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lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:31 AM Page iii My Dearest Friend The Civil War Correspondence of Cornelia McGimsey and Lewis Warlick Edited by Mike and Carolyn Lawing Carolina Academic Press Durham, North Carolina

lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:31 AM Page iv Copyright 2000 Mike and Carolyn Lawing All Rights Reserved Except as noted in the text, the letters included in this book belong to the Laura Cornelia McGimsey Papers and the George Phifer Erwin Papers, in the So ut h ern Hi s torical Co ll ecti on, Wi l s on Libra ry, The Un ivers i ty of North Ca rolina at Ch a pel Hi ll. These let ters are publ i s h ed here with the kind perm i s s i on of the univers i ty, and the ed i tors make no copyri ght cl a i m on them. ISBN 0-89089-832-4 LCCN 99-069190 Carolina Academic Press 700 Kent Street Durham, North Carolina 27701 Telephone (919) 489-7486 Fax (919) 493-5668 www.cap-press.com Printed in the United States of America

lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:31 AM Page v Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix Maps xi xii Proclamation of Governor John W. Ellis xiii Chapter 1 The First Six Months of War and the Folks Back Home 1 Chapter 2 Eastern North Carolina and Southside Virginia 83 Chapter 3 The Army of Northern Virginia 137 Epilogue 205 Sources 215 Index 219 v

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lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:31 AM Page vii A special thanks to: Acknowledgments M r. and Mrs. Ji m my Fu rr (Ma ry Lou Avery Fu rr) for providing the hosp i t a l i ty of t h eir home and a visit to Ca n oe Hi ll. M rs. Fu rr gen ero u s ly s h a red two ph o togra phs of L a u ra Corn elia Mc G i m s ey, ph o tocopies of three letters, which were not part of the McGimsey Papers, and a copy of the proclamation of Governor Ellis. Mr. Roy Avery who owns and maintains the old house and cemetery at Ca n oe Hi ll. Cousin Roy provi ded the tractor and his pers onal guided tour down the muddy road to Canoe Hill. The Burke County Genealogical Society and Mrs. Mary Jane Simmons in particular for publishing some of these letters in the Journal. D r. Ri ch a rd Shrader at the So ut h ern Hi s torical Co ll ecti on, Wi l s on Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. M r. Ra l ph Morri s on for providing copies of t wo let ters wri t ten by his ancestor from Point Lookout Prison. M s. Linda Gari b a l d i, Cu ra tor, N. C. Room, Bu rke Co u n ty Pu blic Library. M rs. Ma rtha Mc G i m s ey Lawi n g, my mother, who provi ded many wonderful visits to her bro t h ers, s i s ters, a u n t s, u n cl e s, and cousins and allowed me to listen to their stories of Old Burke. vii

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lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:32 AM Page ix Introduction L a u ra Corn elia Mc G i m s ey was the older of t wo daugh ters born to Jo s eph Lewis Mc G i m s ey and his second wi fe, E l i z a beth Al ex a n der Mc G i m- s ey. By the time she came along on Novem ber 1, 1 8 4 0, h er father was a 65- year-old farmer who had already raised five children and five stepchildren with his first wi fe, Allie Moore Wa kefield Mc G i m s ey. Both of Corn el i a s p a rents died in the 1850s, h er father in 1852 and her mother in 1859. Wh en these letters were written, she and her younger sister Celeste were living at Pleasant Hi ll, the home place. Th ey shared the home with an older half bro t h er, Al ph eus Mc G i m s ey and his family, and a mu ch older stepbro t h er, John Wakefield, whom she always referred to as Uncle John. Cornelia s best beau was John Lewis Warlick, son of John and Elizabeth Ba ker Wa rl i ck of Ta ble Rock, N. C. Al t h o u gh their co u rtship had som e ro u gh spo t s, and Corn elia did corre s pond with at least one other be a u, Lewis preva i l ed and their co u rtship became a marri a ge. Th eir co u rt s h i p h ad begun at least a year before the war. Lewis wro te one let ter to her in 1860 while he was on a trip thro u gh we s tern North Ca rolina and nort h Georgia. Abraham Lincoln s election to the presidency in 1860 ignited secession in South Carolina. Both pro union and pro-secession meetings were held in Bu rke Co u n ty and thirty other co u n ties ac ross North Ca ro l i n a. Pro - u n i onists correct ly argued that a Dem oc ra ti c a lly con tro ll ed House and Senate would keep the President from enacting any anti southern legislati on. By the end of Ja nu a ry that majori ty va n i s h ed wh en six ad d i ti on a l s o ut h ern states seceded. North Ca rolina was not anxious for sece s s i on or w a r. In Febru a ry 1861 the vo ters defe a ted a proposal to call a conven ti on to con s i der sece s s i on. The we s tern part of the state was more pro - u n i on than any other secti on. Wh en war did com e, North Ca rolina was the ten t h of eleven southern states to secede. The first Civil War military com p a ny or ga n i zed from Bu rke Co u n ty was the Bu rke Ri fle s. J. Lewis Wa rl i ck mu s tered in as a corpora l. The comp a ny was en ro ll ed for active servi ce at Mor ga n ton, N. C. on April 18, 1 8 6 1. ix

lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:32 AM Page x x Introduction It arrived in Raleigh, N.C. April 25th and was mustered into State service on May 13th as Company G, in the First Regiment North Carolina Volunteers, for the term of six months... The 11th Regiment N.C. Troops became the su cce s s or of the First Regi m en t. Ma ny of the men from Com p a ny G re-enlisted in Companies B and D of the new regiment. This correspondence in the Southern Historical Collection is generally between Lewis Warlick while in the Confederate Infantry and Laura Corn elia Mc G i m s ey back home at Pleasant Hi ll, on the Linvi lle River. The convers a ti on bet ween a man and a woman is all there, as though it has been waiting for someone to listen. Letters from others occasionally offer other perspectives. The men and wom en of North Ca rolina who pen n ed these let ters and passed these stories from generation to generation wrote this book. These l et ters open a wi n dow to the lives of s everal families living in Bu rke Co u n ty, North Ca rolina du ring the Civil Wa r. The ori ginal grammar and spell i n g of the letters have been retained.

lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:32 AM Page xi Map of Burke County, North Carolina xi

lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:32 AM Page xii P l aces men ti on ed in the let ters. O n ly ra i l roads that are men ti on ed are shown here. xii

lawing fmt 11/13/01 11:32 AM Page xiii STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. A PROCLAMATION, BY JOHN W. ELLIS, GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA Wh e re a s : By Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, followed by a requisition of Simon Cameron, Se c re t a ry of Wa r, I am informed that the said Abraham Lincoln has made a call for 75,000 men to be employed for the invasion of the peaceful homes of the South, and for the violent subversion of the liberties of a free people, constituting a large part of the whole population of the late United States: And, whereas, this high-handed act of tyrannical outrage is not only in violation of all constitutional law, in utter disregard of every sentiment of humanity and Christian civilization, and conceived in a spirit of aggression unparalleled by any act of recorded history, but is a direct step t ow a rds the subjugation of the whole South, and the conversion of a fre e Republic, inherited from our fathers, into a military despotism, to be established by worse than foreign enemies on the ruins of our once glorious Constitution of Equal Rights. Now, therefore, I, John W. Ellis, Governor of the State of No rt h - C a rolina, for these extraord i n a ry causes, do here by issue this, my Pro c l a- mation, notifying and requesting the Senators and Members of the House of Commons of the General Assembly of No rt h - C a rolina, to meet in Special Session at the Capitol, in the City of Raleigh, on We d n e s d e y the first day of May next. And I furt h e r m o re exhort all good citize n s t h roughout the State to be mindful that their first allegiance is due to the Sove reignty which protects their homes and dearest interests, as their fir s t s e rvice is due for the sacred defence of their hearths, and of the soil which holds the graves of our glorious dead. United action in defence of the sove reignty of No rt h - C a rolina, and of the rights of the South, becomes now the duty of all. Gi ven under my hand, and attested by the Great Seal of the State. Done at the City of Raleigh, the 17th day of April; A.D., 1861, and in the eighty-fifth year of our Independence, JOHN. W. ELLIS. By the Gove r n o r, Graham Dave s, Pr i vate Se c re t a ry. xiii

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