The life of a local Civil War hero will be subject of a free seminar at the Blind Center of North Carolina on Sunday.

Nash County Community College professor of history and geography John R. Peacock III delves into the life of Major General Bryan Grimes in the program “Bryan Grimes: Soldier and Citizen.” The event is sponsored by Friends of the Brown Library and the North Carolina Humanities Council.

The basis of the talk is Grimes’ ability to a position of high command without professional military training, highlighting his evolving leadership through the war. In 1928, Grimes was born at the ancestral family estate in Grimesland, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Grimes was elected to North Carolina’s secession then joined the Confederate Army as a major.

From that point onward, he engaged in nearly all the major campaigns in the eastern theater of the war: the first Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Gettysburg campaign, the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign, among others.

“In a ‘people’s war,’ such as the American Civil War, many men with no professional military training rose to positions of high command. Many of these so-called citizen soldiers did not measure up to the challenges of command. One who did was Bryan Grimes,” reads a press release from Friends of the Brown Library.

By the end of the war, Grimes had risen to the rank of major general.

According to Friends of the Brown Library President Katie Lake, each year the organization chooses four educational programs to host from list of speakers available, the funding for which comes from a grant through the North Carolina Humanities Council. Lake said they try to pick speakers who are relevant to the area, many of whom are authors — tying in the program with a support for reading. Earlier this year, FOBL hosted noted Black Beard historian Kevin Duffus at the Turnage Theater.

Sunday’s free presentation begins at 2 p.m. and is open to the public. The Blind Center of North Carolina is located at 219 N. Harvey St., Washington.