USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina since 1860, Volume III > Part 3
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On April 18th, General Hoke invested the town on the land side and attacked the forts but was repulsed. The ram was expected by both sides and the Federal vessels "Southfield" and "Miami" were chained together for the encounter. As the ram did not appear they separated and assisted in the re-
CONSTRUCTION OF THE ALBEMARLE
THE ALBEMARLE AFLOAT AND READY FOR ACTION
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pulse of the Confederate forces. When finally the "Albe- marle" came, early the next morning, they were again chained together and went to meet the ram. At once the "Albemarle" struck the "Southfield" and sank her, the beak going so deep as to threaten the safety of the attacking vessel. As the "Southfield" went down, Flusser on the "Miami" then per- ยท sonally fired the first shot at the "Albemarle" and was killed by fragments of shell rebounding from her armored sides. The "Miami" then retreated under fire after which the "Al- bemarle" turned its guns on the town and the land forces storming the forts compelled the surrender of the place. Gen- eral Hoke was on the field promoted to major-general.
The fall of Plymouth forced the Federal forces to evacuate Washington. Before the troops left they sacked and burned the town. So flagrant was the outrage that General Palmer in a general order made the following statement: "It is well- known that the army vandals did not even respect the char- itable institutions but burst open the doors of the Masonic and Odd Fellows Lodge, pillaging them both and hawked about the streets the regalia and jewels and this, too, by United States troops! It is well-known that both public and private stores were entered and plundered and that devastation and destruction ruled the hour."
General Hoke next attacked New Bern and having taken the outworks had demanded the surrender of the town when he was ordered to bring his forces with all speed to Petersburg.
In the meantime the "Albemarle" threatened the Federal control of the sounds and even menaced the blockade. Captain Melancthon Smith was hurriedly sent South to hold the mouth of the Roanoke. With him were sent four large double enders, the "Sassacus," the "Mattabesett," the "Whitehead," and the "Wyalusing," which with the "Commodore Hull" and the "Ceres" already there, made a formidable squadron.
On May 5th, the "Albemarle" came out with a troop ship and a captured vessel loaded with coal and provisions. About ten miles from the mouth of the river, she met the Federal squadron and although rammed and exposed to a heavy bom- bardment was not destroyed, although considerably injured. Two of the Federal vessels were put out of the fight and
NAVAL ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN CONFEDERATE RAM ALBEMARLE AND UNION VESSEL WYALUSING
PIREMARLE
SASSACUS AND ALBEMARLE
LIEUT, WILLIAM BARKER CUSHING
TORPEDOING OF THE ALBEMARLE
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finally the squadron retired. The "Albemarle," unable to get up steam on account of her smoke stack's having been riddled with shot, with great difficulty returned to Plymouth.
Several attempts were made to destroy her by means of torpedoes but all failed. So great a menace was she, however, to the Union cause in the state, that the Navy Department selected Cushing to undertake the task of destruction at almost any cost. On the night of October 27th, he came up the river with a considerable party in two comparatively noiseless steam launches, passed the numerous Confederate pickets on land and water, and reached Plymouth. The "Albemarle" was surrounded by a boom of logs about thirty feet away from her sides. A fire on the shore illumined the river and Cush- ing's boat was seen by those on shore who gave the alarm. Under a hot fire which was returned with the howitzer on the launch, Cushing ran his boat at full speed against the boom. The launch slid over the slippery logs and Cushing with his own hands pushed a spar with a torpedo attached under the vessel and exploded it. The ram sank and the launch, en- tangled with the boom by the explosion, was captured with its crew. Cushing, however, refusing to surrender, dived and swam under water out into the river. Finally, almost ex- hausted, he reached land across the river and, after wading miles through the swamp, captured a skiff in which he suc- ceeded in rejoining the Federal fleet.
As a result of the destruction of the "Albemarle," Ply- mouth was recaptured by Federal forces on October 31st. The vessel was raised and towed to Norfolk, but was never again employed in warfare.
Another Confederate ram, the "North Carolina," a twin of the "Raleigh" and built on the Cape Fear, came out of New Inlet in May, 1864, and exchanged a few shots with the Federal blockading fleet, but retiring, was never again used.
In December, 1864, several vessels left Plymouth to co- operate with the Federal army in reducing Confederate bat- teries at Rainbow Bluffs, about sixty miles up the river. Two were sunk by torpedoes and, the military force never appear- ing, the rest, after dragging the river for torpedoes, returned.
