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Statesville: |
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Zeb’s end-of-war home now a museum
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When he saw his wife and four sons crying, Zeb Vance wept, too. Three hundred mounted federal soldiers surprised them at their wartime home in Statesville to arrest him and take him to Washington to prison. The same fate befell all Confederate governors.
It was May 13, 1865, Zeb’s 35th birthday. He was penniless. His family would live off their friends and neighbors. This would be his last day as governor without a government. As Sam Wittkowsky kindly drove Vance to the train in Salisbury, Colonel A. M. Walker remarked, “That’s the last we’ll see of Governor Vance.” Death by court martial and hanging, or life imprisonment, was expected in spite of surrender guarantees.
Well, Vance lived on and so did his house. It was moved from West Broad Street to 501West Sharpe Street in Statesville. Today it is the Historic Vance House and Civil War Museum, under the care of UDC and SCV. Events like an old fashioned Christmas in Dixie take place, and the public gets to see the charming home that became the NC state capitol when the Vance family moved there from Raleigh.
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Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com
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