Zeb vs. Old Jeff
Our governor fought the Yankees
but fussed with the Confederacy.
By HI GH T. LEFI.ER
Zebulon Baird Vance, native of Bun¬
combe County and "war governor"
from the fall of 1862 to the end of the
Civil War in the spring of 1865. was
probably the most popular and be¬
loved chief executive in all North
Carolina history.
Vance had all of the qualities which
made for popularity. He was young,
being only thirty-two when he assumed
office; he was impressive looking and
most attractive personally; he was per¬
haps the greatest “stump speaker" the
state has produced, and he spoke the
language of the people. Like many
Tar Heels, he had been a Unionist, but
when North Carolina was forced into
secession and war in the spring of
1861, Vance threw his whole soul into
the cause of the Confederacy. He be¬
came Colonel of the famous 26th
North Carolina regiment and fought
bravely on many battlefields in North
Carolina and Virginia. In fact, he was
with his troops in Virginia when he
was elected governor.
As "war governor" Vance endeared
himself to the people by his success¬
ful efforts to provide necessary sup¬
plies of arms, clothing, and food for
North Carolina troops and civilians.
His sincere sympathy for the people
as they suffered from a war which
was not of their choosing or making,
and his exertions in behalf of Southern
independence, as well as his sharp tilts
with President Jefferson Davis and
other Confederate officials in defense
of the rights of North Carolina and its
people, won the esteem and support
of most North Carolinians.
Vance consistently and persistently
protested against many Confederate
policies, which he thought impaired the
rights of the state or endangered its
safety. His grievances against the Con¬
federate government were summed up
in a letter to Davis, February 9, 1864.
Vance accused the Confederacy of un¬
fair and unjust discriminations against
North Carolina ( 1 ) by harboring sus¬
picions of the loyalty of "the great
body of our people . . . because of the
reluctance with which they gave up
the old Union"; (2) by a “studied
exclusion of the anti-secessionists from
all the important offices of the gov¬
ernment, even from those promotions
in the army which many of them had
won with their blood"; ( 3 ) by a more
"ruthless and unrelenting enforcement
of the Conscription laws" in North
Carolina than in any other state; (4)
by repeated violations of the rights of
the individual citi/cn by arbitrary ar¬
rests and imprisonment by military
courts, often in defiance of the de¬
crees of North Carolina courts; (5)
by the appointment of officers from
other states to command the North
Carolina conscripts and collect Con¬
federate taxes in the state; and (6)
by failure to make proper effort to
protect the state from invasion.
When Vance took office in the fall
of 1862, New Bern, Plymouth, Wash¬
ington, and many other places in east¬
ern North Carolina were in Federal
hands. Only the port of Wilmington,
the most important blockade-running
port in the Confederacy, remained
open. Vance deemed it his first duty
to protect his own people, and he re¬
peatedly demanded that Confederate
troops be sent to guard important
points in North Carolina. He de¬
clared that the "whole coast of North
Carolina" had been stripped of its de¬
fense. "If it is not the intention of the
President to protect us," he declared,
“we must protect ourselves." He in¬
formed President Davis “that many
openly declare they want not another
man to leave the State until provision
is made for her own defense."
Besides defending his state against
the enemy. Governor Vance had the
additional obligation of urging Tar
Heels into the ranks of the Confeder¬
ate armies and encouraging them to
remain there. Under the terms of the
Confederate Conscription Act of 1862
all able-bodied white men between the
ages of IS and 35 were subject to the
military service of the Confederacy,
unless legally exempted. Vance did not
like this law, especially the provision
which exempted from military service
all those who owned as many as twenty
slaves. He thought the law was "harsh
and odious" and, in a letter to Davis,
he said it was "a rich man's war, and
a poor man’s fight." Yet Vance used
the militia and his personal influence
to enforce this and later conscription
laws, and by the end of 1864 North
Carolina had spent more than $240,-
000 in their execution. As a result, the
state sent 2 1 ,348 conscripts to the Con¬
federate Army — about 7,000 more
than any other state.
The Confederate policy of impress¬
ing private property for military uses
provoked bitter protest in the state,
especially in the western counties
where food was scarce, mainly
(Continued on page 29)
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THE STATE. January 6. 1962
