USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina since 1860, Volume III > Part 2
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On April 19, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring the blockade of the South from South Carolina to Texas. On April 27th, Virginia and North Carolina were in- cluded. While the United States was not a party to the Dec-
MAJ. GEN ROBERT RANSOM
MAJ. GEN.W.D.PENDER
LIEUT. GEN.T.
HOLMES
ZEBULON.B. VANCE
MAJ. GEN. W.H.C.WHITING
MAJ. GEN. B.F. HOKE
LIEUT. GEN : DANIEL H. HILL
GRIMES
MAJ.GEN. S. D. RAMS
MAI. GEN. BRYAN
GOVERNOR Z. B. VANCE AND NORTH CAROLINA LIEUTENANT-GENERALS AND MAJOR-GENERALS, C. S. A. From war-time photographs
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
laration of Paris, the day of the paper blockade was over and it was generally recognized that to be binding a blockade must be actual and effective. The United States navy was in no sense prepared to make the blockade thus proclaimed im- mediately effective, and it was not until July that there was even a pretense of actual blockade. In that month the steam- er, "Daylight" arrived off the mouth of the Cape Fear. Prior to this an English vessel out of Beaufort had been captured by vessels cruising off the coast two hundred miles from land and held as a prize. Even after the arrival of the "Daylight," the flow of commerce was little interrupted. During June, July, and August, forty-two vessels entered and cleared at Wilmington, most of them coasters which up to this time com- posed the bulk of the vessels entering the port. Beginning now, blockade running on a large scale started and it became one of the most prominent and important ports in the world.
The coast of North Carolina is well adapted for opera- tions of the sort. A double coast extends the whole distance, the outer being a long, narrow belt of sand jutting out at Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, and Cape Fear. This is broken at intervals by shallow inlets. Within lie the great line of sounds, the three most important, Pamlico, Albemarle, and Currituck, being very extensive. Upon their tributary rivers were situated a group of towns of considerable importance. The most important in every way was Wilmington. In situa- tion this was particularly true. Lying about twenty-eight miles from the mouth of the Cape Fear River, it was out of danger of direct attack so long as the mouth of the river was in Confederate hands. There were two entrances to the river, one from the east, called New Inlet; the other, the mouth of the river, from the south. These were about six miles apart on an interior line but between them lay Smith's Island with Cape Fear running out at the southern end and, extending seaward in the same line, the Frying Pan Shoals, which made the distance for vessels outside about forty miles. This made necessary two blockading squadrons for the river.
Each channel was guarded by strong works, the mouth by Fort Caswell and Fort Campbell, and New Inlet by Fort Fisher. Smithville, now Southport, a little village on the river
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furnished an anchorage where blockade runners after loading at Wilmington could wait for a good opportunity to go out. Equally distant from both channels, the favorable chances of each could be considered and taken advantage of. Outside each channel the blockading fleet lay in a semi-circle with the extremities as close in as they dared to come. The blockade runners coming in sight of land about evening would wait for darkness and then run in at full speed through the fleet and take refuge under the guns of the forts. It was utterly impossible to close such a port and blockade running con- tinued until Fort Fisher and Wilmington fell. Beginning in 1861, business reached its height in 1863 and 1864, declining towards the end of the latter year because of the increased efficiency of the blockading fleet, due in part to experience, but more to the increase in the number of ships. By 1864 not less than fifty steamers were stationed at each entrance, some of them the best in the Federal service. During the war the blockaders captured or destroyed sixty-five steam vessels, but many of them had been running successfully for a long time before they were stopped. Between November, 1861, and March, 1864, eighty-four were engaged in the trade, thirty- seven were captured, twelve were totally lost, eleven were lost and their cargoes saved in whole or in part, and one foundered at sea. They made 363 successful trips to Nassau and sixty- five to other ports. The "Siren," the most successful, made . sixty-four runs through the blockade. The "R. E. Lee" ran twenty-one times, the "Fannie" and the "Margaret and Jes- sie" eighteen each. Of 425 runs from Nassau including schooners, only sixty-two were unsuccessful. From January to October, 1863, ninety vessels came in.
