Browse Items (39 total)

Zebulon Baird Vance was born in Western North Carolina in 1831 to a middle class family. After high school, Vance continued his education at the University of North Carolina where he pursued a degree in law. Vance slowly worked his way up in North…

William Woods Holden was the Governor of North Carolina throughout the period of our nation's history known as Reconstruction. Governor Holden would become to be the first state governor to be impeached and subsequently convicted, in American…

W.W. Holden was an important figure for North Carolina in the Antebellum Period. Holden served as editor of the Standard, a North Carolina newspaper, which was used to express and build support for the Unionist. He was able to use his influence to…

William Woods Holden, 24 Nov. 1818-2 Nov. 1892

William Woods Holden rose in power as a whig and a republican. He was a practicing lawyer, but also the ironic owner of a Democratic newspaper in North Carolina. He ran for the Governors seat a few…

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) was a major-general in the Union Army during the Civil War. Sherman gained success in the Western Theater and oversaw the Military Division of the Mississippi after Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to the head of…

William Holland Thomas was a white southerner who was born in the northwest region of North Carolina. Though Thomas had some relation to the former president Zachery Taylor, he had relatively modest beginnings. Thomas was raised by his widowed mother…

William Gaston was born to Dr. Alexander and Margaret Gaston (née Sharpe) in New Bern North Carolina in 1778. His father’s involvement in the Revolutionary War left Margaret a widow when Gaston was three. His mother, an incredibly devout Catholic…

Thomas Ruffin was born in Virginia in November of 1787, and moved to North Carolina early in his life. He attended Princeton University and later studied law in Rockingham County and eventually passed the bar in 1808. After practicing law for a few…

Thomas C. Ruffin (1787-1870) was the elected judge of the Supreme Court of North Carolina from 1829 through 1852 and once again from 1858 through 1859. From 1833 until 1853, Thomas Ruffin served the Court as Chief Justice. Ruffin attended Princeton…

Thomas Clingman is often overlooked in the history of the Civil War yet he played an extremely crucial role in the political realm in the years prior to 1861. Clingman was Southern through and through yet secession was not on his agenda. He…