USA > North Carolina > New Hanover County > New Hanover County : a brief history > Part 7
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Inside the fort, the defenders suffered the devastating fire from the sea with courage. At the same time, they watched the buildup of enemy power ashore with concern. After the December attack, appeals had been made to General Bragg in Wilmington to send troops down to entrench themselves where the Federals had landed before and thereby prevent another such landing in the future. Bragg had refused even though troops were available. Johnson Hagood's South Carolina Brigade of about 1,000 men was in Wilmington, as was Gen. Robert F. Hoke with 6,000 men sent down from Virginia by General Lee to aid in the defense of the Cape Fear. Later, Hoke and his men were sent down but too late to prevent Terry's landing. Hoke then entrenched his men to the northward of Terry's position, in a line extending from Sugar Loaf, on the river, to Masonboro Sound. There he was joined by Hagood's Brigade and by Bragg, who established his headquarters at Sugar Loaf. Bragg was connected with Fisher by telegraph; but because of his poor judgment and timing, thousands of men sorely needed in the fort were physically separated from it by firmly en- trenched enemy troops.
Within hours after the bombardment had begun on the thir-
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teenth, General Whiting arrived at the fort, having rushed down from Wilmington. Although Lamb offered to give him command, Whiting refused, choosing to serve in an advisory capacity only. At the time, the garrison consisted of 800 men, 100 of whom were not fit for duty. During the day and the night that followed 700 reinforcements came in, all North Carolinians and members of artillery units. Shortly after noon on the fifteenth, Hagood's Brigade arrived, finally having been sent by Bragg after re- peated appeals. These men came by riverboats; and, because of enemy gunfire, no more than 350 were able to land. In the meantime, about 200 men had been killed or wounded, leaving a net garrison strength of 1,550. In addition, there was a small naval detachment which was responsible for holding Battery Buchanan and for operating a number of emergency boats tied up at a nearby wharf.
At three o'clock on the afternoon of January 15, the naval bombardment suddenly ceased ; an ominous silence fell over Fort Fisher. A frantic appeal had already gone to General Bragg at Sugar Loaf to attack the enemy from the rear, but the appeal was in vain. After a short while, the silence was broken by the piercing shriek of every whistle in the fleet sounding in unison- the signal for attack. The Union sailors, entrenched nearby, rushed the fort, armed with cutlasses and pistols. Behind them came the marines bearing muskets. Lamb hurriedly gathered 500 men at the angle bastion, and as the Yankees tried to ascend the slope of the fort they were driven back by the withering fire from the Confederates on the parapet above. Lamb had chosen to defend the angle of the fort personally because he believed it would be the focus of the assault. As the surviving sailors and marines fell back, Lamb looked to the river end of the land face and was horrified to see enemy flags atop the parapet. It was against that section that the enemy was throwing the main force of his power.
In directing his own attention to the eastern end, Lamb as- signed responsibility for defense of the western end to Maj. James Reilly. A native of Ireland and a Wilmingtonian by adoption, Reilly was an artillery veteran of long experience who had achieved distinction on many fields of battle with the Army of Northern Virginia. He was at Fort Fisher because General Whiting had requested that he be sent to aid in its defense. At the beginning of the attack he had 250 men. The 350 men of Hagood's Brigade had been ordered to join him, but only a few
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of them did so. It was against this small force that General Terry threw 4,000 of his men, leaving the balance to protect his rear. Reilly and his men fought bravely and desperately, but guns could not be loaded fast enough to stop the onrushing horde. Many of the enemy fell, but a few finally reached the top of the parapet where they planted their battle flags. It was these that Lamb saw from the opposite end of the land face. Whiting saw them too, and both rushed forward, rallying men as they went, to help stem the tide. The defenders fought furiously, and for a while it seemed that they might prevail. Then, suddenly, fire from the fleet was resumed with deadly accuracy. Once more the tide turned in favor of the Federals who slammed their way into the fort. In the turmoil, Whiting was mortally wounded ; a short while later, Lamb also fell with a serious but not fatal wound.
