Editing Alamance County, North Carolina (section)

===Civil War===
In March 1861, Alamance County residents voted overwhelmingly against North Carolina's secession from the Union, 1,114 to 254. Two delegates were sent to the [[North Carolina in the American Civil War|State Secession Convention]], Thomas Ruffin and [[Giles Mebane]], who both opposed secession, as did most of the delegates sent to the convention.<ref name="Secession Convention Delegates">{{cite web| url = http://members.aol.com/jweaver303/nc/convvote.htm| title = Reference at members.aol.com}}</ref> At the time of the convention, around 30% of Alamance County's population were slaves (total population around 12,000, including roughly 3,500 slaves and 500 free Black people).

North Carolina was reluctant to join other Southern states in secession until the [[Battle of Fort Sumter]] in April 1861. When Lincoln called up troops, [[John Willis Ellis|Governor John Ellis]] replied, "I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina." After a special legislative session, North Carolina's legislature unanimously voted for secession on May 20, 1861.

No battles took place in Alamance County, but it sent its share of soldiers to the front lines. In July 1861, for the first time in American history, soldiers were sent in to combat by rail. The 6th North Carolina was loaded onto railroad cars at Company Shops and transferred to the battlefront at [[Manassas, Virginia]] ([[First Battle of Manassas]]).

Although the citizens of Alamance County were not directly affected throughout much of the war, in April 1865, they witnessed firsthand their sons and fathers marching through the county just days before the war ended with the surrender at [[Bennett Place]] near [[Durham, North Carolina|Durham]]. At Company Shops, General [[Joseph E. Johnston]] stopped to say farewell to his soldiers for the last time. By the end of the war, 236 people from Alamance County had been killed in the course of the war, more than any other war since the county's founding.<ref name="Civil War Totals">{{Cite web |url=http://www.alamance-nc.com/Alamance-NC/The+Community/War+Memorial/Civil+War/ |title=Civil War - Alamance-nc.com |access-date=August 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704124831/http://www.alamance-nc.com/Alamance-NC/The+Community/War+Memorial/Civil+War/ |archive-date=July 4, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>