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The Bloody History of UNC in the Civil War
by Charly Mann
In 1906, forty years after the Civil War ended, the students of the University of North Carolina paid tribute to the hundreds of former students who gave their lives in what they termed the "Lost Cause" in the following statement:
We, the younger generation of Southern men, pledge those gallant men who fought with Jackson and Lee, alumni of our beloved U.N.C. in the name of the Lord God of Hosts, that we shall never forget those noble teachers in grey, our monitors in every high holy lesson for all ages that are to be.
$50 in North Carolina Confederate Money
Today many of us would like to forget UNC's support and huge contribution to the Confederacy. In the beginning of the war North Carolina was the most reluctant of the Southern states to leave the Union. Most of North Carolina's political leaders at the time of secession were UNC graduates, and they had much more national sentiment than their counterparts in the rest of the South. Most white people in North Carolina did not own slaves and were against slavery. More than a decade before, the majority of UNC students had agreed that slavery should be abolished. In the 1832 UNC commencement address, Judge William Gaston said that slavery was holding back the progress of the state and stated:
Disguise the truth as we may, and throw the blame where we will, it is Slavery which, more than any other cause, keeps us back in the career of improvement. It stifles industry and represses enterprise — it is fatal to economy and providence--it discourages skill — impairs our strength as a community, and poisons morals at the fountain head. How this evil is to be encountered, how subdued, is indeed a difficult and delicate enquiry, which this is not the time to examine, nor the occasion to discuss. I felt, however, that I could not discharge my duty, without referring to this subject, as one which ought to engage the prudence moderation and firmness of those who, sooner or later, must act decisively upon it.
James Allen Wright (1836-1862) was a captain in the Confederate Army. He was killed at the battle of Mechanicsville in June 1862.
Two former UNC students, William A. Graham, and William P. Mangum were among the most powerful politicians in North Carolina at the start of the Civil War and argued strongly to stay with the Union. Magnum even declared, "If I could coin my heart into gold, and it was lawful in the sight of Heaven, I would pray God give me the firmness to do it, to save the Union from the fearful, the dreadful shock which I verily believe impends."
North Carolina was also a state that was not heavily dependent on slavery for its economic well being. The preservation and extension of slavery into newly formed states was never an important issue in North Carolina politics. In February of 1961 when other Southern states began seceding North Carolina refused to secede.
Unfortunately Mangum's fears were justified, and when Abraham Lincoln issued a call for troops to put an end to the secession in April 1961, Governor John Ellis, also a UNC graduate, declared to the President, "You can get no troops from North Carolina." Zebulon Vance, another UNC graduate, who became a leader in the Confederate Army and for whom Vance Hall on the UNC campus is named, spoke for the majority of North Carolinians when he said: "If war must come, I prefer to be with my own people. If we must shed blood, I prefer to shed Northern rather than Southern blood." So when war did come to the South most former and current UNC students either fought for or served in positions of civil service for the Confederacy.
Bryan Grimes graduated from UNC in 1848. He was a major general in the Confederate Army
During the Civil War North Carolina had three Confederate governors, all UNC graduates. In the Congress of the Confederate States fourteen of its members were North Carolina alumni. Of all the living alumni and students of UNC from 1837 to 1865, more than 40% served in the Confederate Army. Among the officers in the Confederate Army with UNC degrees there was one lieutenant general, one major general, thirteen brigadier generals, 50 colonels, 28 lieutenant colonels, forty majors, forty-six adjutants, 71 surgeons, 251 captains, and 38 non-commissioned officers. To put these numbers in perspective this was from a total of 2200 men who had attended UNC between 1837 and 1861. No other non-military university gave such a high percent of its men to the war effort.
James Barr Andrews, UNC class of 1854, was a captain in the Confederate Army and died at the battle in Richmond on July 23, 1863
Among the distinguished causalities were Lieutenant I.M. Royster, class of 1860, who died leading his men at a charge at Gettysburg while singing "Dixie" with his men. Two days later, Colonel Issac E. Avery was mortally wounded on the third day of fighting at Gettysburg. He lived just long enough to write this note on an envelope on the battlefield, "Tell my father I died with my face to the foe."
Two of the four tablets on the wall of Memorial Hall listing UNC students who were killed in the Civil War
In the fighting UNC class of 1839, C.M. Avery, commanded a regiment at the battle of Chancellorsville in which 41% of his men were killed. 1848 graduate George B. Anderson was also a regiment commander and lost 54% of his men at Seven Pines, and 1844 alumnus R.H. Cowan lost 56% of the troops he commanded during the Seven Day's battle. Finally it was former UNC students Z.B. Vance and Harry K. Burgwyn who led Pettigrew's Brigade in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. When the charge began they had 820 men. A few minutes later only 102 were still alive. To put this in perspective the 708 men killed in this one part of this great battle exceeded the total student enrollment at UNC in any year before the Civil War and well into the early 20th century. All the men these men commanded were from North Carolina.
Final two of the four tablets listing students who attended UNC and were killed in the Civil War
In terms of UNC deaths the records show that at the first battle of Manassas there were four UNC deaths, at the Battle of Shiloh five, at Malvern Hill fourteen, at Sharpsburg nine, at Fredericksburg eight, at Chickamauga seven, the battle of the Wilderness six, Spotsylvania five, and in Atlanta nine. All told 312 men who attended UNC died in the Civil War.
