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Governor Zebulon Vance
Introduction
Many believe that the most remarkable Vance policy was his insistence of the rule of law in the
midst of Civil War. Vance's
engaging personality and lengthy public career gained for him an admiration from North Carolinians that no other state official
has ever enjoyed. To the masses he was a beloved leader who served faithfully as both soldier and statesman. Ex-Confederate
soldiers and their families were not quick to forget his efforts to care for them in time of war and how he defended their
liberties and preserved their honor. As his funeral train moved westward through the state, thousands of humble
people lined the tracks to pay their last respects to one whom they loved and admired very much.
Early Life
| Governor Zebulon Baird Vance |
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| NC Office of Archives and History |
Zebulon Baird Vance,
best known as North Carolina's Civil War Governor, was born in Buncombe County in the North Carolina mountains on May
13, 1830. His family was Scotch-Irish on both sides and he was the third of eight children of David and Mira Baird Vance.
Zeb Vance was born into a family with a history of military and public service.
During the American Revolution, his grandfather, Colonel David Vance, had suffered through a bitter winter with Washington's
Army at Valley Forge and had fought at Germantown, Brandywine, and the Battle of Monmouth. His uncle, Dr. Robert Brank Vance,
was a congressman from 1824 to 1826 and Vance's father was a captain during the War of 1812.
The family lived in the house
that Colonel David Vance had built in the 1790s and while the family was 'long on tradition,' they were often short of cash.
Young Zeb was sent to Washington College in East Tennessee when he was about twelve; Zeb returned home when he was just fourteen
because his father had died.
Political Years
| Zebulon Vance Historical Marker |
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| Zebulon and Robert Vance |
| Zebulon Vance Birthplace |
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| Weaverville, North Carolina |
On his twenty-first birthday, he wrote to former Governor David L. Swain, who was the president of the University at Chapel Hill, and asked for a loan
so he could enter Law School. Governor Swain arranged for a $300 loan from the University and after a reportedly brilliant
academic year, Vance was granted his County Court license in Raleigh in late 1851. The next year he went to Asheville and
began to practice law.
The young lawyer first ventured into electoral politics when he was only twenty-four
years old as the Whig candidate for a seat in the State House of Commons. He won that election against an opponent twice his
age. Like many North Carolinians in public life, Vance was an outstanding public speaker. His gift of ready humor and oratorical
skills on the stump resulted in a remarkable success rate in elections. During his entire career, he was only defeated once
at the polls (in 1856) when David Coleman, and not Vance, became the State Senator from Buncombe.
In 1858, in a great victory, he won his first congressional seat and
was re-elected in 1860. Vance arrived in Washington at the age 28 and was the youngest member of Congress and one of
the strongest Southern supporters of the Union. In March of 1861, however, when indications reflected that the North Carolina
legislature was going to vote for secession, Vance resigned his seat and returned home.
| Gov. Zeb Vance |
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| Zebulon Vance Birthplace |
| Bronze Statue by Gutzon Borglum (1916) |
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| Located at National Statuary Hall |
Vance, the Soldier
When the ordinance of secession was passed that May, Vance was a captain
in Raleigh commanding the company that he had raised; the company was known as the "Rough and Ready Guards." Vance and
his company were hastily attached to the Fourteenth North Carolina Regiment, and in August, he was elected colonel
of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina. Colonel Vance led his men in the field for thirteen months, and the regiment
distinguished itself at New Bern in March of 1862 and at Richmond in July of that same year. The unit would be known as the
"fighting 26th" as it gained legendary fame in Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.
Governor of North Carolina
Vance was the "soldier's candidate" for North Carolina governor and easily
won that office with a majority, which also included the vote of every man in his regiment. He took office in September 1862
and was re-elected in 1864. While the new governor was a Southerner, he was a North Carolinian first. During the War years,
that priority put Vance in several conflicts with the confederate government in Richmond.
"By the recent expedition of our Troops by the order of Gen French into
Eastern North Carolina some forty persons were arrested on suspicion of disloyalty and sent up to Salisbury for safe keeping.
