Historic Hertford Mural features Confederate Solider saluting Flag

While visiting the coastal city of Hertford, Perquimans County, North Carolina, was intrigued to see this historical mural along Church Street in the downtown area.  The mural was painted in 1983 and is comprised of many images of Hertford's History.  The feature which first caught my eye was the large Confederate battle flag in the upper right hand corner, being saluted by a soldier in gray.  Other images include Indians, Pilgrims, seagulls, local landmark buildings and the town symbol, a turtle on a log.  I was a both puzzled and a bit amused to see that a New York Yankees baseball cap is at the lower left hand corner of the Confederate flag.  Is there some significance to this, of was it just put there by the whimsy of the artist?    If you know more about the mural, please leave a response.

John Carruthers Stanly: From Slave to Slave Owner

John Wright Stanly House, New Bern, North Carolina

While Visiting the historic city of New Bern, in coastal North Carolina, I saw many interesting sites, including Tryon Palace, capitol of the independent State of North Carolina after the Revolutionary War, and  Bradham Drug Company, the birthplace of Pepsi Cola. But to me, the most fascinating of all was the John Wright Stanly House.  It was here that I learned the story of John Carruthers Stanly, a former slave who gained his freedom, only to become the largest slaveholder in Craven County, North Carolina.

John Carruthers Stanly
1774-1846
Black Slaveholder

Stanly, born a slave in 1774, was the son of an African Ibo woman and the white prominent merchant-shipper John Wright Stanly. He was apprenticed to Alexander and Lydia Stewart, close friends and neighbors of his father.  They saw to it that John received an education and learned the trade of barbering.  At an early age, they helped him establish his own barbershop in New Bern.  Many of the town’s farmers and planters frequented his barbershop for a shave or a trim. As a result, Stanly developed a successful business.  By the time he reached the age of twenty-one, literate and economically able to provide for himself, his owners petitioned the Craven County court in 1795 for his emancipation. However, he was not completely satisfied with the ruling of the court and in 1798, through a special act, the state legislature confirmed the emancipation of John Carruthers Stanly, which entitled him to all rights and privileges of a free person.

Between 1800 and 1801, Stanly purchased his slave wife, Kitty, and two mulatto slave children. By March 1805, they were emancipated by the Craven County Superior Court. A few days later, Kitty and Stanly were legally married in New Bern and posted a legal marriage bond in Raleigh. Stanly’s wife was the daughter of Richard and Mary Green and the paternal granddaughter of Amelia Green. Two years later, in 1807, Stanly was successful in getting the court to emancipate his wife’s brother.

Some politically correct Court Historians end the story here, if they acknowledge the existence of black slaveholders at all.  What a noble thing, to purchase and emancipate one's own family!  But there is much more to the story.

After securing his own and his family’s freedom, Stanly began to focus more on business matters. He obtained other slaves to work for him.  Two of them, Boston and Brister, were taught the barbering trade. Once they became skillful barbers, Stanly let them run the operation while he used the money they helped him earn to invest in additional town property, farmland, and more slaves.

Through his business acumen, Stanley eventually became a very wealthy plantation owner and the largest slaveholder in all of Craven County. He profited from investments in real estate, rental properties, the slave operated barbershop, and plantations from which he sold commodities such as cotton and turpentine.

Stanly’s plantations and rental properties were operated by skilled slaves along with help from some hired free blacks. To improve his rental properties in New Bern, he used skilled slaves and free blacks to build cabins and other residences and to repair and renovate these properties. During the depression of the early 1820s it was slave labor that kept Stanly economically stable.

The 1830 census reveals that Stanly owned, 163 slaves. He has been described as a harsh, profit-minded task master whose treatment of his slaves was no different than the treatment slaves received from white owners. Stanly’s goal, shared by white southern planters, was on expanding his operations and increasing his profits.

During the early 1820s, Stanly’s wife, Kitty, was taken seriously ill.  She became bedridden and, despite careful attention by two slave nurses, she died around 1824. It was at this same time that Stanly began to face a series of financial difficulties.  His fortune began to plummet when the Bank of New Bern, due to the national bank tightening controls of some state and local banks, was forced to collect all outstanding debts. Unfortunately, Stanly had countersigned a security note for John Stanly, his white half-brother, in the amount of $14,962. Stanly was forced to assume the debt. This, along with his own debts forced him to refinance his mortgages and sell large pieces of property, including slaves. When these options did not resolve his economic woes, he resorted to mortgaging his turpentine, cotton, and corn crops, as well as selling his barbershop, which had been operating continuously for forty years. Without a steady flow of income, his fortunes continued to decline.  In 1843, his last 160 acres of land were sold at public auction. Three years later, at the age of 74,  John Carruthers Stanly died.  At the time of his death he still owned seven slaves.

