When the Civil War began in 1861, much of the United States had never been mapped in any detail. The coasts were charted by the US Coast Survey, but maps of the roads and rivers of the interior were hard to find for many regions. Union commanders sent staff officers to scour bookshops in Baltimore and elsewhere for maps of Virginia. The eastern portions of North Carolina were quite well mapped during the course of the Civil War, leaving us with a great deal of interesting maps to study today.
The Historical Publications section of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net sells printed copies of a few Civil War maps. Notable is “the Gilmer Map”, one of several versions of a map based on the 1863 survey by Lieutenant P. W. Oscar Koerner. The 28x36-inch map is $10 plus sales tax and shipping. The map includes Greenville, Tarboro, Wilson, Rocky Mount, Kinston, Goldsboro, and Snow Hill. Details fade away within a few miles of Washington, Plymouth and New Bern, giving an idea of the extent of Union pickets in those places.
This map was certainly useful for my research on Potter’s Raid. Anyone concerned with other events and places between the Neuse River and the Virginia line in North Carolina will get a lot of use out of this map. Numerous farms are indentified by the owner’s surnames, and small communities and country churches are also shown, making this map a treasure for genealogists. Other versions of this map can be found in digital collections at the Library of Congress and the University of North Carolina, below.
Online Civil War Maps of Eastern North Carolina
There are several sources of great Civil War maps of eastern North Carolina. Most of the maps can be downloaded and stored for viewing on your computer.
The collection Civil War Maps at the Library of Congress at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps has 92 maps of North Carolina. Many of the maps relate to the approaches to Wilmington, and the Battle of Fort Fisher. There are several Confederate Army maps that show the area east of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, between the Neuse River to the Virginia line.
The Gilmer Civil War Maps Collection at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/gilmer/?CISOROOT=/gilmer has 36 maps of North Carolina. There are excellent maps of Wilmington and New Hanover County, as well as of the Neuse, Tar, and Roanoke River regions.
“Historical Maps and Charts” at NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/ctp/abstract.htm has hundreds of 19th and 20th century charts (as nautical maps are called) of the North Carolina coast. Included are numerous charts from the Civil War era including detailed views of the coast, Wilmington, and New Bern.
“Civil War Maps” at the U.S. Military Academy Library’s Digital Maps at http://digital-library.usma.edu/collections/maps/civmaps has a couple of maps showing parts of Brunswick County, North Carolina, and a sketch map of the region east of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad and south of the Neuse River.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
A Funny Commercial for Re-enactors
This is a bit off topic for me, but I ran across a very funny commercial for eBay using Civil War re-enactors that I wanted to share with my readers. To see the commercial, you can click on this URL or paste it into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsz3Fpy0Jkk. Or, search Youtube for "eBay" and "re-enactment".
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Volume XVII of North Carolina Troops 1861-1865
I just received a couple of e-mails from the NC Department of Cultural Resources, announcing that the Historical Publications Section in the Office of Archives and History has just released “Volume XVII: Junior Reserves” in the popular “North Carolina Troops, 1861–1865: A Roster” series. Edited by Matthew M. Brown and Michael W. Coffey, this latest volume will be an important addition to this unique series.
The Junior Reserves were 17-year-old North Carolinians who were inducted into three regiments and a battalion in 1864. They supplemented the Confederacy's dwindling manpower. At first assigned for such mundane tasks as guarding bridges and railroads, the Junior Reserves ended up in combat at Fort Fisher, Bentonville, and elsewhere in the final months of the war.
The new volume includes a new 120-page history of the Junior Reserves, with service records of all of the officers and enlisted men. Genealogists should take note, as there may be names and information not available in other published rosters. An incomplete listing of the Junior Reserves appeared in "Moore's Roster", the 1882 four-volume set Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States.
You can order the book for $63.38, which includes tax and shipping, from the Historical Publications Section (N), Office of Archives and History, 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622. Or, you can buy it through the section’s secure online store at http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/. Further information is available at http://www.ncculture.com/.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
You Have to Wonder About This
Reading through the Official Records volumes set in North Carolina is an interesting and rewarding pastime. One of my favorite little discoveries concerns a possible sequel to the famous "Three Cigars" story of the Maryland Campaign.
During the Maryland Campaign of 1862, Union soldiers poking around an abandoned Confederate camp found a piece of paper wrapped around three cigars. The paper was a complete outline of General Robert E. Lee's plans, with the locations of his scattered forces.
Union commander George B. McClellan for once acted swiftly, and moved to destroy the Southern army and end the war. This led to the Battle of Sharpsburg (aka Antietam) on September 17, 1862, the end of the Maryland Campaign, and the narrow escape of Lee's army after one of the hardest-fought battles in its history.
