Surrender of Fort Macon

Edgecombe Native Takes Fort Without Fight

________

            It was April 14, 1861. The sun was low in the west when the 54 men from Beaufort and Carolina City [Morehead City], Carteret Co., NC marched from the steamer Cora onto the sandy beach at Fort Macon. The newly recruited company, led by Edgecombe Co. native Josiah Solomon Pender, was there to capture the federal fort that protected the port of Beaufort. The take-over was a gentlemanly, quiet affair. No shots were fired and the fort was turned over with a minimum of ado.

            What led to this quiet change of command?

Josiah Solomon Pender
Taken from "Find A Grave"
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42229086/josiah-solomon-pender

            Prior to the start of the Civil War, with no threatening enemies, forts along the coast of the US had been all but deserted. Older soldiers, as a reward for years of faithful service, had been assigned caretaker duties. Most of the forts had fallen into disrepair. Fort Macon was no different.

            There was only one man on duty at Fort Macon in April 1861—William Alexander, 50 years old, a 30-year veteran who had served gallantly in the Mexican War. His wife, Ann L. Livesay Alexander, a Morehead City native, also lived at the fort.

Alexander knew trouble was on the way. Other forts along the southern coast had been captured by state forces. He was part of the Beaufort community, and he had heard the secessionist rumblings. In fact, on April 2, Alexander wrote Col. H. K. Craig in Washington, D.C. asking for a revolver for his protection. On April 12, the day the war began at Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., Alexander learned from Col. Craig that he was on his own. There were no revolvers available.

By the morning of April 14, Sgt. Alexander had already received word that Pender intended to capture the fort. He wrote Col. Craig again: “… A company of secessionists led by Josiah S. Pender of Beaufort are today going to seize this fort …am at a loss how to act, in premises, what to do, or where to go. I have served the US Army for the last thirty years, and am now no longer fit for any active service, have my family at the Post, and all of my property. The latter I expect to lose—having no where to move it—and cannot at this time convert anything into money.”

Cover of  Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
May 17, 1872 From North Carolina County Photographic Collection #P0001, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill .

Josiah Pender was a fervent secessionist. It was clear to him that there would be a need to keep the port at Beaufort in southern hands. In anticipation of this, he formed the Beaufort Harbor Guards, a 17-man militia company. He was acting with no official authorization. NC had not yet seceded from the Union and, in fact, would not do so until May 20. On January 9, when local citizens seized Fort Johnston and Fort Caswell near Wilmington [New Hanover Co.], NC, Gov. Ellis, who was not ardent in support of secession, sent state militia to restore the forts to US control. Obviously, Pender could not assume Ellis would support the take-over of Fort Macon.

When news of the Fort Sumter, SC attack was telegraphed to Beaufort, Pender was ready to act. His company, along with other local volunteers, boarded the Cora for the short trip across Bogue Sound to Fort Macon. Sgt. Alexander had no choice but to surrender. He and his wife remained at the fort to pack their belongings and were removed to Beaufort on April 17. Alexander was ordered to remain there to await orders. Those orders never came, and he remained where he was until Union forces re-took Fort Macon in March 1862.

After Alexander’s surrender, the triumphant Pender telegraphed S.C. Gov. Francis Pickens of his actions. He also requested guns for the fort. Apparently, he did not notify N. C. Gov. Ellis.

State Takes Fort

It is not clear when Gov. Ellis learned of the take-over of Fort Macon. However, on April 15, when President Lincoln requested troops from N.C. and Ellis realized that the Union was ready to use force against the South, a decision had to be made. Would N.C. fight with its friends, neighbors and kinfolks, or against them? Gov. Ellis made the decision and ordered the seizure of all federal operations within the state. The Goldsboro Rifles, under the Command of Capt. Marshall Crafton, were ordered to take Fort Macon. In short order, Crafton’s company and the newly formed Goldsboro Volunteers [Wayne County] were on their way to Beaufort. The next day, they assumed control of the fort from Capt. Pender.

Fort Macon was falling apart. The moat surrounding the fort had collapsed. Only 4 cannons were mounted, and their carriages so fragile as to be unusable. The backbreaking work of reinforcing the fort began on April 17. By the next week, there were more workers than could be accommodated. Capt. Henry T. Guion had brought 61 free negro volunteers and 21 slaves. The Elm City Rifles [Wilson County], The Neuse Cavalry [Craven County], The Wilson Light Infantry, The Edgecombe Guards, The Guilford [Guilford Co.]Grays, The Orange Guards, and the Warren Guards had all arrived. Many of them were soon disbursed to other assignments.

Fort Macon today as taken from the shore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Macon_State_Park

The work continued throughout the summer, and by the end of August, the fort had been completely restored. The refurbished fort was officially turned over to the Confederacy on August 20.

