United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
Search the website

VANCE, Zebulon Baird

VANCE, Zebulon Baird
Library of Congress
VANCE, Zebulon Baird
1830–1894

Office

Representative, Senator

State/Territory

North Carolina

Party

American, Democrat, Opposition

Congress(es)

35th (1857–1859), 36th (1859–1861), 46th (1879–1881), 47th (1881–1883), 48th (1883–1885), 49th (1885–1887), 50th (1887–1889), 51st (1889–1891), 52nd (1891–1893), 53rd (1893–1895)

Jump To

Concise Biography

VANCE, Zebulon Baird, (nephew of Robert Brank Vance, brother of Robert Brank Vance), A Representative and a Senator from North Carolina; born on Reems Creek, near Asheville, Buncombe County, N.C., May 13, 1830; attended the common schools of Buncombe County, and Washington (Tenn.) College; studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; admitted to the bar in 1852 and commenced practice in Asheville, N.C.; elected prosecuting attorney of Buncombe County in 1852; member, State house of commons 1854; elected as an American to the Thirty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas L. Clingman; reelected as an Opposition to the Thirty-sixth Congress and served from December 7, 1858, to March 3, 1861; during the Civil War entered the Confederate Army as a captain and was promoted to the rank of colonel; elected Governor of North Carolina in 1862, and reelected in 1864; removed from office in 1865 when he was arrested and imprisoned in Washington, D.C. for Confederate activities; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in November 1870, but did not present his credentials; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1872; Governor of North Carolina 1876-1878; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1879; reelected in 1884 and 1890, and served from March 4, 1879, until his death; chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Forty-sixth Congress), Committee on Privileges and Elections (Fifty-third Congress); died in Washington, D.C., April 14, 1894; funeral services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate; interment in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, N.C.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

[ Top ]

External Research Collections

Brigham Young University
Special Collections

Provo, UT
Papers: January 1, 1863. 1 item. Bond to Harry Clench signed by Vance.

Duke University
Special Collections Library

Durham, NC
Papers: 41 items in Governors' papers, 1765-1914. Finding aid.

East Carolina University
Joyner Library

Greenville, NC
Papers: Correspondence (1878) with George Davis concerning his appointment to North Carolina Supreme Court in George Roundtree papers, 1878, 1921-1925.

Emory University
Robert W. Woodruff Library

Atlanta, GA
Papers: Discussed in John Mitchell Davidson papers, 1851-1960, on 1 microfilm reel.

New-York Historical Society

New York, NY
Papers: 1862-1865. 9 letters. Official correspondence.

North Carolina Division of Archives and History

Raleigh, NC
Papers: 1827-1903. Ca. 6,000 items. Congressional, business, and personal correspondence and papers; diaries; speeches; accounts; and clippings particularly concerning Confederate politics. Correspondence (1851-1878) between Vance and his wife, Harriet Espy Vance, describe antebellum life in Chapel Hill and western North Carolina, and his life as a law student and later as a lawyer in Asheville, NC. Finding aid. Also miscellaneous correspondence in various collections.

Pierpont Morgan Library

New York, NY
Papers: 1878, 1888. 2 items.

University of North Carolina
Southern Historical Collection

Chapel Hill, NC
Papers: 1854-1915. 4 feet. Chiefly political correspondence (1877-1894), Civil War letters, slight personal and business correspondence, photographs, and glass negatives. Finding aid.
Additional Papers: 39-reel microfilm edition of The Papers of Zebulon Vance, edited by Gordon McKinney and Richard McMurry; and additional miscellaneous papers in various collections.

University of Virginia
Alderman Library

Charlottesville, VA
Papers: Correspondence in Lawrence O'Bryan Branch papers, 1840-1862, on microfilm. Finding aid.

Virginia Historical Society

Richmond, VA
Papers: Miscellaneous items. Finding aid.

Western Carolina University Department of History
The Papers of Zebulon Baird Vance

Cullowhee, NC
[ Top ]

Bibliography / Further Reading

Bromberg, Alan B. " 'The Worst Muddle Ever Seen in N.C. Politics': The Farmers' Alliance, the Subtreasury, and Zeb Vance." North Carolina Historical Review 56 (January 1979): 19-40.

Cannon, Elizabeth Roberts, ed. My Beloved Zebulon: The Correspondence of Zebulon Baird Vance and Harriet Newell Espy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971.

Dowd, Clement. Life of Zebulon B. Vance. Charlotte, NC: Observer Printing & Publishing House, 1897.

Johnson, Frontis, Gordon McKinney, and Joe A. Mobley, eds. The Papers of Zebulon Baird Vance. 2 vols. to date. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, 1963-.

McKinney, Gordon B. "Zebulon Vance and His Reconstruction of the Civil War in North Carolina." North Carolina Historical Review 75 (January 1998): 69-85.

___. Zeb Vance: North Carolina's Civil War Governor and Gilded Age Political Leader. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

___, and Richard McMurry, eds. The Papers of Zebulon Vance. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1987. Microfilm. 39 reels and guide.

Mobley, Joe A. "Zebulon B. Vance: A Confederate Nationalist in the North Carolina Gubernatorial Election of 1864." North Carolina Historical Review 77 (October 2000): 324-36.

___. "War Governor of the South": North Carolina's Zeb Vance in the Confederacy. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.

Shirley, Franklin Ray. Zebulon Vance, Tarheel Spokesman. Charlotte, NC: McNally & Loftin, 1963.

Tucker, Glenn. "A Personality Profile: Zeb Vance." Civil War Times Illustrated 7 (April 1968): 10-19.

___. Zeb Vance: Champion of Personal Freedom. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1966.

U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Zebulon Baird Vance. 53d Cong., 3d. sess., 1894-1895. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1895.

Vance, Zebulon B. "Reconstruction in North Carolina." In Why the Solid South? or, Reconstruction and Its Results, by Hilary A. Herbert, et al., pp. 70-84. 1890. Reprint. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.

___. Sketches of North Carolina. Norfolk: Norfolk Landmark, 1875.

Yates, Richard E. The Confederacy and Zeb Vance. Tuscaloosa, AL: Confederate Publishing Co., 1958.

___. "Zebulon B. Vance as War Governor of North Carolina, 1862-1865." Journal of Southern History 3 (February 1937): 43-75.

[ Top ]
Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov