North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
Most
of eastern North Carolina lay open to the Union troops from early 1862,
and by degrees they stripped the entire region of everything of value
that was moveable and whole shiploads of booty were sent north. New
Bern-native Edward Stanly was appointed military governor by Lincoln in
late May 1862 and sent to occupied Morehead City to govern his subjects,
but even he lost hope of restoring the Tarheel State to the Union after
watching shiploads of loot heading northward. He resigned his
appointment a year later.
Stanly
wrote: "Had the war in North Carolina been conducted by soldiers who
were Christians and gentlemen, the State would have long ago rebelled
against rebellion. But instead of that, what was done? Thousands and
thousands of dollars worth of property were conveyed North. Libraries,
pianos, carpets, mirrors, family portraits, everything in short, that
could be removed, was stolen by men abusing flagitious slave holders and
preaching liberty, justice and civilisation.
I
was informed that one regiment of abolitionists had conveyed North more
than $40,000 worth of property. They literally robbed the cradle and
the grave. Family burial vaults were broken open for robbery; and in one
instance (the fact was published in a Boston newspaper and admitted to
me by an officer of high position in the army) a vault was entered, a
metallic coffin removed, and the remains cast out that those of a dead
[northern] soldier might be put in the place.” (Hamilton, pp. 94-95)
Colonel William Lamb wrote from Wilmington in mid-1862:
“Northern
emissaries had kindled the flames of disloyalty in the East, and 18
November 1861, a convention of delegates claiming to represent
forty-five counties met at [enemy-occupied] Hatteras, repudiated
secession, announced their loyalty to the [Northern] Union, and named
one Marble Nash Taylor, Provisional Governor of North Carolina. The
conduct of these Tories, or Buffaloes as they were called, was a source
of annoyance to the patriots, but only served to strengthen their
loyalty to their country.” (Clark’s regiments, pp. 629-631)
North Carolina Governor Zeb Vance wrote to Stanly in late October 1862:
“Your
proposition [of discussing surrender] is based on the supposition that
there is baseness in North Carolina sufficient to induce her people to
abandon their confederates and leave them to suffer alone all the
horrors of this unnatural war, for the sake of securing for themselves, a
mistake which I could scarcely have supposed anyone so well acquainted
with the character of our people as your self could have committed.” In
a second letter, Vance “told Stanly how his name was execrated and
cursed and that “damnable atrocities” were committed daily almost under
his eyes.” (Champion of Personal Freedom, p. 200)
Sources:
Col. William Lamb, Thirty-sixth Regiment, Clark’s Regiments
Reconstruction in North Carolina, J.G. deR. Hamilton, Books for Libraries Press, 1971
Zeb Vance, Champion of Personal Freedom, Glenn Tucker, Bobbs-Merrill, 1965
Read more at: http://www.ncwbts150.com/ ActsofTreasonAgainstNorthCarol ina.php
"Stanly,
the renegade, the traitor governor, appointed by Mr. Lincoln to rule
his native State, finds the way of the transgressor hard. He has stopped
the Negro schools as being contrary to the Statute Law of North
Carolina, by which he has offended his Northern masters, but with a
strange inconsistency he ignores the fact (of which Mr. [George Edmund]
Badger has reminded him however) that his being here, as Gov, is as
much an infringement on our rights, for the Laws of N.C. provide for an
election of the Gov by the people. He said that if there was one man in
N.C. whom he regarded more than another, one man whom he loved, that man
was Richard S. Donnell, & yet the first sight which greeted him on
stepping ashore at New Berne was the coffin of Mr. Donnell's mother with
her name & the date of her birth & death cut on it, waiting
shipment to NY, her remains having been thrown out to give place to the
body of a Yankee officer! Such is our foe.”
=================
Pillaging and Robbing North Carolina:
June 12, 1862:
We've always had too many liberals.
ReplyDelete:) One is too many.
ReplyDelete