On November 20, 1858, distinguished Cherokee warrior Junaluska died. Little is known of his early life. Although he was not chief, Junaluska spoke for the tribe in 1811 when he refused the Shawnee request for the Cherokee to join in fighting against the influx of settlers.
Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
On November 20, 1932, more than 5,000 people gathered at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville to dedicate a monument to 18 German prisoners of war who were buried there.
On November 18, 1915, the Confederate Women’s Home opened in Fayetteville.
On November 18, 1799, Glasgow County, in eastern North Carolina, was renamed Greene County.
In 1791, Dobbs County was split. Half became Lenoir County, named for Revolutionary War General William Lenoir, and half became Glasgow County, for North Carolina’s first Secretary of State James Glasgow.
On November 18, 1879, the first North Carolina Colored State Fair opened in Raleigh. Born out of the desire by men of the Colored Industrial Association of North Carolina to showcase the progress made by African Americans after Emancipation, the fair was based on the successful model of the State Fair held by the State Agricultural Society since the 1850s.
On November 18, 1781, British forces under Maj. James Craig evacuated Wilmington. Previously, the town was threatened by the Loyalist campaign that culminated in the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge in 1776, and was afterwards briefly blockaded by a British fleet.
Major Craig captured Wilmington, North Carolina’s major seaport, in January 1781. With less than 300 men available for duty, he could do nothing to expand British control of the area. He received little support from local Loyalists due to the small size of his command.
On November 17, 1862, 19-year-old James Wells Champney drafted a collection of small images titled “First impressions of North Carolina, sketched in cars on the [way] to newbern.”
The son of a painter-illustrator, Champney apprenticed in Boston to become a master wood engraver, but the outbreak of war interrupted his artistic training. He volunteered for the 45th Massachusetts and deployed to North Carolina in November 1862 as part of reinforcements for the Union occupational forces then at New Bern.
On November 17, 1753, fifteen Moravian men from Pennsylvania arrived in present-day Forsyth County on the land they called Wachovia. Bethabara, which means “House of Passage,” was the first community built in Wachovia.