As Governor of the State of which they are citizens it becomes my duty to see that they are protected in whatever rights pertain
to them. First among them is undeniably the right of a trial of their alleged offences. A number of others it is proper to
state have been there in confinement for some time past under similar circumstances. I should be glad to know what disposition
is to be made of them or if there exists any grave public reason why their cases should not be investigated." -- Governor
Zebulon B. Vance, Raleigh, Nov. 11th, 1862
Nov the 18, 1862
sta[t]e of Northcarolina Randolph Co
"Dear sir [Governor Zebulon B. Vance] this is a greate undertaking for
me as i never wrote to a man of authority before necesity requires it of me as we are nonslave holders in this section of
the State i hope you and our legislature will look to it and have justice done our people as well as the slaveholders i can
tel you the condition of my family and you can judg for your self what its condition woul be if my husban is called from home
we hav eight children and the oldest is not forteen years old and an old aged mother to support, which makes eleven in our
family and without my husband we are a desolate and ruined family for extortion runs so hie here we cannot support and clothe
our family without the help of my husband i hope you will look to the justice of the peepils of this section of the state
and i trust you will hold the rane in your own hands and not let the confederate congress have the full sway over your State
i appeal to you to look to the white cultivators as strictly as congress has to the slaveholders and i think they men from
35 to 45 be hel as reserves at hom to support their families if the are calld from home it is bound to leave a thoasn families
in a starving condition in our county we trust in god and look to you for some help for our poor children . . ." -- [Martha
Coletrane]
| Zebulon Vance Monument |
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| Asheville, North Carolina |
State of NC yadkin county, nov the 21, 1862
"Dear sir [Governor
Zebulon B. Vance] it is with a troubled heart a distressed mind and afflicted body that I now attimpt to write to you and
I hope that you will not turn a deaf ear to my request Sir my husband has been forced from me to the army while he is deseased
in different ways and I have understood that he was not allowed to stop to be examined but was sent right to the army and
has to stay there diseased and afflicted and has not been well since he has been there and was not well when he left but he
was taken away while others well and sound was let off and I am left here desolate and weekly I have neither father nor brother
to assist me and I a poor woman and one child to take care of and my request to you that you will let my husband off so that
he can come to my assistance that me and child may not suffer and die deny me not I come as a beging lazerous and as a weeping
mary I come pleading for my husband my self and my child that we may not perish and die hear me in behalf of my husband and
I hope that god will reward you for it my husband's name is L L chamberlain." -- From Elizabeth chamberlain "....I
had forgotten to state where he was 13th regiment NC troops company G care of captain Hyman answer my letter if you please
but don't put your name on the back for fear that I never git it Hamptonville."
| Zebulon Vance Monument |
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| Asheville, NC |
Governor Vance was a States' Righter and some of his independent actions, however, did not find favor in Richmond. In particular, there was disagreement
over his policy of exporting North Carolina cotton abroad by way of blockade runner ships and using the material received
in exchange for the benefit of North Carolinians, both civilian and military. Because of that policy, North Carolina was the
only Confederate state to equip and clothe its own regiments, but much of the blockade runner supplies were shared with the
rest of the Confederacy. General Longstreet's Army, for example, received 12,000 uniforms from North Carolina after the Battle of Chickamauga.
Boon Hill Johnston County NC. Jan 3rd. 1863
To His Excellency Gov. Vance,
"Sir,
The people of Johnston County owe allegiance first to North Carolina secondly to the Confederate States, and accordingly,
to my Humble judgement protection is due from North Carolina to her Citizens even against the injustice of the Confederate
authorities; but so far from the State protecting Johnston County and equalizeing her among her sister Counties, the State
itself seems at the present time to be almost as injust as the would be Aristocratic and demanding Horse leeches of the Confederate
Service. Not long since a man, who said he had authority from the Commander at Goldsboro, but who could not read his own instructions,
having never had the blessing extended to him of learning his letters came to this his native County with and armed force
to press and take our wagons & mules from us, his particular friends he passed by lightly, those whom he before had old
grudge against, he robed of all they had in the way of teames, and if they objected he threatened them should they not hush
there complaints to take them and force them into the Confederate Service. . . ." -- With Great Respect I am Your obt
Servant
W. A. Smith
Fayetteville NC, 27 Feb/1863
Govr Vance
"Dear Sir[:] Please pardon
the liberty which a poor soldier takes in thus addressing you as when he volunteered he left a wife with four children to
