Abstract:
Zebulon B. Vance was governor of North Carolina during the Civil War. He commanded the Twenty-sixth Regiment of North Carolina Troops at the battles of New Bern and Malvern Hill, prior to his election in 1862. He was an ardent nationalist and supported the Confederacy to the war's end. It was this steadfastness to the state that won him reelection in 1864 over peace candidate William W. Holden. Vance was again elected governor from 1877 to 1879 and then served as a U.S. Senator till his death in 1894.