Pender’s volunteer company joined the state forces on May 16 as Company G, Tenth NC Artillery with Pender as their captain. After NC seceded, the unit became part of the Army of the Confederacy. Pender’s son, Walter, only 17 years old, was a lieutenant in the Beaufort Harbor Guards. He was accidentally shot the next year. Some say the accident happened while he was instructing troops in the use of the bayonet. Another story is that he was playing around when he was shot.

Pender was not entirely happy with the situation after the state took over Fort Macon. On June 18, he tendered his resignation unless he was given a better position. The letter, contained in the William & Emmet Robinson Collection at Johnston Co. [NC] Heritage Center, includes the following: “… I have been promised time & again … Men have been promoted … neither practice nor theory in military matters. … I have submitted to be ruled & insulted even by those that knew nothing in regard to their military duties & in all human probability never will. …” The position he wanted was that of Lieut. Col. of Artillery.

Pender did not resign, but there were still problems. His wife was seriously ill in Beaufort; life at the fort was dull. In November, when his request for leave was denied, he left without permission. He falsely claimed that Gen. D. H. Hill had given him leave. He was also accused of having taken items from the Union with a forged requisition.  A general court martial at Morehead City found him guilty, and on 29 Dec 1861 he was dismissed from the Confederate Army for “Conduct unbecoming an officer & a gentleman.”

Col. Lawrence O’Bryan Branch wrote of Josiah, “ … I know him to be brave, enterprising and intelligent, and devotedly anxious for the success of the Cause. …” However, it is likely that Pender was relieved to be free of the restraints of military life.

[Taken from The Connector, Newsletter of the Tar River Connections Genealogy Society, Vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 2004]

SEAMAN TAKEN TO HOSPITAL

_________

            A wireless message from the Standard oil steamer Bayway when 150 miles at sea, was received here Saturday requesting that a physician be sent aboard the vessel as soon as she arrived in striking distance. In response to this call Captain John Moore carried Dr. C. L. Swindell off to the ship Sunday morning, she having arrived and anchored off the bar. The sick man was first mate C. R. Morgan. It was found that he needed an operation and so he was taken to the hospital at Morehead to get the necessary attention.

            The vessel, which was bound from Baton Rouge, Louisiana then proceeded on her way to an Italian port.

[The Beaufort News (Beaufort, NC) 12 Feb 1920]

Massive Storm Creates Inlets
Outer Banks of North Carolina
1846

            It was the middle of the night when the tempest first descended on the lower Outer Banks without warning. The shrieking winds and thundering waves made sleep impossible for the people who lived up and down the narrow islands. The storm continued from September 7^th to September 9^th, 1846, destroying property, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting ships at sea, and cutting two new inlets between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Carolina coast.

            In a12/21/2017 article, Birth of Two Inlets: Accounts of 1846 Storm, Kip Tabb wrote:         “[O]n Monday, Sept. 7, Portsmouth Island [was] battered. Sarah Clark was there, visiting friends, and the letter she wrote to her husband, Samuel, gives a chilling firsthand account of the storm’s severity. ‘You could hear the tide slopping against the floor; you cannot imagine how bad it did sound. The inhabitants say that it was the hardest wind that they have had in twenty years. The highest tide was at ebb. They say that it would have been one and a half foot higher if it had been flood … I can count ten or twelve vessels ashore around here and I have not heard how many on Ocracoke.’”

            According to Early American Hurricanes, 1492-1870 by David M. Ludlum, “the small community of Hatteras just south of the Cape had all but six houses flattened by the storm. At Nags Head the tide rose about 9 ft higher than common tide (Ludlum. 1963).

            “…On Sept. 8, 1846, Calvin Midgett, an Outer Banks farmer, fisherman and part-time employee of the U.S. Coast Survey, [who lived at Hatteras] … watched helplessly as the fury of the hurricane created Oregon Inlet at his home’s doorstep. … A sudden squall came from the southwest, and the waters came upon the beach with such fury that Mr. Midgett, within three quarters of a mile of his house when the storm began, was unable to reach it until four in the afternoon. He sat upon his horse, on a small sand knoll, for five hours, and witnessed the destruction of his property, and as he then supposed of his family also, without the power to move a foot to their rescue, and, for two hours, expecting every moment to be swept to sea himself.

            “Midgett’s house was damaged; his family members, though, were alive and well. …”

Other Eye Witness Accounts

            Reuben Quidley lived through the hurricane and remembered it vividly many years later. Quidley lived in the village of Hatteras and piloted vessels through the inlet at Ocracoke. Before the storm, he always walked along the beach from Ocracoke to his home at Hatteras. There was no open water between the two villages except in the heaviest of storms. After the storm, the villages of Hatteras and Ocracoke were separated by a wide swath of water.

