1850s ‘Razzle Dazzle’

Rowan did not top these early Forties parades for decades. In the early 1850s, economic development trumped mere patriotism. One year, as many people as possible went to Statesville on the Fourth for a meeting to raise money for the railroad that was to go from Salisbury all the way to Memphis, Tenn. (By the way, it only got to Morganton.)
The sectional conflict that eventually caused the Civil War had a great impact on celebrations of the 1850s. The development of independent volunteer companies took center stage. “The Fantastic Rangers,” a mounted group, “afforded many of our citizens a brief but exquisite pleasure by their singularly odd costumes. They were likely copying the razzle-dazzle of the British and the French in the ill-fated Crimean War. “The eager gazers,” said a witness, “seemed never to be satisfied” as they paraded through the streets.

1857: In 1857 the newly formed Rowan Rifle Guards, established in anticipation of an abolitionist invasion, highlighted — or low lighted, depending upon the viewpoint — the holiday with a shooting demonstration. “Terrible” was the judgment of their marksmanship, although the blame was quickly placed on Northern-made rifles. The “attractive feature” of “military display” was once again regional on the eve of the Civil War, when companies from nearby counties came to parade.
Civil War

The Civil War itself suspended the celebration of the Fourth, for both political and practical reasons. However, there is one known rally during the war. On July 4, 1863, thousands gathered in Linwood across the Yadkin River in Davidson County to salute the flag: The Stars and Stripes, not the Stars and Bars. The Heroes of America, an anti-Confederate group that included several dozen Rowan residents, staged the celebration at the same time the South was losing at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

Race became the key variable in the decline in celebrations during Reconstruction. Former slaves marched on Emancipation Day (i.e., New Year’s) to remind everyone that their erstwhile masters had used that time as “hiring week,” when human labor was let out on an annual basis. Later, Decoration Day in May became the important holiday of patriotism in town, if you were a Republican, black or white. In this period, most white Rowan citizens did little on the Fourth except work.