With Lamb out of action, command of Fort Fisher fell to Major Reilly by seniority. He continued to fight with determi- nation, but the force against him was too much. After dark he had General Whiting and Colonel Lamb carried on ahead while he and his men began to fall back to Battery Buchanan, fighting each step as they went. At this time his followers had dwindled to thirty-two men. Even so, Reilly intended to continue
Fort Fisher's capture on January 15, 1865, was a tragic event depicted in Harper's Weekly, February 4, 1865, and reproduced here.
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the struggle with the guns of Buchanan; but when he arrived at the battery, he found it had been deserted by the naval de- tachment, which had spiked the guns and taken all available boats.
Several hundred other survivors of the Fort Fisher garrison had also found their way to Buchanan, but few had guns. With the enemy drawing ever closer, Reilly realized that to fight on stubbornly would accomplish nothing except the death of more of his men. For that reason, he placed a white handkerchief on the tip of his sword, advanced from the battery a short distance, and surrendered the sword and the fort to the captain in com- mand of an advance Federal unit. It was near ten o'clock in the evening of January 15. Fort Fisher had fallen, but not until it had been subjected to the most intense naval bombardment in the history of the world to that time.
Later, Whiting, Lamb, and Reilly, along with other officers and men of Fort Fisher, were taken north to Federal prisons. Whiting died of his wounds the following March 3, but the day before his death he found the strength to fix the blame for the fall of the fort on Braxton Bragg. While Fort Fisher crumbled, Bragg was only a few miles away with 6,000 of Lee's best troops; and he did not fire a single shot.
After the fall of Fort Fisher, the next goal of the Federals was to occupy Wilmington. Confederate resistance, however, was not altogether dead, and progress was slow. More Federal troops were brought in, and one by one the remaining Confed- erate installations such as Caswell and Anderson were taken. Finally, the way to Wilmington was cleared, and Federal troops marched into the town shortly after Bragg and the surviving Confederate troops had marched out.
With its last channel of foreign supplies cut off, the Confeder- acy entered its last days. On April 9, 1865, less than three months after the fall of Fort Fisher, General Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, and the Confederate States of America had come to an end. For Wilmington and New Han- over County, however, the end had come on February 22, the day of Wilmington's formal surrender.
An interesting footnote to the story of Fort Fisher concerns the sword Major Reilly gave up as a symbol of surrender. Almost thirty years after the event, in 1893, the major received a communication from Capt. E. Lewis Moore, to whom the sword had been surrendered on that fateful night. Captain Moore of-
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fered to return the sword; Major Reilly gratefully accepted it from his "brave and gallant opponent in war." "Captain," the major wrote, "if you have time, come to see me, and we will visit the Fort and see its ruins." For two former foes at least, the bitterness of war had faded with the passing years.
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V. The Modern Period
The Ordeal of Reconstruction
When the Federal troops marched into Wilmington on Febru- ary 22, 1865, the mayor, John Dawson, surrendered the town to their commander, General Terry. To the invaders it was a fitting observance of Washington's birthday. To the people of New Hanover County it was the beginning of the ordeal of Recon- struction. North Carolina was divided into military districts, and New Hanover was included in the District of Wilmington, along with seven other southeastern counties. The district was placed under the command of Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, who was supported by occupation troops, both black and white.
From the beginning of Reconstruction, political factions began to evolve. The Conservatives wished to return, as nearly as possible, to life as it had been, accepting the fact that slavery no longer existed. The Radicals, on the other hand, wanted to see the plantation South turned into a land of black and white yeoman farmers. To achieve this goal, some went to the extreme of advocating the confiscation and redistribution of southern land.
Many, if not most, of the Union military officers and also officials of the United States government at the time were in- clined to a conservative point of view. General Hawley was an exception, but he never had the opportunity to enforce his extreme Radical ideas to any great extent. He was removed from command in June, 1865, and was replaced by Gen. John W. Ames. The removal of Hawley was in keeping with the policy of Andrew Johnson, then president of the United States, of tak- ing the army out of government in the South. General Ames was sympathetic to this policy and to the Conservative cause. Ac- cordingly, soon after taking office as commander of the district, he returned the government of Wilmington to the officials from whom it had been taken.