Mr. James Sprunt in his Chronicles of the Cape Fear River records the names of the more notable of the vessels. They were the "Lady Davis," "R. E. Lee," "Siren," "Fan- ny," "Hansa," "Fox," "Pet," "Grayhound," "Virginia," "Stag," "Chameleon," "City of Petersburg," "Old Domin- ion," "Alice," "Margaret and Jessie," "Hebe," "Ad- Vance," "Atlanta," "Eugenia," "Ella and Annie," "Ban- shee," "Venus," "Don," "Lynx," "Let Her Be," "Let Her Rip,' "Lillian," "North Heath," "Little Hattie," "Beaure-
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gard," "Owl," "Agnes Fry," "Kate," "Calypso," "Ella," "Condor," "Mary Celeste," "Susan Bièrne," "Coquette," "Britannic," "Emma," "Dee," "Antonica," "Victory," 'Granite City," "Stonewall Jackson," "Flora," "Have- lock," "Hero," "Eagle," "Duoro," "Thistle," "Scotia," "Gertrude," "Charleston," "Colonel Lamb," "Dolphin," "Dream," "Spunkey," "Bat," "Orion," "Hope," "Sum- ter," "Phantom," "Will o' the Wisp," "Whisper," "Rat- tlesnake," "Armstrong,""Wild Dayrell," "Stormy Petrel," "Wild Rover," "Night Hawk," "Florie," "Chicora," "Fal- con," "Flamingo," "Vulture," "Ptarmigan," "Charlotte," "Blenheim," "Deer," "Maud Campbell," "Florence," "Modern Greece," and "Georgiana McCall."
A number of the captured blockade-runners were put into the service of the United States. The "Ad-Vance" became the "Frolic" and the "Ella and Annie" served under the name "Malvern" as Admiral Porter's flagship. Of those de- stroyed, the "Beauregard" and "Venus" lie at Carolina Beach, the "Modern Greece" at New Inlet, the "Antonica" on Frying Pan Shoals, the "Spunkey" and the "Georgiana Mc- Call" on Caswell Beach, and the "Hebe" and the "Dee' be- tween Masonboro and Wrightsville.
Nassau, situated only 570 miles from Wilmington, 515 miles from Charleston, and 500 miles from Savannah, be- came the most important intermediary port in the trade through the blockade, though Bermuda, 674 miles from Wil- mington, was also used. Prior to the war, Nassau was chiefly a fishing and wrecking village. It now became a shipping de- pot of vast importance to the Confederacy and to the outside world. Cargoes were sent there from Europe, transhipped to the blockade-runners, and exchanged for cotton and naval stores which brought immense prices in Europe. The block- ade-runners, which were chiefly a new type of vessel, designed for the purpose, were light, long, side-wheeled steam vessels, lying very low in the water. They averaged from four hun- dred to six hundred tons burden, and were of slight frame and narrow beam, with engines designed to develop great speed. They carried from six hundred to one thousand two hundred bales of cotton; a compress at Wilmington assisting greatly
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in increasing the number. With cotton selling at from four to eight cents at Wilmington and from fifty to seventy in Liverpool, the inducements were great. In the South, too, was an equal or even greater anxiety to secure manufactured goods of all sorts and this meant double profits. Freights rose until they ranged from $300 to $1,000 per ton. The captains often received $5,000 for a return trip, the pilot $750, a deck hand, $50. The profits on a single return voyage often reached $150,000.
To North Carolina and the Confederacy the blockade-run- ners were of inestimable service. But for them the Confed- eracy would have been strangled long before it was. During the latter years of the war the Cape Fear was the most im- portant centre in the Confederacy of this important trade. No record was ever made of what was brought in but according to Confederate reports between October 26, and December 6, 1864, there were brought into Charleston and Wilmington to- gether 8,632,000 pounds of meat, 1,507,000 pounds of lead, 1,933,000 pounds of saltpetre, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 316,000 pairs of blankets, 520,000 pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, 97 packages of revolvers, 2,639 packages of medicines, 43 can- non, and a very large quantity of other articles. As Charles- ton was by this time almost closed, the bulk of these came to Wilmington. These with the report on the "Ad-Vance," al- ready mentioned, give a fair idea of the immensity and im- portance of the business. Blockade-running lasted till the fall of Fort Fisher and three vessels came in after its fall only to be captured by the Federal forces. One came in that succeeded in escaping.
