Mewborn, Horace Hardy, 1941-2019

Horace Hardy Mewborn, Jr., the son of Horace Hardy Mewborn and Mary Elizabeth Dail Mewborn, was born in Kinston, North Carolina, on May 7th, 1941. Two years after graduating from Campbell College in 1963, he enlisted in the United States Army. During his seven years of active duty, he served 2 1/2 tours in the War in Vietnam as part of the Fifth Special Forces Group Mike Force and received many awards such as the Purple Heart and Bronze Star and awards from the South Vietnam Government, and was promoted to captain. On his last tour in Vietnam, he was assigned as the personal escort for Lieutenant Colonel Martha "Maggie" Raye with whom he formed a life-long friendship.

After his active duty ended, Mewborn earned an accounting degree at East Carolina University and was recruited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was involved early on with the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) and worked on assignments all over the United States. In 1990 he retired to New Bern, NC, from his job as section chief of the Domestic Terrorism Branch of the FBI headquarters.

During Mewborn's retirement, he devoted his time to the study of the American Civil War, especially Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby. He wrote several books about Mosby and other Civil War topics and gave numerous talks to Civil War Roundtables. Mewborn died on December 14, 2019, at his home in New Bern, NC.