This Month in the Civil War: Emancipation, Fisher, New Bern, Monitor and Lee

From the January 2023 American Battlefield Trust calendar.

JANUARY 1, 1863

**  President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.

JANUARY 15, 1865

**  Fall of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

JANUARY 19, 1862

**  Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky

JANUARY 28, 1864

**  Operations around New Bern, North Carolina.

JANUARY 30, 1862

**  The USS Monitor launched at Greenpoint, Long Island, New York.

JANUARY, 31, 1865

**  Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Confederate armies.

A Little Too Late.  --Old Secesh

Civil War Events in March: Goodbye Gov. Houston, Lincoln Inaugurated, Battle of Pea Ridge and USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia

From the American Battlefield Trust March 2022 Calendar.

MARCH 2, 1861

**  After forcing the resignation of Governor Sam Houston, Texas formally joins the Confederacy.

MARCH 4, 1861

**  Abraham Lincoln inaugurated 16th President of the United States of America.

MARCH 7, 1862

**  Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, begins.

MARCH 8, 1862

**  The CSS Virginia engages and destroys the USS Congress and USS Cumberland.

MARCH 9, 1862

**  The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

MARCH 14, 1862

**  New Bern, North Carolina captured.

--Old Secesh

159th Anniversary of Beginning of Fort Macon's Siege-- Part 1: Roanoke and New Fall, Then On to the Fort

From Mar. 18, 2021, Chowan(NC) Herald "Week in NC history."

THE SIEGE OF FORT MACON

On March 23, 1862,  U.S. forces under  Brig. Gen.   John G. Parke began the siege of Confederate-held Fort Macon.  At the time, the fort was commanded by Col. Moses J. White of Mississippi, and was defended by  54 pieces of artillery and a garrison of five companies.

In January 1962,  a Federal force  commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside arrived off the North Carolina coast. After taking Roanoke Island in February and New Bern in March, Burnside's next objective was Fort Macon.

White refused Parke's order to surrender causing the Union forces to lay siege on the fort.  They were aided by the Union Navy who bombarded the masonry fort.

--Old Secesh

January Civil War Dates: Fall of Fort Fisher

From the American Battlefield Trust 2021 calendar.

JANUARY 1, 1863

President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.

JANUARY 15, 1865

Fall of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.   (How could I have forgotten this date yesterday?  Duh!)

JANUARY 19, 1862

Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky.

JANAUARY 28, 1864

Operations around New Bern, North Carolina.

JANUARY 30, 1862

USS Monitor launched at Greenpoint, Long Island, New York.

JANAUARY 31, 1865

Robert E. Lee assumes command of all Confederate armies.

JANUARY 31, 1865

The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment.

--Old Secesh

About Schofield's Move-- Part 3: Capture Wilmington Then Move On Goldsboro

Continuing with Cox's description of events.

The first detachments of Schofield's 23rd Corps didn't set sail for Fort Fisher until February 4.

"Meanwhile Schofield had joined General Grant at Fortress Monroe and had accompanied him to the mouth of Cape Fear River to hold a consultation with General Terry and Admiral Porter with regard to future operations in the Department of North Carolina, as the new command was designated.

"The result was to make Wilmington the first objective point to the campaign, so that a new base might be secured for Sherman if circumstances should should oblige him to concentrate his army south of Goldsboro.

"The first step accomplished, Schofield's task would be to open the route from Newberne to Goldsboro, rebuilding the railway, and uniting both his corps there in time to meet Sherman for the final operations of the general campaign when the concentration of the grand army should be complete."

--Old Secesh

About Schofield's Move-- Part 2: A Grand Plan Works Out

The topic of last February's McHenry County Civil War Round Table was Sherman's Carolina's Campaign and Schofield's move from Tennessee to Wilmington was an integral part of it.  Back to what J.D. Cox had to say about it:

"The subsidiary operations which were intended to co-operate with Sherman's march northward from Savannah were two.

"First, the capture of Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, and second, the transfer of Schofield from Middle Tennessee to the Carolina coast, where, with the Tenth Corps under Major General A. H. Terry and the Twenty-third under Major General Cox, he was to reduce Wilmington and advance upon two lines from that city and from Newbern to Goldsboro, at which place it was expected a junction with Sherman would be made.

