How did Dockery home survive Civil War? by John W. Myers, Internet Photojournalist

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How did Dockery home survive Civil War?

By John Myers, Internet Photojournalist

The General Alfred Dockery home on Cartledge Creek, built in the 1830s, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Len and Mollie Butler have owned and lived in the home since 1993 and frequently open it for tours to local groups and individuals who inquire.

Virtually all of Richmond County's slave plantations were burned to the ground in the Civil War when Yankee General William T. Sherman scorched his way through the South.
So how did the 1830s-built mansion of General Alfred Dockery in the Cartledge Creek community in northern Richmond survive, and remain standing in its splendor today?
The answer is that Dockery supported the winning side in the Civil War as a Unionist -- though he was a prominent slave owner -- while retaining the respect of his Confederate neighbors, preserving the handsome cotton plantation home he built on Cartledge Creek.
The home was constructed of bricks made on the plantation, and still stands at the corner of Dockery Road and Cartledge Creek Road and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Len and Mollie Butler, retirees from Virginia, have owned and lived in the home since 1993 and frequently open it for tours to local groups and individuals who inquire.

Portraits of Alfred Dockery hanging in the Docker home.

Portraits of Alfred Dockery hanging in the Dockery home.

'Old wagon boy of the Pee Dee'

Dockery was born in 1797 and was known in his political career as "The old wagon boy of the Pee Dee," referring to his humble beginnings, according to "No Ordinary Lives, A History of Richmond County, North Carolina 1750-1900," by John Hutchinson.
Dockery started his career in politics at 25 when he won Richmond County's State House seat. He was also elected to the N.C. Senate and later became a U.S. Congressman. He was also a general of the Fourteenth Brigade of the N.C. Militia prior to the Civil War.
Oldest of 12 children, Dockery "had very little formal education, claiming he never attended school for more than three months at the time. He began his career as a wagon boy and small farmer," Hutchinson writes.
But by 1850, he owned a plantation with 3,000 acres, farming 500 acres with 49 slaves. Hutchinson writes, "Despite his great success, he remained a plain talker and plain dresser. Comparing him to his opponents, someone commented, 'he has no ruffles to his shirt, they have no shirt to their ruffles.'"
The Fayetteville Observer said his speeches often contained incorrect grammar, but he had a way of "clothing good sense and strong arguments in plain language... He is one of the people and not one of your mongrel, patent leather, band box politicians."

U.S. Congressman

When he ran as an independent for Congress in 1845, his Whig opponent, Jonathan Worth, "tried to gain a crowd's sympathy by calling attention to Dockery's wealth. Particularly, Worth pointed out Dockery's fine brick mansion.

Historical marker at Richmond County courthouse notes accomplishments of Alfred Dockery

An historical marker at the Richmond County Courthouse honors Alfred Dockery, but has the wrong death date, 1875, instead of the correct date, 1873.

"Scarcely had Worth finished the sentence when Dockery jumped to his feet and rushed to the front of the platform. Extending both arms, he cried, 'Yes, and it was the old yaller hands of mine that built all of it,'" Hutchinson writes.
In 1854 when he ran for governor as the Whig nominee, the Norfolk Beacon said "General Dockery is well known throughout the State of North Carolina as a high minded gentleman, an honorable politician, and a consistent Christian."
He led the entire campaign, but narrowly lost the race when a false scandal was spread by a former Whig Congressman, T.L. Clingman, who switched to the Democrat Party. He wanted to be U.S. Senator from North Carolina and since senators were still appointed by the states, he wanted a Democrat in the Governor's Mansion to name him to the post.
Clingman spread charges that Dockery had attempted to bribe a general, and the charges came so late in the campaign Dockery was unable to prove his innocence, Hutchinson said.
He narrowly lost to Thomas Bragg, who many confused with Captain Braxton Bragg, a hero in the Mexican War. (Braxton Bragg is the namesake of the Fort Bragg Army post.)

