Besides being a member of Congress and a colonel in the 26th North Carolina Regiment, Colonel Vance was Tom Dula's attorney. In 1858 he was elected on a Whig ticket. He opposed secession but upheld the ideals of the South after the war commenced. After being in Company F, 14th North Carolina Infantry in Asheville, he was elected colonel of the 26th North Carolina Regiment and immediately joined. In the beginning of 1862, Vance and his regiment swallowed the fruits of defeat at the Battle of New Bern. Victory came later that year, on July 1, 1862, at the Battle of Malvern Hill in Tidewater, Virginia, although it proved to be one of the most costly battles to both sides.

Shortly after the war began, Vance won the office of governor and took office on September 8, 1862.

Although several legends speculated that Tom Dula was in Vance's regiment, the two had no association in the war other than participation in separate units. Since Tom did not have money to hire an attorney, Vance probably took the case gratis. But why? A family friend of the Dulas, Colonel James Horton, was also a friend of Vance and could have asked the former governor to intervene in the case. John Foster West muses that Vance defended the case because he represented the Conservative-Democrats (the Whigs) and the prosecution was Republican (Abraham Lincoln's party). Neither theory has ever been proven.

Sources:
West, John Foster. The Ballad of Tom Dula: The Documented Story Behind the Murder of Laura Foster and the Trials and Execution of Tom Dula. Durham, NC: Moore Publishing, 1970.
West, John Foster. Lift Up Your Head, Tom Dooley: The True Story of the Appalachian Murder That Inspired One of America's Most Popular Ballads. Asheboro, NC: Down Home Press, 1993.

Tom Dula - Ann Melton - Pauline Foster - James Melton
Dr. George N. Carter
Laura Foster - Colonel James M. Isbell - Zebulon B. Vance