"The attack upon Fort Fisher was practically simultaneous with Sherman's departure from Savannah and with Schofield's from Clifton on the Tennessee River; and the result of all, accomplished two months later, was the reunion at Goldsboro of the army which Sherman had led at Atlanta, except that the Tenth Corps was substituted for the Fourth, which still remained at the West."

Schofield's corps had been with Sherman at Atlanta, then moved west to stop Hood in Tennessee.

--Old Secesh

Some More On the Historic Home Torn Down In Kinston-- Part 1

From the July 22, 2018, Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer  "Historic Civil War home in Kinston succumbs to time" Eddie Fitzgerald.

It was old, and once stately, and the home of a lieutenant in the Confederate Army who was killed, the headquarters of a Confederate general and on a battlefield, but it is now gone.

Monday, the Robert Bond Vause House was in a pile of rubble.  It sat in the middle of the Wyse Fork Battlefield off Bill Smith Road.

Before and during the early part of the Civil War, the home was owned by Lt. Robert Bond Vause before he was killed at the Battle of Fort Anderson in 1862.  This Union fort guarded occupied New Bern, N.C..  It was also the headquarters of Confederate General Robert Ranson Jr. during the battles of Gum Swamp and Dover.

Ransom was dismissed from duty the year before the Battle of Wyse Fork because of illness.

It then stood in the middle of the Battle of Wyse Fork,  March 7-10, 1865, also known as the Battle of Kinston or Second Battle of Kinston.

A House With A Lot of History.  --Old Secesh

Cornelius G. Attwood's Funeral-- Part 3: Fought In Many Battles

With rthis regiment in many of the telling engagements of the war, Roanoke Island, Newbern, Goldsboro, Drewry's Bluff and Cold Harbor among the rest.  In the last battle he was wounded during the famous charge of the 3rd of June, but the final engagement he took part in which he took part was that in the crater before Petersburg.

He was mustered out because of disability in August, 1864, and afterwards was breveted colonel of volunteers.

--Old Secesh

General Cornelius Attwood-- Part 4: The 25th Massachusetts

Attwood's 25th Massachusetts was in more than 25 battles and skirmishes.  Besides Roanoke Island, some of them were New Bern, N.C., Goldsboro, N.C., Drewry's Bluff, and Cold Harbor where Major Attwood was wounded and Petersburg.

Out if the 300 men mustering in for the assault at Cold Harbor, the regiment had 24 killed, including 6 officers and 142 wounded and 49 missing.

--Old Secesh

The Bearss Comes to New Bern-- Part 2

Edwin C. Bearss, 90, served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II and is a noted historian known for his work with the Civil War and World War II.  He was badly wounded by the Japanese during the war and hospitalized for two years before his honorable discharge.  After that, he returned home to his native Montana.

He was chief historian of the National Park Service from 1981 to 1994 and is now chief historian emeritus.  Even at his age, he still does tours and talks as if he were actually there.

His lecture on Jan. 11th is being sponsored jointly by the New Bern Civil War Round Table and the New Bern Historical Society.

--Gone a Bearss'n.  --Old Secesh

The Bearss Comes to New Bern-- Part 1

From the December 17, 2014, New Bern (NC) Sun-Journal "Bearss to return to New Bern for ninth Civil War program."

"An American treasure, Civil War historian Edwin C. Bearss will again appear in New Bern early next year.

On January 11, 2015, at 2 p.m., he will present "Lincoln and His Cabinet" at the North Carolina History Center in town.

The cost is $10 with all proceeds going to the New Bern Battlefield Park.

I finally was able to see him back in 2013 at a Bentonville Battlefield symposium in Smithville, N.C..  I'd wanted to see him for a long time as he is quite a treat to listen to, I doubt if anyone knows more about the war than he does.  And, at his advanced age, he will not be with us forever.

Better take your opportunity to see him now.  If I didn't live so far away, I'd sure be there.  He evidently will speaking the next week at the 150th anniversary of Fort Fisher near Wilmington.

Must Be a Bearss Tour.  --Old Secesh

99th New York Infantry: "Union Coast Guard"-- Part 8

1864 OPERATIONS:

SEPTEMBER 15TH: Regiment consolidated into Companies A-C.

