Gov. John W. Ellis Puts North Carolina on War Footing

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
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Regiments to Defend the Old North State – Gov. John W. Ellis Puts North Carolina on War Footing

“[Governor John W.] Ellis’s accomplishments on behalf of North Carolina are best seen in two letters written to President Jefferson Davis. On 25 April he reported the seizure of Forts Macon, Johnston, and Caswell together with his opinion as to their relative strength and importance. He also reported the seizure of the United States Arsenal at Fayetteville with thirty-seven thousand stand of arms and arms-making equipment. He concluded this letter, “The people of my State are now thoroughly united and will adopt the speediest method of union with the Confederate States.” Two days later he wrote:

“The State is to all intents practically out of the Old Union, and we are discussing the speediest mode of giving legal sanction to this State of facts. Unexampled unanimity prevails and we will be a member of the Confederate States by the 20th May…..All the lights have been extinguished on the Coast. Vessels have been sunk in Ocrac[oke] Inlet and a fleet of armed vessels (small) is now being fitted out to protect our grain crops lying on the inland waters of the No. East part of the State. A good Ship Canal connects those waters with the Chesapeake at Norfolk.

Beaufort Harbor, protected by Fort Macon is a most eligible point for privateering & Dept[h] of water on the bar is from 17 to 21 ft. We have on these waters some bold and Skilful Seamen who are ready to go out as privateers at once. The forms required in procuring letters of Marque present a great obstacle. Had you and authorized agent here who could deliver letters and receive the bonds &c. the work would be greatly facilitated. The enemy’s commerce between N[ew] York and all the West Indies and South American ports could be cut off by privateers on the coast of No. Ca.”

On 29 April, he issued an order through John F. Hoke, adjutant general, to Colonel Elwood Morris, engineer, “to proceed to Okracoke and Hatteras, plan and construct fortifications….” And on 30 April, General William H.C. Whiting, from his coast defense headquarters at Wilmington, reported that “the secretary of war of the Confederate States has directed the transfer to North Carolina of 20 thirteen pds cannonade guns from the Virginia navy yard for flank defences of Forts Macon & Caswell & for defence of the line of the [Neuse] against [land expeditions].”

On 1 May, the governor addressed the opening session of the General Assembly. Declaring that “the right now asserted by the constituted authorities of that government [in Washington], to use military force for the purpose of coercing a State to remain in the Union against its will, finds no warrant in the Constitution,” Ellis proceeded to demonstrate that neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution gave or intended to give such authority to the central government.”

(The Boy Colonel, The Life and Times of Henry King Burgwyn, Jr., Archie K. Davis, UNC Press, 1985, pp. 76-77)

Gov. John W. Ellis Puts North Carolina on War Footing