            In New Bern Daily Journal on April 15, 1888, Quidley told the reporter that the tide was waist deep in his house and he expected to be swept away. During the night, when he and his family had lost all hope, the tide suddenly went down and he knew something great had happened, but he did not know what; but in the morning he found the water 25 feet deep where there had been a high beach the day before … . [As the water was drawn out of the creeks and bays, “the tide in Pamlico River was seven feet below normal. The stumps in the bottom of Tranters creek and Chocowinity bay were plainly visible.”

            In a letter to Gov. Jarvis in 1884, Quidley recalled: “The day the inlet was cut out, there were several families living where the inlet is now, and they had no more thought of seeing an inlet there than of any part of the beach, but to their great surprise, in the morning they saw the sea and sound connected together, and the live oaks washing up by the roots and tumbling into the ocean. I was well acquainted with the growth of the land where the inlet now is. I lived with my brother where the inlet is now. I have worked with him cutting wood and chopping yaupon where now, I have no doubt, there is three or four fathoms of water; the growth was live oak principally, did not grow tall, but large trunks and spreading limbs. I had an old uncle lived about where the inlet is, who had a fine fig orchard, and many peach trees on his lot, with fine potato patch and garden.”

            Another witness to the hurricane was H. B. Ansell who lived on Knotts Island near the Virginia border. He recalled that an earlier spring storm had already devastated the coastline. “On the 8^th day of September, of the same year (1846), another storm arose. It was said it blew stronger than the previous one, and would have done the same damage if there had been anything left to damage. The few cattle and hogs put on the marshes and beach from the high land and gotten during summer from elsewhere were swept away as before. …

            “The sound, and especially the island bay, kept salt and saltish for years thereafter, so much so, that small oysters were found along the bay shore.

            “Schools of porpoise promenaded daily the island channel and many kinds of salt water fish were abundant.”

At Sea

            An article in The Raleigh Register on September 22, gives the particulars of the damage to shipping caused by the storm.

            The U. S. brig Washington had spent a month along the eastern U. S. coast charting the Gulf Stream. As they made their way to the Virginia Capes, “the weather appeared threatening; the wind fresh and blowing on shore, great anxiety was felt to reach an anchorage.” The ship never made it to the Capes of Virginia.

U. S. Brig Washington in 1846 Hurricane
Coastal Review Online
https://www.coastalreview.org/2017/12/birth-two-inlets-accounts-1846-storm/

              Lieutenant Stembel reported later: “Sea and current (forced the vessel) upon Cape Hatteras … the gale, now increased in volume, howled ominously through the rigging, and already our little vessel swaggered under her canvas; the sky was obscured by flying masses of dark clouds; the crests of the waves heaving their dark volumes to the sky, flashed with the ghostly phosphorescent light often observed in storms … the barometer fell rapidly, and everything foretold a terrible strife of the elements.”

            The ship barely survived. “The brig lay over completely on her side; the water boiling over the lee rail. For hours the crew held to the rigging, but around noon a heavy sea broke on board …washing overboard nearly every soul.”

            Most of the officers and men were rescued, but the Captain, George Bache, and 10 crew members were lost in the turbulent sea.

            Badly damaged, the ship remained afloat and was rescued by the USS Constitution days later. The traumatized crew was given 75 gallons of water and 7 ½ gallons of whiskey and a tow to Philadelphia for repairs.

Other Losses

            The Raleigh Register, on Sept. 22, listed ships lost to the storm:

• Sch’r Charles Slover—from Newbern bound to N. York, loaded with Naval Stores—sunk and bilged.                 
•  Sch’r Defiance—sunk and bilged.
•  Sch’r Frances Simpson, of Newbern—sunk and bilged.
•  Sch’r Sophia Doane—sunk and bilged.
•  Sch’r Patrick Henry, from Plymouth, bound to West Indies with lumber—sunk and bilged.
• Sch’r Conquest—bottom up—two of the crew lost.
• Sch’r Emeline—driven to sea with only two men on board.
• Two Lighters belonging to Capt. Tilman Farrow—one driven ashore, the other to sea.
• Sch’r G. C. Merchant—ashore.
• Sch’r Paragon—ashore, loaded with wheat.
• Sch’r ______, of Philadelphia, loaded with cork—sunk.
• Harbor Island Light Boat, Capt. Robinson—ashore.

