In 1864 Colonel Vance was re-elected Governor of North Carolina. At his first election he was personally very popular, was a soldier in the field, had been in actual battle, had been by no means a strong "Union" man in the earlier portions of the year 1861, and, indeed, in May of that year, was in camp at the head of his company. Mr. Johnston, his opponent, was a secessionist, but neither popular nor a soldier, and comparatively but little known to the mass of the people, except in his own immediate section of the State. Everybody of every shade of opinion had the fullest confidence that Colonel Vance would do his whole duty. There was no expectation that Mr. Johnston would be elected, nor any serious effort made in his behalf. 2. In his course as Governor such strenuous support was given to the Confederate States that when his term of service approached conclusion, and a new election was to be held, a few men who had been among his most zealous friends two years before, but who now opposed the determined attitude of the Confederacy and of North Carolina, were found opposing his continuance as Governor. 3. These comprised a small fragment of the people, and William W. Holden, of Wake, was their candidate, and this was all the opposition Governor Vance had. Mr. Holden was the editor of the Standard, a newspaper that had, in years past, been extreme in Southern proclivities, and he had advocated and signed the Ordinance of Secession, but of late he had advocated North Carolina's withdrawal from the Confederacy and the making of separate terms with the powers at Washington. 4. Governor Vance and the people, except the handful of Holden's followers, both in and out of the army, opposed this project as dishonorable and unjust to their compatriots of other States. They held that North Carolina's fortunes were inseparable from those of the other Southern States, and that she must share their fate, whatever that might be. 5. About this time several propositions looking to overtures to Mr. Lincoln for peace were communicated to Governor Vance from certain members of the Confederate Congress from other States, but he refused to take any part in such a scheme. He was re- elected by an overwhelming majority, after a thorough exposition of his views by many addresses both to the people at home and to the North Carolina soldiers in their camps. 6. As General Grant day-by-day massed fresh thousands of troops before Petersburg, and the Confederate resistance grew more feeble in the Shenandoah Valley, the conference which took place at Old Point Comfort was arranged to no purpose. After a mighty struggle, the South, in utter exhaustion, was soon to lay down the arms that had been so bravely wielded.