The first armed conflicts within North Carolina were on the coast. The command of the sounds and their tributary rivers, controlling as it did more than a third of the state, was of vital importance. An enemy in control would threaten the chief railroad communication between Richmond and the southern coast, cut off a vast trade, and cramp the whole state. The necessities of the case were at once seen and after the seizure of Forts Caswell, Johnston, and Macon, defences were begun at Ocracoke Inlet, at Hatteras Inlet and on Roanoke Island. On Beacon Island at Ocracoke, Fort Morgan was Vol. III-2
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erected and at Hatteras Forts Ellis and Clark. On Roanoke Island were Forts Huger, Blanchard, and Bartow, all on the western side of the island on Croatan Sound, and a battery at Ballast Point on the eastern side commanding the entrance to Manteo or Shallow Bay. Across Croatan Sound, on the mainland was Fort Forrest. At Cobb's Point on the Pasquo- tank River was another battery. None of these were real forts, the strongest, Fort Ellis, having only twelve smooth- bore 32-pounders. The total number on Roanoke Island was thirty 32-pounders, most of them smooth-bore. The supply of ammunition was very small.
Operating in the sounds were four small steamers, the "Winslow," the "Beaufort, " the "Ellis, " and the "Raleigh," purchased in Norfolk by the state and converted into gun- boats, each mounting one gun. The "Winslow" was in com- mission as early as June, 1861, and at once began to prey upon United States commerce, capturing in a short time eight ves- sels which were then sent to New Bern and condemned as prizes. The total captures by the little fleet were eight schoon- ers, seven barks and a brig.
Public demands in the North and the evident value to the Union cause of establishing Federal control in this region led the Navy Department to order an expedition to go out from Norfolk against Hatteras. In August, 1861, six war vessels, two transports, and two schooners carrying a force of more than nine hundred men, under the command of Commodore Stringham and General B. F. Butler proceeded to Hatteras. After a short bombardment, the troops having in the mean- time landed, Fort Clark was abandoned and Fort Ellis surren- dered with six hundred and fifteen prisoners. Beacon Island was at once abandoned and the Federal forces destroyed Fort Morgan a few days later. In results the defeat was disas- trous. Hatteras became an important supply point for the Federal vessels and forces, and it is was the key to the Albe- marle and Pamlico sections. The loss of Roanoke Island and New Bern followed naturally.
Active attention was at once given to strengthening Roa- noke Island and the other strategic points. General Henry A. Wise was assigned to command at Roanoke and General L.
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O'B. Branch at New Bern. The defences, however, were in the main, absurd. Old smooth-bore cannon, mounted on cart wheels and drawn by mules masqueraded as field pieces. One of the regiments on Roanoke was armed with squirrel rifles and shot guns with carving knives for bayonets. Delay, also was characteristic of the preparations. The Confederate au- thorities felt unable to furnish troops and all of the state's trained men were in Virginia. Branch at New Bern had but seven regiments; Shaw, who commanded at Roanoke, in the absence of Wise, but two. The latter had several times re- ported his inability to hold his position for even a day.
Flag-Officer William F. Lynch was placed in command of the naval defences. The fleet under his command was now increased by the addition of the "Seabird," the "Curlew," the "Appomattox," the "Black Warrior," the "Junaluski," the "Forrest," and the "Fanny," the last having been cap- tured in October by the "Raleigh" and the "Junaluski," aft- er an engagement of fifty-five minutes. In November the "Winslow" was wrecked and lost.
In the late autumn an expedition against Roanoke was planned and finally reached Hatteras in January, 1862. It con- sisted of twenty war vessels and forty-six armed army trans- ports, almost all suited for the shallow waters of the sounds, under the command of Rear-Admiral L. M. Goldsborough and Commodore Rowan. The military force under General A. E. Burnside assisted by Generals Foster, Reno, and Parke, con- sisted of about fifteen thousand men. The attack began on Feb- ruary 7th, and lasted all day. The Confederate vessels having used all their ammunition, were forced to retire with the loss of the "Curlew." Federal troops were landed during the day and the next morning renewed the attack. The Confederate forces, driven to the north end of the island were forced to surrender.
The next day the retreating vessels were followed by Rowan with fourteen vessels. On February 10th, at Cobb's Point, the two squadrons met. The shore battery was aban- doned and later destroyed, the "Seabird" was sunk, and the "Ellis" and the "Fanny" captured, the latter on fire and aground. The Federal squadron followed to Elizabeth City
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where the "Forrest" was found on fire with some other ves- sels still on the ways. The "Raleigh," "Beaufort," and "Appomattox," escaped up the Pasquotank River and through the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal to Norfolk. Edenton was then visited, the militia there retreating, and a vessel there and some cannon were destroyed. The retreat- ing Confederates from Elizabeth City had partially blocked the entrance to the canal and this was made complete by the Federal fleet. Winton was next visited and the raw militia placed there for defence fled after firing upon the fleet. Fed- eral troops under Colonel Rush C. Hawkins at once landed and burned part of the town.
