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WINGFIELD PLANTATION

Chowan County, North Carolina

Dr. Richard Dillard (1822-1887) and Mary Louisa Cross Dillard (1829-1880) daughter of Hardy Cross & Mary Anne Brownrigg

Original home of Richard Brownrigg in 1760; burned in 1863

Dr. Richard Dillard with his wife Mary Louisa Cross Dillard had a plantation in Chowan County named Wingfield Plantation.  Actually, Mrs. Dillard inherited the plantation.  It had been added as an historic site where the land is situated.  The plantation was  taken over by Jack Farless and the Buffaloes , so called renegades & deserters of the Confederates .  There is much historic information about this place, as Dr Dillard was a prominent man in US govt as well as NC Confederate history. My maternal ancestors were enslaved by these people. By: zakiyyah rasheed

Wingfield plantation, on the Chowan River north of Edenton, became a fortified encampment that served as the base of buffalo operations and provided a refuge for deserters, fugitive slaves, and Union sympathizers throughout the northeastern corner of the state. Local Confederates assaulted it in a series of attacks in the winter of 1862-63. By the third strike, although the fort itself was destroyed, most buffaloes had escaped by Federal gunboat. ["Buffaloes" were local Unionists engaged in guerrilla warfare and terrorist tactics during the Civil War, especially in eastern North Carolina. Similar to "bushwhackers" in the western part of the state, in portions of Appalachia, and on the war's western frontier, buffaloes consisted of Confederate deserters, draft resisters, escaped prisoners, and lawless white men and boys. They formed bands (which were compared with "herds of buffaloes") that hid out in swamps and forests and, often in league with fugitive slaves, gathered arms and raided local communities and plantations, harassing civilians and stealing or destroying their property and foodstuffs. NCPedia]

References: The History of Chowan Beach; North Carolina, Guide to the Old North State; Civil War Traveler