fight for his country. He cheerfully made the sacrifices thinking that the Govt. would protect his family and keep them from
starvation. In this he has been disappointed for the Govt. has made a distinction between the rich man (who has something
to fight for) and the poor man who fights for that he never will have. The exemption of the owner of 20 negroes & the
allowing of substitutes clearly proves it. . . . Now Govr. Do tell me how we poor soldiers who are fighting for the "rich
mans negro" can support our families at $11 per Month? How can the poor live? I dread to see summer as I am fearful there
will be much suffering and probably many deaths from starvation. They are suffering now. A poor little factory girl begged
for a piece of bread the other day & said she had not had anything to eat since the day before when she eat a small piece
of Bread for her Breakfast. . . ." -- Respectfully your obedient servant, O. Goddin Private Co D, 51st Regt. N.C.T. on
detached service
Salisbury, N.C., March 18th [1863]
". . . Salisbury has witnessed to-day
one of the gayest and liveliest scenes of the age. About 12 o'clock, a rumor was afloat, that the wives of several soldiers
now in the war, intended to make a dash on some flour and other necessities of life, belonging to certain gentlemen, who the
ladies termed "speculators." They alleged that they were entirely out of provisions, and unable to give the enormous prices
now asked, but were willing to give Government prices. Accordingly, about 2 O'clock they met, some 50 or 75 in number, with
axes and hatchets, and proceeded to the depot of the North Carolina Central Road, to impress some there, but were very politely
met by the agent, Mr. ---: "What on earth is the matter?" The excited women said they were in search of "flour" which they
had learned had been stored there by a certain speculator. . . .Finally . . . they returned to the depot . . . and
again demanded the agent that they be allowed to go in. He still refused, but finally agreed to let two go in and examine
the flour, and see if his statement was not correct. A restlessness pervaded the whole body, and but a few moments elapsed
before a female voice was heard saying: "Let's go in." The agent remarked:-"Ladies . . . it is useless to attempt it, unless
you go in over my dead body." A rush was made, and they went in, and the last I saw of the agent, he was sitting on a log
blowing like a March wind. They took ten barrels, and rolled them out and were setting on them, when I left, waiting for a
wagon to haul them away. . . ." -- Salisbury Daily Carolina Watchman, 23 March, 1863
| Zebulon Vance Monument |
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| Zeb Vance Historical Marker |
Mcleanesville, NC, Aprile 9th, 1863
Gov Vance:
"I have threatend
for some time to write you a letter-a crowd of we Poor wemen went to Greenesborough yesterday for something to eat as we had
not a mouthful meet nor bread in my house what did they do but put us in gail Jim Slone, Linsey Hilleshemer and several others
I will not mention-thes are the ones that put us to gail in plase of giveing us aney thing to eat and I had to com hom without
aneything-I have 6 little children and my husband in the armey and what am I to do. . . . if you dont take thes yankys a way
from greenesborough we wemen will write for our husbans to come . . . home and help us. . . ." -- Yours very Respectfuly,
Nancy Mangum
Many believe that the most remarkable Vance policy was his insistence
of the rule of law in the midst of the devastation and confusion of Civil War. North Carolina courts continued to function
during the war, and North Carolina stands alone as the only state which never suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
Laurinburg Richmond Co N.C.
July 28th, 1863
His Excellency the Governor:
"Sir—if
your highness will condesend to reply to my feble Note, you will confer a great favor on me, and relieve me of my troubles.
My Case is this I am a free man of Color, and has a large family to support, there is a man living near me, who is an Agent
of the State Salt workes appointed by Worth, or is said to be, he took all we Colored men last winter to make Salt. he is
now after us to make Barrels for the State Salt works. Comes at the dead hours of night and carries us off wherever he thinks
proper, gives us one dollar and fifty Cents pr day and we find ourselves. I cannot support my family at that rate and pay
the present high prices for provisions, I can support my family very well if I were left at home to work for my neighbors
they pay me or sell me provisions at the old price for my labor, this agent says he has the power by law to carry us wherever
he pleases and when he pleases, if that be the law and he is ortherized by law to use that power, I am willing to submit to
his Calls, for I am perfectly willing to do for our Country whatever the laws requires of me, but if there be no such law
and this Agent taking this power within himself perhaps speculating on the labor of the free Colored men and our families
suffering for bread, I am not willing to submit to such, please let me know if this Agent has the power to use us as he does."
-- Daniel Locklar
With the fall of Fort Fisher in January of 1865, the last port open to the Confederacy was
closed. In May, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered his Confederate troops to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Later that month, Governor Vance was arrested
and taken into custody by federal troops. He spent time as a prisoner in the Old Capital Prison in the District of Columbia.
