Henry Harris was a free African American who lived in Granville County, where he worked as an apprentice to an upholsterer.  Part of this collection includes a court document recording an oath given by John Dickuson that James Harris was a free man of color. Oath to the status of James Henry Harris, March 3, 1848.

Harris left North Carolina prior to the Civil War and moved to Oberlin, Ohio, to go to school. Afterward he traveled to Canada and Africa. On his return to the United States he lived in Indiana, was appointed as a recruiting officer, and was given authorization to recruit “colored troops” in Indiana. Appointment December 23, 1863.

After the war, Harris returned to North Carolina where he was a prominent member of the Republican Party and served in the State Legislature in 1868, 1872 and 1883.  Many of the documents in his collection relate to the Reconstruction Period in North Carolina and are listed are listed below.

Appointment: New England Freedman’s Aid Society, A teacher of Freed People in North Carolina

 Letter of Appointment: Grand National Council of the Union League of America, January 13, 1867

Letter: J.M. Edmunds to James Henry Harris, March 26, 1867

 Secret Circular: Executive Committee of the Union League of America, New York, July 8, 1864

Proclamation: the Grand National Council of the Loyal League of Union Citizens, January 1, 1864

Petition to Congress of the United States of America, July8, 1867

Letter: Nelson A. Miles, May 9, 1868   

Letter of Introduction: For A. W. Tourgee and James H. Harris from W. W. Holden, May 12, 1868

Letter of Introduction: For James H. Harris from Charles Sumner a U. S. Senator from Massachusetts, May 31, 1868 

 Letter of introduction: For James H. Harris from the Bureau of Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands, June 1, 1868

Certificate of Appointment: James H. Harris to City Commissioner for Raleigh, N. C., July 13, 1868

North Carolina Agricultural Society Certificate, August 18, 1869 

Letter: W. W. White, August 8, 1871

Letter: Governor Tod Robinson Caldwell to James H. Harris, Dec. 4, 1872

Letter: John Pool to James H. Harris, March 31, 1873

Certificate of appointment: North Carolina Deaf and Dumb and the Blind

                                                    

                                    

Guerrilla warfare

The energy of the Federal Burnside Expedition was not yet spent, or even checked by Confederate efforts, when Governor Henry Toole Clark received a letter from J.J. Lawrence of Wilson, North Carolina, suggesting the need for guerrilla warfare in eastern North Carolina.  Lawrence cited a long list of other Confederate states that had implemented such a style of warfare to support his suggestion.  The capture of coastal North Carolina presented Governor Clark with another difficult choice to make: to authorize guerrilla warfare or not.  Arguments such as those made by Lawrence must have influenced Clark for he eventually opted to authorize Partisan Rangers; as early as May 1862 these units began operating in coastal North Carolina.  U.S. Major General Ambrose E. Burnside’s decision to parole rather than hold captive the Confederate forces captured at Roanoke Island released a large militant group of men into eastern North Carolina.  Burnside’s parolees could and did become guerrilla fighters.  Guerrilla warfare raged especially harsh in northeastern North Carolina often bringing retaliatory Federal actions against the area. The last Partisan Rangers units in eastern North Carolina did not surrender until late April 1865, well after Union forces captured Raleigh, the state capitol.

Letter: J.J. Lawrence to Henry Toole Clark, March 18, 1862

Between Heaven and Hell: Raleigh and the End of the Civil War

[This blog post comes from a Dept. of Cultural Resources press release - you can find other news related to NC Cultural Resources here.]

RALEIGH - The State Capitol will host the lecture “Between Heaven and Hell: Raleigh and the End of the Civil War,” by historian Ernest Dollar on Saturday, March 24, at 1 p.m.

Dollar will explore the end of the Civil War through letters, diaries and photographs. These documents reveal the excitement and sadness of Raleigh citizens as they experienced one of the greatest times of change in American history. The free lecture will take place in the historic House Chamber on the second floor of the State Capitol. This event is part of the North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial, a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in North Carolina.

Ernest Dollar is the executive director of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill. He began working at historic sites in 1993 after completing his Bachelor of Arts in History and Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design.  He also holds the Master of Arts in Public History. He is currently writing a history of the Civil War in North Carolina.

