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.

Currituck County

It’s been a long time since we examined a county… just been a little busy. I reckon it’s time to return to our study. I thought this time we would look at the far north-eastern corner of the state – Currituck County.

Currituck County, which borders Virginia, was formed in 1668. The name Currituck is a local Native American word meaning “land of the wild geese.” Surprisingly, the county seat, also named Currituck, has (according to the Encyclopedia of North Carolina) never been incorporated. The county is largely surrounded by water, and the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal cuts through the county. According to the 1860 census, there were a total of 7,415 people living in Currituck County. That included 2,524 slaves and 221 free persons of color. In the 1860 presidential election, Currituck County men cast 595 votes for Breckinridge and 66 for Bell. No one voted for Douglas.

In the 1861 vote to call a convention, Currituck County men voted 447 in favor of the convention, with 86 opposed. Henry M. Shaw was elected the convention delegate. Shaw, born in Rhode Island, had a varied career. He was a businessman, minister, medical doctor, and state senator. Shaw withdrew from the convention early on to accept the colonelcy of the 8th North Carolina Troops. Shaw served in the Army of Northern Virginia for a time. During the 1864 attack on New Bern, Shaw was mortally wounded.

Currituck County sent several companies into Confederate service. They include Company B, 8th North Carolina State Troops, Company E, 17th North Carolina State Troops, Company G, 4th North Carolina Cavalry, and Companies C and G, 68th North Carolina Troops. There were also several men from Currituck County who served in several different companies in different regiments of the United States Colored Troops.

During the war, Currituck County suffered much from raiding, guerrilla bands, and frequent incursions. Early in the war, the state of North Carolina established salt works. Federal soldiers from the 5th Rhode Island were sent at least once to search and destroy these works. On several occasions the Northern blockading fleet captured vessels off Currituck. On August 19, 1861, the USS Dale boarded the British bark Queen of the Lake, and about a month later the same sailors boarded the schooner Velma.

The site of the Court House in Currituck was visited numerous times throughout the war. On February 12, 1862 the 59th Virginia Infantry passed through the Hamlet. Many of the companies of the 8th North Carolina State Troops were recruited on the grounds of the Court House, and at another point during the war, Federal Troops were camped on the courthouse grounds. Mid-May 1863 local Confederates attacked and captured Federal mail-ship steamers Emily and the Arrow in the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. In August 1863 Confederate guerillas burned all of the bridges in Currituck and surrounding counties and in June 1864 Federals raided into Currituck County.

In 1918, a monument was placed on the grounds of the courthouse in Currituck to commemorate the county’s Confederate soldiers.

Mitchell County

Sorry for the lack of posts – I’ve been kind of busy and, unfortunately, I believe that this will continue for the next two or three weeks.

I thought we would continue with our county-by-county study of North Carolina and turn our attention to Mitchell County and a mystery.

Mitchell County was formed in 1861 from portions of Watauga, Yancey, Caldwell, and Burke Counties, and named in honor of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, former professor at the University of North Carolina (there was only one campus at the time). Since the county was formed in 1861, we do not have the usual stats, and Mitchell County’s representative in the 1861 secession debates was the same as Yancey County’s: Milton P. Penland, a Yancey County merchant. According to a Tax List, there were 65 slaves in Mitchell County in 1862. The original county seat was in the southern portion of the county and called Calhoun, in honor of John C. Calhoun. The county seat was moved by General Assembly decree during the war, to a spot called Davis, even though it cannot be ascertained if the community was called Davis in honor of Jefferson Davis, or because some members of a Davis family lived nearby.

That being said, we’ll jump into the mystery. Ask anyone locally about the formation of Mitchell County and you will hear that it was formed because it was more pro-Union that Yancey County. In 1935, Muriel Early Sheppard wrote in Cabins in the Laurel, “As soon as war was declared, the [Toe River] Valley split in two. The northern half , which supported the Union, wanted to part company with the Secessionist southern half. They succeeded in bringing about the separation in 1861…” (56). It would be impossible to tell you how many times this has been reprinted, both in conversation and in print. I don’t think it is true, and I’ll show you why.

New counties do not get formed overnight, especially in western North Carolina. In the nineteenth century, the power base in the Tar Heel state resided with the eastern counties, and their legislatures fought hard to keep new western counties, which differ in politics, from being formed. Yancey County, which contributed the most to the new county, is a good example. The formation of Yancey County was originally proposed in 1825. It was not until 1833 that the measure actually passed. One representative in the General Assembly in 1833 tried to establish a new County in the east called Roanoke (as a counter balance), and then went as far as to propose that Yancey County be established with “administration of justice without representation.” Both measures failed.

People in the Toe River Valley had been trying to form this new county for a long time. According to the Asheville Messenger, there was a meeting held in June 1850 in Burnsville for the purpose of “making a New County out of portions of Buncombe, Yancey and Watauga.” I do have other evidence to prove false the idea of Mitchell being formed because it was pro-Union, but we’ll just leave it at these two. The idea that Mitchell was formed because of the secession crisis is simply not fact; it is local myth.

