There have been several articles recently that mentioned a connection between Davidson College and the Rowan Cotton Factory in Salisbury. The cotton factory became the site of the Salisbury Confederate prison. One of our intrepid student assistants scanned the typescript of the Trustee minutes and found the following entries:
July 10, 1860 – Treasurer’s report under To Balance in Treasury – Sale of Salisbury Factory Property – 500.00
July 9, 1861 – Treasurer’s report – to Cash for Property of Salisbury Factory, sold by Mr. D. A. Davis – 1,100.00
July 15, 1861 – Treasurer’s report – Money on hand- Salisbury Factory property by Mr. D. A. Davis- 378.15
Record of Mr. D. A. Davis since last Report
By sale of Salisbury Factory $725.91, by sale of lot of land, 16 acres paid in Confederate bonds 5,000, In final settlement of Mr. Chambers Extrs. 10, 359.56, total $16,085.47
The committee to sell interest in Rowan Cotton Factory by Mr. D.A. Davis, Chairman, presented a verbal report, which was received and approved and the Committee discharged. Said property sold for ($5,000) Five Thousand Dollars in Confederate Bonds.
The entries proved more confusing than not and we didn’t find the reference where the college acquired the property. Members of the Salisbury Confederate Prison Association, Inc. helped to find the document that clarified most of the history. The college acquired the factory and land as one-third owners, sharing the property with two relatives of Maxwell Chambers. The college made several attempts to sell its one-third interest, but apparently none of the offers worked out. In July 1861, the college along with the other two owners sold the land to the Confederate government with each receiving $5.000 in confederate bonds.
There is a conference coming up dealing with the history of the prison – the information is below.
The Robert F. Hoke Chapter No. 78 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has announced its slate of guest speakers for its 14th Annual Salisbury Confederate Prison Symposium to be held April 8-10. Every year in April descendants, historians, and interested individuals gather in Salisbury to learn about the history of North Carolina’s only War Between the States prison and to exchange information.
The speaker at Friday evening’s Friendship Banquet will be historian and POW descendant Ron Nichols of Wisconsin. Mr. Nichols is retired from the VA Medical Center in Madison, Wisconsin and is a long time student of Union soldiers from his area of the state. He will talk about a number of these soldiers who were captured and sent to Salisbury as prisoners.
Dr. Gary Freeze, Professor of American History at Catawba College, will, as traditional, present the first of six lectures on Saturday in the Tom Smith Auditorium at the College. Dr. Freeze will provide an introductory history of the Prison. Descendant Larry Brown of Greensboro will speak about his ancestor who was a member of the 57th Regiment NC Troops which was established by Capt. Archibald C. Godwin while he was Commandant of the Prison. Gwen G. Erickson, Guilford College librarian and archivist, will discuss North Carolina Quakers who were imprisoned in Salisbury for refusing to take up arms. Author Martin Husk of the Raleigh area will talk about his new book on the 111th NY Volunteer Infantry, that included some who were sent to Salisbury. Drs. Emory W. and Lynn Veach Sadler of Sanford, authors and retired college administrators, will present information about the little known use of Salisbury prisoners at a bayonet factory on Deep River. Descendant Gwen Trivett of Georgia will address the subject of civilian prisoners from Tennessee which included her ancestor from the eastern part of that state.
Sunday activities will feature memorial services open to the public for Confederate soldiers, including guards, at the Old Lutheran Cemetery at 10:00 am and for Union soldiers at the National Cemetery at 11:00 am. Re-enactors of the Blue and Gray will participate and will fire 3-volley salutes in memory of the deceased soldiers of the War Between the States.
Cost of the symposium is $65 per person to March 19, $75 afterwards. Checks should be made payable to Robert F. Hoke Chapter No. 78 and mailed to PO Box 5093, Salisbury, NC 28147-0088. For more information contact Sue Curtis at 704-637-6411 or southpaws@salisbury.net.
