John Motley Morehead stirred North Carolina’s ‘awakening’

Rip Van Winkle is a fictional character created by short story author Washington Irving in 1819. 

Old Rip fell into a deep sleep one day in the years preceding the American Revolution…after taking a few too many “nip sips” while hunting in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

Rip awoke 20 years later and was quite puzzled when he saw that the portrait of King George III displayed in the village inn had been replaced by the face of a fellow named George Washington. 

 

Rip had missed the entire struggle for independence. Pshaw.

NCPedia said North Carolina was given the derogatory nickname as the “Rip Van Winkle State” in the 1820s, because it “was so undeveloped, backward and indifferent to its condition that it appeared to be as comatose as old Rip Van Winkle.”

In recognition of his efforts to get North Carolina to “rise and shine,” Gov. John Motley Morehead, who served from 1841-45, came to be known as “the Father of Modern North Carolina.”

Born in 1796, Morehead grew up in Rockingham County, near the community of Leaksville. He was selected to attend David Stewart Caldwell’s famed “Log College” in Guilford County, a “theological and classical school for young men.” (David Caldwell is shown below.)

 

Morehead continued his education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was influenced greatly by Professor Joseph Caldwell (shown below), who also served as university president. 

(The Caldwells were unrelated.)

 

Prof. Caldwell had written mathematical analyses to show that “building a central railroad” for North Carolina, running across the entire state, “would have economic and accessibility advantages over a system of canals.”

After college, Morehead studied law with legendary jurist Archibald DeBow Murphey (shown below) and was admitted to the bar in 1819. 

 

Morehead began practicing law in Rockingham County. Morehead soon became involved in local politics and was elected to the House of Commons. After moving his law office to Greensboro, he represented Guilford County in the house.

In the 1830s, Morehead emerged as a leader in the North Carolina Whig party, which strongly supported internal improvements as one of its fundamental tenets.

Morehead won the governorship in 1840 and was reelected in 1842. As governor, he supported internal improvements, including state aid to railroad development, building highways and the improvement of navigation.

Morehead was a strong proponent of public-private partnerships to build infrastructure. He laid the groundwork for construction of an east-west railroad – the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) – to run from Charlotte to Goldsboro.

In 1849, the state legislature approved a bill authorizing the state to purchase $2 million of NCRR stock, leaving $1 million of stock for purchase by private citizens. Former Gov. Morehead was selected as the first president of the railroad in 1850.

 In 1854, when construction costs exceeded expectations due to the rising cost of iron, former Gov. Morehead called upon legislators to provide increased funding. His “Tree of Life” speech resonated among the lawmakers. He said:

“Let the North Carolina Railroad, like a huge tree, strike its roots deeply into the shore of the Atlantic, and be moistened by its waters, and at last stretch its noble trunk through the center of the state, and extend its overshadow and protecting branches through the valleys and along the mountain tops of the west, until it becomes, indeed, the Tree of Life to North Carolina.”

The legislature responded by committing an additional $1 million to “Gov. Morehead’s railroad.”

The Raleigh Register newspaper commended the General Assembly’s action, lauding the arrival of “a great system of internal improvements” that “will shake off the incubus of lethargy and sloth for which we as a people have become proverbial.”

Morehead City’s namesake was ‘Father of Modern N.C.’

On Feb. 20, 1861, the Town of Morehead City was officially incorporated by the North Carolina General Assembly – 165 years ago.

 

Morehead City townspeople gleefully celebrated the accomplishment. It’s too bad that former Gov. John Motley Morehead, whose home was in Greensboro, was unable to attend.

He was busy working to avoid a civil war. 

Morehead was one of North Carolina’s five delegates who were sent to the “Peace Conference of 1861,” which met from Feb. 4-27, 1861, in Washington, D.C.

 

Its purpose was to try to arrive at a last-ditch solution that would keep the North and the South as one union.

Also representing North Carolina at the conference were political stalwarts of the day – Daniel Moreau Barringer of Poplar Grove in Cabarrus County, David Settle Reid of Reidsville in Rockingham County, George Davis of Porters Neck in New Hanover County and Thomas Hart Ruffin of Louisburg in Franklin County. (They are shown is descending alphabetical order.)

 

Clearly, a compromise between the “free and slave” states wasn’t in the cards. Although he had hoped war could be avoided, former Gov. Morehead “reluctantly served” in the Confederate Congress during 1861-62.