Was there a strong Unionist element in Mitchell County? Absolutely. I’ll not deny that, especially in northern Mitchell County. As with most western North Carolina counties, the closer you get to the Tennessee line, the more Unionist they become. Most of the Confederate soldiers served in Company E, 6th NCST; Company I, 29th NCT; Companies A, B, and K, 58th NCT; and, Company K, 6th NC Cavalry. Most of the Union soldiers served in the 3rd NC Mounted Infantry and the 13th Tennessee Cavalry. According to Terrell Garren’s Mountain Myth, there were 771 Confederate soldiers and 84 Union soldiers from Mitchell County.

Details about Mitchell County and the war are scarce, mostly just fragments found in obscure sources. There was an underground railroad funneling escaped prisoners through the area during the war. One stop was the old English Inn in Spruce Pine. There are also a couple of stories of large deserter camps in the county, and one, up near Roan Mountain, contained 250 armed men. I’ve also never been able to determine if Mitchell County ever organized a home guard company. If so, the designation appears to be lost. I can find evidence of Brig. Gen. John W. McElroy being ordered into Mitchell County with the home guard companies from surrounding counties, in an attempt to help Mitchell County organize its own home guard. Maybe more information on this will come to light in the future.

Most of the war in Mitchell County could be described as the worst of guerilla warfare. Families fought against families, neighbor against neighbor. Most of these encounters were small engagements (a few shots). In August 1864, portions of the 68th North Carolina Troops were quartered in Bakersville, probably attempting to break up some of the deserter camps in the area.

Garren estimates that 87 Mitchell County men died during the war. Hundreds more probably perished within the confines of the county where civil war truly existed. There are no records of a United Confederate Veterans camp in the county after the war. I did see a newspaper article once of an attempt to form of Grand Army of the Republic camp in Bakersville, but apparently this did not materialize.

Mitchell County will celebrate its sesquicentennial next year, and I’m looking forward to being a part of the festivities.

Gates County

Gates County was formed in 1779 from portions of Chowan, Hertford, and Perquimans Counties. It was named in honor of Patriot general Horatio Gates. He was also honored with the naming of the county seat, Gates Court House, that was changed to Gatesville in 1831.

In 1860, the total population of Gates County was 8,443 people, including 3,902 slaves and 282 free persons of color. One article claims that Gates County was composed mostly of “subsistence farmers [who] did not hold many slaves.” Hmmm, I would think the census says otherwise. In the 1860 presidential election, Breckinridge received 338 votes, Bell received 394, and Douglas received a scant 12 votes. In the February 1861 vote on the question of calling a convention to consider the question of secession, Gates County men voted 367 for, with 141 against. Alfred J. Walton was the elected representative to the convention in May 1861. Walton was a farmer and a “strong secessionist after Lincoln’s call for troops.” He was a justice of the peace and chairman of the county court.

Gates County produced several companies for the Confederate cause. They included Companies B and H, 5th North Carolina State Troops; Company E, 33rd North Carolina Troops; Company C, 52nd North Carolina Troops; Company I, 68th North Carolina Troops; and, Company C, 2nd North Carolina Cavalry.

William P. Roberts, regarded as the “youngest Confederate general,” hailed from Gates County. He was born there in 1841, and prior to the war, was a teacher and a private in the local Militia. He enlisted on June 10, 1861, in what would become Company C, 2nd North Carolina Cavalry. Roberts was mustered in as an orderly (or first) sergeant, and on September 30, 1861, was appointed a second lieutenant. By August 13, 1862, he was captain of his company and in February 1864, appointed major of the Second. Roberts was wounded in the head at Haw’s Shop, Virginia, in June 1864, and soon thereafter took command of the Second. He was officially promoted to colonel August 19, 1864. Roberts was promoted to brigadier general in February 1865, and assigned a brigade in Lee’s Divisions of the Army of Northern Virginia. Robert E. Lee is supposed to have presented Roberts with his own gauntlets in recognition of Roberts’s maturity and leadership. He was paroled at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. He later served as a Virginia legislator. Roberts died in Norfolk in 1910, one of the last living Confederate generals, and is buried in the Old City Cemetery in Gatesville.

Information regarding military activity in Gates County is scarce.

The US Navy landed in Gates County on May 9, 1862, and burned a warehouse containing “bacon, corn, lard, fish, &c.” They were attacked on their return to Elizabeth City.

June 5 through 7, 1863, found a US Navy reconnaissance through the county and down the Chowan River.

John A. (Jack) Fairless, a deserter from the 52nd North Carolina Troops, apparently caused much trouble for local citizens in the area. His band of men “pillaged, plundered, burned, and decoyed off slaves in their forays into Chowan, … Berties, Perquimans, Hertford, and Gates Counties.”

Like in so many counties in North Carolina, the citizens in Gates County erected a monument to local Confederates on July 8, 1915.