The "Confederate Grays"

The "Confederate Grays"

Company E (the "Confederate Grays"), 20th Regiment N.C. Troops (10th Regiment N.C. Volunteers)

In 1858 a twenty-one-year-old Virginian named Claudius Baker Denson moved to Duplin County and founded a military school known as the Franklin Military Institute. Denson served as commandant of cadets and as a faculty member at the school until April 1861, when the cadets, with the addition of several local volunteers, enlisted as a company for twelve months' service. That company, known as the "Confederate Grays" or "Duplin Grays," organized on April 16 and elected Denson captain. It then spent two weeks drilling on the campus. Meanwhile, with "patriotic zeal" the ladies of the vicinity "labored in the school building early and late" to make uniforms, underwear, and blankets for the new soldiers.

About May 1 the "Grays" moved to Fort Johnston at Smithville (present-day Southport), and on June 18 the former cadets became Company C, 10th Regiment N.C. Volunteers. For the ensuing thirteen months the 10th Volunteers remained at Fort Johnston, training not only as infantry but also in heavy and light artillery drill. (In November 1861 Confederate authorities redesignated the 10th the 20th Regiment N.C. Troops.) In June 1862 the regiment traveled to Richmond and join the brigade of General Samuel Garland. It remained with the Army of Northern Virginia until the surrender at Appomattox.

While at Fort Johnston the "Grays" assembled to have this photograph made. The officers, standing in front of the men, are (left to right) Captain Denson, First Lieutenant R. Pryor James, Second Lieutenant Louis T. Hicks, and Third Lieutenant Lemuel Hodges. The image was probably made prior to June 18, 1861, the date Lieutenant James was appointed adjutant of the regiment and transferred out of the company.

The enlisted men of the "Grays" are wearing plain seven-button gray shell jackets. The officers, three of whom are remarkably casual with their unbuttoned coats, wear single-breasted gray frock coats. The flag is indistinct, but tents in the background appear to be the large A-frame model in which six men could sleep.

When the "Grays" reorganized for the war in April 1862, Lieutenant Louis Hicks defeated Claudius Denson in the election for captain. Denson later served as a second lieutenant of Company A, 2nd Regiment Confederate Engineering Troops.

Unknown Photographer

Manarin et al., North Carolina Troops, 6:474-475; Joseph B. Oliver and others, History of Co. E, 20th N.C. Regiment, 1861-1865 (Goldsboro: Nash Brothers, 1905), 3; Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, "Denson, Claudius Baker."

North Carolina Office of Archives and History