Perhaps former Gov. Morehead’s greatest contribution toward the Civil War was in helping to end it.

 He did so in 1865, when he was called upon by North Carolina’s sitting Civil War governor – Zebulon B. Vance (shown below) – to broker North Carolina’s “political surrender” on May 2, 1865.

This necessary action followed the military surrender of Confederate troops at Bennett Place near Durham, where Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (shown above) agreed to terms with Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (shown below) on April 26, 1865.

 

(Their agreement disbanded all active Confederate forces in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, totaling 89,270 soldiers, which was the largest military surrender during the Civil War.)

Former Gov. Morehead welcomed Gov. Vance into his Blandwood manor at his in Greensboro. 

Two Union generals were also present – Jacob Dolson Cox (shown above) and John Schofield (shown below).

 

Meeting in the main parlor of the Morehead homeplace, the parties agreed to accept Gov. Vance’s offer to surrender. The Union generals dismissed Gov. Vance; he was free to go and join his family.

This was former Gov. Morehead’s final deed of public service. He died in 1866 at age 70.

 

North Carolina Gov. James G. Martin, who served from 1985-93, said former Gov. Morehead “rightfully earned the lasting distinction as the ‘Father of Modern North Carolina.’”

“My job as governor was easier,” Martin said, “because I could stand on the shoulders of John Motley Morehead (governor from 1841-45) and his legacy in transportation, education, manufacturing, architecture and preservation.”

“Gov. Morehead was an energetic visionary, intellectual and persuasive 19th-century lawyer, statesman, legislator, farmer, pioneer manufacturer and business administrator with a talent for leadership.”

“Clearly, Morehead’s most enduring and significant contribution to the economic development of North Carolina was to charter, fund and construct the North Carolina Railroad,” former Gov. Martin stated.

“He engineered an amazing public-private partnership that established the 317-mile rail corridor from Charlotte through the Piedmont, passing directly through Greensboro within sight of his beloved home, Blandwood, eventually reaching the port city named in his honor.”

“How fitting that John Motley Morehead was born on the Fourth of July in 1796, just 20 years after we declared our independence from England.”

It counterbalances, in a way, the fact that America lost three U.S. “founding fathers” presidents on Independence Day.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. James Monroe died on July 4, 1831.

They were in the same “great Americans” league as John Motley Morehead.

Morehead’s legacy, and place in North Carolina history, is a topic for further exploration. 

While serving as governor from 1841-45, he is largely credited with the “awakening” of North Carolina, rousting it from a “Rip Van Winkle” stupor.

A white marble bust of John Motley Morehead is on display in the rotunda of the first floor of the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh. 

Dedicated on Dec. 4, 1912, this sculpture was created by Frederick Wellington Ruckstull, a French-born American artist and sculptor.

Gov. Morehead envisioned a ‘large port city’ at Shepard Point

Some 170 years ago, the first North Carolina Railroad train ran the full length of the 223-mile corridor from Charlotte to Goldsboro, fulfilling a dream envisioned by former Gov. John Motley Morehead (shown above). The exact date was Jan. 21, 1856.

 

While all this was unfolding, former Gov. Morehead had been busy plotting and planning the extension of a rail line from Goldsboro to Beaufort Harbor. (Legislation had been approved in 1852 to construct the 96-mile Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad from Goldsboro to the coast.)

 

Former Gov. Morehead and his chief aide, Silas Webb (shown below), came to Carteret County in 1853 on a “scouting mission.” They were looking for a location to build “a large port city.”

 

Former Gov. Morehead purchased 600 acres of land at a location known as Shepard Point from Bridges Arendell Jr. in 1853. He paid a tidy sum of $2,133.33 for the property. The two men formed a partnership named the Shepard Point Land Company.

Also investing as stockholders were the three brothers of Bridges Arendell Jr. – Thomas Arendell, William Arendell and Dr. Michael Arendell. Another stockholder was Peter Gustavous Evans (shown below), Gov. Morehead’s son-in-law.

 

“Gov. Morehead planned to make his new town a second New York City,” said Herbert W. Stanford III (shown below), author of “A Look into Carteret County, North Carolina: History, Economics, Politics and Culture.”

