- Title
- State
-
-
- Date
- August 09 1958
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
State
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Why North Carolinians
Are Called Tar Heels
Two versions of the origin of the
state’s nickname.
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The legends revolving around the
•Oitron igin of the word “Tar Heel” are so
Beneat merous that the situation can be
towa tegorized only as one of confusion,
ivpt Hie two most frequently cited yarns
si in fl me from explanations in Clark's
irth Carolina Regiments (1901) and
Creecy’s Grandfather’s Tales of
irth Carolina History (1901).
Both versions were written down
lg after the occurrences of the events
which they were supposedly based,
ley are similar, too, in that they re-
and • to Civil War times when, presum-
ly, the North Carolina soldiers were
noted for not retreating from ad-
nced positions that they gained a
putation of having tar on their heels,
.. Capacitating their flight in the heat
battle.
These versions do not take into ac-
unt historical evidence that a North
irolinian was called a “Tar-Burner”
early as 1775, a “Tarboiler” in
45; that the state was known as “The
irpentine State” in 1850, the “Tar
id Turpentine State” in 1856. All
ese nicknames came, of course, from
e state’s fame as a source of naval
ares. (Reference: my feature article,
low Did We Get To Be Tar Heels?”
aleigh News and Observer, Janu-
y 24, 1954.)
Even so, the word “Tar Heel” itself
ems indeed to have begun in the
ars of the Civil War. No earlier
e of the term has been located. A
cent discovery, never before cited as
г
as I know, pushes back the printed
ary thirty-five years. In August,
166, a Charlotte monthly magazine,
he Land We Love, published an ar-
le titled “The Haversack.” In it are
veral war anecdotes provided by “the
illant Colonel R. of S. C.” Here are
ro unedited paragraphs (p. 293):
The sallies of genuine wit, in
repartees between the soldiers of
different commands, were an en¬
livening feature of camp life.
The following occurred Decem-
ЦЕ
ber, 1864, when Hoke’s division
was sent out on a reconnoissance
(sic) upon the Darby Town road.
Id* A
Kirkland’s N. C. brigade (of as
true metal as men are made of)
was passing us to take position on
our left, and greeted us with
“Rice - birds,” “Sand - lappers!”
“Hagood’s foot cavalry!” etc. One
of our men cried out, “Go it, tar-
heels!” This title the North Caro¬
lina troops were justly proud of, it
having been given them at the
battle of Manassas, where a
general remarked, “That regiment
of North Carolinians must have
tar on their heels to make them
stick as they do.” To this retort of
“Go it, tar-heels!” one of Kirk¬
land’s men replied: “Yes, we are
tar-heels, and tar sticks”; and
“Yes,” shouted back another of
the South Carolina rice - birds,
“when the fire gets hot, the tar
runs.”
By the time the variations of this
story got to Clark and Creecy, the last
clause had been omitted. It seems
highly likely that, at first, “Tar Heels”
was a term of derision, but that the
North Carolina soldiers appropriated
it and translated it through usage into
words of pride.
The spelling in the foregoing ex¬
cerpt is odd: a hyphen and no capital
letters. Nowadays the three most re¬
liable college dictionaries spell it Tar¬
heel, with no secondary spelling pro¬
vided for. But in Tarheelia itself, the
custom is for two words, Tar Heel,
both capitalized. Of seven leading
morning newspapers in North Caro¬
lina, only in Durham do we find any
concurrence with the lexicographers.
The editors in Wilmington, Raleigh,
Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Charlotte,
and Asheville pay no attention to the
dictionary-makers in New York, Mas¬
sachusetts, and Ohio. — Richard
Walser, in North Carolina Folklore.
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IE STATE, August 9, 1958
97
