HISTORICAL SKETCHES

CANE CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH

Number 19: October 2006 www.canecreek.org 6901 Orange Grove Rd., Hillsborough, NC 27278

ORANGE COUNTY GOES TO WAR

My mother, who was born in 1900 in Texas, used to tell me of sitting on her grandfather's knee and hearing him tell of his experiences as a confederate soldier in the Civil War. Fifty years after the war, he still had bitter feelings toward those "damned Yankees."

Today, when we think back to the Civil War, we are aware of all the old stories about valorous and bloody fighting, about the suffering of the citizenry in the south, and how it all came to an end at Bennett's farm, then in Orange County, in a surrender of southern forces larger than those commanded by Lee at Appomattox. What most of us don't know is what our ancestors in the community thought about secession and about the war once it began.

The presidential election of 1860 was perhaps the trigger for what was to follow. Slavery was an important issue. Lincoln, a member of the new Republican Party won on a platform opposed to slavery. In North Carolina, the Republicans were not well enough organized to even field a ticket. The Democrats were also in disarray and split into two ineffectual camps. Orange County elected members of the old Whig Party to the legislature and voted for John Bell of the Constitution Union Party for president.

Reaction to Lincoln's victory was varied across the south. In Orange County there was little alarm. North Carolina senator Josiah Turner was quoted in the Hillsborough Recorder on January 16, 1861 as saying, " I was asked often what the people of Orange County would do if Lincoln were elected. I invariably said that ... you would continue to sow and to reap, to plow and to plant, until, under the constitution, you would have an opportunity to elect a better man."

But in South Carolina, the legislature met in December and voted to secede. In short order most of the Gulf States followed suit. The secession of the Deep South sent shock waves through the upper south. The North Carolina legislature asked the people to express their opinion on secession at a February 1862 convention. Each county was to hold a public meeting to elect delegates to the convention. The state narrowly defeated secession. Orange County went against it by a four-to-one margin. One Orange County speaker said what must have been in the mind of many of those who attended. He said that he didn't feel like getting into a fight to protect the rights of the big eastern planters to hold large numbers of slaves. At this stage Orange County felt that preservation of the union was more important than a squabble over slavery and state's rights. After all, most Orange County citizens owned no slaves, and most of those who did owned just one or two.

In April, the South Carolina militia fired on the federal garrison at Fort Sumter and captured it. Three days later, President Lincoln issued a proclamation to all the other states to provide troops to march on Charleston and bring South Carolina to its senses. Now, suddenly, the issue was changed. No longer was it a matter of weighing preservation of the union against a squabble over slavery. Now it was whether or not to raise arms against one's brothers to the south.

At a public meeting in Hillsborough, a crowd thunderously approved a resolution containing these words: "Whereas the President, by a proclamation, has made requisition... for 75,000 soldiers for the subjugation of our sister states of the South... now we ... do hereby resolve that as citizens of a southern state, we are identified with our brethren of the Confederate States in sympathy, interest, and affection, and will not submit to their coercion..." Money was also raised on the spot to support a company of volunteer militia to be known as the Orange Guard.

In May, the legislature called for another vote on secession. Citizens of Orange County once again went to Hillsborough to debate the matter. The debate's main issue seems strange to us today. It was between two positions. One was secession and the other was continued membership in the union but in a condition of open rebellion. Orange County voted to remain with the union. But most counties, especially those to the east, voted to secede. On May 21st, North Carolina finally decided to secede now that it was surrounded by states that had already seceded. Ironically, North Carolina, last to secede, lost more soldiers than any other southern state.

I think that many in our church were never too enthused by secession. After the southern defeat at Gettysburg in July 1863, there began to be rumblings against the war. One meeting was reported in the August 26 issue of the North Carolina Standard.

"At a meeting held at Thos. G. Dodson's muster ground in Orange County ... on motion, John C. Sykes was called to the chair and Anderson P. Cates was appointed secretary. A committee was appointed to draft resolutions (later passed by a vote of those present) consisting of Frederick Lloyd, Samuel Crawford, Samuel Stubbins, Thomas S. Cate, and Enoch Sykes. [ All seven except Lloyd were members of our church.]

'"Whereas: The time has arrived when the people of North Carolina should express ... their views in regard to the policy that the Confederate government has thought proper to pursue...

"Resolved: That enough blood and treasure has been sacrificed in this cruel war to prove that fighting will not accomplish the desired end;

"Resolved: We are in favor of negotiation... We will [vote] for no man to represent us in the congress of the Confederate States who is opposed to negotiation...

"Resolved: We do not think it proper for any man under 60 years of age to advocate secession who uses his influence to get other men into the Army and his money to keep himself out. " Ed Johnson