 

Former Gov. Morehead believed that “with an excellent location on the seacoast and with a railroad running to the port, it would be possible to bring the products of the state here for shipment to foreign countries and to larger U.S. cities,” Stanford added.

Beth Keane, a historic preservation consultant, said former Gov. Morehead wrote a glowing description of the new town to attract inhabitants in 1857. In his words:

“Situated on a beautiful neck of land…almost entirely surrounded by salt water; its climate salubrious; its sea breezes and sea bathing delightful; its drinking water good and its fine chalybeate spring, strongly impregnated with sulfur, will make it a pleasant watering place....”

Former Gov. Morehead continued: “Capitalists may never have again such an opportunity for good investment. A great city must and will be built at this place.”

The first lots were sold on Nov. 11, 1857. One observer said: “Bidding was brisk. By nighttime, more than 100 lots had gone under the auctioneer’s hammer to new owners. In a crude office building, several clerks were kept busy making out the deeds, which were signed by Mr. Morehead as president of the land company.”

The first train, with passengers aboard, ran from Goldsboro to Shepard Point on June 7, 1858. People hooped and hollered, as the famed locomotive engine named “John Baxter” chugged into the depot.

Dr. Allen W. Trelease, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, said that former Gov. Morehead earned the title of “Father of the North Carolina Railroad.”

“It was not a product of his imagination alone, but he was the most effective campaigner and spokesman,” Dr. Trelease said. “The importance of the railroad to North Carolina’s development cannot be overstated.”

Ethel Stephens Arnett, a noted Greensboro historian, once described former Gov. Morehead “as calm and unhurried as the rising sun,” possessing “an amazing ability to adjust to what he was able to get.”

As for that “new port,” it began as Pier No. 1. Early exports were salt and naval stores, those resin-based components – cordage, mask, turpentine, rosin, pitch and tar – used in building and maintaining wooden sailing ships.

On Feb. 10, 1861, the new town was officially incorporated as “Morehead City,” as a lasting tribute to former Gov. John Motley Morehead.

Although Morehead City uses the slogan: “A little bit of heaven since 1857,” the official seal uses 1858 to mark the year the town was formally established, heavily tied to the completion of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, which began full operations that year.

 

While land sales began in late 1857, the year 1858 represents the “official founding date of the railroad town and port at Shepard’s Point.” 

(However, incorporation by the state didn’t occur until 1861.)

 

The dominant heraldic elements are oak leaves and acorns to symbolize strength as well as an ocean seashell that reflects the community’s rich maritime heritage.

Wrapping up loose ends related to Morgan’s Men:

Whatever happened to the other six members of the Confederate warfighting gang known as Morgan’s Raiders who escaped from the Ohio State Penitentiary in November 1863 along with their illustrious leader, Gen. John Hunt Morgan?

1 and 2. Traveling together, Capt. Ralph Sheldon (shown above) and Capt. Samuel Burk Taylor (shown below) were captured four days later in Taylor’s hometown of Louisville, Ky. Taylor was a nephew of former U.S. President Zachary Taylor, the 12th U.S. president, who served in the White House from 1849 until his death in 1850.

 

(Zachary Taylor, who was raised in Louisville, became a career officer in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of major general. He was deemed a national hero after his victories in the Mexican-American War. He died 16 months into his term from a rare stomach disease.)

Ralph Sheldon and Samuel Taylor and were taken back into custody and relocated to the Union’s Fort Delaware prison camp on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River across from Delaware City, below Wilmington, Del. They were released on May 21, 1865.

 

Taylor died in 1867 at age 26. One historian remarked: “Prison broke his spirit and his body.”

Sheldon returned to his hometown of Bardstown, Ky., where he died in 1895 at age 66.

 

3. Capt. Lorenzo Dow (L.D.) Hockersmith (shown below) made his way back to his hometown of Madisonville, Ky., but little information is available about his life after he escaped from the penitentiary. 

His home in Madisonville is a recognized state historic site by the Kentucky Historical Society.

 

4. There was also a Capt. Magee listed as an escapee, but sources disagree about his first name. It may have been Augustus. An internet search was unable to detect any information about him.

5. Capt. Jacob Coffman “Jake” Bennett, who was born in McLean County, Ky., returned to the Confederate army and formed an independent company, based in present-day Clay County, Tenn.

