[From Zebulon Vance, Governors Papers, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC]
Pittsboro, 25 Apl. 1864
To His Excellency
Gov. Z. B. Vance,
Dear Sir,
The enclosed petition [not included] was handed me in Carthage last Tuesday by Maj. Dowd [1] with the earnest request on the part of the good citizens, that I should get your recommendation to the Secy of War, to facilitate the assignment of my company to duty in that county.
Necessity imperitively demands the presence of a company of the right sort of men, in the corner of Moore, Chatham, & Randolph. Only a few days ago one of the Home Guard was mortally wounded by a deserter. They are daily committing all sorts of depredations upon property & threaten the lives of the citizens who dare raise their voices against them.
The petition is assigned by men of high character, and property. It would have had more names to it, but they were actually afraid to let it be seen generally, as it might by this means become known to the disloyal, which would render the property & even the lives of the signers of doubtful existence.
Please write me, if you will certainly be at Pittsboro, on Tuesday of May next. If so, I wish to advertise it all over the county, so as to give you a very large crowd to address–Chatham is daily becoming more and more corrupt, & it is highly important for you to address the people at this place. Your speech at Egypt [2], I think, effected much good.
With sentiments of high regard, I have the honor to be, very truly yrs. &c
N. A. Ramsey [3]
[1] Clement Dowd (1832-1898), a lawyer from Carthage, N.C., had served as Captain in Company H, 26th North Carolina Regiment, under Zebulon Vance, the regiment’s first colonel. Dowd resigned because of ill health in June 1862, and later became a Major in the North Carolina Home Guard. Jordan, comp., North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, 7:561; 1860 U.S. Census; K.S. Melvin, “Clement Dowd,” NCpedia.org.
[2] Egypt was a small coal mining community in southern Chatham County. Today it is known as Cumnock, and is in Lee County.
[3] Nathaniel Alexander Ramsey (1827-1906) worked on his mother’s farm in Chatham County when he enlisted on April 15, 1861 as a sergeant in Company M, 15th North Carolina regiment. He was appointed captain on March 21, 1862, and charged with raising a new company. That company was recruited as Capt. Nathan A. Ramsey’s Independent Company. It mustered into state service on September 29, 1862 as Company B, 59th North Carolina Regiment. Sometime between October 30 and November 22, 1862, the unit was redesignated Company D, 61st North Carolina Regiment. Jordan, comp., North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, 5:614-15, 14:677-78; 1860 U.S. Census.