The Civil War in North Carolina



Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians

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face and figure were so agreeable that nature bestowed on him, as Lord Chesterfield expresses it, "a perpetual letter of recommendation." His manners, always modest, were kind and genial, and friendly, yet forbidding any familiarity; he was always dignified and self-possessed.

        Of the large family left by Governor Graham, many have already made their mark; among them, his son William A. Graham, Jr. He was born in Hillsboro, on December 26, 1839; educated at the University, and at Princeton, where he graduated in 1860.

        He entered the Army as a First Lieutenant of Company K, Second NorthaCrolina Cavalry, and in May, 1862, was promoted to a Captaincy, and was at Gettysburg, July 30, 1863, where he was wounded. After this he was Assistant Adjutant General, in which capacity he served during the war. In 1874, he was elected to the State Senate from Lincoln and Catawba counties receiving every vote cast in the two counties, and was re-elected from the same district, August, 1876. His name was canvassed for Congress as a suitable successor of Honorable Walter L. Steele.

        Major Graham married in 1864, Julia, daughter of John W. Lane, of Amelia County, Virginia, by whom he has an interesting family.

        John Washington Graham, son of William A. Graham, was born in Hillsboro, July 22, 1838. He was educated at the Caldwell Institute and the University, where he graduated in 1857, in same class with A. C. Avery, George M. Duskin, William H. Jordan and others. He served for two years as tutor, at the same time studying law under Judge Battle and S. F. Phillips. He entered the army as a subaltern in the 27th North Carolina Regiment, and was promoted to the rank of major. He was wounded and taken prisoner at Petersburg. In 1865 he was Solicitor of Orange county, and served for three years. He was elected in 1878 to the Constitutional Convention, and to the Senate in 1868-70-76. In 1872, was the unsuccessful nominee of the Democratic party for Treasurer. He married Rebecca, daughter of Paul C. Cameron, Esq.

        General George Graham (born 1758--died 1826), was a brother of General Joseph Graham, and the uncle of Governor William A. Graham. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and came with a widowed mother and four others to North Carolina, when only six years of age.

        He was educated at Charlotte and was distinguished for his assiduity and noble traits of character. He was devoted to the cause of his country's freedom; in 1775 he with a few others rode all night to reach Salisbury, there seized the Tory lawyers, Dunn and Boothe, and carried them to Camden, South Carolina, where they were imprisoned.

        He was, while the British were encamped at Charlotte, active in attacking their foraging parties, and rendered their supplies precarious and hazardous.

        He was a Major General of the Militia, often a member of the Legislature, and for a long time Clerk of the Court of Mecklenburg County. He died, March 29, 1826, and lies buried in Charlotte. The marble that covers his grave bears the following:

        "Sacred to the memory of MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE GRAHAM, who died March 29, 1826, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.

        He lived for more than a half of a century, in the vicinity of this place, and was an active and zealous defender of his country's rights in the Revolutionary War; and one of the gallant twelve, who dared to attack and actually drove 400 British troops at McIntire's, seven miles south of Charlotte on October 3, 1780. George Graham filled many high and responsible public trusts, the duties of which he discharged with fidelity. He was the people's friend, not their flatterer, and universally enjoyed the unlimited confidence of his fellow-citizens."


GENEALOGY OF THE BREVARD FAMILY.

        The Brevard family,--this name was distinguished in the Revolutionary War, for its devotion to the cause of liberty. It is of Huguenot
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