Writer of Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry and Master Photographer
While “Lincoln’s pockets” sounds like an interesting name for a band, it’s actually the result of a couple of articles I recently read about what the 16th president had on him the night he was assassinated. On that fateful night, April 14, 1865, when Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theatre, he…
“As the author’s research reveals the journey of his great-great-grandfather across Nash County and battlefields of the Civil War, Michael K. Brantley discovers that exploring the past reveals the explored but changes the explorer. A worthy literary effort!” —Wade G. Dudley, author of Remembering North Carolina and Splintering the Wooden Wall I was honored to get this quote…
By Michael K. Brantley There are several North Carolina Humanities Council programs coming to the area during the second half of 2019 and I’m proud to be a part of two of the sessions. On August 27 at 5:30 p.m., I’ll be presenting a program about Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who…
By Michael K. Brantley There are many various stories about an Indian trading path that ran through the heart of Eastern North Carolina in the early 1700s. It is sometimes referred to as the Green Path or Green’s Path. Historians not only seem unable to agree on its exact location, but even disagree on the…
By Michael K. Brantley I couldn’t get everything about eastern North Carolina into the story that makes up my forthcoming book about the Civil War in the area (Spring 2020). The research trail could have gone on for another decade and been incomplete. One thing I’ve run across is information about the Confederate hospital in…
Congressmen being full of hot air is not a recent development. In 1820, Rep. Felix Walker, who was from Buncombe County, N.C., gave a long, rambling speech in the U.S. House. Not much was remembered about it other than it had little relevance to that day’s business. Walker, originally from West Virginia, became known for…
By Michael K. Brantley Spring Hope is located in Nash County, North Carolina, about 45 minutes directly east of Raleigh. Nash County is shaped sort of like the state of Nevada, flipped sideways. Spring Hope has a quirky history. A man named Crenshaw helped establish the community in the mid-1800s near a series of springs…
I have to admit as a kid I was always puzzled at the line in Yankee Doodle about a feather in a hat being called macaroni. I guess I wrote it off to odd lyrics. After all, there were plenty of odd lines in songs — look no farther than that thing about ashes and…
By Michael K. Brantley On February 18, 1911, Nash County Representative J.L. Cornwell introduced a bill in the North Carolina General Assembly as “An Act to establish and provide for the organization of the County of Jarvis from the territory of Nash, Wilson, Johnston, Wake and Franklin Counties.” The bill was labeled H.B. 1229 and…