State Capitol
The State Capitol’s mission is to preserve and interpret the history, architecture and functions of the 1840 building and Union Square. It is one of the finest and best-preserved examples of a major civic building in the Greek Revival style of architecture. It is a National Historic Landmark.

For more information call (919) 733-4994. The State Capitol is allied with State Historic Sites.

The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources annually serves more than 19 million people through its 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, the nation’s first state-supported  Symphony Orchestra, the State Library, the N.C. Arts Council, and the State Archives.

The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources champions North Carolina’s creative industry, which employs nearly 300,000 North Carolinians and contributes more than $41 billion to the state’s economy.

First Wednesdays – Battle of New Bern

The United States forces of the Burnside Expedition captured Roanoke Island on February 8th, 1862, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina on February 10^th, 1862.  After resolving how to handle Confederate prisoners and probing the upper inter-coastal waterways, the Burnside Expedition settled on the city of New Bern, North Carolina as their next target.  Despite Confederate attention to fortifying and defending the city, Burnside’s Expedition successfully attacked on March 14th, 1862 and, after about four hours of hard fighting, captured the city.  This map shows the strength of the Confederate position and the placement of the defenders and attackers.  The central element of the map, a rail road line, was the flaw in the defensive works of the Confederates.  This map is part of Governor Henry Toole Clark’s private papers among the items in his scrap book.  The scrap book is fragile and retired from use but available on microfilm.  We hope you will enjoy seeing the image in color.

Map of Battle of New Bern

Pressures on the Home Front

The twin pressures of the conscription of able bodied men for the Confederate army in late 1861 and the successful invasion of United States armed forces into coastal North Carolina in early 1862 placed citizens under a strain.  Conscription forced men into service and sometimes to the detriment of older planters who could not manage their plantation in the absence of a newly conscripted Overseer.  These letters, written as appeals to the governor, clearly show how military requirements often ran counter to home front needs.  “Now my dear sir,” wrote one planter, “if the Negroes on our large estates are not to be attended to what will become of us & how will our soldiers be fed if the farms are not cultivated.”  Some citizens appealed to have conscripts released in order to remain on plantations to oversee the slaves while others weighed the option of moving the slaves away from the coast.  One correspondent noted the increased boldness of the slaves and their activities including running away.  Slaves took advantage of the twin pressures – fewer able bodied white men at home and a hostile army nearby – to gain their freedom.  The second year of the war held out the prospect of change to all North Carolinians.

Governor’s Correspondence: Abram Riddick to Gov. Henry Toole Clark, Feb. 3, 1862

Governor’s Correspondence: J. S. Browne to Gov. Henry Toole Clark, Feb. 11, 1862

Governor’s Correspondence: John Ragland to Gov. Henry Toole Clark, Feb. 11, 1862

Letter: B.A. Capehart to Thomas Goode Tucker Esq., Feb. 24, 1862

First Civil War Lecture of 2012 to Be Held on February 20th

The Civil War Sesquicentennial Observance continues in 2012 with a series of lectures.  Please join us on February 20, 2012 from 10:30-11:30 AM in the auditorium of the State Archives and Library building as Chris Meekins of the State Archives speaks on the Burnside Expedition. The PDF poster for the lecture series is available online and more information about the Burnside Expedition is available in these blog posts:

• First Wednesdays – Murmur of the Burnside Expedition
• First Wednesdays – Burnside Expedition Proclamation
• Medal of Honor recipients during the Burnside Expedition

Love in the Archives, Civil War Edition

Today, in honor of Valentine’s Day, archives and other cultural heritage groups around the world are linking to items in their collections that deal with love using the Twitter hashtag #loveheritage. I’ve done a few related posts over on our main blog including:

• Love in the Archives
• The Emblem of Language of Flowers
• North Carolina’s Cyrano de Bergerac
• Love on the Dark Side

I’ve also been adding a few love letters to the North Carolina Digital Collections that may be of interest to the readers of this blog. The letters are from a young University of North Carolina student named Zebulon Baird Vance and are written to a young woman he eventually married, although from the letters I posted today his prospects looked less than promising:

From Zebulon Baird Vance to Harriett N. Espy, April 2, 1851:

…The cant of false and unfeeling hypocrites I despise, and unwilling to cultivate hopes, which if too long and too fondly cherished without sufficient reason, might, if blasted, reduce me to the verge of distraction and despair. I deem it preferable for my own peace to say directly and frankly, Miss Espy, that you have inspired me with a sentiment of love deep and lasting, and of the most sanguine and even enthusiastic character – I make this declaration with a deep impression of my pre-sumption, of my entire unworthiness…

