Edward Stanly was appointed by Lincoln to rule North Carolina as military governor after the capture and occupation of New Bern. A native Tarheel, though in California at the outbreak of war, Stanly became disillusioned after observing shiploads of looted furniture, artwork, pianos, carpets and libraries taken northward by the invaders. In a letter to Senator Charles Sumner, Stanly stated that "I was informed that one regiment of abolitionists had conveyed North more than $40,000 worth of property." After his resignation January 15, 1863, he said he had witnessed "the most shameful pillaging and robbery that ever disgraced an army in any civilized land."
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission www.ncwbts150.com "The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Pillaging and Robbing North Carolina:
June 12, 1862:
"Stanly, the renegade, the traitor governor, appointed by Mr. Lincoln to rule his native State, finds the way of the transgressor hard. He has stopped the Negro schools as being contrary to the Statute Law of North Carolina, by which he has offended his Northern masters, but with a strange inconsistency he ignores the fact (of which Mr. [George Edmund] Badger has reminded him however) that his being here, as Gov, is as much an infringement on our rights, for the Laws of N.C. provide for an election of the Gov by the people. He said that if there was one man in N.C. whom he regarded more than another, one man whom he loved, that man was Richard S. Donnell, & yet the first sight which greeted him on stepping ashore at New Berne was the coffin of Mr. Donnell's mother with her name & the date of her birth & death cut on it, waiting shipment to NY, her remains having been thrown out to give place to the body of a Yankee officer! Such is our foe.”
June 22, 1862:
"We hear that Lincoln has recalled Stanly from the governorship of North Carolina. How true it is that it is hard to serve two masters! The shallow artifice by which he attempted to throw dust in our eyes by professing to govern us by the Statute Laws of N.C. displeased his Northern masters, whilst his being here at all is such an infringement of our rights that no plausibility could even gild the pill.
Richard Dobbs Speight, Gov of N.C., was killed in a duel by Edward Stanly's father many years ago. His grave was violated by the Yankees when they had possession of New Berne, and his skull stuck upon a pole was one of the first objects which met Stanly's eyes as he landed in New Berne as Lincoln's governor, appointed to subjugate his native State."
(Journal of A Secesh Lady, Diary of Catherine Edmondston, Beth Crabtree, editor, NCA&H, 1979, pp. 193-200)
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Adhering to the Enemy – Lincoln’s Proconsul Edward Stanly
Most of eastern North Carolina lay open to the Union troops from early 1862, and by degrees they stripped the entire region of everything of value that was moveable and whole shiploads of booty were sent north. New Bern-native Edward Stanly was appointed military governor by Lincoln in late May 1862 and sent to occupied Morehead City to govern his subjects, but even he lost hope of restoring the Tarheel State to the Union after watching shiploads of loot heading northward. He resigned his appointment a year later.
Stanly wrote: "Had the war in North Carolina been conducted by soldiers who were Christians and gentlemen, the State would have long ago rebelled against rebellion. But instead of that, what was done? Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of property were conveyed North. Libraries, pianos, carpets, mirrors, family portraits, everything in short, that could be removed, was stolen by men abusing flagitious slave holders and preaching liberty, justice and civilisation.
I was informed that one regiment of abolitionists had conveyed North more than $40,000 worth of property. They literally robbed the cradle and the grave. Family burial vaults were broken open for robbery; and in one instance (the fact was published in a Boston newspaper and admitted to me by an officer of high position in the army) a vault was entered, a metallic coffin removed, and the remains cast out that those of a dead [northern] soldier might be put in the place.” (Hamilton, pp. 94-95)
Colonel William Lamb wrote from Wilmington in mid-1862:
“Northern emissaries had kindled the flames of disloyalty in the East, and 18 November 1861, a convention of delegates claiming to represent forty-five counties met at [enemy-occupied] Hatteras, repudiated secession, announced their loyalty to the [Northern] Union, and named one Marble Nash Taylor, Provisional Governor of North Carolina. The conduct of these Tories, or Buffaloes as they were called, was a source of annoyance to the patriots, but only served to strengthen their loyalty to their country.” (Clark’s regiments, pp. 629-631)
North Carolina Governor Zeb Vance wrote to Stanly in late October 1862:
“Your proposition [of discussing surrender] is based on the supposition that there is baseness in North Carolina sufficient to induce her people to abandon their confederates and leave them to suffer alone all the horrors of this unnatural war, for the sake of securing for themselves, a mistake which I could scarcely have supposed anyone so well acquainted with the character of our people as your self could have committed.” In a second letter, Vance “told Stanly how his name was execrated and cursed and that “damnable atrocities” were committed daily almost under his eyes.” (Champion of Personal Freedom, p. 200)
Sources:
Col. William Lamb, Thirty-sixth Regiment, Clark’s Regiments
Reconstruction in North Carolina, J.G. deR. Hamilton, Books for Libraries Press, 1971
Zeb Vance, Champion of Personal Freedom, Glenn Tucker, Bobbs-Merrill, 1965