Two New Inlets

            The September storm permanently altered the coastline, slashing through the fragile barrier islands to create two new inlets: Hatteras Inlet and Oregon Inlet. "A remarkable surge of water, driven by continuous northeast winds, pushed far into the Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, flooding rivers and creeks for miles inland," Merlin S. Berry wrote in History of Northeastern North Carolina Storms ."Then, as the hurricane passed and its winds rotated to the southwest, this massive expanse of water rushed back toward the sea, overwashing the Outer Banks from west to east."

            The Oregon Inlet was named for the first vessel to navigate through it. Catherine Kozak, in The Virginian-Pilot, 11/21/2008, wrote: “Legend has it that the sailing vessel Oregon was caught in the huge storm while it was headed back to Edenton, N.C., from Bermuda. Desperately trying to keep the ship from being swallowed by the sea, the crew was given a reprieve when a tremendous wave lifted the vessel onto a shallow sandbar.

            “As the sun rose, … the weather-beaten Oregon crew members found a huge cut in the island to the east of where they were stranded in Pamlico Sound. Within days, the ocean subsided and the vessel was able to be floated free.”

Pamlico Sound and Hatteras Inlet in 1862
The Sun (New York, New York) ·  Wed, Jan 29, 1862 

Now

            The North Carolina coast has changed immensely since the 1846 storm. However, two reminders remain: Oregon Inlet and Hatteras Inlet. The Hatteras Inlet proved to be a boon to the Outer Banks area. It was easy to get through from the Gulf Stream and it helped commerce to flourish.

            The Oregon Inlet services a number of boats that move between the Gulf Stream and the coast and is the location of the Coast Guard Station. It is spanned by the Herbert C. Bonner bridge. 

Construction on Bonner Bridge replacement
Miami Herald, 2/8/2018
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/traffic/article198607089.html

SOURCES

1. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-hc-history-1846-story.html
2. “Birth of Two Inlets: Accounts of 1846 Storm” by Kip Tabb 12/21/2017
3. Coastal Review Online, https://www.coastalreview.org/2017/12/birth-two-inlets-accounts-1846-storm/  12/21/8017
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1840%E2%80%9349_Atlantic_hurricane_seasons
5. https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2013/09/07/two-major-inlets-on-the-outer-banks-date-to-1846  NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
6. HAMPTON ROADS HISTORY by Catherine Kozak, The Birginian-Pilot, 11/21/2008
7. https://blog.carolinadesigns.com/2017/12/01/oregon-and-hatteras-inlets-and-the-hurricane-of-1846/;
8. North Carolina’s Hurricane History: Fourth Edition, by Jay Barnes, 2013
9. NOAA History http://www.history.noaa.gov/hallofhonor/lineofduty.html
10.  Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37484104/george-mifflin-bache
11. http://familyhistory.stembel.org/HURRICANE.htm ;
12. THE HURRICANE THAT OPENEO OREGON INLET John F. Sanders (1) UNC Sea Grant College Program North Carolina State University Raleigh, Ne 27650
13. http://nwafiles.nwas.org/digest/papers/1983/Vol08No2/1983v008no02-Sanders.pdf
14. https://books.google.com/books?id=9LATBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=they+saw+the+sea+and+sound+connected&source=bl&ots=mA_nw9NDUE&sig=7bhrRT55nabK7Hp5mqI52ADxlNE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijuMu-9_3bAhURA6wKHRVzDDAQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=they%20saw%20the%20sea%20and%20sound%20connected&f=false
15. https://books.google.com/books?id=Ab8_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

SPLENDID FISHING 

AT BEAUFORT AND MOREHEAD CITY

_____

TROUT and BASS PLENTIFUL

             Beaufort, April 22^nd:—Large catches of TROUT and bass are being made daily in the vicinity of Beaufort and Morehead City.

            Beginning early April TROUT and BASS begin to run and a record season is predicted by the wily boat men and the guides of this vicinity.

Tar Heel (Elizabeth City, NC) 28 Apr 1911, Page 1

Book dated 1900.

http://www.sparkmuseum.com/TELEPHONE.HTM

HOME TELEPHONE AND

TELEGRAPH COMPANY.

          The following points can now be reached over the lines of this company:

Ashville,        N. C.                                     Atlanta, Ga.
Charlotte,                                                Baltimore, Md.
Beaufort,            “                              Chattanooga, Tenn.
Durham,             “                                  Charleston, S. C.
Enfield,               “                                    Chase City, Va.
Goldsboro,         ”                                          Chicago, Ill.
Greensboro,       “                                     Cincinnati, Ohio
Henderson,         “                                      Columbia, S. C.
Littleton,            “                                           Danville, Va.
Louisburg,          “                                       Lynchburg, Va.
New Berne,         “                                     Nashville, Tenn.
Oxford,              “                                      New York, N. Y.
Raleigh,                “                                   New Orleans, La.
Rocky Mt.,           “                                           Norfolk, Va.
Warrenton,           “                                       Petersburg, Va.
Weldon,               “                                    Philadelphia, Pa.
Wilmington,         “                                      Richmond, Va.
Winston,              “                                         St. Louis, Mo.