From Zebulon Baird Vance to Harriett N. Espy, May 20, 1851:

For near one month I turned from my empty box at the post office, sickened with disappointment and despair. I came to the conclusion that I was not only rejected but despised, and that you had determined to deny me the mournful favour of seeing your opinion of myself expressed on paper, and would leave me to infer from your silence your intention toward me – At length I heard you had been very ill, which caused me to excuse your delay immediately, and I reproached myself for my uncharitable suspicions – Your answer came. I took it from the box, but trembled to open it. 0 what a moment of suspense is that which precedes the opening of a letter! What a world of joy or sorrow is contained within the four corners of that little inanimate paper, so lifeless within itself yet
rendered by the ingenuity of man, so eloquently expressive of weal or wo I – I tore it open and read———–

Probably Miss Espy, your sympathising soul can imagine something of the pang which I suffered then. How void, how useless this existence seemed to me – My spirit was crushed, bitterly crushed, and my heart sank within me – Active and enthusiastic Hope had before conjured up the brightest most blissful visions of the future, so brilliant that the eye of imagination turned dazled and overpowered, as does the naked eye from the contemplation of the Tropical sun, now my gaze rested upon nought but the shadowy forms of black despair, grim and horrible as hell – What a terrible transition for the mind to experiance! 0 why is not my reason destroyed that I might bury those recolections in insanity, in blessed madness…

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

William B. Howard diary, 1862-1863

This diary is part of the Williams-Womble Collection. The soldier who wrote the diary was thought to be Bry Howard, the great-great uncle of Miss Faydene Barbee, the donor of the collection. According to family tradition, Howard was killed in battle while serving with the Seventh Regiment N.C. Troops. In the North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865, there was no “B. Howard” listed with that unit. But there is a William B. Howard in the 7th Regiment who enlisted August 14, 1861 and died at Gettysburg. It is likely that the soldier who wrote this diary was in fact William B. Howard since events described in it match his documented service in the Confederate army.

The diary begins on May 4, 1862 as the Seventh Regiment N.C. troops leave Kinston North Carolina and heads to Gordonsville Virginia. Howard recounts, in great detail, his company’s movements in Northern Virginia and recalls the numerous battles he fought in. The detailed information Howard provides in his diary helped us identify the battles he fought in. He also describes the amount of prisoners taken, supplies captured, as well the number of soldiers wounded and or killed after nearly every battle.

Listed below are battles that Howard fought in. Each item will link you directly to the page in Howard’s diary that corresponds to the battle.

Battle of Mechanicsville, June 26, 1862

Battle of Glendale or Frayser’s Farm, June 30, 1862

Battle of Cedar Run, August 9, 1862

Second Manassas, August 28-29, 1862

Battle of Chantilly or Ox Hill, September 1, 1862

Battle of Harpers Ferry (Capture of Harpers Ferry), September 14, 1862

The Battle of Shepherdstown, September 19-20, 1862

Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862

Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863

The diary ends on June 27, 1863 with Howard’s company marching into Pennsylvania

Howard seems to have very optimistic view of the war and the Confederacy. He writes of the brave men and the cause in which they fight, which is a contrast compared to letters that are also part of this collection. To view the letters from other members of the family, you can key word search Williams-Womble.

Medal of Honor recipients during the Burnside Expedition

From February through June 1862 General Ambrose E. Burnside commanded United States soldiers and sailors during the Federal assault and occupation of the northern two-thirds of coastal North Carolina.  Initial actions in February (Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City) and in March (New Bern and Beaufort) captured key points along the inner-coastal waters of North Carolina.  Actions in April (South Mills and Fort Macon), May (skirmishes at Trenton and Pollocksville) and June (skirmish at Tranter’s Creek) strengthened Federal occupation of the coastal area.  The battles and skirmishes in North Carolina not only proved a national pick-me-up to the United States after a string of defeats (Big Bethel, Manassas/ Bull Run, Wilson’s Creek) but also produced seven United States Medal of Honor recipients: Quarter Gunner John Davis (Navy), Surgeon James Harry Thompson (Army), Sgt. John D. Terry (Army), Pvt. Orlando E. Caruana (Army), Drummer boy Julius Langbein (Army), Sgt. John S. Kenyon (Army) and Lt. William B. Avery (Army).