The way now lay open for the attack on New Bern. On March 12th, Rowan with thirteen vessels and twelve thousand men sailed from Hatteras and at sunset they were in sight of New Bern. Elaborate preparations had been made against at- tacks from the water, including sunken vessels, chevaux de frise and sunken torpedoes, attached to piles. There were also six small forts mounting thirty-two guns. Little attention, however, had been paid to possible land attacks. Under Branch were less than five thousand men.
On the next day the Federal forces were landed and marched towards the Confederate lines without opposition. On the following day the Federal troops attacked, supported by the fleet. A break in the Confederate lines was finally found and penetrated and after some hours of sharp fighting the Confederates were forced to retreat. The fleet had in the meantime reached the town which was occupied.
Following the fall of New Bern, Carolina City, Morehead City, Newport, and Beaufort were occupied. Fort Macon, garrisoned by five companies with more than fifty guns, was besieged and, after being heavily shelled from both land and sea was forced to surrender on April 25th.
Sharp fighting took place in the same month at South Mills. A Federal force of three thousand was sent to destroy the Dismal Swamp Canal and the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal to prevent the coming of gunboats from Norfolk to the North Carolina sounds. A force of seven hundred and fifty Confederates succeeded in driving the Federals to their boats
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before they accomplished their purpose. Later in the month the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal was finally and effect- ively blocked.
About this time there occurred the first of the exploits which brought fame to Lieutenant Cushing of the United States Navy. In command of the captured "Ellis," he was blockading New River Inlet. In November, 1862, he went up New River to destroy salt works, capture vessels, and visit Jacksonville. Upon his return he was attacked from the shore and shelled. In escaping the "Ellis" went aground and was destroyed to prevent her capture. Cushing was eager to wipe out this reverse and in August of the following year, having seen from a small boat a schooner in New Topsail Inlet, he led in a small force and having destroyed the vessel and the salt works on shore, returned with a number of pris- oners. He was the most active and energetic of the Federal naval officers in North Carolina waters and his destruction of the "Albemarle" was only the climax of a number of dar- ing exploits.
In 1864 he was in command of the "Monticello," one of the vessels in the blockading fleet at the Cape Fear. In February, accompanied by several other officers and two boat crews he came in the mouth of the river at night and landed at Smithville, then occupied by a garrison of a thousand Con- federate soldiers. Going at once to headquarters in the hope of capturing General Herbert, he found him out but captured a subordinate officer and returning to his boats, passed out safely by Fort Caswell to the fleet. In June of the same year he went with the same officers and fifteen men up the river within seven miles of Wilmington, hoping to destroy the Con- federate ram, "Raleigh." Landing, they stayed two days and three nights, cutting telegraph wires and examining fortifica- tions. They captured a number of prisoners including a courier with valuable dispatches. The "Raleigh" they found was already destroyed. On the return trip down the river, they narrowly escaped capture, but finally rejoined the fleet in safety.
After the fall of New Bern, Federal gunboats patrolled the waters of Eastern North Carolina and Edenton, Washington,
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Williamston, Elizabeth City and Plymouth were occupied by troops. At various points small engagements took place. In September, 1862, a small Confederate force entered Washing- ton and a hot fight occurred before they were forced to retire. Plymouth was retaken in December but was held only a short time. About the middle of the month General J. G. Foster who was in command at New Bern with ten thousand infantry, six hundred and fifty cavalry and forty pieces of artillery left New Bern for the interior. A fleet of small gunboats went up the river at the same time in support. At Southwest Creek he was opposed by one Confederate regiment which was soon forced to retire. About two miles from Kinston on the four- teenth, a Confederate force of about two thousand was driven back after a fight of two hours and Foster pressed on towards Goldsboro. At White Hall, two days later, another skirmish occurred, again resulting in a Confederate retreat. When Foster neared Goldsboro, he sent several regiments to burn the railroad bridge, and a sharply contested battle occurred, in which the Federal forces were checked. Foster then re- turned to New Bern.
