more toward achieving the independence of that Republic than any other who figured in the revolution.
His only son partook of his roving nature in his younger days, and tried various schools in different States, including Lovejoy's Academy, at Raleigh; Georgetown College; a preparatory course for Harvard, in Boston; West Point Military Academy; University of Virginia, and Cumberland University.
On his marriage in 1858, he devoted a year to foreign travel. Returning in 1859, he settled on his farm on Shocco creek, Warren County. Although educated for the law his predilection for country life and agricultural pursuite induced him to abandon it shortly after obtaining his license. Nurtured in the school of State's rights, with the resolutions of '98 as his vademecum and Mr. Calhoun his political high priest, and believing as fervently as he did in his own existence that the only hope for the permanency of our system of government lay in the strictest construction of the Constitution, it was but natural that he should have espoused with ardor the cause of his State when the right to resume delegated powers came to be settled by the arbitrament of arms.
When it became known in the beginning of 1861 that the Federal Government had determined to reinforce and victual the beleagured garrison of Fort Sumter, he hurried to Charleston to tender his services to the Governor of South Carolina, and arrived in time to hear the first gun of the might struggle which it ushered in. Returning home, he volunteered in the Warren Guards, which was one of the three first companies to reach the State encampment at Raleigh. It was shortly afterward assigned to the (2d) twelfth regiment, which was the second to leave the State and report for duty in Virginia. While in camp at Norfolk he was, without solicitation on his part, authorized by the War Department to raise a regiment of his own to be attached to Wise's Legion. Before his two last companies arrived in camp, hearing of the fall of Hatteras, and feeling assured that Roanoke Island would be taken because it should be the next point of attack, he was permitted on his own application to proceed thither, thereby losing rank, inasmuch as he had to take that of lieutenant-colonel commanding, the regiment not being complete so as to permit him to take the grade above.
He reached the Island on February 8, 1862, the morning of the day of surrender and after it had been virtually decided on. Protesting against its being done, he was sent forward with his command (the 2d North Carolina Battalion) to intercept the Federal advance, the officer in command promising to reform the other commands and come to his assistance. They met and repulsed Burnside's advanced regiments, and were in line of battle when a white flag passed them from the rear in token of surrender.
Subsequently he was wounded during the siege of Washington, North Carolina, and afterward wounded and captured at Gettysburg. He was detained a prisoner at Johnson's Island until within a week of the surrender. Probably no man in the South felt more keenly the final blow, for none was more conscientiously devoted to the cause or more sanguine of its successful issue. Nevertheless, recognizing "The Nation" as an established fact after Appomattox, he in common with others similarly minded bowed to the inevitable. His only ambition since has been to see his State resume her place at the council board of States, the recognized peer of any under the altered condition of affairs, as she certainly was of all before the change took place. He is essentially "a new man," never having held a civil position of any kind. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in New York, in 1868; to a similar convention in St. Louis, and elector on the Democratic ticket of 1868. All his life, however, he has been a close student of passing events, and his reading confined almost exclusively to history and governmental polity. His political articles have appeared from time to time in many of the leading papers of the day, and indicate an aggressive tone of thought. The defense and advancement of his State and section is evidently the controlling impulse in all he writes.
He was nominated for Congress in the 2d district some six years ago against Governor Brogden, the Republican candidate, and consented to run only to keep his own party together, being fully conscious of the hopelessness of success.
Although a pronounced partisan, he is reserved, diffident and retiring in his nature; ever fearful of giving unintentional offense and perhaps a little too sensitive in taking it. Four years ago he purchased the famous "Tokay Vineyard," near Fayetteville, where he and his family now reside. Naturally one of the loveliest spots in the State, it has, under the enthusiastic efforts of its proprietor, been very materially beautified and improved. It is said
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