Fort Fisher had proved from the beginning of the war
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such a tremendous asset to the Confederacy that as early as 1862 the Navy Department of the United States had sought to interest the War Department in a joint attack upon it and the other defenses of the Cape Fear. It was then decided that no troops could be spared for the purpose, but in the fall of 1864 Grant approved the plan and Farragut was appointed to the command of the naval force. On account of his health he was compelled to decline and D. D. Porter was placed in com- mand. As first planned, the attack was to be made on Oc- tober 1st. It was then postponed until the middle of the month, although 150 vessels were ready for the expedition.
Finally, in December, the details of a plan were announced. The attack was to open with the explosion of a vessel under the walls of the fort in the hope of blowing up the magazine in the fort. The "Louisiana," an old vessel, was disguised as a blockade-runner and loaded at Beaufort with two hundred and fifty tons of powder. After the explosion a naval force of seventy vessels and a land force of sixty-five hundred men were to co-operate in the reduction of the fort. This wild plan originated in the fertile brain of General B. F. Butler who accompanied the expedition and, although General Weitzel had been assigned to command, insisted as senior officer present, upon his right to control the operations of the military forces.
Fort Fisher, when Colonel William Lamb took command in 1862, was composed of several detached earth works and one casemated battery. It could have been reduced by one war vessel within a few hours. But work was begun at once with five hundred negroes and within the following year it was transformed into the largest earthwork in the Con- federacy, built of heavy timbers covered with sand about twenty-five feet deep and sodded with turf. It extended across the peninsula between the river and the ocean for six hundred and eighty-two yards as a continuous work with twenty heavy guns, two mortars, and four light guns. The sea face was eighteen hundred and ninety-eight yards long, formed of bat- teries connected by a heavy curtain, ending in a mound bat- tery sixty feet high. On this face were twenty-four heavy guns. At the end of the peninsula was Battery Buchanan,
FORT FISHER, THE GIBRALTAR OF THE UNITED STATES
FORT FISHER, DECEMBER 25, 1864
FORT FISHER, JANUARY 13, 1865 SCENES FROM THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT FISHER
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with four heavy guns. While almost impregnable from the sea, it was weak on the land side, reliance being placed on the troops around Wilmington. The garrison at the time of the first attack was composed of 1,431 men, 450 of whom were junior reserves. Throughout its entire history, the fort was manned almost exclusively by North Carolinians.
The powder ship was headed for the fort and exploded on the night of December 23d. "It excited curiosity in the garrison at first and then amusement mingled with envy at the posses. sion of such a store of ammunition as this sheer waste indi- cated, the supply in the fort being very small. On the following day the bombardment by the fleet began, fifty vessels mounting over six hundred guns participating. It lasted five hours in which time a storm of round shot and shells was poured upon the fort, some ten thousand in all being fired. The fort, short of powder, only fired six hundred and seventy-two shots in reply and the attacking force thought that most of the guns had been silenced. On the following day another terrific attack on the land face began, two shots per second being fired during a large part of the seven hours it lasted, the fort re- plying with only six hundred shots. The fleet again fired more than ten thousand. In the two days it discharged projectiles weighing nearly two million pounds. In the meantime three thousand troops under Generals Butler and Weitzel were landed with the intention of storming the fort. However, upon investigation of its condition, they decided not to attack and returned to the fleet which sailed back to Beaufort.
General Bragg was in command of the troops around Wil- mington and at once withdrew all the forces supporting the fort to the north of the town, and, although it was soon well- known that the fort was again to be attacked, did not send them back. When the attack was finally made, he, deliberately and shamefully, withheld the aid that would in all probability have saved the fort, and with a determination that contained not a vestige of courage prepared to retreat hastily from Wilmington.
By this time Charleston was closed to the outside world and the reduction of Fisher was deemed a military necessity. Another expedition, more powerful than the former one was
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prepared. Fifty-three heavily armed vessels on January 13th began a bombardment which lasted two days and nights. Over twenty thousand projectiles were again poured upon the fort, the guns of which replied at long intervals because of the continued shortage of ammunition. Most of them were put out of commission by the fire of the fleet and a large number of the troops were killed or wounded. The total number of men in the fort was considerably less than two thousand. General Whiting who had planned the defenses of Wilmington, in fine contrast to Bragg, came down to share the fate of the fort but left Colonel Lamb in command. He was mortally wounded and died in prison.