He raided Owensboro and other towns in western Kentucky, and Bennett is thought to have fought in the last battle of the Civil War in Tennessee, around May 1, 1865, at Indian Graves in Clay County.

In 1872, Bennett was elected to the first of three terms as Sheriff of Clay County. 

Somewhat ironic, Bennett was working as a security guard at the Tennessee State Prison in Nashville, when he died in 1904 at age 64.

Local newspaper interviews with Bennett after the war routinely described him as a “swashbuckling hero” for the Southern cause. 

One romantic account from 1898 noted that Bennett “received 26 bullet holes in his body and had 11 horses killed under him in battle. He was in prison 13 times but always succeeded in making his escape.”

In 1904, about six months before Bennett died, the Nashville Banner painted Bennett as a heroic figure of the Confederacy. The article noted that Bennett, as one of Morgan’s Men, was as “brave and as daring as any of that valiant band.”

6. Capt. Thomas Henry Hines of Butler County, Ky., accompanied Gen. John Hunt Morgan to the Confederate capitol in Richmond in January 1864, where he also met with President Jefferson Davis.

Hines (shown below) outlined an elaborate plan that involved raiding the Union camps that were holding Confederate prisoners to set the Rebel soldiers free while also instilling mass panic by setting fires in large northern cities.

 

He received Davis’ OK to proceed with implementation, using a group of about 60 secret agents based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

One key member of that group was George “Lightning” Ellsworth, a Canadian native, who formerly served as the deceptive telegraph operator with the original Morgan’s Raiders unit.

The movement to be orchestrated by Hines was known as the “Northwest Conspiracy.” 

Hines attempted twice to approach the Union’s Camp Douglas in Chicago where hundreds of enlisted Confederate soldiers from Morgan’s Raiders were being detained, but both of these efforts fizzled out due to broken promises by co-conspirators known as the Copperheads.

 

Hines learned the hard way that alliances he formed with the Copperheads’ leadership were hollow. 

The Copperheads was a loose confederation of Democrats that was active chiefly in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, representing families with Southern roots and agrarian interests who were generally opposed to emancipation. 

They were fearful it would bring an influx of freed Southern blacks into the region.

When the going got tough, the Copperheads back pedaled.

 

A former Congressman from Ohio, Clement Laird Vallandigham was “Supreme Commander” of the Copperheads faction of anti-war Democrats.

After the war, Hines moved to Bowling Green, Ky., in 1867 and began to practice law. 

He was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1878 and served as its chief justice from 1884-86. He left the court and moved his law firm to Frankfort, Ky., the state capital. Hines died in 1898 at age 59.

 

Historian Edward M. Coffman said Hines achieved great success as “a dashing officer and guerrilla fighter in Morgan’s cavalry.”

But his claim to fame remains that he was the man who engineered the Civil War’s most dramatic jailbreak.

Also deserving of mention is Col. Richard Curd “Dick” Morgan of Lexington, Ky., a younger brother of Gen. John Hunt Morgan. 

Dick Morgan was aide-de-camp. He was with the group of Morgan’s Raiders who surrendered near Salineville, Ohio, on July 26, 1863, and among the 70 officers who were imprisoned at the Ohio State Penitentiary.

Dick Morgan (shown below) was left behind, excluded from the group who would escape on Nov. 27, 1863.

 

Another key officer who remained in the Ohio prison was Morgan’s brother-in-law, Col. Basil Wilson Duke, who hailed from Scott County, Ky., north of Lexington. He was second-in-command with Morgan’s Raiders.

Following the great escape, arrangements were made to transfer Morgan’s Men from Ohio to the Union’s military prison at Fort Delaware in March 1864. 

From here, Dick Morgan and Basil Duke (and perhaps others) were released in August 1864, as part of a prisoner exchange.

After the war, Dick Morgan worked for the railroads as a civil engineer and was involved in the Morgans’ family businesses in Lexington. He died in 1918 at age 82.

Basil Duke (shown below) was college educated. He began practicing law in St. Louis, Mo., in 1858 and helped organize the initial forays for Missouri’s secession from the union. Duke married Henrietta Hunt Morgan in 1861 and became a valuable member of Morgan’s Raiders calvary unit within the Confederate army.

 

After Gen. John Hunt Morgan was killed on Sept. 4, 1864, at Greeneville, Tenn., Basil Duke stepped in to take command of the calvary unit and was advanced to the rank of general.

