Destroying Federal naval vessels at the end of the war.

The Neuse River, looking toward the site of the sinking of the USS Mystic at Maple Cypress.

   In early April 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia had abandoned the lines around Richmond and Petersburg, and the Army of Tennessee had retreated to Greensboro. In many aspects, the war was drawing to a close. Yet there were still military actions taking placs. On April 5, 1865, Colonel John N. Whitford led a raid against two Union vessels on the Neuse River in North Carolina.

   Whitford was a Craven County, North Carolina, native and a merchant in New Bern prior to the war. When the war came, he commanded Company I, 1^st North Carolina Artillery, and was a part of the Fort Fisher garrison. Whitford went on to serve as major in the 1^st Battalion, Local Defence Troops, and then colonel of the 67^th North Carolina Troops. He was wounded at the battle of Fort Branch but returned in time to command a brigade at the battle of Wyse Fork and the greater Bentonville Campaign.[1]

   Whitford’s small brigade was composed of the 67^th and 68^th North Carolina Troops. Whitford had been left behind as a rear guard when the Confederates pulled out of Kinston. On March 16, they had retired to Goldsboro (where the 68^th NCT joined Whitford). His brigade was said to number 1,000 men. On March 18, they were ordered to Cox’s Bridge on the Neuse River. When they were attacked on March 19, Whitford fired the bridge and fell back, after a sharp skirmish. It is not clear if they took part in the actual battle of Bentonville. When the rest of the Confederate army pulled back west, toward Raleigh and Greensboro, Whitford’s command, augmented by cavalry, remained behind, skirmishing with the Federals and tearing up the railroads. Writing on April 9, 1865, Whitford stated that on April 5, Lieutenant [James] Marshall [of] Company F . . . burned the steamer Mystic, near Maple Cypress [on the Neuse River].” On that same day, “Captain [James] Tolson, Company A . . . destroyed a transport loaded with commissary stores near Cowpen Landing [also on the Neuse River]. Finally, on April 7, “four privates of Company A. . . captured and destroyed (burned) 1 side wheel steamer, the Minquas, and 2 barges, all loaded with quartermaster’s and commissary stores.”[2]

   Five naval vessels all destroyed by a land force within two days! Finding information about these vessels, only two of which are named, is quite a chore. The USS Mystic was built in 1853 in Philadelphia and when acquired by the U.S. Navy prior to the war was known as the USS Memphis. The Mystic was on blockade duty along North Carolina in 1862, and along the York River and Chesapeake Bay in 1863. Nothing seems to be mentioned about her bearing burned by the Confederates in April 1865, only that she was sold in June 1865 to a private party and renamed General Custer. Chances are she was salvaged and raised and then sold.[3]

   The other mentioned vessel was the USS Minquas or Minquass. The Minquas was a side-wheel steamer built in 1864 in Wilmington, Delaware. It is not clear if the USS Minquas was ever raised.[4]   

   Maybe there is some type of paper trail someplace with more information on these five vessels. The event does not seem to appear in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Federal naval officers, probably in the glow of helping win the war, seemed to have neglected the loss of these five vessels. 

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[1] Allardice, Confederate Colonels, 394.

[2] Jordan, North Carolina Troops, 15:425.

[3] Gaines, Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks, 150.

[4] Gaines, Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks, 123.

Greene County, NC

    It has been a long time since I’ve created a county snapshot, so, by request, here is a look at Greene County, North Carolina, and the War!

   Greene County, located in the eastern part of the state, was created in 1791 from portions of Johnston and Dobbs Counties, and originally named Glasgow County, after James Glasgow, North Carolina’s Secretary of State from 1777 to 1798. Glasgow’s dealings with military land grant fraud forced him to resign and leave North Carolina. The county was renamed Greene County after General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary War fame. The county seat is Snow Hill, founded on the banks of the Contentnea Creek in 1828.

   In 1860, Greene County had a population of 7,925. The slave population (3,947), coupled with the free person of color population (152), outnumbered the white population. In the 1860 presidential contest, Greene County men cast 381 votes for Breckinridge-Lane and 325 for Bell-Everett.  The Douglas-Johnson ticket received no votes.