Another indication of the trend toward demilitarization was the gradual reduction in the number of occupation troops. Fol-
lowing a mutiny against their white officers in February, 1866, the Negro troops were replaced by whites. The whites, however, were reduced in number so that by 1868 only a token force of fifty-three remained. They were intended to supervise the activi- ties of local officials, but they actively supported the Conservative cause of the officials.
On February 20, 1866, the North Carolina General Assembly granted a new charter by which the town of Wilmington became the city of Wilmington. The charter was accepted on March 8, and on that same date the first election was held. The charter provided for government by a mayor and board of aldermen. A. H. Van Bokkelen was elected the first mayor of the city. The government of New Hanover County continued to rest in the county court made up of justices of the peace who were appointed for life by the governor on the recommendation of the county's representatives in the General Assembly.
Law and order were maintained by the few occupation troops, by the small Wilmington police force directed by the magistrate of police, and by the eight county patrols which comprised the New Hanover County Militia; by patrolling the countryside, county patrols were a stabilizing force. The patrols came to an end, however, when the new State Constitution of 1868 changed the nature of the militia.
The Ku Klux Klan made its brief local appearance at about this time. Although the first activity of the Klan in North Caro- lina seems to have been in New Hanover County, it was not as widely supported there as in some other places in the state, nor did it last as long. After a brief flurry of activity, it disappeared. In part, its purpose was to maintain order in keeping with the standards of its members. In part, it was to prevent local political power from slipping from the hands of the Conserva- tives. In this, it failed.
The darkest clouds of Reconstruction appeared over Washing- ton on March 2, 1867. On that day, the United States Congress passed the first of the several military reconstruction acts. This occasion marked the end of Andrew Johnson's moderate policy and the beginning of the extremist policy of the Radical Republi- cans by which they sought to perpetuate themselves in power through domination of the southern states by means of the Negro vote. In an effort to achieve this goal, the states of the Confederacy (except Tennessee) were divided into five military districts, each under a major general. North Carolina was joined
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with South Carolina. The generals were assigned troops, and each state was to remain under military government until it was readmitted into the Union under conditions dictated by Congress. Among the conditions was the adoption of a state constitution that extended the vote to Negroes and whites alike, except that it would be denied to certain ex-Confederates.
In the spring of 1868 the people of North Carolina adopted a new constitution for the state, and in the following July the state was readmitted into the Union. The Negro was ready to exercise the right to vote he had received. During the previous year the Republican party, made up of black and white Union- ists, had been organized in the state. In the first election under the new constitution, the Republicans gained control of the state government by electing the governor and the majority of the General Assembly.
The Constitution of 1868 also provided for a new system of county government. According to its terms, each county was to be administered by a board of five commissioners chosen by popular election for two-year terms. Justices of the peace hence- forth were to exercise only judicial powers. This was a change of the utmost significance for New Hanover County. The Negroes together with the white Unionists in the Republican party held the majority of votes and won control of the county government. The Republicans also gained control of the government of the city of Wilmington. The Republican-dominated General Assem- bly declared the city offices to be vacant, and on July 30, 1868, Joseph H. Neff was appointed mayor of Wilmington by the Republican governor. The following year, Neff, a local merchant, was elected mayor by the Republican voters.
In 1870 the pendulum in the state began to swing back when the Conservatives won control of the General Assembly. Six years later, the swing was almost completed when Zebulon B. Vance became the first Conservative to be elected governor since the Negroes had gained the franchise. In that same year, the Conservatives in the state took the name of the Democratic party so they could cooperate with the party on a national level.