In the meantime eighty-five hundred Federal troops under General Terry had been landed and were advancing upon the fort. Both the garrison and the attacking forces fought mag- nificently, but the odds, thanks to Bragg's timidity, were too heavy and the fort surrendered.
The day after the fall of the fort, the Cape Fear was entered and Forts Caswell and Campbell on Oak Island were taken. These with the barracks and storehouses on Smith's Island were burned by the Confederates before evacuation. Smithville was also occupied. The gunboats then started up the river, making very slow progress on account of torpedoes, of which the river was full. Land forces also moved up both sides of the river only to be checked for several weeks by the Confederate troops under General Hoke's command at Fort Anderson at Old Brunswick and at Sugar Loaf across the river. General Schofield was now sent to take command of the Federal forces and left Smithville on February 17th. Marching upon Wilmington and co-operating with the fleet, he forced the evacuation of Fort Anderson, which had been bombarded for two days, and on February 22d, occupied Wilmington which had been evacuated by the Confederates.
Sherman's army was then advancing towards North Caro- lina and all the troops around Wilmington were ordered to join Johnston's army to oppose the progress of the invaders. Generals Hoke and Hill had successfully fought out the pre- liminaries of a battle with Cox's Corps near Kinston when the order reached them to make the junction and they were Vol. III-3
5
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forced to retire. Sherman's army entered the state in March and occupied Fayetteville a few days later. After the town had been completely plundered and the adjoining country ravaged, they moved on to join Schofield at Goldsboro. At Averysboro General Hardee on March 15th confronted Sher- man to give them time to reach the main army. This accom- plished, the Confederate force was concentrated at Bentonville to strike Sherman before the arrival of Schofield from Wil- mington. On March 19th, Johnston struck heavily at Sher- man's advancing forces and drove them back in confusion. Sherman waited for reinforcements and effected a junction with Schofield. Johnston resumed his slow and masterly re- treat finally surrendering near Durham's Station on April 26th, when Lee's surrender had made the Confederate cause clearly hopeless.
As Sherman approached Raleigh it was of course clearly evident that the end of the war was at hand and pressure was exerted upon Governor Vance to induce him to make terms with Sherman. William A. Graham and David L. Swain worked out a complete plan of action and advised the governor to summon the legislature which should pass resolutions ex- pressing a desire for peace and inviting the other Southern States to join the movement. The legislature should further elect commissioners to treat with the United States and report to a convention of the people which should be called at once. In the meantime a commission should be sent to treat with Sherman for a suspension of hostilities. The governor re- fused at first to consider the plan, but when the capture of Raleigh was imminent and General Johnston had informed him of his intention to withdraw his forces, he yielded and sent Graham and Swain as a commission to meet Sherman and arrange an interview with him.
After a series of mishaps and delays they reached General Sherman who treated them with great courtesy and sent them back with a message to Governor Vance, declining to give the desired interview, but expressing a wish, based upon Presi- dent Lincoln's instructions, that all state officers should con- tinue to perform their duties. Upon their return, however, they found that Vance had left Raleigh. He had determined
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THE BENNETT HOUSE
Here occurred the surrender of the Confederate forces under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to Gen. William T. Sherman
GEN, W. T. SHERMAN
GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON
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to remain and surrender the capitol in person, but was, against his will, forced by General Hoke to leave the city with him when the town was evacuated. And so when on April 13th, the. Union forces entered Raleigh, Swain, and not Vance, surren- dered the keys of the capitol to the officer appointed to re- ceive them.
Vance went to Charlotte and had an interview with Presi- dent Davis. He then sought permission from Sherman to return to Raleigh and call the legislature into session. Sher- man had left Raleigh and Schofield, who was in command, declined to permit the return, and a little later advised his going to his home. Vance did so and remained there until May 14th, when he was arrested by General Kilpatrick and car- ried to Old Capitol Prison in Washington where he stayed for several months.
