Browse Items (38 total)

Discussions between governor Zeb Vance, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis on the impact that desertion made on the Confederate effort during the Civil War. This article points out that popular support for the Confederacy was never "robust" in the…

The early morning found the Rebel intrenchments evacuated, and their former occupants in full flight toward Aversyboro. They escaped in the night, leaving their picket posts to fall into our hands; for a neglect to remember those who are…

HEADQUARTERS CONFEDERATE STATES ARMIESFeb. 24, 1865. HIS EXCELLENCY Z. B. VANCE GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA RALEIGH GOVERNOR: The state of despondency that now prevails among our people is producing a bad effect upon the troops. Desertions are…

Curiously, historians have tended to understate the importance of slavery within southern consciousness during the war. In part, this may be because in postbellum decades many southerners themselves disavowed slavery as a major cause of the…

Many whites, particularly in the Upper South, did not support secession. Here in Alamance County, in fact, most voters did not think that Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 was sufficient cause to secede from the Union. While statesmen from…

April 20, 1865

We have lived in such a state of excitement for the past month that I have not had the time to write any thing which occurred but to begin at this late day—After the evacuation of Goldsboro—we were in constant expectation of the…

Weight of Testimony According to the Progress, the mere denint - theipse dixit -- of Mr. Holden should have "as much weight with the masses of the people in North Carolina as that of Gov. Vance, Mr. Hampton, or others." So what Mr. Holden may say…