Zebulon Baird Vance
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Zebulon Baird Vance (May 13,1830--April 14,1894) was an American Civil War hero and three-time Governor of North Carolina. A prodigious writer, Vance became one of the most influential southern leaders of the Civil War and post-bellum periods.
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Childhood
Zebulon Vance was born on May 13, 1830, in Buncombe County, North Carolina, the third of eight children. His family is known to have owned some slaves. At age twelve he was sent to study at Washington College in Tennessee, now known as Washington College Academy. The death of his father forced Vance to withdraw and return home at the age of fourteen. It was during this time that he began to court the well-bred Miss Harriet Espy by letter.
In order to improve his standing, Vance determined to go to law school. At the age of twenty-one he wrote the President of the University of North Carolina, former Governor David L. Swain, and asked for a loan so that he could attend law school. Governor Swain arranged for a $300 loan from the university, and Vance performed admirably. By 1852 Vance had begun practicing law in Asheville, and was soon elected county solicitor. By 1853, he and Harriet Espy were married, and they would subsequently have four sons.
Ante-Bellum Career
At the age of twenty-four Vance ran for a seat in the State House of Commons as a Whig, beating a man twice his age. He was defeated in 1856, but went on to win election to the United States House of Representatives. This was the last time Vance would be defeated in an election.
At the age of twenty-eight, Vance was the youngest member of Congress. While in Congress, Vance was a staunch supporter of the Union and states' rights. In March of 1861, however, when indications were that the North Carolina legislature was going to vote for secession, he resigned his seat and returned home.
Civil War
By the time the ordinance of secession had passed in May, Vance was a captain stationed in Raleigh, commanding a company known as the "Rough and Ready Guards," part of the Fourteenth North Carolina Regiment. That August, Vance was elected colonel to the Twenty-sixth North Carolina. The Twenty-sixth engaged in battle in New Bern in March of 1862, where Vance conducted an orderly retreat. Vance also led the Twenty-sixth at Richmond. The Twenty-sixth was ultimately decimated at the Battle of Gettysburg, loosing more than 800 of its original 900 members.
In September of 1862, Vance won the gubernatorial election. In the Confederacy Vance was a major proponent of individual rights and local self-government, causing him to be seen as a maverick by the Confederate government. For example, North Carolina was the only state to observe the writ of habeas corpus and keep its courts fully functional during the war. Also, Vance refused to allow supplies smuggled into North Carolina by blockade runners to be given to other states until North Carolinians had their share. Vance's work for the aid and morale of the people, especially in mitigating the harsh Confederate conscription practices, inspired the nickname "War Governor of the South."
After the War
Like many other Southern politicians, Vance was arrested and imprisoned in the Old Capitol Prison Camp at the end of the war. Following his parole in 1865, he returned to practice law in Charlotte. In 1870 he won election to the United States Senate, but was denied admission because he had not yet been pardoned.
Vance was governor again from 1877 to 1879, a period marked by the death of his beloved wife, Harriet Vance. As governor Vance led an effort to increase educational facilities and teacher training. At the end of his term as governor, he again ran for and won a position in the Senate.
As a Senator, Vance was a dynamic and controversial speaker who often packed the galleries. He was a popular and effective arbitrator of tensions between North and South.
The Senator married again in 1880 to Florence Steele Martin of Kentucky.
He died in Washington, DC on April 14, 1894, and after services in the Senate Chamber was buried in Asheville.
Quotes
About Vance
"He was the Mount Mitchell of all our great men, and in the affections and love of the people, he towered above them all. As ages to come will not be able to mar the grandeur and greatness of Mount Mitchell, so they will not be able to efface from the hearts and minds of the people the name of their beloved Vance."
-- T. J. Jarvis, Governor from 1879 to 1885
By Vance
"The great popular heart is not now and never has been in this war. It was a revolution of the politicians, not the people."
Unconfirmed
"A vale of humility between two mountains of conceit."
Supposedly said by Vance about North Carolina. The two mountains of conceit are Virginia and South Carolina. Some argue that Vance was referring to Georgia instead of South Carolina.
Legacy
There are several monuments dedicated to Vance:
- An obelisk dedicated to Vance in Pack Square, Asheville
- A statue on the south grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol Building in Raleigh
- A bronze in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, DC
Several locations in North Carolina bear Vance's name:
- The town of Zebulon, in Wake County
- Vance County on the North Carolina - Virginia border
- Zebulon B. Vance High School in Charlotte
- Zeb Vance Elementary School in Kittrell
External links
- Vance Birthplace (http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/vance/vance.htm)
| Preceded by: (first term) Henry Toole Clark | Governor of North Carolina 1862-1865, 1877-1879 | Succeeded by: (first term) William Woods Holden |
| Preceded by: (second term) Curtis Hooks Brogden | Succeeded by: (second term) Thomas Jordan Jarvis | |
| Preceded by: Augustus Summerfield Merrimon | Senator from North Carolina 1879-1892 | Succeeded by: Thomas Jordan Jarvis |
| Served in Senate alongside: Matt Whitaker Ransom | ||