With the opening of 1863 over thirty thousand Confederate soldiers were in the state, the largest number in any one quarter being ten thousand under General Whiting in the de- fences about Wilmington. Other forces, mainly single regi- ments or parts of regiments, were at Magnolia, Kinston, Goldsboro, Weldon, and Hamilton. As spring advanced, most of these troops were sent to Virginia. In order to gather sup- plies inside the Federal lines, attacks upon New Bern and Washington were planned. That upon New Bern occurred early in March, two bodies of troops under General Pettigrew and General Daniel co-operating. After a preliminary success by Daniel the expedition under Pettigrew failed, chiefly be- cause of inferior arms and ammunition, and the plan was abandoned. Skirmishing at various points followed and to- wards the end of March the attack on Washington was or- dered with the hope of surprising the Federal forces. Heavy rains delayed the movement and by the time the expedition reached Washington, the hope of surprise was gone and . nothing could be accomplished.
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During the rest of the year there were no operations in the state of importance. Most of eastern North Carolina lay open to the Union troops and by degrees they stripped the entire region of everything of value that was movable. Whole ship- loads of booty were sent north. Edward Stanly said: "Had the war in North Carolina been conducted by soldiers who were Christians and gentlemen, the state would long ago have rebelled against rebellion. But instead of that, what was done? Thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of prop- erty were conveyed North. Libraries, pianos, carpets, mir- rors, family portraits, everything in short, that could be removed, was stolen by men abusing flagitious slaveholders and preaching liberty, justice, and civilization. I was informed that one regiment of abolitionists had conveyed North more than $40,000 worth of property. They literally robbed the cra- dle and the grave. Family burying vaults were broken open for robbery; and in one instance (the fact was published in a Boston paper and admitted to me by an officer of high position in the army), a vault was entered, a metallic coffin removed, and the remains cast out that those of a dead soldier might be put in the place."
The horror of Federal occupation was intensified by the operations of the "Buffaloes," or native Union bushwhackers, who perpetrated every type of violence and crime. The con- dition of affairs finally became so bad that great feeling was aroused in the state. To counteract this President Davis, late in 1863, ordered General Lee to send a considerable force to the state. Acting upon a plan of General Robert F. Hoke, whom he called into consultation, an attack on New Bern was undertaken. Hoke was only a brigadier and the expedition was too large to be given to one of that rank, so General Lee told Hoke that he was to be the actual leader but that he would have to put in nominal command a major-general. Having chosen General Pickett as the one who could "best be spared from Virginia," the force of over thirteen thousand men was assembled at Kinston from which it moved toward New Bern on January 20, 1864. Pickett disregarded Hoke's plan and upon the latter's remonstrating, ordered compliance with his orders under threat of arrest and court-martial. Hoke was
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. obliged to submit and the expedition was a complete failure. A small naval detachment in boats under Commander John Taylor Wood, after a furious fight boarded and captured the "Underwriter," a converted tugboat and the most powerful of the vessels stationed at New Bern. Unable to take time to get up steam they were compelled to burn her.
Conditions in the state still demanding Confederate action, General Lee again called General Hoke into conference. · Hoke advised an attack upon Plymouth which had been strongly fortified and which was held by General Wessels with about three thousand men. At Edward's Ferry on Roanoke River, Gilbert Elliott of Elizabeth City, a nineteen year old boy, was building for the Confederate navy, after plans prepared by John L. Porter, who had converted the "Merrimac," an iron- clad gunboat to operate in the sounds. The boat which had been begun early in 1863 was unfinished, but upon General Hoke's urgent representation of his need of it, the work was speeded up and on April 18, it started down the river under the command of James W. Cooke, formerly an officer of the United States navy, now a Confederate commander, with the construction force still working upon it.
The construction of the "Albemarle" was in itself an achievement. It was built in an open cornfield, above high water, of unseasoned timber, by unskilled workmen. A black- smith shop furnished the mechanical parts. It was 152 feet long with an extreme beam of 45 feet. It drew about eight feet. It was covered with two courses of iron plates two inches thick. The prow was of heavy oak sheathed with iron and was intended for use as a ram. The armament consisted of two guns. The construction of the vessel had been reported to the United States Navy Department by Lieutenant-Com- mander Flusser, the naval commander at Plymouth, as early as June, 1863, but the depth of the river would not permit the ascent of his boats and nothing was done.
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