Rarely mentioned in our history books is the role people of color played in helping win the Civil War. Kudos go out to the Lowry Band of North Carolina whose ancestors included English survivors of the Lost Colony of Roanoke mixed with Lumbee Indians mixed with self-liberated African men and women from the southern British colonies. Known to some as Lumbees, Swamp fighters or Black Indians, these aggressive fighters earned the praise of General Sherman, who called them his saviors for “the damnedest marching he ever saw.” When Sherman arrived in Robeson County with his exhausted troops today, 1865, they were stopped by a torrential rain, muddy roads, and swollen creeks. Completely lost and not a clue of where to go, the Lowry Band led them to safety. In 1976, residents of Robeson County produced “Strike at the Wind!”—a two-and-a-half-hour outdoor play about the Lowry Band. Descendants of the Lowry Gang were among its writers and the 1,000 actors who played their part over the next 30 years. Below, image of the cast of “Strike of the Wind” performed at the historic Adolph Dial Amphitheater at the Lumbee Cultural Center.