The bombo'dment ol Ft. Fuller ncor wor'i cloic.
North Carolina in the Civil War
One of ihe proudest boasts of Tar
Heels is that North Carolina was "First
at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg, and
Last at Appomattox." Daniel Harvey
Hills First North Carolina Regiment
won fame in the first major battle of
the war on June 10, 1861, at Big
Bethel. Virginia, in which Henry L.
Wyatt of Edgecombe County was the
first Confederate soldier killed in action.
When General Henry Heth was
wounded on the first day’s lighting at
Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, General
James Johnston Pettigrew took com¬
mand of his division and led them in
what is erroneously called "Pickett’s
Charge.’’ North Carolinians advanced
farther on that field than any other
troops, according to the official map of
the battlefield. And a North Carolina
brigade, commanded by General Wil¬
liam R. Cox, fired the last shots of the
Army of Northern Virginia at Appo¬
mattox Courthouse, April 9, 1865. It
has been truly said that “North Caro¬
lina heroism hallowed and marked
every important battlefield." Yet North
Carolina had gone to war reluctantly.
It had originally opposed secession,
and some of the slate's leaders con¬
sidered the war an unnecessary and
tragic mistake. On February 28, 1861,
It;/ IIIGII F. LEELEK
after the seven stales of the Lower
South had organized the Confederate
States of America, the voters of the
state rejected the calling of a conven¬
tion to consider secession by a vote of
47.323 to 46.672. But the logic of
events caused North Carolina to cast
its lot with the Confederacy. Con¬
federate troops fired on Fort Sumter, in
Charleston harbor, on April 12 and
captured it two days later. On April 15.
President Lincoln issued a call to the
states in the Union for 75.000 troops to
suppress the Southern “insurrection.”
To the request of Simon Cameron,
Secretary of War, for two regiments
from North Carolina, Governor John
W. Ellis, a native of Salisbury and a
secessionist, replied promptly: "I re¬
gard the levy of troops made by the
administration for the purpose of sub¬
jugating the States of the South as in
violation of the Constitution and a gross
usurpation of power. I can be no party
to this wicked violation of the laws of
the country, and to this war upon the
liberties of a free people. You can get
no troops from North Carolina." Al¬
most immediately Ellis called for 30,-
000 volunteers for the Confederacy,
and on April 24 he notified L. P. Wal¬
ker. Confederate Secretary of War:
"You shall have from one to ten thou¬
sand volunteers in a few days, with
arms, and I wish them to go as State
troops. Many of our men will enlist in
the Confederate Army. Will have a
regiment ready in four days."
North Carolina was still in the Union
and would remain there until May 20,
when the State Convention meeting in
Raleigh adopted the Craigc Ordinance
of Secession. But martial spirit was
running high and everybody, including
former Unionists, felt that secession
and war were inevitable. Governor
Ellis acted swiftly to place the state on
a war footing. He promptly ordered the
seizure of the United States forts —
Caswell and Johnson at the mouth of
the Cape Fear, the federal arsenal at
Fayetteville (from which some 37.000
guns were obtained) and the Branch
Mint at Charlotte. The General Assem¬
bly authorized the governor to enlist
and organize ten regiments of state
THE STATE, October 28, 1961
II