Just who lost the copy of Lee's plans is not known for certain, but a frequent candidate fingered for blame is the brilliant but cranky Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill. In light of this suspicion, a quote from page 1023, Volume 18 of the Official Records becomes very interesting reading.
In early 1863, during the winter lull in the fighting in Virginia, Hill besieged the Union garrison of Washington, North Carolina while Confederate troops gathered badly needed corn and pork from eastern North Carolina. Confederate guns at Hill's Point and elsewhere threatened the Washington garrison and swept the Pamlico River. Hill broke off the siege on April 23, in light of Union reinforcements reaching Washington by gunboat, and because his troops would 
soon be needed in Virginia.
soon be needed in Virginia. From his headquarters in Kinston on April 26, Hill wrote Maj. John N. Whitford (at left) of the 1st North Carolina Local Defense Troops ("Whitford's Battalion", the nucleus of the later 67th North Carolina). After discussing several matters, Hill closed with this little bombshell:
"The note of mine found at Hill's Point was not important, at least I think not."
I would sure like to know what was in that note!
And, if it was wrapped around three more cigars...
“Like the Crash of a Thousand Pieces of Artillery”
May 26, 1864 was one of the deadliest days of the Civil War for the Union Army in North Carolina. If that date doesn’t call forth the recollection of a battle in your memory, that’s because there was no battle on that day in this state. There was, instead, one of the worst accidents in North Carolina history.
After the fall of New Bern in March 1862, the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad was cut in two. The railroad bridge at Batchelder’s Creek (also spelled Bachelor’s Creek), 8 miles west of New Bern, marked the western edge of Federal control. East from New Bern, the railroad ran to Morehead City. West of the creek and east of Kinston, Confederate troops had pulled up some of the rails to patch other Southern railway lines.
Twice a day, a US Military Railroad train made the round trip from New Bern. The afternoon train on May 26, 1864 left town about 3 pm, and stopped at Batchelder’s Creek about 4:00.
Early in 1864, the Federal commanders in New Bern knew that the Confederates were building an ironclad gunboat, the CSS Neuse, up the Neuse River from the Union-held town. In April, the CSS Albemarle had steamed down the Roanoke River and helped Brig. Gen. Robert F. Hoke capture the Union garrison at Plymouth. To protect New Bern from the CSS Neuse, army engineer Lt. William Rice King was ordered to set a barrier of nautical mines or “torpedoes” in the Neuse near Batchelder’s Creek.
King made the torpedoes in New Bern. Each of the torpedoes held “250 pounds of powder, and were made in barrels, environed with heavy iron hoops …” According to a newspaper, “From previous experiment they were found to answer all the requirements for destruction, and in this instance gave terrible proof of their efficiency.” By May 26, nine torpedoes were already set in the river. Four more were set to arrive at Batchelder’s Creek.
Lieutenant King was not on hand when the train arrived from New Bern. The deadly torpedoes, which after all were fashioned out of ready-made barrels, just looked like ordinary barrels to the workers. It seems that they bore no warning marks, and had been loaded without supervision from King or anyone who knew what they were. The torpedoes were heaved onto a wagon like ordinary barrels before they were loaded onto the train at New Bern.
After the train stopped at the Batchelder’s Creek station, the first torpedo was rolled down out of a freight car. With no instructions to the contrary, the torpedo barrels were apparently going to be taken to the nearby army commissary building.
Camp Claasen, the home of the 132nd New York Infantry (named after its commander, Col. Peter A. Claasen) sprawled out around the station. Men from that regiment and other units stationed nearby heard the afternoon train arrive. As usual, a crowd of idle soldiers wandered over to the station, hoping for mail, newspapers, or other diversions from the monotony of life in camp.
Adjutant Joseph E. Palmer, Jr. of the 158th New York rode toward the train, but his horse “showed great uneasiness, being restive and apparently much terrified.” Palmer was puzzled, because his horse had never before been afraid of the locomotive. Annoyed, the adjutant urged his horse closer to the train.
Another torpedo, then another, was rolled off of the train. Pvt. Frank Towle of the 132nd New York was in the commissary building near the station, “drawing whiskey from a barrel”. Near Towle, another soldier bent over a barrel of rice.
As the workmen pushed the fourth and last torpedo toward the boxcar door, Palmer’s horse “still evinced unusual fear”. His nervous horse “made several sudden bounds away from the spot”, as if “possessing a prescience of the coming danger”.
No one ever knew what made Palmer’s horse afraid, but the animal’s fear saved his life. As workmen rolled the fourth of the torpedoes out of the boxcar, something struck its detonator cap. 250 pounds of gunpowder exploded instantly, communicating the fire to the other three torpedoes, which also exploded. The blasts occurred so quickly that the men near the scene, as well as the residents of New Bern, heard them as a single “mighty report, like the crash of a thousand pieces of artillery fired simultaneously.”
