I don't think I told you that I recently found out that Mary Chesnut, the Charleston Civil War - era diarist, evacuated to Lincolnton in early 1865. She thought the condtions primitive and over-priced. A lot of the locals had Union sympathies and some merchants wouldn't accept Confederate currency. At one point there was a rumour that Sherman was occupying Charlotte, and she wrote, "The natives are quite cool on the subject, content to bide their time. They are Union people, they say, and always were. Sherman will take what he wants, but he will hold out to them the right hand of fellowship. The same people who are so proud of those who went forth to die for their country think now they can eat their cake and have it too!" (Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, 493)
This might explain why I never heard much about the Civil War when I was growing up.