Posted By David H. Jones on July 31, 2010
We spent an entire day guided by Dr. Chris Fonvielle of the History Department of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the local expert who supplemented the knowledge of Will Greene on this part of the PHP Spring Tour. It was a beautiful day along the Cape Fear river as we toured Fort Fisher, then crossed on the ferry to Southport to visit Fort Johnson and Fort Anderson. Dr. Fonvielle was a great guide, sharing his wealth of knowledge and a lot of good humor along the way. That evening, we enjoyed a walking tour of historic Wilmington and a nice dinner at Circa 1922.
Fort Fisher was essential to the protection of the deepwater port of Wilmington where blockage-runners brought vital supplies for the Confederate armies in the field. Its capture on January 15, 1865 following a massive Federal amphibious assault, helped to seal the fate of the Confederacy.
Fort Fisher was constructed mostly of sand and earth, ideal for absorbing the shock of heavy explosives. The sea face consisted of a series of 12 foot high batteries bounded on the south end by two larger batteries 45 and 60 feet high. Of the smaller mounds, one served as a telegraph office and another was a hospital bombproof. The land face consisted of 15 mounds 32 foot high with interior rooms used as bombproofs and powder magazines connected by underground passageways. A nine-foot-high palisade fence extended in front of the entire land face.
Category: North Carolina, Pamplin Historical Park |
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Tags: Fort Fisher
Posted By David H. Jones on July 25, 2010
After visiting the New Bern Battlefield, our tour group travelled to Fort Macon, a Third System coastal fortification located on Bogue Banks at Beaufort, North Carolina. The irregular pentagon brick fort, now situated in Fort Macon State Park, was completed in 1834. Our guide was Paul Branch, Jr., an author and Park Ranger-Historian, who explained the construction features of the fort, its seizure by North Carolina State Troops in April of 1861, and its investment, bombardment, and capture on April 26, 1862 by Union forces under the command of General Ambrose Burnside. Fort Macon is an excellent example of early nineteenth century military engineering made obsolete by the advent of rifled artillery.
Category: North Carolina, Pamplin Historical Park |
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Tags: Fort Macon, Georgia, Third System Fort
Posted By David H. Jones on July 24, 2010
It has been a long time since my last post to this blog . . . that’s pretty poor on my part. I promise to get “back in harness” and stay more current.
Following the North Carolina trip in May, we travelled to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina for a week in June (including a book signing in Beaufort, South Carolina) . . . and then flew cross country again in July for another book signing at Gettysburg, a visit to Antietam, and a family reunion in Canaan Valley, West Virginia. It’s been a busy time, but that’s no excuse . . . so more frequent posting will now resume.
Category: David H. Jones, Georgia, South Carolina, West Virginia |
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Posted By David H. Jones on June 5, 2010
To compliment the preserved remains of the original C.S.S. Neuse, a full scale replica of the ship has been constructed to provide visitors to Kinston with a sense of the size and appearance of the Civil War Confederate ironclad ram. Built over many years by master shipbuilder Alton Stapleford, the C.S.S. Neuse II is open for visitors to examine the exterior and interior of the 158 foot vessel located a short distance from the riverbank where the original was fitted with its iron plating. Our guide, one of the many good North Carolina folks we met in Kinston, participated in the construction of the C.S.S. Neuse II and presented a complete history of the original ship and the replica. In the photo below, he’s describing the pre-Civil War boiler from a lumber mill that’s very similar to the one used to power the original C.S.S. Neuse.
Category: North Carolina |
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Tags: CSS Neuse, kinston, North Carolina
Posted By David H. Jones on May 30, 2010
The 2010 Pamplin Historical Park Spring Tour visited a North Carolina Historical Site in Kinston where the remains of the Confederate ironclad ram C.S.S. Neuse are displayed. We learned the history of her construction, limited use during the Battle of Wyse Fork, and scuttling and burning to prevent capture in March of 1865. About 15,000 artifacts were recovered along with this portion of the hull. A new, fully enclosed, climate controlled facility is planned in Kinston to house the ship remains, artifact collection and interpretive center.
Category: North Carolina |
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Tags: C.S.S. Neuse
Posted By David H. Jones on May 28, 2010
The 2010 Pamplin Historical Park Spring Tour was headquartered in Kinston, North Carolina and this charming town provided a delightful experience for the participants. Kinston is perfectly situated for Civil War buffs who want a central location for visiting numerous sites in Eastern North Carolina. www.visitkinston.com
Not only is Kinston the site of two Civil War battles and the C.S.S. Neuse, but the hospitality shown to our group by the Kinston Tourism Development Authority was exemplary. The knowledgeable guides who met us at each site made the visit very educational and the East Carolina “pig-pickin” sponsored by the Kinston folks was heaven for the Southern barbeque connoisseurs in our group.