After the War
When 1865 concluded, Vance was paroled and sent home. He went to
Charlotte and resumed practicing law. He also began a new career on the lecture circuit and used the monies earned to maintain
his family and satisfy old debts.
In 1870, the governor won one of North Carolina's seats in the United
States Senate; however, he was currently under parole and was not allowed to serve. But six years later, by a majority
of 13,000 votes, he defeated Thomas Settle and was voted into his third term as North Carolina's governor. During his third
term the remaining federal troops left North Carolina. Also during this term, Governor Vance proposed plans to the legislature
for increased educational facilities and teacher training throughout the state.
The third term was a short one because, in 1878, Governor Vance became U.S.
Senator Vance--an office he held until his death on April 14, 1894.
Zebulon Vance was married twice. He was first married in 1853 to Miss Harriet
Espy. Two years after his first wife's death in 1878, the Governor was married in 1880 to Mrs. Florence Steele Martin of the
State of Kentucky. Governor Vance was the father of four sons by his first marriage.
"He was the Mount Mitchell of all our great men, and in the affections and love of the people, he towered
above them all. As ages to come will not be able to mar the grandeur and greatness of Mount Mitchell, so they will not be
able to efface from the hearts and minds of the people the name of their beloved Vance." -- T. J.
Jarvis, Governor (1879 to 1885)
(Sources and related reading below.)
Recommended Reading: War Governor
of the South: North Carolina's Zeb Vance in the Confederacy
(New Perspectives on the History of the South) (Hardcover: 288 pages) (University Press of Florida). Description: Zebulon
B. Vance, governor of North Carolina during the devastating
years of the Civil War, has long sparked controversy and spirited political comment among scholars. He has been portrayed
as a loyal Confederate, viciously characterized as one of the principal causes of the Confederate defeat, and called “the
Lincoln of the South.” Joe A. Mobley clarifies the nature
of Vance’s leadership, focusing on the young governor’s commitment to Southern independence, military and administrative
decisions, and personality clashes with President Jefferson Davis. Continued below…
As a confirmed Unionist before
the outbreak of the war, Vance endorsed secession reluctantly. Elected governor in 1862, Vance managed to hold together the
state, which was divided over support for the war and for a central government in Richmond. Mobley reveals him as a man conflicted by his
prewar Unionist beliefs and the necessity to lead the North Carolina war effort while contending with widespread fears created
by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and such issues as the role of women in the war, lawlessness and desertion among
the troops, the importance of the state’s blockade-runners, and the arrival of Sherman’s troops. While the governor’s
temperament and sensitivity to any perceived slight to him - or his state - made negotiations between Raleigh
and Richmond difficult; Mobley shows that in the end, Vance
fully supported the attempt to achieve southern independence.
Recommended Reading: Zeb Vance: North Carolina's Civil War Governor
and Gilded Age Political Leader (Hardcover) (528 pages) (The University of North Carolina Press). Description:
In this comprehensive biography of the man who led North Carolina through the Civil War and,
as a U.S. senator from 1878 to 1894, served
as the state's leading spokesman, Gordon McKinney presents Zebulon Baird Vance (1830-94) as a far more complex figure than
has been previously recognized. Vance campaigned to keep North Carolina in the Union, but
after Southern troops fired on Fort Sumter,
he joined the army and rose to the rank of colonel. He was viewed as a champion of individual rights and enjoyed great popularity
among voters. Continued below.
But McKinney demonstrates that Vance was not as progressive as earlier biographers suggest. Vance
was a tireless advocate for white North Carolinians in the Reconstruction Period, and his
policies and positions often favored the rich and powerful. McKinney provides significant new information about Vance's third
governorship, his senatorial career, and his role in the origins of the modern Democratic Party in North Carolina. This new biography offers the fullest, most complete understanding yet of
a legendary North Carolina leader.
Recommended Reading: North Carolinians in the Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction
(The University of North Carolina
Press). Description: Although North Carolina was a "home front" state
rather than a battlefield state for most of the Civil War, it was heavily involved in the Confederate war effort and experienced
many conflicts as a result. North Carolinians were divided over the issue of secession, and
changes in race and gender relations brought new controversy. Blacks fought for freedom, women sought greater independence,
and their aspirations for change stimulated fierce resistance from more privileged groups. Republicans and Democrats fought
over power during Reconstruction and for decades thereafter disagreed over the meaning of the war and Reconstruction. Continued
below...
