Mission Statement:
"To advance through research, education and symposia, an increased public awareness of the Cape Fear region's unique history."
Brigadier General Thomas F. Toon
of Columbus County
by Bernhard Thuersam
Cape Fear Historical Papers
Brigadier General Thomas Fentress Toon
Born on June 10, 1840 in Columbus County, Thomas Fentress Toon was a farmer prior to attending Wake Forest College, rising to the senior class at that school when he joined the Columbus Guards
No. 2 on May 20, 1861. He would return to Wake Forest to
graduate in June 1861 and then rejoin his company.
Enlisting With Friends, Family and Neighbors:
The company had been raised in Columbus County and enlisted on
April 24, 1861, mustering in at Fort Caswell in Brunswick County on
June 18th and assigned to Company K of the 20th North Carolina.
The regiment was then-commanded by Colonel Alfred Iverson and
Lt. Colonel Franklin Faison.
Toon mustered in as a private and was elected Lieutenant on June 18th; then Captain to rank from July 22nd. A fellow captain in the regiment
was his kinsman William H. Toon of Bladen County, who eventually
rose to Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment.
The 20th North Carolina included volunteer units from Columbus and surrounding counties, e.g., the “Sampson Greys,” “Holmes Riflemen,” “Columbus Guards,” “Fair Bluff Volunteers,” “Duplin Greys,”
“Brunswick Guards,” “Independent Blues,” “Bladen Light Infantry,” “Moore’s Creek Rifle Guards,” “Wilmington Light Infantry,”
“Columbus Vigilants,” and “Wilmington Rifle Guards.”
The roster of Toon’s Company K of the 20th North Carolina were primarily farmers and laborers from Columbus County with names like Broadhurst, Coleman, Williamson, Babson, Batchelor, Bradshaw, Cook, Elkins, Fields, Fisher, Merritt, Nobles, Powers, Sellers, Shaw, Stevens, Ward and Yates; and included 19 year-old James E. Kelly in Co. K who was born in New York City. Kelly would lose an arm in
the war and was commended for gallantry at the battle of Winchester.
Early War Service:
Toon’s original 10th North Carolina Volunteers was organized at
Fort Johnston in Smithville (now Southport) at the mouth of the Cape Fear River on June 18th 1861 for one year’s service in defense of the State,
and would eventually become the 20th North Carolina on November 14th. The regiment would receive training as infantry and artillery units at
Forts Johnston and Caswell, Oak Island and Smith’s Island (now
Bald Head Island). On June 14, 1862, Toon and his regiment would proceed under orders to Richmond and assignment to General Samuel Garland’s brigade of General Daniel H. Hill’s division. On June 25th
the brigade moved toward Williamsburg to support General Benjamin Huger’s action at King’s School House.
A Much-Wounded Officer:
Shot by the enemy twice in 1862, he would end the war wounded a total
of seven times and fought with conspicuous gallantry at Seven Pines,
the Seven Days Campaign, South Mountain and Fredericksburg.
Major Toon was elected colonel of the regiment on February 26, 1863 when his seniors in rank waived their own rights to promotion.
He led the 20th North Carolina Regiment during Stonewall Jackson's famous flank attack at Chancellorsville (depicted in the movie Gods & Generals) and was shot three times while leading his regiment through
what he later described as "a perfect storm of shells and a mist of minie balls." He later returned to duty and sustained wounds twice more
before the end of the war.
His regiment was heavily involved at Gettysburg from July 1-3, 1863,
and his 20th North Carolina suffered horribly during the first day’s
action with 65% casualties; and later the Mine Run Campaign and
the bloody battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania.
When General Robert D. Johnston (of Lincoln County) was wounded
at Spotsylvania, Colonel Toon was promoted to the rank of brigadier general to date from May 31, 1864. He commanded the brigade during Gen. Jubal Early's Shenandoah Valley campaign and threatening
movements toward Washington City.
Capturing an Enemy Regimental Flag:
General Robert E. Lee commended General Toon’s leadership and courage in the following message to the Secretary of War:
Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, May 16, 1864: Hon. Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.
SIR: Yesterday evening the enemy penetrated a part of our line and planted his colors upon the temporary breast-works erected by our troops. He was immediately repulsed, and among the brave men who met him the Twentieth North Carolina Regiment, under
Colonel Toon, of the brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. R. D. Johnston, captured his flag. It was brought to me by Maj. John S. Brooks, of that regiment, who received his promotion for gallantry
in the battle of Chancellorsville, with the request that it be given
to Governor Vance. I take great pleasure in complying with the
wish of the gallant captors, and respectfully ask that it be granted, and that these colors be presented to the State of North Carolina
as another evidence of the valor and devotion that have made
her name eminent in the armies of the Confederacy.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE,
General.
A Last, But Serious Wound:
When General Johnston returned to duty during the last stage of the
Valley campaign, Toon reverted to the rank of colonel leading his
regiment again at the battle of Monocacy. This campaign is comparable
to the Inchon landing in Korea as General Early’s command bypassed
the main Northern army under Grant and threatened to capture the Northern capital.
Colonel Toon would receive his last and most serious wound on
March 25, 1865 during the assault on Fort Stedman, near Petersburg.
He was sent to a hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina on April 7th
and recovered sufficiently to be present when General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered his army at the end of the month. Colonel Toon was paroled by Northern forces at Greensboro in May, nearly a month after his
20th North Carolina had stacked their arms at Appomattox.
Civilian Life After 1865:
Colonel Toon returned to Columbus County after the war to rebuild his
life, living there for 25 years before removing to nearby Robeson County
in 1891. Being a young man at the beginning of the war, Toon is far
better known for his accomplished civilian career in education.
Toon would serve as principal at Columbus County’s Fair Bluff School on Academy Street in the mid-1880’s. He became a vocal advocate of public education in North Carolina and was a protégé’
of Governor Charles Brantley Aycock, a committed leader of
public schooling for the white and black races. Taking his commitment to education to the political sphere, Toon was
elected to the position of North Carolina Superintendent of
Public Instruction in 1901.
Also in 1901, Colonel Toon wrote a detailed regimental history of the
20th North Carolina for Clark’s Regiments, an official compilation of North Carolina’s struggle 1861-1865. His tribute to the regiment noted
that it was “initiated at Seven Pines, sacrificed at Gettysburg, surrendered at Appomattox.” General Toon died in Raleigh on February 19, 1902,
and is buried in that city in Oakwood Cemetery.
Thomas F. Toon was honored with a State Historical Marker at Fair Bluff, NC on August 26, 2000 after a ceremony by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Columbus County. He is also noted at Wake Forest University as its highest ranking alumnus during the War Between the States.
About the Author:
Bernhard Thuersam is the Executive Director of the Cape Fear Historical Institute in Wilmington. A native of the Niagara Falls,
New York area, he has been a devoted student of world history since 1958, and is a former Chairman of the Cape Fear Museum Board
of Trustees. Contact him at bernhard1848@att.net.
Sources:
Generals in Grey, Ezra J. Warner, LSU Press, 1959
NC Troops, 1861-1865, W. T. Jordan, Jr., NC DA&H, 1998
North Carolina Museum of History (www.ncmoh.org)
©2006 Cape Fear Historical Institute