The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Retracing the CSS Neuse's Career

All 25-miles of it.

From the May/June Confederate Veteran Magazine.

There was a picture of compatriots Scott Huddle and Chris Mitchell of the 47 Regiment NC Troops Camp 166, Wake Forest, NC, standing in front of the remains of the CSS Neuse's hull in Kinston.

They paddled the same 25-mile route that the vessel took down the Neuse River from Whitehall (now Seven Springs) to Kinston.

And, that was about it for the ship's career.

Because of Union sea power, several Confederate naval bases were moved inland along rivers for protection. This particular ironclad was built in what was a cornfield near Goldsboro before the war.

Had the Neuse River been a bit deeper, the ship a little less draft and had it been completed sooner, it might have had a more interesting career.

The remains of the hull were dredged up from the river at Kinston in the 1960s and today housed in an open pavilion where the ship is fast deteriorating. Plans are in the works for an enclosed site. A 100% scale replica of the ship, the CSS Neuse II, is located in Kinston.

Ramming Speed!! --Old B-Runner

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