In December, 1864, General Stoneman was ordered on a raid into Southwest Virginia to destroy the railway connec- tions between Virginia and Tennessee, and thus cut off sup- plies from Lee and also make this way of retreat for the Confederates impossible. In the last days of March, 1865, with a force of seven thousand men he came from Tennessee into Watauga County. In Watauga the force divided, Stone- man going to Wilkesboro and General Gillam crossing the Blue Ridge and going through Happy Valley, burning and plunder- ing as he went, finally rejoining Stoneman at Wilkesboro. . They left there on March 31st, and crossing Surry County entered Virginia. Destroying the railroad above Wythe- ville, they turned back into North Carolina and marching rapidly through Stokes and Forsyth, reached Salem April 10th. Detachments were from there sent out to cut the North Carolina and the Greensboro and Danville railroads. Some of the track of each was torn up and several depots with a vast amount of cotton and great quantities of supplies were burned. At Salem no looting was permitted. On April 12th Salisbury was occupied after a skirmish which continued in the streets of the town. Here private property was respected by the officers though there was some minor pillaging. But here was situated one of the most hated of the Confederate prisons and a vast amount of government supplies of all kinds
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brought from Columbia, Charlotte, Richmond, Danville and Raleigh, as well as an arsenal, a foundry, and a considerable store of ordnance. These with the public buildings and the railroad depots were burned. The totals of destruction for the expedition are impressive: Four cotton factories, 7,000 bales of cotton, 10,000 stands of arms and accoutrements, 1,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, 1,000 rounds ar-
L
THE CONFEDERATE PRISON AT SALISBURY
tillery ammunition, 7,000 pounds of powder, 35,000 bushels of corn, 50,000 bushels of wheat, 160,000 pounds of bacon, 100,- 000 suits of clothes, 250,000 blankets, 20,000 pounds of leather, 10,000 pounds of saltpetre, large quantities of sugar, salt and rice, $100,000 worth of drugs and the machine shops at Salis- bury. The total value of the property thus destroyed ran up into the millions.
On April 13th, Stoneman moved towards Statesville and, after destroying the government and railroad property there, moved on, one detachment going to Taylorsville and Lenoir
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
and thence to Tennessee and the other to Lincolnton. Evi- dently inclined personally to mitigate the harshness of war, to non-combatants at least, his army was full of marauders who looted and burned private property, and shot and maltreated unoffending old men and young boys. Women were treated with harshness and brutal rudeness, but the Federal army's course through North Carolina, stained as it was, was not marked by outraged virtue. Both Generals Stoneman and Palmer were mercifully inclined. General Gillam, who was sent to Morganton and Asheville, collected about nine hun- dred prisoners, mostly old men and boys, who were treated with disgusting brutality. Riot, murder, and pillage marked his track through Lenoir, Morganton, and Asheville. The last was practically turned over to the troops and was thor- oughly looted. In every way and very successfully the Fed- eral troops sought to emulate the more widely known exploits of Sherman's army in Georgia and the Carolinas.
On the heels of Stoneman came George W. Kirk, a Ten- nessee desperado, at the head of two regiments, chiefly com- posed of bushwhackers who found their occupation largely gone.
In May at Waynesville was fired the last shot of the war in the state. Between the battle of Hatteras on August 28, 1861, and this time there had been fought in the state eleven engagements worthy of the name of a battle and seventy- three skirmishes, most of these taking place in the eastern part of the state. Now at last warfare was ended.
CHAPTER III POLITICAL SENTIMENT IN WAR
Governor Ellis died in July, 1861, and was succeeded by Henry T. Clark, speaker of the Senate. According to regu- lar precedent, his right to the seat would expire with the elec- tion in August, 1862, but his successor could not under the law be installed until January, 1863. The convention there- fore provided that the new governor should be installed in September and continued Governor Clark in office until that time. The campaign began at once. Most prominent among the leaders of the conservative party was W. W. Holden who was generally thought to desire the office himself. He was out of the question, however, and the conservatives sought without success to induce William A. Graham to be a candi- date. The press, with the exception of the Standard, favored a general nominating convention and no contest, but Holden was opposed, desiring a campaign, and carried his party with him. When a contest was clearly inevitable, the secessionist element nominated William Johnston of Mecklenburg through the press. The conservatives were still casting about and finally the name of Zebulon B. Vance was suggested by the Fayetteville Observer, after some agreement of the leaders and the party accepted him. He was at the time colonel of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment.
