The Immortal Vance: The Political Commemoration of North Carolina's War Governor

This chapter focuses on the death of Zebulon Baird Vance. An outpouring of grief unlike that surrounding the passing of any other public figure swept the state. Vance's body lay in repose in Raleigh for hours so people could pay their respects to the man who had spent roughly half of his sixty-four years in public service. Along the way to Asheville, where Vance would ultimately rest, people flooded the rail stations for a final moment with their idol. Three thousand mourners passed by the coffin in Durham “while 200 hands of the Durham Tobacco company's factory sang sacred songs in the negro dialect.” When the train stopped in Greensboro, “a steady stream of people poured through the car, taking a sorrowful glance at the features of the man whose name was a synonym for all that was great and good.”