Representative Robert Brank Vance

Robert Brank Vance (1793 – November 1827) was a Congressional Representative from North Carolina who served one term in the United States House of Representatives during the early national period. He was born in 1793 on Reems Creek, near Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, to Priscilla (née Brank) and David Vance. He was named for his uncle, Robert Brank, who had served with his maternal grandfather at the Battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolutionary War. His father, David Vance, served with the 2nd North Carolina Continental Regiment in the Revolutionary War and later became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, establishing a family tradition of public service. In his youth, Robert Brank Vance suffered an ailment to his left leg that stunted his growth, a physical condition noted by contemporaries. He was raised in the Presbyterian faith, and through his family connections he became the uncle of future Congressman Robert B. Vance and of Zebulon Baird Vance, who would later serve as Governor of North Carolina and as a United States Senator.

Vance received his early education in the common schools of the region and at Newton Academy in Asheville, an important early educational institution in western North Carolina. Demonstrating an interest in the professions, he pursued medical training and studied medicine under Dr. Charles Harris at his medical school in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, which was one of the notable avenues for medical education in the state at the time. This course of study prepared him for a career in medicine at a time when formally trained physicians were still relatively scarce in the western part of the state.

By 1818, Vance had established himself in Asheville as a practicing physician and is regarded as the area’s first resident physician. His medical practice served the growing community in and around Asheville, then a frontier town in the mountainous region of North Carolina. After approximately three years in practice, his circumstances changed significantly when he won a lottery prize of $5,000 and also received his father’s inheritance. These developments provided him with financial independence and enabled him to withdraw from full-time medical practice. In addition to his professional work, he held various local offices, participating in the civic life of his community and building a reputation that would later support his entry into national politics.

Vance’s congressional service occurred during a significant period in American history, as the young republic was consolidating its political institutions and parties. Aligning himself with the supporters of Andrew Jackson, he served as a Jackson Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina in the Eighteenth Congress. He was elected to the House of Representatives by a very narrow margin, winning the 1823 election by a majority of just one vote, a testament to the closely contested nature of politics in his district. His term in Congress extended from March 4, 1823, to March 3, 1825. As a member of the Jackson Republican faction representing North Carolina, he contributed to the legislative process during his single term in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents in western North Carolina. After the expiration of his term, he ran unsuccessfully for re-election in 1824 and again in 1826, reflecting the competitive and often personal nature of early nineteenth-century electoral politics in the state.

The 1826 campaign in which Vance sought to return to Congress became particularly contentious and would ultimately lead to his death. During that campaign, he accused his friend and political competitor, Samuel Price Carson, of taking public money while campaigning in Asheville, a charge that inflamed local political passions. Later, at Morganton, North Carolina, Vance made a pointed remark about Carson’s father’s alleged Tory allegiance during the Revolutionary War. According to Silas McDowell, Vance declared that during the Revolution his own father, Colonel Vance, “stood up to the fight,” while his competitor’s father, Colonel Carson, “skulked, and took British protection.” In an era when family honor and Revolutionary War reputations carried great weight, this insult was regarded as a grave affront.

Carson responded by challenging Vance to a duel. He wrote the challenge from Pleasant Gardens on September 12, 1827, and posted the letter from Tennessee in order to circumvent North Carolina’s laws against dueling. The duel was arranged to take place just over the state line in South Carolina, at Old Buncombe Road in the Saluda Gap, a mountain pass on the border between North Carolina and South Carolina. The encounter, sometimes referenced in lists of notable duels in the United States and associated with the so‑called “Saluda Gap duel,” took place in November 1827. Samuel Price Carson’s seconds were General Alney Burgin and Warren Davis, while General Franklin Patton served as second for Vance. The frontiersman and future congressman Davy Crockett was said to be present as a witness and friend of Carson. In the exchange of fire, Vance was shot in the side. He was carried to a nearby hotel, where he died the following day in November 1827.

Robert Brank Vance’s body was returned to his native community and interred in the family burial ground on Reems Creek, near Asheville, North Carolina. His brief but notable career as a physician, local officeholder, and Jackson Republican congressman, together with his dramatic and fatal duel with Samuel Price Carson, secured him a place in the political and social history of early nineteenth-century North Carolina. His life also formed part of the broader Vance family legacy, which would continue to shape state and national politics in the decades that followed.