Too, little time was lost in restoring Democratic control in New Hanover and other eastern counties which had been under Repub- lican regimes. In 1876 the General Assembly, empowered by a constitutional amendment adopted the previous year, passed an act which ended the popular election of county commissioners. Thereafter, the commissioners were to be chosen by the justices of
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the peace of each county who were to be appointed by the Demo- cratic-controlled General Assembly. It was also provided that the justices would once more share administrative responsibilities with the commissioners.
The government of Wilmington was also returned to the whites by a revised charter which the General Assembly ap- proved in 1877. By its terms the city was divided into five wards, and the boundaries of the wards were drawn to assure the election of a majority of Democratic aldermen. In the same year, the General Assembly also provided for a Board of Audit and Finance for Wilmington designed to exercise almost ex- clusive control over the city's financial affairs. Its members were appointed by the governor; and with the elected board of com- missioners, it formed a dual system of administration which worked with little friction.
In this manner political Reconstruction came to an end in New Hanover County. By this time, however, it had also been abandoned as a policy of the national government. In 1877 the last of the Federal troops were withdrawn from the South and Reconstruction was over.
Local Government in Modern Times
With political Reconstruction behind them, the people of New Hanover County were still faced with a complexity of pressing problems. On the ruins of the past a new way of life had to be built. The revival of the economy was an urgent necessity, the social order had to be restored, transportation lines needed to be put in order, and the education of the young could not continue to be neglected. The people responded with energy and de- termination to these great challenges.
Having regained political power, the old Conservatives held tightly to it by means of the new united Democratic party. The cohesive force was the fear that control might pass again to the Republicans. The Republican party continued as a strong political organization, but it could not regain control of the state government. By the 1890s, however, there was a period of partial recovery. Many farmers had become discontented with the depressed state of agriculture and despaired of relief from the Democrats who seemingly had become complacent with continued power. Consequently, many of the farmers joined with Republicans in a separate political body known as the
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Populist party. In 1894 the Fusionists, as they were called, won control of the state legislature; two years later, Daniel Russell, a Republican, was elected governor. Having won political power, the Fusionists now took steps to hold it. The office of county commissioner was again made elective, and the powers of the justices of the peace were restricted to judicial matters. In 1897 the Fusionist General Assembly authorized the governor to appoint in every New Bern and Wilmington ward one alderman in addition to the one elected by the people. These various actions were particularly significant for the eastern counties, such as New Hanover, where the Negroes outnumbered the whites, and there was an increasing fear among the whites over the number of Negroes who were holding office on every level of govern- ment. This concern came to a climax with the Wilmington race riot of 1898.
In March, 1895, the government of Wilmington passed to the local Fusionists, made up of blacks and whites and dependent on the votes of the blacks. Soon a majority of the city police force were Negroes, and Negroes filled numerous other city offices. In addition, forty of the New Hanover County magis- trates, a majority, were black. The whites of Wilmington were deeply disturbed over this Republican-Negro rule. They paid 95 percent of the taxes and were determined to regain control of government. They waited patiently, however, until the proper time should come. It came in November, 1898.
November 8, 1898, was election day in North Carolina, and the Democrats regained control of the General Assembly. The confidence that came with this victory, combined with smolder- ing resentments, moved the Democrats of Wilmington to take steps to rearrange their local affairs. The following morning, November 9, a thousand of them met at the courthouse. One cause of immediate anger was that certain offensive articles had been printed during the recent campaign in a local newspaper published by a Negro. A resolution was adopted at the meeting calling for the editor to cease publication and leave the city within 24 hours. A reply was demanded by 7:00 the next morn- ing. The resolution also demanded the immediate resignation of the mayor, the aldermen, and the chief of police. A committee of twenty-five men was appointed to enforce the demands.