William A. Darden, Jr. (Ancestry)

   When the call came to consider the question of calling a convention in February 1861, the men in the county cast 457 votes for the convention, with 106 against. When the convention was finally held, the county was represented by William A. Darden, Jr. Darden was a native son and local farmer. Darden would later serve as a captain in the 61^st North Carolina Troops. James P. Speight represented the county in the state senate in 1860-1861 and 1864-1865, while Arthur Dobbs Speight represented the county in the state house 1860-61, and then Henry H. Best 1862-1865. 

Companies in Confederate service from Greene County include:

Company A, 3^rd North Carolina State Troops

Company K, 33^rd North Carolina Troops        

Company E, 61^st North Carolina Troops

Company F, 61^st North Carolina Troops

Company F, 8^th Battalion Partisan Rangers

Company I, 66^th North Carolina Troops

Company C, 67^th North Carolina Troops

   There also seem to be several men, based upon the 1890 US Veterans Schedule, who served in the 14^th United States Colored Heavy Artillery.

Greene County, North Carolina

   The war came to Greene County in April 1863 when Brig. Gen. James J. Pettigrew’s brigade established its headquarters in Hookerton. Three months later, a Federal raiding party, a part of Edward Potter’s force that had raided Rocky Mount, entered Greene County, camping on the night of July 20^th at Grimsley Baptist Church. Confederate forces skirmished with Federals throughout the day. On July 21, the Federals crossed over the Scuffleton Bridge at Hookerton, burning the bridge, as well as the one at Haw Landing, behind them. Then, in April 1865, a small group of Federals was moving through the area when local forces attacked, mortally wounding Captain Henry A. Hubbard, 12^th New York Cavalry.

   After the war, Greene County had a United Confederate Veterans Camp – the Drysdale Camp 849 in Snow Hill. The Albritton-Sugg Chapter 1766 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was formed in Hookerton in 1922. The UDC erected a monument to local Confederate soldiers in 1929 in Snow Hill.

Onslow County

The county-by-county exploration of North Carolina and the War is not going as fast as I hoped. Maybe we will be able to wrap up by the end of the sesquicentennial. I thought today we would turn our attention to Onslow County.

Onslow County, a part of North Carolina’s Costal Plane, was formed in 1734 from New Hanover County. It was named for Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons in the British Parliament. The county seat is located in Jacksonville, which was incorporated in 1843 and named for President Andrew Jackson. Onslow County is probably best known for these two things: the birthplace of Otway Burns, a privateer during the War of 1812 and later a member of the state house, and Camp Lejeune Marine Base.

In 1860, Onslow County had a population of 8,856 people, including 3,499 slaves and 159 free persons of color. In 1861, the men in Onslow County cast 781 votes for Breckinridge, 153 for Bell, and 24 for Douglas. In February 1861, the county cast 631 votes for calling a convention to consider the question of secession, and 89 votes against. Dr. G. W. Ward was their first elected delegate. Ward hailed from New Bern, but had spent some time in Mississippi. He was educated at UNC Chapel Hill, and later in Philadelphia. Ward served as a magistrate, County Superintendent of Public Instruction, and chairman of the county medical board. He resigned to enter the Confederate Cavalry and was replaced by Andrew J. Murrill, a farmer, magistrate and chairman of the board of county commissioners. Murrill later served in the state house and senate.

Men from Onslow County served in Companies E and G, 3rd NCST; Company B, 24th NCT; Company A, 35th NCT; Company H, 55th NCT; Company K, 61st NCT; Company I, 66th NCT; Company H, 67th NCT; Companies B and H, 3rd NC Cavalry; and, Company F, 8th Batt. Partisan Rangers.

Onslow County saw limited action during the war. In April 1862 there was a night-time skirmish at Gillett’s Farm, with the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry attacking a portion of the 103rd New York. On November 23, 1862, Lt. William B. Cushing, aboard the Union gunboat Ellis, arrived off the coast of Onslow County and destroyed salt works, then captured and burned a vessel loaded with turpentine and cotton at Stone’s Point. Cushing later captured the town of Jacksonville and captured two more schooners at Wantland’s Landing. The Ellis later grounded on the shoals across from Traps Bay and was attacked by the Confederates. The Federal Tars abandoned the vessel.

There is not much more to mention on Onslow County and the War. A visitor might learn more by visiting one of the local history museums – the Onslow County History Museum is in Richlands, and there is the Museum of the Marines on the base in Jacksonville. Louis H. Manarin wrote a small book entitled “Onslow County during the Civil War” back in 1982, but I do not have a copy and could find only one in a library in the state.