With contributions
by well-known historians as well as talented younger scholars, this volume offers new insights into all the key issues of
the Civil War era that played out in pronounced ways in the Tar Heel State.
In nine fascinating essays composed specifically for this volume, contributors address themes such as ambivalent whites, freed
blacks, the political establishment, racial hopes and fears, postwar ideology, and North Carolina women. These issues of the
Civil War and Reconstruction eras were so powerful that they continue to agitate North Carolinians today.
Recommended
Reading: The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861
(Paperback), by David M. Potter. Review: Professor Potter treats an incredibly complicated and misinterpreted
time period with unparalleled objectivity and insight. Potter masterfully explains the climatic events that led to Southern
secession – a greatly divided nation – and the Civil War: the social, political and ideological conflicts;
culture; American expansionism, sectionalism and popular sovereignty; economic and tariff systems; and slavery. In other words, Potter places under the microscope the root causes and origins of the Civil War.
He conveys the subjects in easy to understand language to edify the reader's understanding (it's
not like reading some dry old history book). Delving beyond
surface meanings and interpretations, this book analyzes not only the history, but the historiography of the time period as
well. Continued below…
Professor Potter
rejects the historian's tendency to review the period with all the benefits of hindsight. He simply traces the events, allowing
the reader a step-by-step walk through time, the various views, and contemplates the interpretations of contemporaries and
other historians. Potter then moves forward with his analysis. The Impending Crisis is the absolute gold-standard of historical
writing… This simply is the book by which, not only other antebellum era books, but all history books should be judged.
Recommended
Reading: A Constitutional History of Secession
(Hardcover). Review: The Constitutional History of Secession is the
history of the legal practice of secession in the Anglo-American world. The learned jurist John Remington Graham is possessed
of a profound expertise on American, British and Canadian constitutional law. He has written a compelling defense of the right
of secession. Secession, the right of self-determination, and the principle of "rule by consent of the governed" were among
the foremost principles animating the American War for Independence of Seventeen-Seventy-Six. Yet the consolidationist sophists
malign and deny these tried and true principles of free government. Graham, however, traces British and American constitutional
history and developments with great clarity and buoys the case for secession. He offers an amazing exposition of seventeenth
century British constitutional developments, which culminated in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in which the Crown peacefully
passed from James II to William and Mary without armed conflict. Continued below…
The accession
of William of Orange to the throne was met with popular support, as the usurpations of William II were not amenable to the
populace. This so called revolution set a standard for peaceful political separation, and it was exactly what the American
Continental Congress sought from Great Britain. Likewise, peaceful separation was what the
southern states that formed the Southern Confederacy wanted when those eleven states formally separated from the United States. Secession does not have to mean war and violence,
but war was thrust upon American colonials and southern confederates when their previous government refused to acknowledge
their right of self-determination. As the Declaration of Independence proclaims, "...whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying
its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
Safety and Happiness." As Confederate President Jefferson Davis proclaimed, "All we ask is to be left alone." The Glorious
Revolution forms the foundation of Graham's treatise as he advances his thesis and makes the case for secession. As Donald
Livingston proclaims in the preface, "The central focus of this work will be revolution, not as an armed overthrow of an established
government, but as a rational and orderly process, specifically allowed by fundamental law."
In making the case for
secession, Graham substantiates the compact nature of the Union as well, which correspondingly
legitimizes interposition, nullification, and secession. Two early constitutional commentaries including St. George Tucker's
View of the Constitution of the United States
(1801) and Pennsylvania Federalist William Rawle's A View of the Constitution (1829) both affirm a right of secession.
John
Remington Graham further traces American constitutional developments, and in doing so he substantiates the compact nature
of the Union, and makes a profound case for the Constitution as a compact, which in effect
legitimizes the right of secession. He further explains all of these episodes in constitutional history with amazing detail
and clarity:
**The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions which were in continuity with the colonial-revolutionary tradition
of State remonstrance, protest, interposition and nullification of unconstitutional acts of central government authorities.
**The Hartford Convention and the anti-war, anti-embargo northern secessionist movement which emerged after the unwelcomed
War of 1812 with the British.
**The Webster-Hayne Debates on the nature of the Union
is explained in detail. Likewise, Daniel Webster's case of foot-in-mouth disease is made manifest as Hayne hearkens back to
his deeds at the Hartford Convention.
