North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"
Buffaloes, Renegades and Thieves in Bertie County:
At least 805 Bertie County men served honorably in defense of North Carolina during the War Between the States; 63 would desert and adhere to the enemy. More than two hundred Bertie men would serve in the First and Second Regiments North Carolina Union Volunteers, the equivalent of Tories serving the British during the Revolution.
Upon the capture of Plymouth in 1863 by Major-General Robert F. Hoke of Lincolnton, twenty-two North Carolina deserters found in Northern ranks were executed at Kinston. Many blue-clad North Carolinians captured at Plymouth hid their identity and claimed to be assigned to other Northern regiments to escape execution – explaining how some 21 Bertie County men died at Andersonville. Author Gerald Thomas notes that “sufficient evidence exists that a number of the [captured] North Carolinians “assumed the roles” of Northerners.”
Charles Freeman of Bertie County enlisted in Company C, First Regiment North Carolina Union Volunteers, mustered in as private on 23 July, 1862 at age eighteen. Many North Carolinians who defected to Northern forces were said to have done so to escape Confederate military service and defense of their State; perhaps most adhered to the enemy to protect their families and property in enemy-occupied North Carolina.
Confederate deserter John “Jack” Fairless of Gates County organized, with the endorsement of Northern authorities, a company of fellow deserters and draft-dodgers “who would become notorious for their renegade activity.” Confederate military personnel and citizens in general scornfully referred to the men who served in Fairless’s company, as well as those in other eastern North Carolina Union units, as “Buffaloes”; the term became synonymous with “thieves” and “outlaws.” “Even Union military leaders in the area held [Fairless] in low regard.…[and referred to them as] “our home guard thieves.” Fairless was a habitual drunk and was shot dead by a deserter from the Nineteenth North Carolina Regiment, James Wallace, on October 20 [1862].
Read more at: http://www.ncwbts150.com/ActsofTreasonAgainstNorthCarolina.php
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"
Buffaloes, Renegades and Thieves in Bertie County:
At least 805 Bertie County men served honorably in defense of North Carolina during the War Between the States; 63 would desert and adhere to the enemy. More than two hundred Bertie men would serve in the First and Second Regiments North Carolina Union Volunteers, the equivalent of Tories serving the British during the Revolution.
Upon the capture of Plymouth in 1863 by Major-General Robert F. Hoke of Lincolnton, twenty-two North Carolina deserters found in Northern ranks were executed at Kinston. Many blue-clad North Carolinians captured at Plymouth hid their identity and claimed to be assigned to other Northern regiments to escape execution – explaining how some 21 Bertie County men died at Andersonville. Author Gerald Thomas notes that “sufficient evidence exists that a number of the [captured] North Carolinians “assumed the roles” of Northerners.”
Charles Freeman of Bertie County enlisted in Company C, First Regiment North Carolina Union Volunteers, mustered in as private on 23 July, 1862 at age eighteen. Many North Carolinians who defected to Northern forces were said to have done so to escape Confederate military service and defense of their State; perhaps most adhered to the enemy to protect their families and property in enemy-occupied North Carolina.
Confederate deserter John “Jack” Fairless of Gates County organized, with the endorsement of Northern authorities, a company of fellow deserters and draft-dodgers “who would become notorious for their renegade activity.” Confederate military personnel and citizens in general scornfully referred to the men who served in Fairless’s company, as well as those in other eastern North Carolina Union units, as “Buffaloes”; the term became synonymous with “thieves” and “outlaws.” “Even Union military leaders in the area held [Fairless] in low regard.…[and referred to them as] “our home guard thieves.” Fairless was a habitual drunk and was shot dead by a deserter from the Nineteenth North Carolina Regiment, James Wallace, on October 20 [1862].
Read more at: http://www.ncwbts150.com/ActsofTreasonAgainstNorthCarolina.php
Buffaloes, Renegades and Thieves in Bertie County
I'm ashamed to say that one of my paternal ancestors was a (hack-spit) Union symp. He was hanged by some locals who didn't appreciate his sensibilities...
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm happy he survived - else I wouldn't be here - but...
I think I'd rather be descended from a rapist than from HIM...
On the other-other-hand (grant me three for rhetorical convenience!) I've got more than enough GOOD Southron blood from the rest of my ancestors that - hopefully - the "idiot" gene's been left at the bottom of the pool where it belongs...
:)!!!
ReplyDelete