May 9
On this day in 1863, Aaron Sercy, a private in Company B of the 10th Battalion North Carolina Heavy Artillery, deserted from his post in Wilmington for the third and final time. At 44 years old, Sercy (whose surname appears in records as Cearcy, Cearcey, or Searcy) was a cooper by trade, living a hardscrabble life in Harnett County with his wife Peggy and their four children when the war broke out. He volunteered on March 22, 1862, joining the “Black River Tigers,” later mustered into the 10th Battalion in Wilmington in May. Yet Sercy’s dedication to the Confederate cause wavered immediately. He was first listed absent without leave on May 19, the day the unit officially mustered into service, though he returned within days. He left again in the summer of 1862, and only returned in the spring of 1863. He deserted for the third time on this day in May 1863. Illiterate himself, Sercy likely enlisted the help of his educated 18-year-old daughter, Della, to write to Governor Vance in June, explaining that he had come home to tend to his only son, 10-year-old William (“Billy”), who was “lying at the point of death with dropsy, rheumatism, and derangement of the liver.” Billy recovered and in June 1863, Sercy asked the governor “to send me a pass by which I can get back to my company.” Vance ignored his plea and Sercy never voluntarily rejoined his unit. He was arrested near his home in March 1864. Tried by court-martial, he was sentenced to be shot to death on April 19. The execution was delayed pending a review. Officers investigating his case noted, “the character of this man Cearcey is bad; he has deserted three times.” Nonetheless, his good fortune held–his sentence was suspended. Searcy survived the war, though he vanished from public records after 1870. His story is a reminder of the many conflicted loyalties, family burdens, and quiet acts of desperation among ordinary men caught in the chaos of the Civil War.
Occupational Portrait of a Cooper, With Barrel and Tools, circa 1840-1860, Library of Congress.
Sources:
Louis H. Manarin, comp., North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, 1:522-524; 1860 U.S. Census: Harnett County; Aaron Cearcy, Compiled Military Service Record; Aldo S. Perry, Civil War Courts-Martial of North Carolina Troops, 304-305; Aaron Searcy to Zebulon B. Vance, June 8, 1863, Governors Papers, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC
