Monthly Archives: May 2011

21 May 1861: “North Carolina: A Call to Arms!!!”

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Item description: This poem, printed as a broadside or handbill, was probably written just after North Carolina’s formal secession from the Union on May 20, 1861. Handbills such as this one were used to encourage new recruits to join the … Continue reading →

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20 May 1861: “…the union now subsisting between the State of North Carolina and the other States…is hereby dissolved”

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Item description: [No. 1] AN ORDINANCE TO DISSOLVE THE UNION BETWEEN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA AND THE OTHER STATES UNITED WITH HER UNDER THE COMPACT OF GOVERNMENT ENTITLED THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. Item transcription: [No. 1.] AN … Continue reading →

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19 May 1861: “The Fight Commenced“

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Item description: Report of a naval engagement in Norfolk, Virginia. [This report was originally published in the Petersburg (Va.) Express on 19 May 1861 and reprinted here in the Weekly State Journal (Raleigh, N.C.) on 22 May 1861.] Item citation: … Continue reading →

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18 May 1861: “The difficulties of these times…”

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Item description:  In this letter, UNC President David Swain alerts Graham that the school’s University Magazine would suspend its publication, due in large part to the increasingly low numbers of student staffers. Swain also urges Graham to appeal to state law.       … Continue reading →

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17 May 1861: “Which gives the greatest incentive to action, the hope of reward or the fear of punishment.”

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Item description: Minutes from a 17 May 1861 meeting of the Philanthropic Society of the University of North Carolina. Minutes note society business and debates, and contain committee reports and society resolutions. This particular set of minutes details passage of … Continue reading →

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16 May 1861: Meshack F. Hunt of Rowan County, N.C., enlists in Company E, Fifth N.C. Infantry Regiment

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Item description: Ambrotype (circa 1860) of Meshack F. Hunt. Meshack F. Hunt was born in Rowan County, N.C. about 1840. He enlisted in Company E, Fifth N.C. Infantry Regiment on May 16, 1861 at Salisbury. He was promoted to first … Continue reading →

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15 May 1861: “We are all one for our flag, since seven thousand cowards cannonaded seventy half-starved men for thirty six hours to strike it down.”

Posted on 15 May ’11 by

Item description: George W. Bethune, New York, N.Y., to Mary B. Blackford, Lynchburg, Va., describing the Northern response to Ft. Sumter; why the North must fight to save the Union. Item citation: From folder 79 in the Blackford Family Papers … Continue reading →

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14 May 1861: “…all prizes of vessels and property captured by private armed ships…”

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Item description: “AN ACT Regulating the sale of Prizes, and the distribution thereof.” No. 126. Item transcription: [click here to view a full transcription of the acts and resolutions via Documenting the American South] Item citation: From Acts and resolutions … Continue reading →

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13 May 1861: “…there is little or no hope or reason for hope, that this war cloud can pass away without bursting in storm and bloodshed.”

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Item description: The editors of the Daily Journal (Wilmington, NC) give their opinions on the evolving conflict and how they see it being resolved. Item citation: “How Long?,”The Daily Journal. 13 May 1861. Wilmington, N.C.: Fulton & Price. C071 W74jd. … Continue reading →

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12 May 1861: “I am going with him…I will be as safe as at home and far better satisfied…”

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Item description: Letter, 12 May 1861, from Annie Maney of Nashville, Tenn., to her sister Bettie Kimberly in Chapel Hill, N.C., regarding the possible postponement of Maney’s wedding to John Schon, due to Schon’s impending enlistment in the Confederate Army. … Continue reading →

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