Editor’s note: One hundred fifty years ago Sunday, reports of the attack on Fort Sumter appeared in area newspapers. This stories from the Civil War are presented as they might have appeared in a student newspaper. All photos and article data courtesy of Wilson Library.
APRIL 1861 — Although it appears all students in Chapel Hill are in favor of the secession, at least one is not.
John Wesley Halliburton, a senior from Woodville, Tennessee, was asked to speak after the raising of the Secession flag on Saturday, following speeches from the president of the University, David Lowry Swain, and other students. In a letter to his fiancée, Halliburton said:
“A few boys were called on (students I mean) and then I was asked to speak but declined as I was not in favor of Secession. They insisted and for five minutes I told them how I loved the Union,” he said.
“All were astonished that I should be the only Union man in the crowd.”
Halliburton was not punished by his peers for expressing his views. Following his declarations, fellow students carried him on their shoulders and he was given a bouquet, although it was a Secession bouquet.
When one student hissed at Halliburton for expressing his pro-Union beliefs, Halliburton’s friends knocked him down.
Halliburton said:
“One old fellow came up and said, ‘My young friend you are alone I believe but I will fight with you — I will see you have fair play.’”