Regardless of what your feelings are about it, today marks an important date in the history of the Old North State. It was 150 years ago today that North Carolina withdrew from the United States and joined the other southern states in forming the Confederate States of America, and thus sealing its destiny for many years. The idea of secession was far from universally supported in North Carolina and there were large pockets of pro-Union citizenry throughout the Civil War. It was not like other states in the South in that it was not driven by a plantation economy, but rather by small towns and small farms. But politics being politics, the state seceded in the end, and joined the southern cause. In doing so, North Carolina furnished more soldier and materials to the war effort than any other state in the Confederacy and were present in almost every major campaign and battle during the war. Other than the Revolutionary War, no other event in the history of the United States had such a profound impact on the development of the country we live in today as the War Between the States (as Southerners usually called it), and for that reason alone it's worth remembering.

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