Category: Pamplin Historical Park |
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Posted By David H. Jones on May 7, 2010
Dian and I are looking forward to going on the Pamplin Historical Park Spring Tour in North Carolina next week. This is a portion of the American Civil War that I have not studied much in the past and will add greatly to my overall knowledge. I’ve been reading The Battle of Bentonville: Last Stand in the Carolinas by Mark Bradley, a great book that is solid preparation for the upcoming tour. In addition to the Bentonville Battlefield, we will also be visiting the C.S.S. Neuse Replica and Museum; Wyse Fork Battlefield; New Bern Battlefield; Fort Macon; Fort Fisher; Fort Johnson; Fort Anderson; and the Averasboro Battlefield. I’ll make a series of posts with photos when we return to California.
Category: Pamplin Historical Park |
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Tags: North Carolina, Pamplin Historical Park
Posted By David H. Jones on April 2, 2010
In the early morning hours of Saturday, April 3, 2010, commemoration of the 145th Anniversary of the Petersburg Breakthrough of April 2, 1865 will occur at Pamplin Historical Park near Petersburg, Virginia. Executive Director A. Wilson Greene will conduct a dawn tour (lasting two hours) of the Breakthrough Battlefield. I heard from Will Greene yesterday that 80 visitors will assemble this year in the park at 5:00AM to walk the battlefield and trace the movements of the soldiers, North and South, on that fateful day.
Pictured above are three descendants of soldiers of the 6th Maryland infantry (l to r – John Petri, Jim Fisher, and David Jones) who participated in this tour at Pamplin Historical Park several years ago.
We will all be there next year on Saturday, April 2, 2011, to enjoy the dawn tour and then take part afterward in the dedication ceremony of the 6th Regiment of Maryland Infantry monument on the exact site within Pamplin Historical Park where the boys from Old Maryland were among the first soldiers of Sixth Corps to break the Confederate line. It will be a very special day for all of us.
Category: 6th Maryland Infantry, Breakthrough Battle, David H. Jones, Pamplin Historical Park |
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Tags: 6th Maryland Infantry Regiment, Pamplin Historical Park
Posted By David H. Jones on March 6, 2010
An artist’s rendition of the monument when erected at Pamplin Historical Park in 2011
The Sixth Regiment of Maryland Infantry Descendants Association has announced that it will dedicate on April 2, 2011 a monument to all soldiers who honorably served in the regiment during the American Civil War. The monument will be placed within Pamplin Historical Park at Petersburg, Virginia on the exact site where the Sixth Maryland Infantry Regiment spearheaded the Sixth Corps assault during the early morning hours of April 2, 1865, being among the first Union regiments to break the Confederate main line. The monument is designed by Gary Casteel, a renowned Civil War sculptor, and features a bronze tablet created by the artist depicting soldiers of the Sixth Maryland fighting with Confederate defenders on the walls of the fortification. The regiment suffered numerous casualties that day including Major Clifton K. Prentiss, mortally wounded. Sergeant John E. Buffington earned the Medal of Honor for the bravery displayed on this ground. The bronze tablet has already been created and the granite for the monument will be quarried, cut, polished and lettered over the next six or seven months. A final fund raising drive is being conducted by the descendants association; a tax deductible donation form may be printed out from a link on the association’s website at the address listed in the left hand column of this blog. The monument will be a very meaningful and permanent memorial to the men of the 6th Maryland on what is perhaps their most important field of battle.
Category: 6th Maryland Infantry, Pamplin Historical Park, Petersburg |
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Tags: 6th Maryland Infantry, Major Clifton K. Prentiss, Pamplin Historical Park, Sergeant John E. Buffington, Sixth Maryland Infantry
Posted By David H. Jones on January 10, 2010
Everyone who has an ancestor who served during the Civil War wants to have a photograph of the soldier in uniform, but only a few folks are so fortunate. I have a wartime photograph of one ancestor, Lt. James Touchstone of the 6th Maryland Infantry, but do not have one of Jacob Eckess who served as a private in the 10th West Virginia. I would venture a guess a large majority of Civil War soldiers had a “likeness” taken of them in uniform, as many photographers (a new, high tech occupation in the mid nineteenth century) actively solicited this business.
Thus, I was delighted to hear from another long-time member of the 6th Regiment of Maryland Infantry Descendants Association that a photograph of Sergeant Benjamin W. Buckley of Company E had just been found in a pile of old photographs by the member’s aunt. These fabulous old photographs often have been divided up among successive generations and lost to all other family members. In my own family, a photograph of my grandfather and grandmother Jones on their wedding day in 1897 (which had never been seen by anyone in our branch of the family) was sent to me sometime ago by a very distant cousin who found my genealogy website. I treasure that photograph!
So, it’s entirely possible that the photograph that you’ve dreamed about is out there somewhere. My advice is to keep looking by asking questions within your known family branches and track down distant relatives who might have things of this type in their possession. The likeness of Sergeant Buckley, who was seriously wounded at the Wilderness, now can be shared with all of us who are trying to maintain our spiritual connection with these boys in blue from Maryland who answered the call to arms.
Whether Union or Confederate, these soldiers are all American Patriots, in my view, and we should do everything in our power to preserve their memory and honor their brave deeds.
Category: 6th Maryland Infantry, David H. Jones, Maryland |
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