Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/43

 /V of .Yo/'/A Cui-nliiiii in tin- Ciril \\',ir. 85

This beneficent system remained vigorous to the end. The public school \\-as maintained in Nortli Carolina throughout the war, except in those sections where the Federals had control, and Sherman's army on its entrance into Raleigh found Dr. Wiley at his drsk re- ceiving rt-[)orts and tabulating statements on the condition of the schools.

Th- position of Dr. Wiley among Southern educators, generally, was not less distinguished. He was regarded by all as an honored and trusted leader.* Another alumnus, Colonel William Bingham, class of 1856, remained at the head of his private school for boys during the whole of the war period. The school was continued at Oaks, in Orange county, and ten miles from a railroad, until the winter of 1864-65, when it was removed to Mebane, N. C. It was then put under a military organization, it officers were commissioned by the State, and the cadets were exempted from duty until eighteen years of age. The difficulties were great, one of the most serious being the lack of the necessary books. This want was met by the preparation of Bingham's series of English and Latin text-books, which have been republished since the war and are now used in every State of the Union. f

Perhaps the most curious of the educational enterprises of our alumni was the law school for Confederate prisoners, established on Johnson's Island in 1863 and 1864, by Joseph J. Davis (1847-50), who was then a prisoner of war.

XII. GOVERNOR VANCE AND THE PART OF NORTH CAROLINA

IN THE WAR.

But it is not until we come to the actual administration of affairs in North Carolina that we find the most exalted position that was filled by a son of this University, for it was Zebulon B. Vance who earned for himself the distinguishing epithet of "the War Governor of the South." This proud title was well deserved and has been generally recognized throughout the Union. It was earned through the masterful ability displayed by Governor Vance in his administra- tion of the economic resources of the State. It was by his instru- mentality largely that the blockade trade, carried on through the

States, at Columbia, S. C., April 28, 1863 (Macon, Ga., 1863,).
 * See Proceedings of the Convention of Teachers of the Confederate

t Latin Grammar, Greensboro, 1863; Caesar's Commentaries, Greensboro, 1864.