On the following day, November 10, the deadline hour of 7:00 A.M. came without a reply from the editor. The whites waited another hour and then moved. Armed men who had gathered
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at the Wilmington Light Infantry building on Market Street marched out to Seventh Street and then down Seventh to the newspaper building, located between Nun and Church. The print- ing equipment was destroyed; then, apparently by accident, the building was burned. Later in the morning, a group of armed Negro men gathered near Fourth and Harnett. Nearby a number of whites had also gathered. The resulting tension was broken by the sound of a shot. A fusilade followed, leaving several whites wounded and six Negroes dead. During the course of the day there were other incidents and other Negro casualties. In this atmosphere of violence, the mayor, Dr. S. P. Wright, was forced to call a meeting of the board of aldermen, and one by one the members resigned as did the chief of police. The whites then filled the vacancies with men they deemed acceptable. Col. A. M. Waddell was selected mayor and Edgar G. Parmele, chief of police. A large number of special policemen patrolled the streets through the night, but the violence had run its course. Several white men who had held office under the Fusion govern- ment and who were suspected of having incited the Negroes were paraded through the streets of the town and then banished from the community.
The Wilmington race riot was shortlived but it had lasting effects. The power of the Republican party had been broken, and it remained so for many years. In 1900 the state constitution was amended in such a way that its effect was to disfranchise most Negroes on the basis of illiteracy. Only in recent years have the courts and changing times made it possible for the Republi- can party to become once more an effective force in local politics. The popular election of county commissioners, which had been revived in 1895, was allowed to continue; however, with the revised franchise, it was no longer a matter of great concern to the whites. This system is still in effect.
Through the years changes have been made in the government of Wilmington. In 1907 the General Assembly added two boards to the city administration, a Water and Sewerage Commission and a Street Commission. In 1909 the Police and Fire Commis- sion was added, bringing the number of boards, or commissions, in the city government to five, including the Board of Audit and Finance which still controlled the municipal purse strings.
The growing complexity of the government reflected the in- creased services provided by the city. For a period after the Civil War, Wilmington's leading law enforcement officer was "the
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Marshall," and he served as chief of police, head of the fire department, and collector of city taxes. He was appointed by the board of aldermen, which was also authorized to appoint one or more assistant marshalls and such other police officers as were deemed necessary. In 1877 the office of marshall was abolished, and the chief enforcement officer of the city was en- titled the "chief-of-police." The growing importance of law en- forcement and fire fighting was indicated by the creation of the Police and Fire Commission.
Of the city's two fire companies at the outbreak of the war, one, the Howard Relief Fire Engine Company, was already chartered. The other, the older of the two, was chartered in 1867 as the Wilmington Hook and Ladder Company. A third company was organized in 1869 as the Wilmington Steam Fire Engine Company. Soon thereafter, this company purchased the first steam fire engine used in Wilmington with funds provided by popular subscription. As time passed and the city grew, several additional fire companies were organized. All were volun- teer organizations supported by membership dues and subscrip- tions from local business men who benefited so much from their services.
For many years the fire engines were drawn by horses, especially selected and trained for the purpose. The sight of these fine animals racing through the streets of Wilmington drawing the colorful engines behind them, was exciting and memorable. This was no less true of the hook and ladder equip- ment and of the steam engines which poured forth dense smoke as they passed.
About 1878 the city government began making appropriations for the fire companies. These grants were continued and gradu- ally increased until the city of Wilmington took over the property of the various companies. This was the beginning of a modern and effective municipal fire department, its effectiveness greatly enhanced in 1879 when the first telephone system was installed in Wilmington. At the same time, a telephonic fire alarm system was installed. The city was proud to be one of the first communi- ties in the United States to have such a system.
Concern over fire protection led to the establishment of the first waterworks in Wilmington. Prior to 1881 fire fighters were dependent on cisterns and hand pumps for water. In that year a number of local citizens organized the Clarendon Water Works Company to supply water to the main parts of the city. A site
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on the Northeast River just above the city was selected, and work on the plant was soon begun. Despite its prospective bene- fits to the community, there was local opposition to the project, especially to its source of water. The water was drawn from the nearby river and distributed with no purification whatever. This procedure was defensible only because the water was in- tended for fire fighting and sewerage use and not for domestic consumption. The drinking water for the town was obtained from deep wells at various locations along the streets and also
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