ROWAN COUNTY
CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU
(204 East Innes Street)
Audiocassettes for tours of the
Prison site and the Historic National Cemetery can be obtained here.
ROWAN PUBLIC LIBRARY
EDITH CLARK HISTORY ROOM
(201 West Fisher Street)
This research center is
housed on the third floor of the Library. The Robert F. Hoke Chapter has
helped raise funds for books and microfilm on the War Between the States.
One such set of books that is a great help to anyone looking for a
Confederate ancestor from any state is The Roster of Confederate Soldiers
1861-1865. Among the sets of microfilm purchased by the Chapter are: the
Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers who Served in Organizations
from the State of North Carolina; the selected rolls of the Compiled Service
Records of Confederate Generals and Staff Officers and Non-Regimental
Enlisted Men; the Confederate Navy and Marine Corps Records; the Reference
Files Relating to Confederate Medical Officers; the Register of Confederate
Soldiers, Sailors, and Citizens Who Died in Federal Prisons and Hospitals In
the North, 1861-1865; the selected rolls of Case Files of applications From
Former Confederates for Pardons; the Compiled Service Records of Confederate
Soldiers Who Served in Organizations Raised Directly By the Confederate
Government; and the North Carolina Confederate Pension Records.
DR. JOSEPHUS HALL
HOUSE
(226 South Jackson Street)
This home, restored
and owned by the Historic Salisbury Foundation, was once the residence of
one of the medical doctors at the Salisbury Confederate Prison, Dr. Josephus
Hall. His application as an officer for a pardon after the War Between the
States and his pardon from President Andrew Johnson hang in the upstairs
hallway. The house was taken for the use of General Stoneman when he and his
Raiders invaded Salisbury.
GOVERNOR ELLIS HOUSE
(200 South Ellis Street)
John Willis Ellis was a
practicing attorney in Salisbury. He lived with his widowed sister in the
house she had built in 1850. He was elected as Governor of North Carolina in
1858 and re-elected in 1860. He refused Lincoln’s call for troops after the
firing on Fort Sumter by stating that “I regard the levy of troops made by
the administration for the purpose of subjugating the Sates of the South as
in violation of the Constitution and a gross usurpation of power. I can be
no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and this war
upon the liberties of a free people. troops from North Carolina.” Ellis
served as Governor of North Carolina until his untimely death in 1861 at age
41.
OLD ENGLISH CEMETERY
(200 Block, North Church Street)
Governor Ellis, who was
originally buried in Davidson County at the family plantation, was
re-interred here in April 1861 next to his wife, Mary White Ellis. There are
a number of Confederate soldiers buried in this Cemetery.
SAINT LUKE’S
EPISCOPAL CHURCH
(211 North Church Street)
On the Church grounds
formerly stood an Incense Cedar tree brought from Asia to Mrs. Julia Smyth
in 1855 by Wade Hampton. Hampton later became one of South Carolina’s most
famous Confederate Generals. The Church owns a silver communion set donated
by Mrs. Jefferson Davis, wife of the Confederate States President.
OLD LUTHERAN
CEMETERY
(501 North Lee Street)
Colonel Charles F.
Fisher, organizer of the Sixth Regiment NCST, was buried here after being
killed at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861. Fort Fisher on the
North Carolina Coast is named for him, as is the local chapter of the
Children of the Confederacy. Sarah Johnston, a local resident who helped
care for the sick POW’s at the Salisbury Confederate Prison, is also buried
here. 175 tombstones for Confederate soldiers were installed in 1996 by the
Hoke Chapter for those men who died in the local wayside and government
hospitals and at the Salisbury Confederate Prison.
WAYSIDE HOSPITAL
SITE
(Northwest corner of Lee and Council Streets)
Established in July 1862 this hospital
was supported by the local community to care for sick and wounded soldiers.
ROWAN MUSEUM
(202 North Main Street)
Among the items the
museum houses is memorabilia from Salisbury native Frances Fisher Tiernan
(“Christian Reid”), daughter of Colonel Charles F. Fisher and author of more
than 40 books, plays, short stories and poems. Her works include the
Confederate play, “Under the Southern Cross”, and the poem, “Gloria Victis”,
which was read at the dedication of her Hoke Chapter Confederate Monument in
1909. The Museum is located in the Old Rowan County Courthouse.
OLD ROWAN COUNTY
COURTHOUSE
(202 North Main Street)
Constructed in 1856
this building served as the county's legal center until 1914. Legend says
the Courthouse was spared from the torch by Union General George Stoneman
due to pleas by fellow Masons. The Robert F. Hoke Chapter, UDC® once held
their meetings in this building.
SALISBURY ARSENAL
SITE
(East Kerr Street beside railroad tracks)
From 1863 to the end of
the War the Confederate Government was using the foundry at this location
for the manufacture of all types of guns, ammunition, and horseshoes.
GOVERNMENT
HOSPITAL SITE
(North Long Street and Bringle Ferry Road)
In January 1864 the
Confederate Government erected fifteen buildings for hospital purposes on
land donated by Archibald Henderson.
CHESTNUT HILL
CEMETERY
(1134 South Main Street)
The graves of Colonel
Archibald Boyden, who served as Courier for Major General Robert F. Hoke,
Captain John Andrew Ramsay, who served in Co. D, 1st Regiment North Carolina
Artillery, and Dr. Josephus Hall are located here. A new marker was placed
in 1992 by the Hoke Chapter for charter member Frances Fisher Tiernan
(“Christian Reid”) who died March 24, 1920.
BATTLE OF GRANT’S
CREEK
(West Innes Street near Catawba College)
Union General
Stoneman’s troops on their entrance into Salisbury on April 12, 1865 were
met with resistance from Confederate defenders under the command of General
William M. Gardner.
REV. THOMAS B.
HAUGTON HOME SITE
(100 Block of East Innes Street)
Some sources state that
President Jefferson Davis spent the night of April 14, 1865 at the home of
the Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on his retreat South from
Richmond.
LUCIUS EUGENE POLK
BIRTHPLACE
(Salisbury)
Polk’s parents moved to
Tennessee shortly after his birth on July 10, 1833. In 1861 he joined the
First Arkansas Infantry Regiment of the Army of Tennessee and rose to the
rank of Brigadier General.
BOYDEN HOUSE
(212-214 South Main Street)
On April 1, 1870
General Robert E. Lee and his daughter traveled by carriage from the
Salisbury Railway Depot to the Boyden House (later renamed the Empire Hotel)
for breakfast. The reunion dinner for Salisbury Confederate Prison POW’s
from Pennsylvania was held at this hotel in 1910 with the Governors of North
Carolina and Pennsylvania in attendance.
BATTLE OF YORK HILL
(Highway 29 at Yadkin River)
On April 13, 1865,
Confederate forces under the command of Colonel J.C. Pemberton, former
commander at Vicksburg, successfully defended the Yadkin River Bridge
against a Union assault.