Zebulon B. Vance

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 21 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1851 Zebulon Vance studies law at Chapel Hill Vance entered the University of North Carolina early in 1851 and spent the rest of the year at Chapel Hill studying law under Judge William H. Battle and Samuel F. Phillips. He obtained his law licence in December 1851 and set up an office at Asheville early in 1852. People: William Horn Battle, Samuel Field Phillips Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Samuel F. PhillipsSearch the index · NCpedia: Vance, Zebulon Baird (Research Branch, NC Office of Archives and History)
2. February 1852 Students revive the University Magazine At a student meeting Jeremiah J. Slade moved to re-establish the magazine, and the first number appeared in February 1852 with editors from both literary societies and William D. Cooke of Raleigh as publisher. It ran until June 1861, the societies agreeing in 1859 to cover its deficits. People: Zebulon B. Vance Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Jeremiah J. Slade, William D. CookeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 632
3. August 7, 1862 Orange elects William A. Graham to the state senate and H. B. Guthrie sheriff Orange County voters sent William A. Graham to the state senate, chose John Berry and William N. Patterson for the House of Commons over J. L. Stewart and William F. Strayhorn, and elected H. B. Guthrie sheriff over the incumbent R. M. Jones. At home the county gave Zebulon B. Vance 1,051 votes for governor to 308 for William Johnston. People: William A. Graham, John Berry, William N. Patterson, Hugh B. Guthrie, Zebulon B. Vance Place: Orange County · Also named: R. M. Jones, William F. StrayhornSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 27, 1862, p. 3
4. November 4, 1863 Josiah Turner Jr. of Hillsborough is elected to the Confederate Congress Turner won as an anti-administration candidate in the Confederate congressional election of November 4, 1863, carrying Orange by a majority of 739. In Congress his resolutions supported Graham's push for the Hampton Roads peace conference. People: Josiah Turner Jr., Zebulon B. Vance, William W. Holden, William A. Graham Place: Orange CountyLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 108 · Also: Hillsborough Recorder, November 11, 1863, p. 2
5. April 20, 1864 The Recorder endorses Vance but refuses to print soldiers' charges against Holden Dennis Heartt printed resolutions from the men of Dickson's Battery backing Governor Vance but left out two: one that denounced W. W. Holden and one he read as scorning every man not in the army as a coward. He wrote that Holden sought an honorable peace and that no evidence made him a traitor, and he kept that stand when Raleigh papers objected. People: Dennis Heartt, W. W. Holden, Zebulon B. Vance Place: Recorder office, HillsboroughHillsborough Recorder, April 20, 1864, p. 2
6. May 24, 1864 Governor Vance speaks for two hours to one of the largest crowds ever gathered at Hillsborough Governor Zebulon B. Vance, campaigning for re-election against W. W. Holden, addressed one of the largest crowds the editor had seen gathered at Hillsborough for such an occasion. He spoke for more than two hours on Tuesday of May court. People: William W. Holden Place: Hillsborough · Also named: W. W. HoldenSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 1, 1864, p. 3
7. June 2, 1864 The university graduates seven seniors at a thin wartime commencement The University of North Carolina held its 1864 commencement with seven graduates, the remnant of sixty-eight freshmen of 1860-61. The student body had fallen from seventy-three during the year to thirty-six at its end as young men left for the army, there were no outside addresses, and Governor Vance attended. People: Walter Clark, Charles F. Deems, Zebulon B. Vance Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 15, 1864, p. 2
8. August 4, 1864 Orange County gives Governor Vance 1,321 votes to Holden's 227 In the August governor's election, the official return gave Gov. Zebulon B. Vance 1,321 votes in Orange County to 227 for W. W. Holden, against Vance's 1,451 to 372 over Johnston in 1862. Soldiers voted in camp on July 28 and the people at home on August 4. People: Zebulon B. Vance, William W. Holden Place: Orange County · Also named: W. W. HoldenSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, October 26, 1864, p. 3
9. April 9, 1865 Swain and Graham agree on a peace plan at Graham's Hillsborough house Swain spent the day at Graham's house in Hillsborough, where Graham wrote out a four-point plan calling for the legislature to meet and seek peace talks with the United States, and for the governor to ask Sherman for a halt to fighting. Swain carried it to Raleigh by the morning train, and Vance agreed to try it if General Johnston consented. People: William A. Graham, David L. Swain, Zebulon B. Vance Place: Graham house, HillsboroughCornelia Phillips Spencer, The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina (1866), scan p. 149
10. April 14, 1865 Graham and Swain bring Governor Vance word of Lee's surrender at Hillsborough Returning from Raleigh with Sherman's invitation and safe conduct for the governor, Graham and Swain reached Hillsborough on the evening of April 14 and found Vance waiting in Graham's parlor. Neither Vance nor General Hampton had yet heard that Lee had surrendered. Vance chose to answer a summons from Jefferson Davis and left for Greensboro the next morning instead of going back to Raleigh. People: Zebulon B. Vance, William A. Graham, David L. Swain Place: Graham house, Hillsborough · Also named: Jefferson DavisCornelia Phillips Spencer, The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina (1866), scan p. 172
11. 1866 commencement Trustees strike Confederate leaders from the commencement ball The student ball managers named Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, John C. Breckinridge, Zebulon Vance and other Confederate figures as honorary managers without asking them. Fearing hostile action by Congress, the trustees ruled the choice improper. People: Zebulon B. Vance, David L. Swain, Robert E. Lee Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Jefferson Davis, John C. BreckinridgeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 755
12. June 1866 Zebulon Vance gives the commencement address on the duties of defeat At a commencement with only three seniors but a large crowd, Zebulon B. Vance spoke on what a defeated people owed. Spencer hoped the speech would help answer the hostility then growing against the university and its faculty. Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · Hope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 145