Leasburg Grays

"The Leasburg Grays," Company D, 13th Regiment N.C. Troops (3rd Regiment N.C. Volunteers)

Leasburg, N. C., April 16, 1861: Since the news from Charleston, every man, woman, and child, in this portion of the country, are for going out of Abe Lincoln's Government. We are now raising a volunteer company in this village, and are going to fight our way out of this Union, if no other way is given us. The ladies are hunting up the "Union" men, and giving them their views of secession. Gov. Ellis must call the Legislature of this State together, and let we go out. I voted, a few weeks ago, for the Union candidates in this county, but every Union man has been fooled in this matter. It is a shame that we should now be paying these Yankees to shoot and destroy our brethren of the South. Old Abe should be taken and to the first tree. There are thousands of good men in this State, who are now ready to take up their arms and fight for the Southern Confederacy. "North Carolina shall secede."

Yours, Perry.

Source: Richmond Daily Dispatch, 16 April 1861

Note: Fort Sumter, South Carolina, was fired on and fell 12 April 1861.

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Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch. "North Carolina Erect — Military Enthusiasm"

Leasburg, Caswell Co., N. C., May 14th, 1861.

Yesterday the honest yeomanry of the Old North State cast their suffrages for members of the State Convention, which is to sever forever the once golden link that bound us to the sacred compact of our fathers. Sofar, the returns in this county indicate the election of Hon. Bedford Brown and Dr. J. E. Williamson, hitherto two staunch supporters of the Union; but now that the mask of deception has fallen and revealed the fiendish policy of the Administration to subjugate or annihilate the brave sons of the South, they stand prepared to "do, dare or die" in defence of Southern rights. The Convention assembles in Raleigh, on the 20th inst., when, I confidently expect, North Carolina will formally assert her independence without a dissenting voice, and add another bright gem to the banner of our home.

On the 20th of May, 1775, the freemen of Mecklenburg declared their independence of England, and on the 20th of May, 1861, the gallant freemen of the whole State will throw off the galling yoke of tyranny imposed by the miserable descendants of Puritanism — We now virtually stand alone in the scrutinizing eye of the civilized world, appealing to the rectitude of our intentions, the justice of our cause, and the God of Battles to shield us from the poisoned darts of a calumnious foe. When the vassals of Lincoln shall dare tread the borders of our State, every man and boy will meet them on the threshold and "welcome them with bloody hands" to a decent home in our soil. Our citizens are fully aroused to every duty. Caswell has sent out three companies of as brave boys as ever drew a sword or levelled a musket, in defence of their altars and fires. They are pledged to "carry the war into Africa," if necessary.--Two other companies are also formed, and will soon be ready to take the field.

It would be well for the people of your city to keep a look-out for one William Barrett, a lame Irishman and a tailor by trade, who left our village a short time since, by the request of those who considered his sentiments and actions at variance with our interests. He said his destination was Richmond. Since his departure things have developed themselves. "showing him up" in no enviable position. and, had he remained, he certainly would have had the pleasure of a clean head and a gentle tilt on a fast trotting colt, fashioned after the manner of Abraham's splitting. H.

Source: Richmond Daily Dispatch, 14 May 1861.
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Leasburg Grays. Having enlisted at Leasburg on May Day, the sixty-seven men departed for Raleigh and arrived on May 2. on the 23rd they left for Garysburg and assignment as Company D, Thirteenth Regiment. The captain of the Leasburg Grays (Company D) was John T. Hambrick, thirty-eight, a merchant in civilian life. When the regiment was reorganized in April 1862 he was not re-elected captain, yet soon afterwards he was promoted to major and transferred to regimental headquarters. In October he resigned his commission because of serious illness. Former teacher Henry A. Rogers, twenty-seven, succeeded Hambrick as company commander but he too was promoted to major and transferred to regimental command. William G. Wood, twenty-one, formerly a student, succeeded to the command of the company and in 1863 was promoted to captain. Wounded and captured at Gettysburg in July, he was held until the end of the war. The next company commander was Thomas J. Stephens, a twenty-four-old former teacher, who had enlisted as a sergeant, been commissioned in 1862, and was a captain by the end of the year. Lieutenants in the company were:

John W. Allen
Thomas J. Chambers
Emory Brock Holden
Daniel W. K, Richmond
William Q. Stephens
Robert A. Williams

There were 122 enlisted men in the company.