State

Forgolten Hero Mure £’l«i morons warriors are in the histories, hut this Pasquotank gen¬ eral prepared anil equipped more men for the Confeileraey than any other state furnished. Of this man. Robert E. Lee said: General Martin is one to whom North Carolina owes a debt she will never pay. Yet not one North Carolinian in a thousand could tell you who General James Green Martin was. much less why his services so impressed the Con¬ federacy's great leader. General James Green Martin was born at Elizabeth Citv. February 14. 1819. He was the eldest son of Dr! Wil¬ liam Martin, physician, planter, and shipbuilder, and Sophia Dauge Martin, who was a descendant of General Peter Dauge, of the Revolutionary War. largely responsible for the defeat of the British around Norfolk. His grand¬ father. another James Green Martin, was a Methodist minister, whose wife was Susanna Bruce, connected by family tics with the fighting Bruces of Scotland. After attending St. Mary's School in Raleigh, then a select school for boys, James Green Martin entered West Point in 1836, where he graduated four years later. In 1842, the young soldier saw his first service in the field on the Canadian frontier. Troops were stationed there following a controversy with England over the Maine and New Brunswick boundaries. When the uncertainty regarding the boundaries, specified in the Treaty of Paris (which really never existed), was settled by the patient forbearance of Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton. British plenipotentiary, in a manner satisfactory to Maine and Massachu¬ setts, the states most interested, James Green Martin returned from the border, and was married to Mary Anne Read, July 12, 1844, a granddaughter of George Read of Delaware, signer of the Declaration of Independence. The soldier remained in garrison un¬ til 1846, when war with Mexico was declared. He was then dispatched with his battery to join General Zachary Taylor at Brownsville, Texas. In the hard-fought battle of Monterey, a town regarded as almost unconquerable, he came across his old friend, Braxton Bragg, who told in later years how Martin distinguished himself and bat¬ tery by clearing the houses of Mexican riflemen. James Green Martin conducted him¬ self with such outstanding bravery that his battery was sent around to reinforce General Scott at Vera Cruz. He was henceforth known as the "Man of Monterey." While Lieutenant Martin partici¬ pated in almost every major engagement fought in Mexico, it was at the hard- fought battle at Chcrubusco. Au¬ gust 20. 1847, that his right arm was shattered by grape shot. Taking the sleeve in his teeth, he rode over to Stonewall Jackson, who was command¬ ing an adjacent battery, and asked him to take over his men as he had lost an arm. He then rode from the field. Major Martin served as Quartermas¬ ter in the Utah Expedition under Albert Sidney Johnston. There was no railroad to the territory west of the Mississippi, and the expedition received its ammuni¬ tion and supplies under guard of troops over the long, long route from the Mis¬ sissippi to Salt Lake. In this remote frontier of civilization. Major Martin had the misfortune to lose his wife who left surviving her four children. .Married a Second Time On February 8. 1858, Major Martin was married to Miss Hcttic King, a sis¬ ter of General Rufus King, who had been his friend and fellow cadet at West Point. She was the oldest daughter of Charles King. President of Columbia College, and a granddaughter of Rufus King, first American Minister to Great Britain. When North Carolina threw her lot with the Confederacy. Major Martin re¬ signed his commission in the Federal army and set out for Raleigh to offer his sword to his native state. Governor Clark at once made him “general in chief of all the forces of North Caro¬ lina." It was a mammoth undertaking, arm¬ ing. equipping, drilling and disciplining soldiers for the Confederate service. The legislature gave General Martin money and power and told him to pre¬ pare troops for battle, more and more troops. Without factories, or markets. Gen¬ eral Martin turned over an army of 7,000 well-trained men within seven months. He did not stop at this small beginning, but continued to add regi¬ ment after regiment until seventy-two regular regiments had been formed. ( Continued on page 18) to THE STATE. October 12. 1963