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Ben's Civil War Story | ||||||||||
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This is a photograph of The Vance Birthplace. It was Zeb Vance's home. It is located in Weaverville, NC | ||||||||||
Zeb Vance was very much loved by the mountain people, and all the people of the state for that matter. He was a member of the Know-Nothing Party before the Civil War. He joined the Democrates later. He was very much opposed to secession. When it came up that he had toured the state and made speeches against secceding. I' ve been told by the older people over in some of the mountain counties that if Vance had come back after he came out for secession, that the mountain counties would have probably backed the Confederacy. This county (Madison) was the last bastion of the Confederacy on this side. It was one hundred percent in favor of the Confederacy. Not withstanding, the Union candidate defeated the Secession candidate by only thirty-two votes on the question of secession in January or Febuary 1861. After Lincoln called on North Carolina to furnish troops to subjugate the seceeded states, Vance always said that he was in Madison County one of the mountain counties beyond Ashville. As he was speaking of the Union, he raised his arm and somebody ran up the aisle and handed him a copy of the telegram of Lincoln calling on North Carolina for troops. Vance instanly realized that left North Carolina no alternative but to join the Confederacy, so he was accustomed to saying that "My arm went up for the Union and came down for the Confederacy ." These people said it would have been quite different in many of the mountain counties if Vance had gotten back and made the secession speech to them. from Mountain Voices by Warren Moore. |
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