Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/49

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Zebulon Baird Vance (May 13, 1830 – April 14, 1894) was a Confederate military officer in the American Civil War, twice 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. At the age of twenty-four, Vance ran for a seat in the State House of Commons as a Whig, beating a man twice his age. At the age of twenty-eight, Vance, a member of the American Party became the youngest member of United States Congress. In September 1862, Vance won the gubernatorial election in North Carolina. In the Confederacy Vance was a major proponent of individual rights and local self-government, often putting him at odds with the Confederate government of Jefferson Davis.

In 1870, the state legislature elected him to the United States Senate, but as he was on federal parole, he was not allowed to serve. In 1876, Vance was elected Governor once again and in 1879 the legislature again elected him to the United States Senate and he served in the Senate until his death in 1894.