Zebulon Vance was an interesting character

One thing about writing a book is that you learn so much.

Galvanized was a fun education for me, mostly North Carolina history from the early 1800s through the late 1880s. One of the characters I’d always been fascinated about is Zebulon Vance.

Vance was a legislator, governor, senator, and mostly loved by the people — although I need to find the newspaper article about how he was booed at a whistle stop in Spring Hope. I knew a little, learned a little more, and am now ready to tackle a biographer on him that we picked up a couple of years ago.

Vance was a strong Unionist before the war, even running on that platform. However, once he saw North Carolina was heading for secession, he adapted. If nothing else, even at a young age, he was a savvy politician — he was just 31 when the war started.

He’s featured in Galvanized and I’ll be posting more about him. Nearby Vance County and the town of Zebulon — host to my favorite minor league baseball team, the nearby Carolina Mudcats — bear his name.

In this post, I wanted to share a story I ran across in a fantastic book, Discovering North Carolina, edited by Jack Claiborne and William Price. The story was related by legendary Senator Sam Ervin, Jr.

“When Vance was chosen senator, Yankee General Kilpatrick, of Pennsylvania, stated in a letter to the New York World that at the end of the Civil War he had captured Vance and made him ride two hundred miles on the bare back of a mule.

“Vance sent a letter to the World in which he stated that Kilpatrick had knowingly lied. He had surrendered on May 2, 1865 to General Schofield, who kindly permitted him to await further events at his home in Statesville … he was re-arrested on May 13, 1865 by Major Porter, who extended him nothing but courtesy.”

Porter sent Vance by train and buggy to General Kilpatrick’s headquarters and he never once saw a mule, but said “on his arrival at General Kilpatrick’s headquarters ‘thought he saw an ass.’ Vance closed his letter by affirming that subsequent events had confirmed that opinion.”