Quarter Gunner John Davis’ story was quite extraordinary and reflected quick thinking as well as self sacrifice.  Davis was onboard the USS Valley City during the naval engagement at Elizabeth City February 10, 1862.  The Valley City took a cannon ball to the side, which passed through the magazine and exploded inside the vessel.  Davis was stationed to pass powder from below decks to the guns above.  The explosion shattered bulkheads that screened the powder area and set fire to the forward berth deck.  In the midst of the wreckage sat an open keg of powder.  In a flash Davis knew he must seal that powder-keg before a spark from the fire ignited the open keg.  Having no other item with which to seal the top of the keg, Davis jumped on the keg and placed his hindquarters in the open barrel thus sealing it.  When the lieutenant commander arrived to help suppress the fire he found Davis perched coolly on the keg while continuing to pass powder to the decks above.

Image of John Davis on the powder keg.

The next three men – James Thompson, John Terry and Orlando Caruana – all earned the Medal for their actions during the Battle of New Bern, March 14, 1862.  Thompson who as a surgeon was a noncombatant offered his services to reconnoiter the Confederate force’s positions.  Additionally, he volunteered to carry orders to men under heavy fire from Confederate positions.  Terry, a Sgt. in company E, 23^rd Massachusetts Infantry, was wounded in a leg while fighting in the woods to the left (west) of the Beaufort Road and near the rail road line.  Despite a wound so severe that he would eventually lose the leg, Terry continued to encourage his men to attack until he was carried off the battlefield.  Pvt. Caruana, born in Malta, won the first of two medals of honor for his actions in the New Bern fight.  Part of the 51^st NY Infantry, Caruana’s Company K attacked along the rail road line.  Suddenly the 51^st New Yorkers found themselves in an opening looking headlong at nearby Confederate redans.  The Confederates opened fire on the exposed Yankees.  The 51^st Regiment advanced and returned fire but took heavy casualties.  During this exchange the color sergeant was wounded and fell.  Pvt. Caruana seized the regimental flag and helped the color sergeant off the battlefield.  Caruana would receive a second Medal of Honor for his actions at South Mountain, MD, in late 1862.

On April 19, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed at the Battle of South Mills in Camden County, N.C.  During the fight Adjutant Thomas Bartholomew of the 9^th New York Infantry – know as Hawkins’ Zouaves – was struck by a Confederate shell.  In April 1861 Bartholomew had agreed to look after a young family friend who insisted upon joining the Zouaves as a drummer boy.  Julius Langbein was all of fourteen years old when Bartholomew promised Langbein’s mother that he would take care of the young soldier.  The shell that struck Bartholomew also dazed him and he stumbled forward towards the enemy lines after being hit.  Seeing his mentor wounded and heading into heavy gun fire, Langbein dashed to Bartholomew’s side and guided him from the battlefield and towards medical aid.

The last two men earned their medals in skirmishes fought to secure the occupied areas.  John Kenyon on May 15, 1862, voluntarily returned from a retreating column of men and in the face of enemy gun fire helped a wounded man mount a horse and escape to safety.  William B. Avery was a lieutenant in the 1^st New York marine artillery.  In action at Tranters Creek (about 8 miles from Washington, N.C.), Avery, directing a battery of two boat howitzers, engaged Confederate forces near Hodge’s Mill.  Although the Confederate small arms fire was “hot,” Lt. Avery coolly handled the battery and eventually suppressed the small arms fire of the Confederates.  After the war, Avery published a memoire of his time in the 1^st New York Marine Artillery: The Marine Artillery with the Burnside Expedition and the Battle of Camden, N.C.

William B. Avery’s book.

The Burnside Expedition made several people famous and introduced into the lexicon of North Carolina Civil War such names as Zebulon Vance, Henry King Burgwyn, Ambrose Burnside, Stephen C. Rowan, Lawrence O’Bryan Branch, Ambrose A. Wright, Charles Flusser, Vincent Colyer, Rush Hawkins, and Edward Stanly, to name but a few.  These seven Medal of Honor recipients, with perhaps the exception of John Davis, however, are little remembered.  On the 150^th anniversary of the start of the Burnside Expedition I call your attention to them.