Unionist leader

Dockery was returned to the N.C. Senate in 1860 despite his strong Unionist views. But war clouds gathered in the winter of 1860-61 as South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas all voted to secede from the Union.
Dockery warned on Jan. 26, 1861, "The disunion mania which now pervades the breasts of so many Southern men progresses with unprecedented rapidity, and like the devastating tornado threatens to prostrate all in the dust," Hutchinson writes.
In the N.C. Senate on Jan. 24, 1861, he voted against holding a secession convention in North Carolina, one of only nine out of 46 senators to oppose the bill that passed widely. But on April 12, 1861 the war began at Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C.

Brick walls of the den in the Alfred Dockery home were originally exterior walls, which allowed a horse and carriage to be ridden into shelter within the two wings of the home.

Civil War begins

When a group of prominent Richmond County leaders gathered at the courthouse on April 22, 1861, to discuss preparation of North Carolina's defenses for the just-begun war, "one man -- General Alfred Dockery -- refused to cooperate," writes Hutchinson.
Following Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee, North Carolina finally voted to secede from the Union on May 20, 1861, the last state to join the Confederacy after the war began.
Though six of his sons joined the Confederate Army, Dockery remained Unionist.
In 1862 as the war raged on, Dockery said "I have all along and still entertain the opinion that our national troubles might and ought to have been adjusted without the infamous war in which we are involved. I feel confident that when the insanity of the present day shall have passed away, millions both North and South will concur in this opinion."
In the 1864 election, Dockery's reputation appeared to be unhindered in the minds of some for his Unionist views. The Fayetteville Observer said Dockery remained "one of the truest Conservatives and one of the worthiest citizens of the State."

Sherman in Richmond

General Alfred Dockery is buried in a graveyard at his home.

When Sherman's army marched through Richmond County in March 1865, Dockery's reputation apparently held sway with retreating Confederates as well as Federal troops.
A few troops under Confederate General Joseph Wheeler fought a skirmish in Rockingham with Union General Judson Kilpatrick's advancing soldiers and "attacked and killed or captured 35 Federals," Hutchinson writes.
"General Wheeler was still in the county March 8 (1865). He made a temporary headquarters at General Dockery's house, at General Dockery's invitation."
And when Kilpatrick's troops took over Richmond, much of it went to the torch.
Hutchinson said one Union solider wrote home, upon seeing smoke after crossing the Pee Dee River and entering Richmond County, "Have the Yankees set the world on fire?"
Up in flames went the largest industry, Richmond Manufacturing Company, and all of the plantations and homes of Southern sympathizers, but Dockery's home escaped the match.

Reconstruction begins

When the war ended on April 9, 1865, Alfred Dockery's son, Oliver H. Dockery, became the county's first Reconstruction leader on Aug. 8, 1865, taking an oath of allegiance.
Many state leaders urged General Alfred Dockery to run for governor, but he refused. He founded the state's Republican Party in 1867 over discontent with the Democrats, "who, people figured, were responsible for starting the Civil War," Hutchinson writes.
Dockery's great-granddaughter is Elizabeth Covington, 90, who is the unofficial historian of Cartledge Creek Baptist Church. She said Dockery was a benevolent slave owner who practiced emancipation long before President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it in the southern states in 1863. Dockery educated his slaves -- which was illegal for slave owners at the time -- teaching them to read the Bible and write. And he set education standards leading to their freedom.

Slave emancipator

"He told them if they would learn to read a certain number of chapters in the Bible and to write, he would free them," Covington said.
But after the Civil War, many of his slaves chose to continue living on the plantation. "Finally General Dockery called them all together and said they had to leave. So he gave them all a mule and an acre of land" in a nearby area called Tom Hills, Covington said.
Dockery also assisted in the founding of Holly Grove Missionary Baptist Church in 1869, which was formed near Cartledge Creek Baptist Church from its black members, she said.
The church remains today on Holly Grove Church Road near Cartledge Creek Baptist.
He took an active role in Richmond's Reconstruction government until his death in 1873.
(A state historical marker at the Richmond County Courthouse has his death date as 1875, but both his gravestone marker at his home and Hutchinson say the date was 1873.)