From Officer of the Court to Officer with a Sword

Bending over a map, Lt. Colonel Spier Whitaker softly ordered soldiers to search for Confederate deserters in Randolph County, North Carolina.  Long experience in Iowa and North Carolina had taught Spier that authority need not be loudly expressed.

(Source: travelmaps.com)

Whitaker’s resume included lawyer, North Carolina legislator, and Attorney General of North Carolina from 1842 to 1846.  In 1854, when Whitaker was 56, he moved to Davenport in Scott County, Iowa, with his wife and a couple of children.  Whitaker joined an active law practice with his nephew, Judge James Grant.  Six years later, he retired from practicing law in 1860.

He was well to do, having real estate valued at $10,000 and a personal estate of $50,000.  This was a vast sum in the lingering aftermath of the financial Panic of 1857.

Drumbeats of war

In April 1861, shortly before Fort Sumter, Whitaker believed civil war was inevitable.  At age 62, he left his home and belongings in Davenport and moved back to North Carolina.   One son remained in Iowa, practiced law, and lived in his parents’ home.

A Scott County attorney thought Whitaker left Iowa because “he was a Southern gentleman with Southern sentiments.”  Whitaker’s daughter-in-law explained:

Believing that the only protection for slave property was in the Union, he returned to North Carolina to share the hardships of war and assist in defending his native State from an invading army.

North Carolina seceded shortly after Whitaker arrived.  He visited the governor, offering his services to the state military forces.  According to family tradition, “Governor [Henry Toole] Clarke replied that Colonel Whitaker had sons enough to represent him in the field.”  However, the governor appointed Whitaker as aide-de-camp to advise him on military affairs.  Spier had the rank of lieutenant colonel.

(National Archives, fold3.com)

The Richmond Times marked Whitaker’s appointment, noting “Col. W. was formerly Attorney General of the State, and ranks high as a gentleman, a jurist, and a patriot.”

Assignment:  Suppress dissent

Dissent against the Confederate government and the war heated up in historically Quaker north-central North Carolina.  Governor Clarke on March 4, 1862, issued a proclamation against disaffection and disloyalty in Randolph County. Reportedly, residents said they would resist drafting militia members into the state military service (where they could enter the Confederate Army).   The governor stated:

They [Unionists] denounce our State and Confederacy … and desire to effect a union with a government at war with us now invading our soil; and in various ways, by word and deed, giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Neighboring Davidson County also erupted in “treasonable conduct and threatened violence.”  Gov. Clark sent Whitaker to investigate the situation and, if possible, capture weapons.  Clark authorized Whitaker to use 300 volunteers and two companies of troops.  The governor added, “If any force is used, we desire it to be effectual.”

Historian William T. Auman states:

On March 14, Colonel Whitaker noted that all the dissidents from Randolph County had been rounded up, including three of their leaders by the names of Rush, Kindly, and Hill, who had either been drafted or had ‘volunteered.’

Whitaker explained:

Their families and farms are sureties against desertion … Two-thirds of the drafted men from Randolph have volunteered; more will volunteer.

Whitaker resigned at the end of Clark’s term, on August 5, 1862 after 14 months of service.  Whitaker’s daughter-in-law later recalled:

In after years, Governor Clarke took occasion to express in emphatic terms his appreciation of Colonel Whitaker’s marked ability and service.

While Whitaker dealt with dissenters, four of his sons served in the Confederate Army, and three of them died.

Back to Iowa

After the war ended, Whitaker returned to Davenport and resumed practicing law.  He died four years later, on December 2, 1869.  The Scott County Bar mourned his loss.  His body was buried in Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Davenport.  The Davenport Daily Gazette stated:

Colonel Whitaker was a man of fine personal presence, resembling very much the great Kentuckian, Henry Clay.  His manners were agreeable, courteous and winning … He was essentially one of the old school gentlemen, cultivated, refined, and abounding in a high sense of honor.

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David Connon

David Connon has spent nearly two decades researching dissenters in Iowa: Grinnell residents who helped on the Underground Railroad, and their polar opposites, Iowa Confederates. He shares some of these stories with audiences across the state through the Humanities Iowa Speakers Bureau. He worked as an interpreter at Living History Farms for eleven seasons. Connon is a member of Sons of Union Veterans, an associate member of Sons of Confederate Veterans, and a member of the Des Moines Civil War Round Table. His articles have appeared in Iowa Heritage Illustrated, Iowa History Journal, Illinois Magazine, and local newspapers in both states.

This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Reguardless of ones personal feelings towards the civil war.
    All who died were Americans.
    It was a terrible tragedy for this nation.
    Nearly 153 years after the end of the war and feelings are still very deep.

    1. Hi, Mark.

      I agree that the Civil War was a terrible tragedy for our country. Thanks for weighing in.

  2. So his service to North Carolina, including the sacrifice of three sons, was motivated by desire to preserve slavery? The quotation from the daughter-in-law seems to suggest “unionist” sentiments, or did that union refer to the Confederacy?

    1. Hi, Dan.

      You asked very good questions. It’s possible that Spier Whitaker’s daughter-in-law referred to North Carolina joining the Confederacy when she mentioned “the Union.” It gets trickier to understand if she was referring to the traditionally understood Union of all the United States. In this case, Georgia Congressman Alexander H. Stephens seems to provide a model for looking at Spier Whitaker. Both men wanted the Southern states to remain in the Union, and both men had few objections to the institution of slavery. A difference between the two men is that Stephens seemingly acquiesced and became Vice President of the Confederacy, but Spier Whitaker moved back to North Carolina and offered his services to the governor. If I were to speculate, I wonder if Spier Whitaker’s Confederate service grew out of several things. First, he may have anticipated war that would have involved Union troops crossing through North Carolina. Second, even if the country remained at peace, Whitaker may have anticipated restrictions on slavery (throughout the South), and this may have viscerally touched upon a Southern conception of honor that was linked to a slave-holding society. Of course, I could be completely wrong.

  3. Maybe there is no contradiction. Apparently, many Confederates saw themselves as the “real” Unionists. They felt their cause was just because they were convinced they were true to the real spirit of the Union and the Constitution. As you explained in your previous article, Gen. Lee did not think otherwise: “In fact, I was for the Constitution and the Union established by our forefathers. No one now is more in favor of that Union and that Constitution, and as far as I know, it is that for which the South has all along contended; and if restored, as I trust they will be, I am sure there will be no truer supporters of that Union and that Constitution than the Southern people.” It says it all…

    1. Hi, Marc.

      You make some good points. I was trying to say that many Southerners, especially in the “Upper South” (i.g., Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas), wanted their state to remain in the Union. President Lincoln’s call for 75,000 militiamen to put down the rebellion (after the firing upon Fort Sumter) was a game-changer, leading to those states seceding. At that point, many Southern Unionists tossed in their hat with the Confederacy, determined to defend their states against Federal troops. Thanks for weighing in.

      1. Thank you for your knowledgeable insight, David. Very interesting, as usual!

        1. Thank you, Marc.

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