Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/514

 508 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Carolina did or did not do, in the war, this fact of her Union pro- clivities should never be forgotten. She was the last to move in the drama of secession, and went out at last more from a sense of duty to her sisters and the sympathies of neighborhood and blood than from a deliberate conviction that it was good policy to do so. So late as February, 1861, her people solemnly declared, by a majority of many thousands, that they desired no Convention to consider the propriety of seceding. But after the fall of Sumter and the procla- mation of President Lincoln calling upon her for troops, she hesitated no longer. On the 20th of May, 1861, eighty-six years aiter her first Declaration of Independence of Great Britain, she repealed the ordi- nance by which she became a member of the American Union, and took her stand with the young Confederacy. None stood by that desperate venture with better faith or greater efficiency. It is a proud assertion which I make to-day when 1 say that, so far as I have been able to learn. North Carolina furnished more soldiers in proportion to white population, and more supplies and material in proportion to her means, for the support of that war, than any State of the Confederacy. I beg you to believe that this is not said with any spirit of ofifence to other Southern States, or of defiance toward the Government of the United States, but simply as a just eulogy upon the devotion of a people to what they considered a duly, in sustaining a cause, right or wrong, to which their faith was pledged.

The records of the Adjutant General's office of the State, will show that North Carolina sent into the service of the Confederacy as volunteers, men at the outset, - 64,636

There were recruited by volunteers from time to time, - 21,608

And by conscripts,. _ . . . 18,585

Making in all, .-.--- 104,829

regular troops f^om North Carolina in the Confederate

service. Besides these there were regular troops in the State

service, -...-- 3,203

Militia on home duty, - 2,962

Junior Reserves, - ... - 4,217

Senior Reserves, - - - - - 5.686

Troops from North Carolina serving in regiments of other

States not borne on our rolls, - - - 3.103

Total of all grades, - 121,038