1896 Description of the Windsor, North Carolina, Confederate Monument

The very interesting history of the Windsor, North Carolina Confederate Monument, reprinted below, was an 1896 local newspaper account,  later published in the book: 

Historic Southern Monuments;

Representative Memorials of the Heroic Dead of the Southern Confederacy

By Bettie Alder Calhoun Emerson

Published by General Books LLC, Jan 4, 1910

WINDSOR, N. C.



A Confederate monument was unveiled, August 13, in Windsor, North Carolina. Windsor is an old Colonial town near the Atlantic coast, the capital of Bertie County, and its history antedates many years the Revolutionary War. Its public buildings were of brick from England.

It was once a wealthy and aristocratic place, but suffered much in the crucial test of reconstruction and the severe ordeal that followed it. It has recuperated, however, wonderfully, aided by its large and valuable fisheries on the Roanoke River and Albemarle Sound. It is not only historic, but enthusiastically Confederate. It furnished many more soldiers for the Confederate army than it had voters. It was in Bertie County that the celebrated "Captain Byrd's Company" was raised and equipped for the war. That company—of the 1 1th North Carolina Infantry—participated in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, with thirty-eight men besides its captain (Byrd) and two lieutenants. Thirty-four of them were killed or wounded. Captain Byrd and the four men left for service went into the fight next day, when he and two of the four men were killed.

It was the color company of the regiment, and the flag waved on although its staff was twice shot away. The flag was preserved through and survived the battle. After a time, such of the wounded as were able returned to the company and preserved its organization. Its first-lieutenant, Ed Outlaw, who on that fatal day was under detail by order of General Lee, became its captain, and, with some additions to the company, commanded it in subsequent battles and on until the surrender of Appomattox. Two of the survivors of that charge were on the speaker's stand while General W. B. Bate, of Tennessee, delivered the address at the unveiling of the monument.

Four thousand people were present to witness the ceremonies. A royal welcome was given General Bate, winding up with a public reception at night in his honor. Bertie County was the home of the paternal ancestors of General Bate for several generations, and that added much to the interest of the occasion.

On the front of the monument is this inscription:

WE RESPONDED TO

OUR COUNTRY'S

CALL.

--

WE FOUGHT AN

HONEST FIGHT,

WE KEPT THE

SOUTHRON'S FAITH.

WE FELL AT THE

POST OF DUTY.

WE DIED FOR THE

LAND WE LOVED.

--

ERECTED BY

THE CONFEDERATE

VETERANS

ASSOCIATION

OF BERTIE, 1896

-- 

OUR CONFEDERATE

DEAD

1861-1865

.

Photos by J. Stephen Conn

Confederate Monument Honors Faithful Slaves

A Confederate Monument with numerous interesting inscriptions has stood proudly beside the Tyrrell County Courthouse in Columbia, North Carolina for more than a century.  One of the top panels of the Monument honors "Faithful Slaves."   This is a reminder that there was not a single major slave uprising during the War for Southern Independence, although countless Southern homes, plantations and farms were left in the care of black servants while the men were away at war.  This was in spite of Abraham Lincoln's declared best effort to cause an insurrection in which the blacks would murder innocent white women, children, and old men while the able bodied men were gone.   Tens of thousands of black men, both slave and free, were also fighting for the Confederacy - defending their homes against the aggressive Yankee invaders.

I've been told or read at least a thousand times that the North fought to free the slaves and the South fought to defend slavery.  That's odd, because I've visited and photographed hundreds of monuments to the War Between the States and have NEVER seen a Confederate Monument that says the South fought to protect slavery, nor have I seen a Union Monument that says the North fought to free the slaves.  And that's after visiting 3,055 of the 3,142 counties in The U.S.A. 

Apparently, the myth that the War of Northern Aggression was all about freeing the slaves is  just that - a myth.  The historical records make it clear that the slavery issue was interjected into the war long after the Yankees invaded the South, motivated by greed and a lust for power. 

 Anyway, more about this interesting monument.  It stands in dedication to the "memory of the patriotic sons of Tyrrell County who fell in the service of the Confederate States." The monument depicts a Confederate soldier, with inscriptions on all four faces of the pedestal.

The front face features a picture of Gen. Robert E. Lee and reads:

THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY THE TYRRELL MONUMENT ASSOCIATION, A. D. 1902

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. MARK MAJETTE, ABNER ALEXANDER, THOMAS L. JONES, J. S. CAHOON, and C. E. TATEM.

FINANCE COMMITTEE. MRS. B. V. McCLEES, MRS. J. C. MEEKINS Sr., MISS LINA B. ALEXANDER.

PRESIDENT. LT. COL. WILLIAM F. BEASLEY.

IN MEMORY OF THE PATRIOTIC SONS OF TYRRELL COUNTY WHO FELL IN THE SERVICE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

GENERAL JAMES JOHNSTON PETTIGREW.
HIS NORTH CAROLINIANS WENT FARTHEST AT
GETTYSBURG, PA.

Tyrrell County Confederate Monument, Columbia, North Carolina

The second face reads:

WAR COMMENCED AT FORT SUMTER, S. C., APRIL 12, 1861.


OFFICERS Company A, 32nd N. C. Troops.

J. H. THOMAS, Capt.

L. L. HASSELL and F. F. PATRICK, 1st Lts.

HENRY ARMSTRONG, HOLLOWAY ARMSTRONG, G. W. BATEMAN, J. C. DUGUID, 2nd Lts.

ABNER ALEXANDER, 2nd Lt. 61st N. C. Troops.

JAMES JARVIS, 2nd Lt. 2nd N. C. Cavalry.

J. W. Simmons, 1st Lt. 2nd N. C. Cavalry.

FIELD OFFICERS OF 32nd N. C. TROOPS TAKEN FROM CO. A.

E. C. BRABBLE, (Currituck Co.) Colonel.

D. G. COWAN, (Bertie Co.) Lt. Col.

HENRY G. LEWIS, (Tyrrell Co.) Major.


AS A TRIBUTE TO COMRADS WHO HONORABLY SERVED THE CONFEDERATE CAUSE TO THE END.


WILLIAM M. OWENS, CAPT.
CO. G, 2nd N. C. CAVALRY
BRANDY STATION, VA.


The third face reads:

IN APPRECIATION OF OUR FAITHFUL SLAVES

CONFEDERATES LIVING IN TYRRELL COUNTY WHEN THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED:

ABNER ALEXANDER, B. V. ALEXANDER, NELSON ALEXANDER, W. W. ALEXANDER, W. J. BARNES, THOS. BASNIGHT, D. D. BRICKHOUSE, F. L. BRICKHOUSE, J. S. CAHOON, W. R. CARAWAN, 2nd Lt. CO. H, 33rd N. C. TROOPS, W. G. COLSTON, A. A. COMBES, J. L. COOPER, W. S. DAVENPORT, M. G. ELLIOTT, W. L. GIBSON, THOMAS L. JONES, W. C. KEMP, W. W. KEMP, W. F. KNOWLES, JAMES LITCHFIELD, J. K. NICHOLS, JAMES PHELPS, JOHN RHODES, J. A. SAWYER, S. L. SAWYER, W. J. SAWYER, EDWARD SEXTON, W. E. SHALLINGTON, B. S. SPENCER, A. H. TATEM, C. E. TATEM.

TO THE NOBLE WOMEN OF TYRRELL COUNTY, WHOSE DEVOTION TO OUR CAUSE AND SACRIFICES IN ITS BEHALF, AND FOR THEIR LOVED ONES IN THE FIELD, ENTITLE THEM TO RANK WITH THE HEROINES OF ALL AGES.

NELSON McCLEES, 1st LT.
EDENTON BELL BATTERY
FORT ANDERSON, N. C.


The fourth face reads:

WAR ENDED AT APPOMATTOX, C. H., VA., APRIL 9, 1865.

WE LOVINGLY DEDICATE THIS TABLET TO THE MEMORY OF MARY ALEXANDER BEASLEY, WHO WAS BORN IN TYRRELL COUNTY, A. D. 1811, AND DIED IN TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, IN 1892. SHE WAS THE DAUGHTER OF HENRY AND CLARKEY ALEXANDER, AND DEVOTED THE FOUR YEARS OF OUR WAR TO NURSING OUR SOLDIERS, WHO LOVED TO CALL HER "MOTHER BEASLEY." SHE WAS THE MOTHER OF Lt. Colonel W. F. BEASLEY, 71st N. C. TROOPS, WHO WAS THE YOUNGEST OFFICER OF HIS RANK IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY.

THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER WON AND IS ENTITLED TO THE ADMIRATION OF ALL WHO LOVE HONOR, AND LIBERTY.

WILLIAM MORRIS,

SAILOR ON MERRIMAC

HAMPTON ROADS, VA.

Experience of a Confederate Chaplain

By Alexander Davis Betts (1832-1918)

The discriminating minds among our intelligent young people of the South will readily perceive that there is a manifest and important, because truthful, distinction to be maintained touching the style and title of the conflict waged on this American continent during 1861 - 1865, between The United States and the newly born nationality known as The Confederate States. The following from Dr. S. A. Steel, of Richmond, Va., will be appreciated:

"The term 'Civil War' ought to be abandoned because it embodies an error. A civil war is a war between factions contending for the control of the same government, like Caesar and Pompey, like Lancaster and York. If the Southern people had fought in the Union, it would have been a civil war, and the defeated party would have been rebels. The movement was a revolution. The object of it was to maintain a separate government. The war was between the government of the United States and the government of the Confederate States. We went out of the Union; went so completely that we had to be re-admitted. We were not 'rebels,' but patriots, wisely or unwisely, exercising the the inalienable right of self-government in an honest effort to rectify political diffiiculties. This is the verdict history will ultimately pronounce upon that struggle."

While our friends, the enemy, persist in calling as "Rebels," and refer to that struggle for Southern independence as "The Rebellion," we are content to bear the obloquy, knowing the injustice of it; yea, we glory in it, as did the now largest of protestant religious denominations accept and wear the term of reproach designating them "Methodists." But let us not forget that "We be brethren!"

***

One day in April, 1861, I heard that President Lincoln had called on the State troops to force the seceding States back into the Union. That was one of the saddest days of my life. I had prayed and hoped that war might be averted. I had loved the Union, and clung to it. That day I saw war was inevitable. The inevitable must be met. That day I walked up and down my porch in Smithville (now Southport, N. C.) and wept and suffered and prayed for the South.

The drum and fife were soon heard there, and all through the Old North State companies of our best men, young and middle aged, offered themselves to the Governor of the State.

***

August 28, 29 and 30 (1962). Horrid scenes! Many dead Federals still on the field, though a squad of their men, under flag of truce, has been some days caring for wounded and burying dead.

I found a wounded Federal sitting on the field - a broken thigh, a rifle ball through his arm and a bruised shoulder made him right helpless. His undressed wounds were sore. He asked me if I thought our surgeons would care for him. I assurred him they would. He said he had a wife and two little children in his northern home. His parents were pious and had raised him piously, but he had neglected his own soul. I said: "Brother, Jesus loves you. You came down here to kill my brothers, but I love you." He broke down and sobbed aloud: "You don't talk like one man that came here. He upbraided me." He told me our men had been very good to him during the three or four days he had been there. As one hurried by he would give him water and food, and raise him up to rest certain tired muscles. Another would stop to give him more food and water and lay him down.

They had just taken the last Confederate wounded from that part of the field. He was on the surgeon's table a few yards away. I trust this Federal was soon taken to that table. As I was about to hurry away to overtake my regiment he asked me to lay him down! How could I? Where could I take hold? I did the best I could. As I took him by the hand and commended him to God, I think my heart was as tender as it ever was. His bones may be in that field now. I hope to meet his soul in Heaven in a few years. Hurry on ten miles and overtake our regiment. Sleep cold and take cold. Frost next morning.

***

October 15 - Ten years ago God converted my soul. C. H. Ruffin, of Nash Co., wounded yesterday. Dies in my arms - in perfect peace. Charlie enlisted at 17, and perhaps, was the wildest boy in his Regiment.

He was very respectful to me, but showed no signs of any care for his soul till April last. About the time I was disappointed in my hopes to go home, he began to seek my company and give good attention to preaching. He became deeply convicted and was happily converted and I took him into the Missionary Baptist Church, and sent his name to the home church the day I started home If I had gone home at the time I first proposed, he might not have been converted. Just before he breathed his last I asked him about his case. He sweetly smiled and said: "Bro. Betts as soon as I die I shall go straight to my blessed Jesus!" That was a happy moment to me. As I write about it in October 1896 the joy I feel pays me a thousand times for all the nights I ever slept on frozen ground, snow or mud.

***

July 14 - Cross Potomac. As I came near the river a straggling soldier shouted to me and asked me to let him ride the horse I was leading. I told him the horse's back was so sore I could not myself ride him. In a sharp angry tone he replied, "Yes, you think more of a horse than you do of a man." I stopped. As he came near, I said, "Young man, you ought not to speak to me that way. I have waded the James and the Potomac for a sick man to ride my horse. I will now wade this river and let you ride over." He did not wait for me to dismount. He hurried into the warm, shallow water. I trust he and each reader will be slower to judge others than he was that day.

