Location: NC 34 at Shawboro
County: Currituck
Original Date Cast: 1967
Henry M. Shaw represented Currituck County in the secession convention but resigned from the convention to become colonel of the Eighth Regiment, North Carolina Troops. Shaw was in command at Roanoke Island in February 1862 when the regiment was captured by Union forces under General Ambrose E. Burnside. Henry M. Shaw was born in Newport, Rhode Island, November 20, 1819, to John Allen and Betty Marchmore Shaw. Although the family moved south due to financial hardships, Shaw was able to pursue his medical education at the University of Pennsylvania with the assistance of a benefactor. Upon graduation, he established a medical practice in Indiantown (Currituck County).
Henry M. Shaw became active in politics, serving in the state senate in 1851. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from the first district in 1853 and 1857. After his regiment’s capture on Roanoke Island February 8, Shaw remained imprisoned until he was exchanged in November of that year in Virginia. He resumed command of his reformed regiment at Camp Mangum. Henry M. Shaw was killed in the skirmish at Batchelder’s Creek on February 1, 1864. Shaw married Mary Riddick Trotman of Camden County. The couple had three children. Henry and Mary Shaw are buried at their home in Shawboro.
References:
William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, V, 323—sketch by Ellen Taylor Cook
John G. Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina (1997)
William R. Trotter, Ironclads and Columbiads, The Civil War in North Carolina: The Coast (1989)