The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-14

| II was the SaddeSt pubic duty he was
| ever called upon to perform. The flu
ture seems to lis full only of evil. A
| Civil War. in which it will be hard To
say whether victor or vanquished is the
| greater sufferer. A civil war, whose end
10 man can see, but full, every day
| Of its long and sad years, of woe, Woe,
| woe. The impoverished, the down-trod-
| den, the widow and the orphan, will
hereafter heap bitter imprecations upon
the bad men who have brought these ter
rble evils of desolation and death upon
great and prosperous and happy peo-
pie. Thank God. that we cam say, we
have labored for Peace, and have had
| no wish hut to avert the dire calamities,
in a way honorable to both sections"
Ilistory--history which the government
is preserving in imperishabe records-has
shown with what unequaled fidelity the
people i'll whose behalf these words were
written redeemed their new obligations
1t was iii harmony with these noble
characteristics that North Carolina
should have been with exception ol her
daughter, TENNESSEE the last State TO
secede from the union, and, as the world
now knows the foremost. cnce having
taken the fatal step, i'll all that was re-
quIred to make secession good--in har-
mony with her conservative and peace
loving disposition, once the battle was
joined that she poured out her blood and
treasure i'll greater volume than any of
her sisters; that. possessing but one
tenth of the white population of the So
coded States, she contributed one-ffth of
their armies; and that she mustered at
Appomattox greater number of arms
h..n Al. Il.
she should also have supplied the chief
portions of the Confederacy's troops ell
gagged in the first pitched battle of the
war, may not be attributed to accident.
but rather to the complete condition in
which she sent her first troops across the
Nirginian border her First Regiment OF
Volunteers. For this reason they were
sent to Yorktown, which was then the
post of danger.
The hastily assembled meeting referred
to in the editorial quoted was public
meeting held on Tuesday. the 10th of
April, the day ON which Mr. Lincolns
proclamation was received i'll the most
of the towns of the State. It's resolutions
called for the taking of ''all proper steps
to maintain, secure and defend the rights
Of North Carolina as one of the Southern
States requesting the Governor to
forthwith convene the General Assem-
bly, with view to legislative acton in this
crisis" and pledging their support and
adherence ito the Governor and authori-
ties of the State in such manner as may
be deemed necessary to be taken TO as
sert our rights and defend our SOIL
Similar meetings Were held and SINH
lar resolutions adopted in all the towns
Il IL
lanatiOn came to hand.
The remarkable feature OF this move
ment was that it was not concerted Vet
it was simultaneous, and the voice of the
people throughout the length and
breadth of the State was as that of one
man. With sublime confidence in them
selves they had declared for peace in the
face of unprecedented clamor: but with
no less significance they made it known
that, if the time of action should come.
they would not be behind the foremost.
Thus the State which had declared for
the Union, two to one, ON the 2Sth of
February, became am armed camp, mar
shalled for resistance to the Union, on
the 18th of April, less than fifty days
NORTH CAROLINA ORGANIZES
HER FIRST REGIMENT.
the troops which formed the First Regi-
ment volunteered. They were the cream
of the States uniformed militia, and
they included i'm their ranks, when filled
and ready for leaving home, probably
the highest average order of men ever
mustered for war. The Charlotte Demo-
crat of May 1st, 1861, said: ''This regi-
ment is said to be the finest looking body
of men ever assembled in the State"
Local industries in North Carolina at
that day We're in a comparatively high
state of development. These companies
Were completely equipped in an incredibly
short time. More than half their mem
bers were either new paper or were litera-
ny and professional men who had enrolled
themselves in them as q matter of local
pride. The Yorktown correspondent of
the above paper, writing on May 9th
of the extraordinary character of the
rank and file of the First Regiment said
that among the privates were 1.-TWO edi-
tors and number of lawyers and doc
tors" The chaplain, too, the Rev Mr
Yates (since Il distinguished Doctor Of
Divinity, was taken from the ranks
of Company b, one of the Charlotte
companies. The State supplied arms
but all other uipments-uniforns, tents,
lSnapsacks. canteens and so forth-were
required to be supplied by the volunteers
or their organizations. The large har
mess and other leather manufactures,
carriage factories and metal working es-
Establishments which were a marked fea-
ture of our dispersed industrial develop
ment before the war, each locality tax
ing care of its own volunteers, supplied
a much more efficient means for meet
ing such an emergency than the present
system of concentration which the add
verse result of the war introduced. We
have recently witnessed the deplorablc
delay with which the volunteers in the
late Spanish war We're equipped. not
withstanding the unlimited resources of
the re-tlnited Republic. with it's more
than doubled population and its concern
trated wealth. The companies of the
First Regiment volunteered on the ] 18th
of April. 1861; they were formed into
a regiment at the State capital. by sue
cessive orders from the Adiutant Gen
erals office. issued oh April 10th. May
9th, May 10Th and May 10th; three OF
them (the two Fayetteville companies
and the Lincoln company were in Rich
49, ,,l ,D,, +bo 18th of Nav tho other iSnvan