          And all other important and intermediate points east of the Mississippi River.

                                                             F. C. TOEPLEMAN,
                                                                        Gen. Manager





http://www.bobsoldphones.net/Pages/Kellogg/Kellogg.htm

[The Eastern Reflector, Pitt County, North Carolina: July 12, 1904]

Carteret County Woman Patents Invention

In the 19th century, women were seldom involved in commercial activities. However, creativity can often be found in unexpected places. The following is taken from the1892 Patent Application of Leah Donnell Jones of Carteret County, NC. I was not able to find more information about Leah Jones.

 

——————

 



PANTALOONS-PROTECTOR

­­­­­­­­SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 519,632, dated May 8, 1894.

Application filed December 9, 1892. Renewed January 22, 1894. Serial No. 497,721. (No Model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEAH DONNELL JONES, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Berne, in the county of Craven and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pantaloons-Protectors; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

… It is well know how the use of ordinary rubber shoes to keep the feet dry does not prevent the necessity of turning up the pants to keep them from being soiled by the spattering of mud and water, and how such turning produces creases and destroys the shape of the lower ends of the pants. The turning up may be obviated by the use of rubber and other boots with longer or shorter legs, but with these also it is impossible to maintain the proper shape and contour of the pants, as the same are soiled and folded, creased and rumpled to fit the shape and movements of the confining boot leg.

The object of my invention is to protect the lower ends of pantaloons from wear and wet, and from being soiled and spattered and at the same time to maintain their proper shape and contour.

Drawing of invention.

To this end my invention consists of the combination of a shoe with upright parts forming a leggin constructed as a part of the shoe, the lower ends of said parts surrounding the mouth of the shoe turned outwardly and then projecting upwardly from the quarters and vamp at some distance below said mouth forming a pocket to hold and protect the lower end of the trousers leg in its normal position on the shoe, as hereinafter described and claimed.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which—

Figure 1, is a side view in elevation of a shoe with my improvement attached, the mouth of the shoe within the protecting pieces being show in dotted lines; Fig. 2, a top view, and Fig. 3, a side view showing the lower portion of a pantaloons leg in position in which it is held by the protector.

… B, B', are the protecting pieces made of canvas, or other cloth, leather or rubber, or other sutable material, and lined or unlined, and are secured to the top of the shoe around and outside of the mouth thereof. … The upright parts B,B', form a leggin constructed as an integral part of the shoe, …

LEAH DONNELL JONES.

Witnesses:

            W. B. Boyd,
            K. B. Boyd

[This patent was included in the WOMEN INVENTORS INDEX - 1790-1895  data base at http://www.lib.muohio.edu/epub/govlaw/FemInv/NC.php ]

The Atlantic Hotel

Morehead City, N. C.

1880-1933

The Atlantic Hotel was built on Arendell Street in Morehead City, Carteret County, NC in 1880. Morehead City is on the peninsula between Calico Creek and the waters of Newport River on the north and Bogue Sound on the south and the hotel was at the point of the peninsula.  “Located on both sound and sea,”[1] the visitor enjoyed the best of both worlds. 

 

Atlantic Hotel, Morehead City, N. C. page 19: Internet Archives at http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24992472M/The_Atlantic_Hotel_Morehead_City_N.C.

In those days, there were no good roads to the coast and nearly everyone arrived by train. Then, as now, the railroad ran down the center of Arendell Street, allowing guests to step off the train just a few feet from the door of the hotel. Since the trip was long and arduous, many people made long visits; some stayed all summer.

Patrons of the hotel included guests from as far away as New York, Louisiana, and Alabama as well as many wealthy and influential North Carolinians. A number of large groups held meetings there, including the Teachers Assembly in 1887 and the North Carolina Bankers Association in 1897. The Atlantic was a favorite destination until it was destroyed by fire in 1933.

Documenting the American South: http://docsouth.unc.edu/true/smith/ill25.html

The impressive structure was six hundred feet across the front and three stories high. The hotel’s 233 rooms, single and en suite, were comfortably furnished in ash or cherry. Baths and closets were available on each floor. There was also a row of twenty-six cottage rooms.  The hotel was very advanced for its day with gas lighting, telephones, running water, telegraph, and a post office.