In April 1865, upon hearing of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox (Va.) Court House, Gen. Duke hurried his command to Charlotte, N.C., and joined Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army.

While Gen. Johnston negotiated a surrender with Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, on April 26, 1865, at the Bennett Place farmhouse in Orange County, N.C., near present-day Durham, Gen. Duke had been dispatched to Richmond.

 Sherman and Johnston

He was assigned to help escort and protect Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet members during their flight from the Confederate capital at Richmond to Danville, Va., and on through the Carolinas.

 

Duke participated in Davis’ final war council in Abbeville, S.C., on May 2, 1865. Others attending included Secretary of War Gen. John Cabell Breckinridge, Gen. Braxton Bragg and Gen. Samuel Wragg Ferguson. 

They unanimously advised Davis that “the cause was lost and further military resistance was futile, effectively marking the end of the Confederate government.”

At this point, Breckenridge issued an order for the Confederate units to disband.

Duke surrendered to Union officials on May 10, 1865, in Washington, within Wilkes County Ga., about 60 miles south of Abbeville.

On the same day, Jefferson Davis (shown below) was apprehended by Union cavalrymen under the command of Lt. Col. Benjamin D. Pritchard in south-central Georgia, near Irwinville within Irwin County. 

He was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Va., located at the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula.

Davis was released on bail in 1867, but it was not until Dec. 25, 1868, that U.S. President Andrew Johnson issued a full pardon and amnesty, ending all legal proceedings against Davis.

He established a permanent residence near Biloxi, Miss., in 1877, and died in 1889, at age 81.

After the war, Basil Duke went back to Kentucky and made his home in Louisville, resuming his law practice. His primary client was the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, for whom he served as chief counsel and lobbyist, despite the fact that the L&N was a frequent victim of Morgan’s Raiders during the war.

 

Later, Duke served as a district commonwealth attorney from 1875-80. He pursued an interest in writing the history of the Civil War, authoring numerous magazine articles and two books.

 

He had been wounded twice at the Battle of Shiloh, fought April 6-7, 1862, and was instrumental in having the Shiloh battleground in Hardin County, Tenn. (near the county seat of Savannah), designated as a National Military Park in 1894.

Duke was appointed as the park’s commissioner in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Duke died in 1916 at age 78.

  

 

Gen Burnside encounters Morgan’s Raiders

The Ohio State Penitentiary where Gen. John Hunt Morgan and his officers were imprisoned in 1863 came under the jurisdiction of Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, who was serving as the Union’s commander of the military district known as The Department of the Ohio, with headquarters in Cincinnati.

His territory consisted of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, part of Kentucky east of the Tennessee River and western Virginia.

 

Burnside is remembered as the commanding officer at the siege of Fort Macon, which resulted in the Confederate surrender of the garrison on Bogue Banks in Carteret County, N.C., on April 26, 1862.

His performance in North Carolina elevated his status as a military leader…but he wilted under the weight of additional responsibilities.

President Abraham Lincoln had assigned Gen. Burnside to The Department of the Ohio post following his failure at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., the disastrous “Mud March” Union defeat that occurred Dec. 11-15, 1862. 

Shortly thereafter, Burnside was replaced as commander of the Army of the Potomac by Gen. Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker.

 

Lincoln was hopeful that Burnside’s transfer to command “a quieter area would allow him to regain his footing.” 

Morgan’s escape was another embarrassing black mark on Burnside’s military resume. 

After several more blunders as a warfighter, Burnside was placed on extended leave by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in 1864 and was never recalled to duty.

Burnside finally resigned his commission on April 15, 1865, after Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox (Va.) Court House.

 

After his resignation, Burnside was employed as a railroad executive and became president of Rhode Island Locomotive Works in Providence, a company that built locomotives for major railroads.

 He entered politics as a Republican in 1866 and was elected Rhode Island’s governor. He served three one-year terms. In 1871, the National Rifle Association of America chose Burnside as its first president.

In 1874, Burnside was elected as a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island. He served continuously until his death due to heart failure in 1881, at age 57.

 

Burnside was noted for his unusual beard, joining strips of hair in front of his ears to his mustache but with the chin clean-shaven; the word “burnsides” was coined to describe this style. 

The syllables were later reversed to create the term “sideburns.”