**The Missouri Compromise and constitutional question of slavery and the sectional
strife over the spread of slavery into the territories is explained.
**The secession of the eleven southern states
from the Union and the circumstances leading to their separation are explained in detail.
Likewise, the birth of the Southern Confederacy and the north's violent refusal to accept their separation is painstakingly
documented.
**The unlawful and violent conquest of the South, the unconstitutional political repression in north and
south, the illegal suspension of the writ of habeas corpus throughout the whole nation and the oppressive Reconstruction Acts
are explained with amazing clarity and detail.
**Graham fast forwards to the twentieth-century. In our time, Quebec
has asserted the legal right of secession as a viable political alternative if its relationship with the central government
of the Canadian Confederation does not prove to be more mutually-beneficial and less detrimental to the interests of Quebec's
citizenry in coming years. With a distinctive francophone culture and nearly half of the populace voting for secession in
the last popular referendum, we may well witness the peaceful separation of Quebec from Canada in our lifetime.
All things considered, John
Remington Graham has done a remarkable job at making the case for secession and has made a lasting contribution to constitutional
scholarship. His book is well-documented and awash in powerful quotations from British and American statesmen. There is a
preponderance of evidence in the Anglo-American constitutional heritage which makes secession a lawful exercise. Likewise,
he is very logical in tracing the deducible nature of State sovereignty. Graham in final application points out that self-determination
as expressed in an act of secession emanates from the right of people themselves to self-government. Essentially by presenting
the secession of the American colonies and the Southern Confederacy in its proper historical and legal context, Graham has
made a valuable contribution to understanding the Anglo-American political tradition. John Graham who presently served as
an expert advisor on British constitutional law to the amicus curiae (i.e. friend of the court) for Quebec in the secession state decided in 1998. As Jefferson
astutely opined, "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient
Causes..." Thus, secession is never to be approached lightly, and the act of secession negates the value, benefits and security
of the Union.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Whenever government becomes destructive
of these ends (i.e. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and
to institute a new government." -Declaration of Independence
of the American Colonies, July 4, 1776
"Sovereignty is the highest degree of political power, and the establishment
of a form of government, the highest proof which can be given of its existence. The states could have not reserved any rights
by articles of their union, if they had not been sovereign, because they could have no rights, unless they flowed from that
source. In the creation of the federal government, the states exercised the highest act of sovereignty, and they may, if they
please, repeat the proof of their sovereignty, by its annihilation. But the union possesses no innate sovereignty, like the
states; it was not self-constituted; it is conventional, and of course subordinate to the sovereignties by which it was formed."
-John Taylor of Caroline, New Views of the Constitution, Nov. 19, 1823
"I saw in State Rights the only availing check
upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption
of Democracy. The institutions of your Republic have not exercised on the old world the salutary and liberating influence
which ought to have belonged to them, by reason of those defects and abuses of principle which the Confederate Constitution
was expressly and wisely calculated to remedy. I believed that the example of that great Reform would have blessed all the
races of mankind by establishing true freedom purged of the native dangers and disorders of Republics. Therefore I deemed
that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and I mourn for the stake which was
lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo." -Lord Acton in a letter to Robert E. Lee, Nov. 4, 1866.
Sources: Vance photograph is courtesy of North Carolina Office of Archives
and History (Zebulon Vance at the time of his gubernatorial inauguration ceremony, Raleigh, 1862); Vance Bronze Statue by Gutzon Borglum
(Given in 1916), located at National Statuary Hall, photograph courtesy Library of Congress; North Carolina Museum of History;
Biographical History of North
Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. Samuel A. Ashe et al, editors. Greensboro, NC : Charles L. Van Noppen, 1907; The
Confederacy and Jeb Vance. Richard Edwin Yates. Tuscaloosa, AL : Confederate Publishing Company, 1958; My Beloved Zebulon; the Correspondence of
Zebulon Baird Vance and Harriet Newell Espy. Elizabeth Roberts Cannon, editor. Chapel Hill,
NC : University of North Carolina Press, 1971; The Papers of Zebulon Baird Vance. Vol. 1 edited
by Frontis W. Johnston; Vol. 2 edited by Joe A. Mobley. Raleigh, NC : State Department of Archives and History. 1963 and 1995; Zebulon B. Vance as War
Governor of North Carolina, 1862-1865. Richard Edwin
Yates. Nashville, TN : Vanderbilt University Thesis, 1937; State Library
of North Carolina.
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