The following two songs are an addendum to this article. The first is a version of Dixie performed much like it would have been during the Civil War. Next is a rare recording of James Taylor singing Hard Times, a song Stephen Foster wrote in 1854, and popular in the South in the 1860s and 70s because of the misery brought on from the Civil War.
Comments:
Kip Rollins
12:21 PM Sat 9/3/2011
Charly,
Because you simply want us to forget what occurred during the War Between the States does not make what you say any more truthful or correct. To forget things such as this terrible war is to avoid the truth! We should seek and embrace the truth, not run from it. The truth is that this war went beyond mere slavery, and that cannot be denied thanks to first-hand accounts such as the declarations of secession found in Virginia and in North Carolina. Yes, both states were reluctant to join the Southern states that had already seceded because they believed that it could be avoided through compromise. When this failed and Lincoln called for troops to quell the rebellion and invade the South, the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee refused to participate. The belief was that these states that already seceded had a right to do so! And to violate that right would be to ignore our founding fathers and the document known as the Constitution! Secession as an idea was threatened by both northern and southern states up until this time. And when the time came for troops to be provided to the South, North Carolina contributed more than its fair share. Most of these men where not slaveholders as you mentioned above. but it was a cause they believed in. These men are not traitors. Even our US Congress issued a proclamation after the war saying these men were to be considered veterans and entitled to the benefits provided as such.
Andrew Burk
10:04 AM Fri 8/12/2011
Donnie, might I suggest you seek out some of the true histories of the war. Not those that have been written by those who refuse to believe the truth. My true histories are written by both northern authors and southern, men who refuse to be political correct. but rather to be truthful.
Ambroise
3:01 PM Wed 3/30/2011
To Donnie Warren:
The war was not fought for the preservation of slaves. Not at all. It was fought for states rights. At that time the constitution never said a state could not separate itself from the union. Read also amendement 10. Lincoln made his emmancipation proclamation only to keep England and France from joining the war and supporting The Confederacy. Many blacks fought for The South. The South did not segregate their armies unlike the north. It was all fought over states rights. George Washington was also considered a rebel and a traitor. I would say more but i must leave now. The Southerners were the real "good guys" If you have any questions feel free to post them up on here and i will be more than happy to answer.
Frank Burns
7:13 PM Mon 1/11/2010
UNC seems to have several Civil War Memorials including Silent Sam.
Bess Arthur
6:50 PM Sat 1/9/2010
I can not imagine UNC students today going off to any kind of war in such numbers on a volunteer basis.
Chapel Hill ex
5:02 PM Fri 1/8/2010
I had often seen those marble tablets in Memorial Hall, and had assumed they were the names of students killed in the World Wars of the 20th century.
Cathy Cobb
10:07 AM Fri 1/8/2010
I had no idea UNC's enrollment was so small for much of its history. It seems that some classes from the Civil War period lost as many as 25% of their alumni in the war.
Donnie Warren
10:26 PM Thu 1/7/2010
From time to time I've heard some people say that maintaining slavery was not the only reason people fought and died for the Confederacy, but I never believed them. It looks like from your article that in North Carolina at least there is some truth to that statement.
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Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
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Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
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There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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When I attended Duke University in the 1950's, I was surprised to encounter the Civil War still being fought by many Southerners... in attitude, of course! I spent much of my leisure weekend time in Chapel Hill where we came in frequent contact with fellow students. My roommate and I were Ohioans, and we made friendships with our Southern cohorts. Our proudest moment was when the UNC chapter of our fraternity not only accepted us 'Yankees' as friends and fraternity brothers, but eventually resulted in a meeting of all our N.C. fraternity chapters (at Wake Forest, AIR).
As a pre-medical and medical student I had little time to study the Civil War. At 76 I have plenty of time. What caused it? My first major insight came from a grad student leading a private Civil War tour in Charleston, S.C. (The Hunley ceremonies were on at the time). When our knowledgeable guide recited that the Southern Reps & Senators in the 1850's would allow no new states to be admitted unless each of them was required to vote Yea or Nea on Slavery -- I interjected, "Repeat that, please," to be certain I'd heard it correctly... I had. I then exclaimed, "There you have it -- the cause of the Civil War!" He was surprised that I felt so strongly that I was right.
I have been following the NYT daily news online from 150 years ago. Of course, it is a Union slant on the Civil War, but many articles from current Southern newspapers are published. I am delighted to find this series from UNC!
My reading leads me to the conclusion that the Civil War was begun over slavery -- purposefully and willfully begun by rabid pro-slavery leaders. There were, of course, other reasons for succession. As this UNC site reports: North Carolina was not really a 'Slave State'. Therefore North Carolina's succession was really about "States Rights". Whereas that argument may hold for N.C., and maybe Virginia and Tennessee, the statements by the leaders of the original succeeding states proclaim openly that they must have slavery. Too bad North Carolina's friends were pro-slavery rascals, but then the same seems to happen today among our "friends"!
Typical of how the Civil War divided families, my southern Ohio Great-Grandfather was definitely of Southern sympathy, and perhaps even a Southern spy! (We'll never know about that because the records for the CSA spy system were purposefully destroyed as the Civil War was ending in 1865. )