 "Every door, window and piazza of the huge hotel opens to the water; from the front or railroad side can be seen the pretty shore opposite where the village of Beaufort makes a pleasing picture, with its old-time houses and church spires. … A short walk from the hotel brings you to the railroad dock, the terminus of the road, where freight is discharged for Beaufort and other settlements."[2]

In 1884, the hotel was leased for a term of 8 years by R. B. Raney & Co. The new operators gave the hotel a face lift for the 1885 season. As guests arrived, they found additions to the building that extended it out over the water; a new dining-hall with a view of the water; the surrounding areas laid with oyster shells; and the bridge from the hotel to Morehead City turned into a beautiful promenade. They also found that “the billiard-room, bar, store, ten-pin alley and barber-shop are in buildings separated from the main hotel, thus securing unusual quiet.”[3]

There was a splendid dining room that could seat up to 300 diners. The guests were cosseted with elegant cuisine including the best meats and an abundance of local fish and shell fish, all prepared by a French Chef. The excellent food was accompanied by a live orchestra. A Charlotte visitor described the dining experience: “The menu, enriched by every variety of sea-food, was tempting and artistic, the music of a good band enlivening, and the society gathered there was cultivated and congenial.”[4]

Atlantic Hotel, Morehead City, N. C. page 4: Internet Archives at http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24992472M/The_Atlantic_Hotel_Morehead_City_N.C.

The ball-room, said to be the largest in the South, was a hundred feet square with a vaulted glass ceiling sixty-three feet high. A balcony circled the dance floor. As a rule, the dancing began about 8:30. “At that time the train arrives, bringing, among others, a party of gentlemen from Raleigh, New Bern or Goldsboro’, who, in a twinkling, have exchanged their traveling suits for evening dress and pumps, and are making engagements for the German, which is called for half-past nine. Later you will see parties of two, three, or half a dozen stealing out from the wide doors of the ball-room opening seaward, with cloaks and wraps. This means the very acme of pleasure at Morehead—a moonlight sail.”[5]



New Bern, NC Historical Society: http://newbern.cpclib.org/digital/nbhs/brooks/bro0093.htm

Along with the nightly music and dancing in the ball-room, guests could amuse themselves with moonlight sails in “sharpies” or “sharpers,” enjoy comfortable bathing rooms on the beach or the sound, or sit on the large open pavilion and watch the more daring ocean bathers. During the season, a livery stable was opened on the beach with rides or drives available along the hard-packed beach at all hours.



Atlantic Hotel, Morehead City, N. C. page 11: Internet Archives at http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24992472M/The_Atlantic_Hotel_Morehead_City_N.C.

Fishing was a favorite pastime with a choice between the sound and the ocean. "Under the railroad wharf, on the strong, wide beams, one can sit at ease and trap the tempting sheep's head. Here, in the shade, with the lulling sound of the lapping water, fishing passes from mere sport into the realm of dreamy luxury."[6] Blue fish and Spanish mackerel were favorite catches from the ocean.

Atlantic Hotel, Morehead City, N. C. page 8: Internet Archives at http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24992472M/The_Atlantic_Hotel_Morehead_City_N.C.

N. C. Highway Historical Marker Program:
 http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?ct=ddl&sp=search&k=Markers&sv=C-56%20-%20ATLANTIC%20HOTEL





 [Sources for the story were:

1. "Atlantic Hotel," The State Magazine; 8/20/1844, p5  
2. Atlantic Hotel, Morehead City, N. C. published in 1884 and found at this web site: http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24992472M/The_Atlantic_Hotel_Morehead_City_N.C.
3. Highway Marker C-56 Essay: http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?ct=ddl&sp=search&k=Markers&sv=C-56%20-%20ATLANTIC%20HOTEL
4. An internet search for Atlantic Hotel Morehead City Postcards will yield a number of interesting images.

---

[1] The Atlantic Hotel, 18.

[2] The Atlanatic Hotel, 29

[3] The Atlantic Hotel, 3.

[4] The Atlantic Hotel, 10.

[5] The Atlantic Hotel, 30.

[6] The Atlantic Hotel, 29.

Distressing Occurrence.

    "A most distressing occurrence took place in Hadnots, Carteret county, N. C. on Sunday 23 ult. A Mr. Wilson Chance, having previously discovered a bee tree, took his son Henry, and three half brothers, Stanly and Isaiah, and James Mahley, to cut down for the purpose of hiving the bees. While taking out the honey, Isaiah, James, and Henry ate of it. On the way home, his son Henry became blind and sick. Isaiah was taken in a similar manner, and in his blindness wandered out of the path. James having eaten a small piece of the bread, as it is called, on his way homeward, was discovered to be blind and helpless. He expired in half an hour after having eaten the last piece of bee bread. Search was then made for Isaiah, whom a neighbor had found and was met carrying him home blind and helpless. By the frequent use of salt and water, Isaiah and Henry recovered the next day, but not until their lives had been despired of. This should serve as a warning to all persons to be careful in eating honey taken from bee-trees.