The twenty-by-eighty foot commissary building, which was built of logs, was shattered. Private Towle was thrown “headlong” into the whiskey barrel; he was one of the lucky men who recovered from their injuries. The soldier bending over the rice barrel died, with grains of rice driven into his face. The severed arm of Commissary Sgt. David Jones of the 132nd New York was identified by a distinctive ring that still remained on one of his fingers.
One account states that the explosion killed 35 men instantly and fatally injured 32 more. (By comparison, 90 Union soldiers were killed in the Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862.) The death toll was heaviest on the 132nd New York Infantry, which lost 28 men killed. Most of them were from New York City or Brooklyn. Other fatalities were from the 158th New York and the 12th New York Cavalry.
Casualty lists note that some of the dead soldiers were teamsters; perhaps they had orders to bring newly-arrived supplies from the train. Others were noted as on assignment on commissary duty, and were in or near the ill-fated commissary building.
In addition to the soldiers, from “twenty to twenty-five” of the dead were “contrabands”. This was a term for former slaves who reached Union lines. Many had found civilian jobs with the army. One man who was killed was an officer’s servant.
Also killed was a Hezekiah Davis, “an old citizen of that neighborhood”, who happened to be on the scene.
The explosion occurred near a signal station that was “built across the railroad track”. The New York Herald claimed that the signal tower as well as the nearby commissary building were “were thrown into the air a distance of eight hundred feet”. Two of the dead soldiers were flagmen who were assigned to the signal tower.
Fragments of men and shattered debris were scattered for hundreds of yards. Blood and gore spattered the engine, but “strange to say”, reported a newspaper, “the train received little or no injury, a passenger car being partly demolished and the locomotive slightly battered.”
The State Journal, a Confederate newspaper of Goldsboro, said that the noise was heard twenty miles away. This paper went on to say that at New Bern, the explosion sparked a “scene of wild confusion” as “the long roll was beaten, signal guns were fired, and every preparation was made” in case the blast heralded a Confederate attack on the city.
Colonel Claasen notified New Bern about the explosion. He asked for medical help and coffins. In closing, he wrote, “I am too sick at heart to tell you more just now.” Meanwhile, three wooden hardtack boxes were filled with fragments of the men who a few minutes before had been waiting for letters and newspapers from home.
Wounded men were taken back to New Bern to Foster General Hospital, but there was little that could be done for many of them. A large number of burials in the New Bern National Cemetery, dated May 26, 1864, are a reminder of the deadly torpedo explosion at Batchelder’s Creek.
See: Official Records, Series I, Vol. 36, pt. 2:24; Series I, Vol. 36, pt. 3:245, 267; New York Times, June 3, 1864.
After the fall of New Bern in March 1862, the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad was cut in two. The railroad bridge at Batchelder’s Creek (also spelled Bachelor’s Creek), 8 miles west of New Bern, marked the western edge of Federal control. East from New Bern, the railroad ran to Morehead City. West of the creek and east of Kinston, Confederate troops had pulled up some of the rails to patch other Southern railway lines.
Twice a day, a US Military Railroad train made the round trip from New Bern. The afternoon train on May 26, 1864 left town about 3 pm, and stopped at Batchelder’s Creek about 4:00.
Early in 1864, the Federal commanders in New Bern knew that the Confederates were building an ironclad gunboat, the CSS Neuse, up the Neuse River from the Union-held town. In April, the CSS Albemarle had steamed down the Roanoke River and helped Brig. Gen. Robert F. Hoke capture the Union garrison at Plymouth. To protect New Bern from the CSS Neuse, army engineer Lt. William Rice King was ordered to set a barrier of nautical mines or “torpedoes” in the Neuse near Batchelder’s Creek.
King made the torpedoes in New Bern. Each of the torpedoes held “250 pounds of powder, and were made in barrels, environed with heavy iron hoops …” According to a newspaper, “From previous experiment they were found to answer all the requirements for destruction, and in this instance gave terrible proof of their efficiency.” By May 26, nine torpedoes were already set in the river. Four more were set to arrive at Batchelder’s Creek.
Lieutenant King was not on hand when the train arrived from New Bern. The deadly torpedoes, which after all were fashioned out of ready-made barrels, just looked like ordinary barrels to the workers. It seems that they bore no warning marks, and had been loaded without supervision from King or anyone who knew what they were. The torpedoes were heaved onto a wagon like ordinary barrels before they were loaded onto the train at New Bern.
After the train stopped at the Batchelder’s Creek station, the first torpedo was rolled down out of a freight car. With no instructions to the contrary, the torpedo barrels were apparently going to be taken to the nearby army commissary building.