DECEMBER 10TH: Colonel Waldrop discharged.

1865 OPERATIONS:

JANUARY: At New Berne, NC.

JUNE 15TH: Men from the 132nd New York transferred into the 99th.

JULY 15TH: Mustered out of service at Salisbury, North Carolina.

Not Your Standard Infantry Regiment. --Old Secesh

The 21st Georgia Infantry-- Part 2

At Antietam, they were at some of the hottest action at Dunker Church, East Woods, Mumma Farm and the cornfield. In December 1862, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, they played a key role in plugging a hole in Jackson's line which Union forces were preparing to exploit.

On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, they were one of the few Confederate units to actually enter the town.

In 1864, the 21st Georgia and 21st North Carolina were detailed to North Carolina for coastal duty and were at the battles of New Bern and Plymouth. At Plymouth, the 21st captured a Union fort and 3,000 prisoners.

--Old Secesh

Ground Broken for Battle of New Bern's Visitors Center

From 2008 New Bern (NC) Sun Journal

On March 14, 1862, a force of Union soldiers and 14 gunboats from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron attacked a badly outmatched Confederate force at New Bern, North Carolina, and captured the city which remained in Union hands for the rest of the war. This was part of the Burnside Expedition.

Union forces suffered 90 killed, 380 wounded and 1 missing. Confederate casualties were 64 killed, 101 wounded and 413 missing or captured.

Groundbreaking for the visitors center took place on the 25 acre battlefield near the entrance to Taberna on US Highway 70-East and is a major project of the New Bern Historical Society which got the battlefield through the Civil War Preservation Trust.

Total cost of the visitors center is $170,000 out of a total $900,000 project.

It was dedicated January 3, 2009.

Always Good to Preserve and Educate. --B-R'er
.

The USS Underwriter

From Wikipedia.

Yesterday, I wrote about the capture of the USS Underwriter by John Taylor Wood.

Here's some information about the USS Underwriter:
341 tons, 170 feet long, 23'7" beam, built 1852 and mounted two cannons.

The US Navy bought it August 23, 1861 and sent it to serve in the Potomac River Flotilla before joining the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron where it operated in the sounds and rivers because of its shallow draft. It assisted in the capture of New Bern, NC March 13-14, 1862.

After its destruction, it was found that the boilers and engine was in good shape and was salvaged. Its exact wreck site was located in 1964.

Now, You Know. --Old B-Runner

New Bern, NC's "Remembering the War" Features Role of Black Soldiers

From the May 7th New Bern Sun-Journal.

Most history texts give little information about the role blacks played in the Civil War. The Civil War Days program in New Bern over this past weekend featured a three-day US Colored Troops National Symposium. Members of the US Colored Troops Living History Association from all across the country were expected to attend as well.

Han Jones, curator of the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, DC, was one of the scheduled speakers. He has done extensive research on military intelligence in Eastern North Carolina, much of it from blacks which led to Federal successes in the area.

Also, David Cecelski, author of a book on Abraham Galloway, a Wilmington-native who later lived in New Bern. he was a fugitive slave and considered a top black Union spy in the Civil War. he fought at Harper's Ferry with John Brown and also spent time in Haiti. Galloway was also instrumental in the formation of the First African Brigade and the 5th Ohio.

An Under-Reported Aspect of the War. --Old B-Runner

New Bern, North Carolina's Re-enactment

The good folks at the Civil War Interactive Newswire alerted me to this story, so they must have bailed out from all that water Tennessee recently received.

From the May 3rd ENCToday.

The actual Civil War Battle of New Bern took place in March of 1862 and resulted in a Union victory and the city's occupation for the duration of the war,

this weekend, a Naval and artillery re-enactment is planned. This is rare for Civil War re=enactments as usually they are strictly land-based battles. Three ships will be in the Neuse River and 200 soldiers will be on shore and shots will be traded. This is sort of a dry run for the 150th anniversary of the battle coming up in 2012.

During the weekend, the United States Colored Troops will be featured in seminars, re-enactors and a symposium. Also there will be surgical and yellow fever demonstrations, a torpedo display, tours of the original battlefield, slave quarters and a self-guided Civil War walking tour.

Sounds Like Quite an Even, But, Unfortunately I Live Too Far to Go. --Old B-Runner