    "This is a singular circumstance and worthy of scientific investigation."

Source: Scientific American, April 1, 1848, Page 282. A Google Book

ADVENTURES OF A PRIVATEER.

The following story was told by James Moore, father of a one-time Attorney General of NC, B. F. Moore and included in History of Halifax County.

"In 1775-6, enlistments were made in the neighborhoods where the musters were held, and I was very anxiously concerned because I was not of the age required for a soldier (i. e. 16). At this time I was only ten or eleven years old, and during a part of the period from thence till I reached the required age, I was at school; but as soon as I was sixteen, which was in 1781, the year in which Cornwallis was taken, I entered on board a privateer schooner called the Hannah, which sailed out of Edenton on an eight weeks' cruise.


"Our captain's name was Kit Gardiner, an Englishman by birth. William Gold, of Connecticut, was lieutenant, and Daniel Webb, of South Quay, Nansemond County, Virginia, was first prize master.

"We sailed in March from Edenton and crossed the Ocracoke bar and soon was in the Gulf Stream with heavy surges. We sprung our bowsprit and put into Beaufort harbor and put another in. From there we sailed and cruised off Charleston, [South Carolina], took four prizes and condemned three. The fourth was a Bermudian, a neutral, and he had two sets of consignments, one for a British port and the other for an American, by which means she was cleared at Wilmington, N. C.

"The first prize was a schooner from Cork, Ireland, to New York. She was taken first by a privateer out of Philadelphia and retaken by the Charleston frigate. This frigate was built in Newburyport, fifty miles eastward of Boston (I was shown the spot where it was said she was built) and was called the Boston. She happened to be in Charleston when the British took that city, and they changed her name and called her Charleston. After her capture she was their regular packet from Charleston to New York.

"In our cruise, we took a schooner called the Lord Cornwallis, laden with Governor Martin's effects. He was Governor of South Carolina and became traitor; and when laying in provisions against the siege, he caused the barrels to be filled with sand instead of pork.

"The second prize was from New Hampshire laden with salt and garden seeds, such as peas, beans, etc. I was put aboard of her. Our place of rendezvous was Beaufort,[Carteret County], N. C. Now as we took the vessel near Charleston, the port to which she was bound, it was reasonable to suppose that her provisions were nearly exhausted, which was the case.

"With these, we undertook to make Beaufort, but instead of that, the first port was Newburyport, … and, sixteen days after, we were tossed and carried by contrary winds, going all around the different capes till we were off the Banks of Newfoundland and in view of the Agamenticus Hills, whose appearance, when seen at sea, is like three burly-headed clouds. We sailed along thence and arrived at Newburyport, sold our cargo (salt) at one dollar a bushel, and I received what the prize master saw fit to allow me, which was four dollars only."

In 1775, as the 13 colonies went to war with Britain, George Washington turned the fishing schooner Hannah into a privateer. She was the first of eleven ships eventually charterred to aid in the war. During the American siege of Boston, "Washington's Navy" captured 55 prizes which provided much needed supplies for the revolutionary cause.

Sources: History of Halifax County, by William Cicero Allen, 1918. A Google book.

The Trip Home

Levi Pigott was born in Beaufort, Carteret County, N. C. on April 21, 1831. His father was a shipbuilder and a sailor.
Levi became a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He traveled from N.C. to Kentucky and Arkansas, back to North Carolina and to Virginia. The following story is taken from his book about his life and describes a journey from Arkansas to Beaufort, North Carolina about 1870:

"While in Arkansas, I learned of the critical illness of my mother in Beaufort, N. C., and I at once started for home. There were no public conveyances of any kind, and wagons and mules were scarce; but we obtained one to take our beds and baggage, and, there being no room for us to ride, we went in company with others who were carrying their cotton to market, to the town of Camden, Arkansas, twenty miles distant, from which town we were to take a steamer down the Onchita.

"On the road to Camden it began to rain. My son and I had to walk about ten miles over this road, which was undulating and of red clay, making it bad for pedestrians like us; and my wife had to ride lying flat on the top of a cotton bale, which was under cover, the old-time way of traveling, and it was an extremely rough ride.

"My son and I were soaking wet; but on reaching Camden we found a ''Jewel" —the presiding elder of the district, and a Jewel by both name and nature—who received us very cordially and entertained us all night right royally with brotherly love and affection.

"Well, we lodged with Brother Jewel that night, and next day took a steamer down the Onchita river; then into the Black river; then into the Bed river; next into the Mississippi; thence to New Orleans, a distance of eight hundred miles. It took us four days to make the trip, having to stop at many landings to take on cotton, until we had nine hundred bales.

