Site Visit Saturday: Fort Macon

 
  Located on Bogue Banks on the North Carolina coast, Fort Fisher was the second fort constructed on this spot. The first was known as Fort Hamilton. Fort Macon was named in honor of Nathaniel Macon, a North Carolina politician who served in both the US House and Senate. The fort was seen as a way to protect the towns of Beaufort and Morehead City. (Blackbeard was known to sail in and out of Beaufort Inlet; Beaufort was captured by the Spanish in 1747 and the British in 1782.)

   Fort Macon was a part of the Third System of US fortifications and designed by Brig. Gen. Simon Bernard, US Army Corps of Engineers. Construction began in 1826 and was finished in 1834, costing $463,790. Because of poor management, the fort was in a sad state of affairs in 1861.

   The fort was under the command of Ordinance Sergeant William Alexander. He and his family were the only ones present on April 14, 1861, when the Beaufort Harbor Guards arrived to seize Fort Macon. By the next day, two other companies of North Carolina volunteers had arrived at the fort. On April 17, a force of sixty-one free and twenty-one slaves, all African-Americans, had arrived at the fort to begin maintenance work. Over the next few weeks, a railroad was laid to the wharf, and thirteen 24-pounder cannons were shipped, and in some way, mounted at the Fort. Various volunteer companies from the eastern portions of the state garrisoned Fort Macon, with Col. Charles C. Tew appointed commander. Then, that summer, Tew was replaced by Maj. William L. DeRossett, then Lt. Col. John L. Bridgers, followed by Col. Moses J. White. Later, the independent companies were mustered into traditional regiments or were designated as members of the 1^st North Carolina Artillery.

   Due to the threat of attack, the newly mustered 26^th North Carolina Troops was assigned to the fort in September 1861, along with the 7^th North Carolina State Troops, the latter staying for a month. This was followed by a company of the 3^rd North Carolina Artillery. In early 1862, Federal forces began a campaign that resulted in the capture of Roanoke Island and New Bern. The Federals turned their attention to Fort Macon next. Although hopelessly surrounded, the garrison at Fort Macon refused to surrender. On April 25, 1862, Federals began to bombard the fort, which was hit an estimated 560 times. The fort surrendered the next day.  

   Fort Macon was repaired and garrisoned by Federal soldiers for the rest of the war, including Company G, 2^nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, the last company to leave the fort in June 1865. Following the war, the fort was used as a civil and military prison. It was deactivated in 1877 but garrisoned by state troops during the summer of 1898. In 1903, it was abandoned and sold as surplus military property in 1923. It was acquired by the state of North Carolina in June 1924 for $1, and in 1936, became one of the state’s first state parks. The fort was leased to the US Army in World War II, maned by Coast Artillery troops.

   Fort Macon is still a state park, in an excellent state of preservation, with a fantastic museum and education center. For more information, see Paul Branch’s Fort Macon: A History (1999).

   I last visited the fort in June 2018.

The buttons they wore.

I’ll tell you how I got on this topic before we go any further. I ordered and received a new dress jacket the other day for interpretation and re-enacting purposes. It is a Confederate colonel’s jacket that I will use to display, and for warranted occasions, like dress parades and balls. I was trying to decide what buttons to put on the jacket. That is how we arrived at this post.

So which buttons were used on the jackets that North Carolina’s soldiers wore? I did some research, and went through the online catalog of the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, and through the book ­A Catalog of Uniforms from the Museum of the Confederacy. Most of the jackets I found were officers’ jackets, probably their dress jackets. It seems that most officers had one dress uniform, and then another suit of clothes that they wore every day. After the battle of New Bern in March 1862, Lt. William G. Morris of the 37th NCT wrote home, stating that he had lost everything when the Confederates were forced to retreat. "I have Nothing Except that is on my back. that is My Brown soote. I Did Not have on My uniform" he wrote.

Surprisingly, the majority of officers had United States Staff Eagle and Shield buttons on their coats. These coats came from a variety of sources. Until the end of the war, officers were expected, or required, to purchase their own uniforms. Some were made at home, others were made by tailors. There is no real way to determine where each jacket was manufactured.

So where did the Confederates get all of these yankee buttons? Something in the back of my mind says I know this story, but I cannot seem to place my hand on it. So, I’ll put the question to you: where did the Confederates get these buttons?

By the way, it was just not Tar Heels who had these buttons. The majority of surviving Confederate officer uniforms at the Museum of the Confederacy also have Federal staff buttons, including the jackets of JEB Stuart, Sandie Pendleton, John Hunt Morgan, and Patrick Cleburne

North Carolina Museum of History
William Branch – staff – US Staff
Thomas P. Devereaux – 43rd NCT – VMI buttons.
Alfred May -- 61st NCT – CSA
Charles W. Broadfoot -- Fayetteville Light Infantry – US Infantry
Lawrence Branch – Gen. – US buttons
Robert F. Hoke – Gen. – Confederate staff
James B. Gordon – Gen. – Standard Federal Button
J. Bryan Grimes – Gen. -- NC Sunburst
Rufus Tucker – 41st NCT – NC State seals
John T. Jones – Lt. Col. 26th NCT – US Staff
Henry C. Albright – 26th NCT – US Staff
Junius Daniel – 45th NCT - SC Palmetto Guards (when a major)
William H. Powell – 17th NCT – US Staff
Henry M. Shaw – 8th NCT – US Staff
Thomas Sparrow – 19th NCST – US Staff
James J. Pettigrew – Gen. – US Staff
Edmond Haywood - ? – NC Sunburst

Museum of the Confederacy
NC Drummer – Federal shield with a “R”
William D. Pender – Gen. - US Staff
Eugene Morehead – 3rd NCA- US Staff
John Hughes – 7th NCST – CSA on shield
Robert D. Johnston – Gen. -- US Staff
John A. Gilmer – 27th NCT/ Prisoner commander – Virginia state seal.
Peter G. Evans – 6th NCC – US Staff
David S. Davis – 66th NCT – US Staff

Greensboro
David Gouge – 58th NCT – Script I’s