[From Zebulon Vance, Governors Papers, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC]

​

State of North Carolina

Executive Department

Raleigh April 11th 1864

Hon J A Seddon

Secty of War

Sir 

     I beg leave again to call your earnest attention to the importance of suspending the execution of the Conscript law in the mountain counties of Western N. Carolina.

     They are filled with tories and deserters, burning, robbing, and murdering: they have been robbed and eaten out by Longstreets Command[1] and have lost their crops by being in the field nearly all the time trying to drive back the enemy. Now that Longstreets Command is removed, their condition will be altogether enriched, and hundreds will go to the enemy for protection and bread

     Please consider their condition and relieve them if possible

Yrs &c

Z. B. Vance

​

[1] Forces from General James Longstreet's two-division command had foraged for food in the western North Carolina counties while engaged in a failed campaign to capture Knoxville in the winter of 1863-64. In early April, Longstreet's force departed to return to the Army of Northern Virginia.