***

Engage the enemy fiercely near Winchester and drive them, and they drive us. Gen. Rodes killed. Went into private house to see his body after he was brought into Winchester. His wife had spent some time in camp during preceding winter. We fall back to Strasburg, marching all night. Riding alone and very sad, at midnight, I overtake one or two thousand Federal prisoners. They began to sing, "We are going home to die no more." My heart was touched. I shed tears as I thought many of them would die in Southern prisons.

***

The night following the tidings of our contemplated surrender was a still, sad night in our camp. Rev. W. C. Willson, the Chapel Hill pastor, was with us. We had preached a few times in that camp; but that night we made no effort to get the men together. In little, sad groups they softly talked of the past, the present and the future. Old men were there, who would have cheerfully gone on, enduring the hardship of war, and protracted absence from their families, for the freedom of their country. Middle aged men were there, who had been away from wives and children for years, had gone through many battles, had lost much on their farms or stores or factories or professional business; but would that night have been glad to shoulder the gun and march forward for the defense of their "native land". Young men and boys were there, who loved their country and were unspeakably sad at the thought of the failure to secure Southern Independence.

Rev. W. C. Willson and I walked out of the camp and talked and wept together. As I started back to my tent - to my mule and saddle, I should say, for I had no tent - I passed three lads sitting close together, talking softly and sadly. I paused and listened. One said, "It makes me very sad, to think of our surrendering." Another said, "It hurts me worse than the thought of battle ever did." The third raised his arm, clenched his fist and seemed to grate his teeth as he said, "I would rather know we had to go into battle tomorrow morning." There was patriotism! There may have been in that camp that night generals, colonels and other officers who had been moved by a desire for worldly honor. Owners of slaves and of lands may have hoped for financial benefit from Confederate success. But these boys felt they had a country that ought to be free! I wish I had taken their names. And I wonder if they still live. They are good citizens, I am sure.

Rev. A. D. Betts, D.D. was an ordained minister with the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  During  the War for Southern Independence he served as Chaplain for the 30th N. C. Troops.  The excerpts above are from his book, "Experience of a Confederate Caplain," published after the War. 

Jones County Confederate Memorial, Trenton, North Carolina

This simple three foot marble memorial in Trenton, North Carolina, honors the brave men of Jones County who were killed by an invading Union army during the War for Southern Independence, 1861 - 1865.

The Confederates fought against overwhelming odds and ultimately gave their lives in defense of their homeland.  Resisting an out of countrol centralized empire, they were champions for self determination, local government, and the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

The monument stands in front of the Jones County Courthouse, located on South Market Street at East Jones Street in Trenton, North Carolina.  The inscription reads:

1861   IN MEMORIAM   1865

TO OUR BELOVED CONFEDERATE

DEAD OF JONES COUNTY

---

Presented by

The Trenton Chapter of

United Daughters of the Confederacy

Jones County Courthouse, Trenton, North Carolina

Photos by J. Stephen Conn

Sampson County Confederate Monument, Clinton, North Carolina

Standing proudly in front of the Sampson County Courthouse, in the heart of Clinton, North Carolina, this Confederate Monument reads:

IN HONOR OF

THE

CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS

OF

SAMPSON COUNTY

WHO BORE THE FLAG OF A NATION'S TRUST

AND FELL IN A CAUSE THOUGH LOST,STILL JUST

AND DIED FOR ME AND YOU

1861 - 1865

On the east side of the 17-foot-high monument is a Confederate Flag carved in bold relief. The opposite end shows a Confederate Seal in bronze. On the topmost stone is a full size bronze statute of a Confederate soldier, standing at rest.

The project to erect the monument was spearheaded by the Ashford-Sillers Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The unveiling, on May 12, 1916, was a cause of great celebration by the entire community according to the Clinton News Dispatch. The day’s festivities began with a parade past the cemetery, led by little girls strewing flowers and complete with a marching brass band. Guests of honor were living Confederate veterans who rode in the parade in automobiles.

At the Court Square on Main Street thousands of people gathered for the unveiling ceremony, with much pomp, songs, speeches and prayers. Following the program a dinner was served to the veterans, their wives, widows of veterans, numerous military personnel, community leaders, and dignitaries.

Photos by J. Stephen Conn