Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/23

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Zebulon Baird Vance (May 13, 1830 – April 14, 1894) was a Confederate military officer in the American Civil War, Governor of North Carolina, and U.S. Senator. A prodigious writer, Vance became one of the most influential southern leaders of the Civil War and postbellum periods. Born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, the third of eight children, Vance's family is known to have owned some slaves; at age twelve he was sent to study at Washington College in Tennessee.

After a mixed political career as a member of the Whig and American Party parties, at after the outbreak of the American Civil War became a colonel of militia, fighting his regiment at New Bern and Richmond. Elected governor in September 1862, Vance became one of the most effective state leaders during the conflict.