"We arrived at New Orleans about daylight, and remained until five o'clock that evening. As we passed through the city on the train we saw many oranges growing in the yards. At the same time snow was falling fast in large flakes; and the snow falling and the oranges growing seemed to be a contradiction; but so it was.

"From New Orleans we went on to Mobile, Alabama, traveling over some long trestles — one was twenty-five or thirty miles, if I recollect rightly — across the bays that made in from the Gulf of Mexico.

"We arrived home safe and found my dear, precious mother in bed; but she was so overjoyed at seeing us that she got up and never was sick after that until her death sickness — about five vears afterwards."

[Taken from Scenes and incidents in the life of a home missionary by Levi Woodbury Pigott: 1901. The entire book can be found at http://openlibrary.org/]

Skirmish near Newport.

Two Reports

No. 1.—Lieut. Col. James Wilson, Ninth New Jersey Infantry.

No. 2.—Capt. John Soothe," C. S. Army.

No. 1.

Report of Lieut. Col. James Wilson, Ninth New Jersey Infantry.

Newport Barracks, N. C.,

April 7, 1862—2.30 p. m.

General,: I have to inform you that our outside pickets on the Cedar Point road were attacked this noon at about 1 o'clock by a force of about 40 cavalry mounted and about 20 on foot, who made a sudden dash upon our post.

In skirmishing we had 1 man shot, wounded, and are fearful 1 made prisoner. This information I have from courier sent in.

Our men stood the attack and returned the fire, killing one horse, but are unable to learn any other damage, as the enemy retreated at a rapid rate, but suppose they must have killed or wounded some.

I have sent forward another company to strengthen this post, who arrived there soon after the attack.

Awaiting your orders, I remain your most obedient servant,

JAMES WILSON,

 Lieutenant-Colonel, Comdg. Ninth Regiment New Jersey Vols.

Maj. Gen. J. G. Parke.

No. 2.

Jones County, N. C., April 8, 1862.

Sir : According to your instructions I make the following report of my progress since Saturday last:

I took my march toward Carteret County on Saturday, and reached Mr. Foscue's, on the Beaufort road, 20 miles below Trenton.

Sunday I was joined by Captain Hill and 50 of his men and proceeded toward Beaufort. At sunset I halted, and sent forward to ascertain the number and position of the enemy's advance reported to be ahead. At 1 o'clock in the night my scouts came in, not able to find anything, and I proceeded to Eli Saunders' and fed my horses and men.

Monday morning I was joined by Lieutenant Humphreys with about 30 men. By agreement with Captain Hill and Lieutenant Humphreys I divided the whole force into four platoons of about 30 men each, placing the men with the best arms in the first platoon. This platoon I placed under command of Lieutenant Eure and sent it forward as an advance down the road from Saunders' toward Newport. I followed with the other three platoons and their commanders a short distance behind the advance. After going within 5 miles of Newport the advance saw a squad of 5 of the enemy and charged them, capturing 3 and killing 2. About 200 yards in advance of the first squad there was another squad of 12, which being discovered. Lieutenant Euro rallied his platoon and charged them, killing 1 and capturing C. Most of the enemy fired their muskets without injuring a horse or man on our side.

In five minutes after the firing ceased two companies of the eueniy came in sight and fired upon us and fell into the marsh. _ By their fire the only damage done was the killing of my horse under me. I ordered the men to retire down the hill, as there was no chance to charge them from a miry causeway. With our 9 prisoners I retraced my steps to this place last night.

As the first platoon did the principal work, I deem it sheer justice to say that they behaved with great bravery.

I let Lieutenant Humphreys take charge of 3 prisoners, Captain Hill 3, and I send the remainder to you and through you to General Eansom.

I am very anxious that you should recall me forthwith, as my horses and men are completely exhausted and tired out.

I also send 7 muskets captured from the enemy and Captain Hill took two.

The number of the enemy at Newport and stationed at intervals from Newport to the place we encountered them is about 600 or 700 from the best information. At and about Morehead City one regiment.

All praise is due to Lieutenant Eure and Orderly Jordan, who led the charge of the advance guard. Your obedient servant,

JNO. BOOTHE,

Capt. Commanding.

Col. W. G. Bobinson.

P. S.—Since writing the above one of my pickets has come in from Haughton's, about 4 miles from Pollocksyille, toward Wilmington, saying the enemy had fired upon him and killed or taken the 2 pickets that were with him, and that there was 500 or 600 of the enemy.

Source: The War of the Rebellion: v. 1-53 [serial no. 1-111] Formal reports, both ...  by Calvin Duvall Cowles, Henry Martyn Lazelle, Leslie J. Perry, 1883 (A Google Book)