Camp Claasen, the home of the 132nd New York Infantry (named after its commander, Col. Peter A. Claasen) sprawled out around the station. Men from that regiment and other units stationed nearby heard the afternoon train arrive. As usual, a crowd of idle soldiers wandered over to the station, hoping for mail, newspapers, or other diversions from the monotony of life in camp.
Adjutant Joseph E. Palmer, Jr. of the 158th New York rode toward the train, but his horse “showed great uneasiness, being restive and apparently much terrified.” Palmer was puzzled, because his horse had never before been afraid of the locomotive. Annoyed, the adjutant urged his horse closer to the train.
Another torpedo, then another, was rolled off of the train. Pvt. Frank Towle of the 132nd New York was in the commissary building near the station, “drawing whiskey from a barrel”. Near Towle, another soldier bent over a barrel of rice.
As the workmen pushed the fourth and last torpedo toward the boxcar door, Palmer’s horse “still evinced unusual fear”. His nervous horse “made several sudden bounds away from the spot”, as if “possessing a prescience of the coming danger”.
No one ever knew what made Palmer’s horse afraid, but the animal’s fear saved his life. As workmen rolled the fourth of the torpedoes out of the boxcar, something struck its detonator cap. 250 pounds of gunpowder exploded instantly, communicating the fire to the other three torpedoes, which also exploded. The blasts occurred so quickly that the men near the scene, as well as the residents of New Bern, heard them as a single “mighty report, like the crash of a thousand pieces of artillery fired simultaneously.”
The twenty-by-eighty foot commissary building, which was built of logs, was shattered. Private Towle was thrown “headlong” into the whiskey barrel; he was one of the lucky men who recovered from their injuries. The soldier bending over the rice barrel died, with grains of rice driven into his face. The severed arm of Commissary Sgt. David Jones of the 132nd New York was identified by a distinctive ring that still remained on one of his fingers.
One account states that the explosion killed 35 men instantly and fatally injured 32 more. (By comparison, 90 Union soldiers were killed in the Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862.) The death toll was heaviest on the 132nd New York Infantry, which lost 28 men killed. Most of them were from New York City or Brooklyn. Other fatalities were from the 158th New York and the 12th New York Cavalry.
Casualty lists note that some of the dead soldiers were teamsters; perhaps they had orders to bring newly-arrived supplies from the train. Others were noted as on assignment on commissary duty, and were in or near the ill-fated commissary building.
In addition to the soldiers, from “twenty to twenty-five” of the dead were “contrabands”. This was a term for former slaves who reached Union lines. Many had found civilian jobs with the army. One man who was killed was an officer’s servant.
Also killed was a Hezekiah Davis, “an old citizen of that neighborhood”, who happened to be on the scene.
The explosion occurred near a signal station that was “built across the railroad track”. The New York Herald claimed that the signal tower as well as the nearby commissary building were “were thrown into the air a distance of eight hundred feet”. Two of the dead soldiers were flagmen who were assigned to the signal tower.
Fragments of men and shattered debris were scattered for hundreds of yards. Blood and gore spattered the engine, but “strange to say”, reported a newspaper, “the train received little or no injury, a passenger car being partly demolished and the locomotive slightly battered.”
The State Journal, a Confederate newspaper of Goldsboro, said that the noise was heard twenty miles away. This paper went on to say that at New Bern, the explosion sparked a “scene of wild confusion” as “the long roll was beaten, signal guns were fired, and every preparation was made” in case the blast heralded a Confederate attack on the city.
Colonel Claasen notified New Bern about the explosion. He asked for medical help and coffins. In closing, he wrote, “I am too sick at heart to tell you more just now.” Meanwhile, three wooden hardtack boxes were filled with fragments of the men who a few minutes before had been waiting for letters and newspapers from home.
Wounded men were taken back to New Bern to Foster General Hospital, but there was little that could be done for many of them. A large number of burials in the New Bern National Cemetery, dated May 26, 1864, are a reminder of the deadly torpedo explosion at Batchelder’s Creek.
See: Official Records, Series I, Vol. 36, pt. 2:24; Series I, Vol. 36, pt. 3:245, 267; New York Times, June 3, 1864.
First Post
Potter's Raid was the major event of the Civil War in a large section of eastern North Carolina. My interest in the raid, and the history of the region, led me to write Potter's Raid: The Union Cavalry's Boldest Expedition in Eastern North Carolina, which was published by Dram Tree Books.
My research for the book turned up countless "roads not taken", fascinating stories of the Civil War and other eras that didn't quite belong in my book. I hope through this blog to share many of these tales. While this blog will concentrate on North Carolina's Coastal Plain, I may wander down many another historical byway from time to time.
My research for the book turned up countless "roads not taken", fascinating stories of the Civil War and other eras that didn't quite belong in my book. I hope through this blog to share many of these tales. While this blog will concentrate on North Carolina's Coastal Plain, I may wander down many another historical byway from time to time.
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