In the press the campaign was one of extreme bitterness. Apart from Vance's speeches in the army the candidates took little part in it. There was no real issue. It was really a campaign fought on the personality of the leaders. This was frankly the case so far as the conservatives were con- cerned. But the original secessionists or "confederate" party, saw, or appeared to see, in the success of the conserva- tives, a complete surrender to the North. They adopted as a platform the resolutions of confidence passed by the conven-
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tion, and placed a summary of them upon their ticket which was as follows :
An unremitting prosecution of the war; the war to the last extrem- ity; complete independence; eternal separation from the North; no abridgement of Southern territory; no alteration of Southern bound- aries ; no compromise with enemies, traitors, or tories.
Jeff. Davis, Our Army, And The South.
Even out of the Confederacy the campaign attracted interest and in the North it was declared that the election of Vance would be a Union victory. But the people could not be con- vinced that Vance was untrue and gave him a majority of thirty-three thousand, something hitherto unheard of in the state. In his inaugural, Vance outlined his policy and pledged himself to a vigorous and unrelenting prosecution of the war. He won at once the confidence of his late opponents and there- after there was little doubt of his position.
The campaign had focussed attention on the question of loyalty and there was much fear of widespread disloyalty, but it is not likely that many people at this time desired a return to the Union. That a small number actively desired such an even- tuality and steadily plotted to secure it is undoubted. Nor is there room to doubt that dissatisfaction with conditions and with the Confederate Government was widespread and grow- ing. Failure to protect the coast, the establishment of the military prison at Salisbury with its numerous political pris- oners, the general feeling that North Carolina and North Car- olinians were discriminated against, the impressment of arms, the rigorous collection of the tithe, and an even more rigid en- forcement of the conscription laws,-all these combined to make the Confederate Government increasingly and, in time, bitterly unpopular. Economic conditions also grew worse rapidly, and disloyal act and utterance became less rare. A large number of deserters were present in the state by 1862 and the number steadily increased as time passed. They were most numerous in Randolph, Chatham, Catawba, Yadkin, Iredell, Forsyth, Guilford, and Wilkes. In the last there was in 1863 a regiment organized and under arms. Attempts to arrest deserters in most cases failed and they were a menace to unity for the rest of the war.
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Disloyalty in the East was largely confined to the coast region which was left almost entirely unprotected. When Federal occupation came every inducement was offered to those who remained at home to cast their lot with the Union. There was in the North a strong conviction that the people of North Carolina were still at heart loyal to the United States
GOVERNOR JOHN WILLIS ELLIS
and that if the opportunity were offered they would return to their allegiance. Two attempts were made during the course of the war to secure restoration. Both were in reality foreign to the people, but one was professed to be entirely local in its origins. The other was avowedly a military move- ment by the President of the United States.
The first attempt was made by a small group of men, few
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if any, natives of the state. A so-called constitutional con- vention was held at Hatteras in November, 1861, which de- clared the ordinance of secession null and void, elected one Marble Nash Taylor governor, and ordered a congressional election. When this was held, one Charles H. Foster was chosen. Both the convention and election were absurd frauds and all efforts to secure any recognition by Congress of this so-called Hatteras Government failed.
In May, 1862, President Lincoln appointed as military governor of North Carolina with the rank of brigadier-gen- eral, Edward Stanly, of California, a native of North Caro- lina, who had been formerly one of the most prominent whig leaders in the state, noted for a strong hatred of seces- sion and an equally strong devotion to the Union. He had been speaker of the House of Commons, attorney-general, and for several terms a member of Congress. Stanly had left the state when opposition to secession was strong throughout it and he could not believe that sentiment had greatly changed. He came at once to New Bern, now in the hands of Federal troops, and undertook the thankless task of leading the people back to the Union. Unable to make any headway, he found his position hopeless. Almost immediately, too, he involved himself in a bitter series of quarrels with a group of New Englanders who had started a school for negroes and were also busily engaged in sending slaves to the North. These dis- agreements put him in the bad graces of the radical element in Congress, led by Charles Sumner. By this time Stanly was deeply disgusted with his task. He was still heart and soul for the Union but he conceived a violent hatred of the conduct of those who were fighting for it in eastern North Carolina. He declared the Federal troops "guilty of the most shameful pillaging and robbery that ever disgraced an army in any civilized land." He had held an election for Congress the fall after his appointment but the successful candidate was not seated and it was clear by now that his mis- sion was a failure. Accordingly, on January 15, 1863, he re- signed with a letter of protest to the President against the emancipation proclamation. He went to California, notify- ing the President that he was ready to serve in North Caro-
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