Salisbury Bread Riot

Citizen Protest During the Civil War

In the western Piedmont of North Carolina, residents of the town of Salisbury and Rowan County developed a work ethic and political values that were consciously in opposition to the perceived life of leisure practiced by the eastern planter class. Westerners valued hard labor and self-sufficiency. In the predominantly yeoman countryside, this self-reliant attitude meant that the bulk of labor was done not by slaves but by family members.

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Bennett Place

Confederate Surrender in North Carolina

At Bennett Place Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston (left center) and Union General William Tecumseh Sherman (right center) met in the waning days of the Civil War to formally end hostilities.

Image: The First Meeting

On April 15, 2010, Bennett Place State Historic Site unveiled this 44" X 64" oil painting by Civil War artist Dan Nance, which captures the moment of that meeting is captured in Nance's oil painting. "Johnston was neat and proud. Sherman had been traveling a lot and was muddy and untidy. The painting captures that, and the Bennett house nearby," says Nance.

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Lucy Lambert Hale

Fiancee of Lincoln Assassin John Wilkes Booth

In 1862, Lucy Lambert Hale began a romantic relationship with famous stage actor John Wilkes Booth. Another of her admirers was Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln.

Lucy Lambert Hale was born January 1, 1841, in Dover, New Hampshire, the second eldest daughter of John Parker Hale and Lucy Hill Lambert Hale. John Parker Hale served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845 and in the U.S. Senate from 1847 to 1853 and again from 1855 to 1865. Lucy was described as pretty, precocious, sweet and good.

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