Diagrom Of Fort Anderson
Speaker Tells About
Famous Fortification
At Brunswick Town
Last Wednesday at the home of
Mrs. Joseph M. Rideout a meeting
of the Thomas Mann Thompson
Chapter UDC was held with R. V.
Asbury, Jr., guide at the Bruns
wick Town State historical site,
as guest speaker. Asbury spoke on
Port Anderson, the Confederate
fortification on the west bank of
the Cape Fear River, which was
built over the Colonial town some
86 years after it had been aban
doned.
The speaker said that in 1861,
forts were being constructed
along the Cape Fear River for
the defense of Wilmington and
surrounding communities. "Fort
Anderson, one such fort, was lo
cated on a point and a high ridge
where the Colonial town once
existed. The fortification, which
is a mile in length, runs from the
river back to and around the
church and beyond to some ponds.
The entrenchments took several
months to complete, labor being
comprised of soldiers, slaves, In
dians, as well as old men and
young boys who were ineligible
for service. Soldiers and laborers
working on the defense, quite of
ten found old coins and other
relics. The church had witnessed
the struggle of one revolution and
its walls later echoed sounds of
shells from the bombardment of
the Federal War ships.
“In the early days of the forti
fication, Asbury continued, “it was
known as Fort St. Phillip’s, but
later it was changed in honor of
General Joseph R. Anderson, then
commanding officer of the mili
tary district. The fort was com
posed of two batteries, ‘A’ and ‘B’,
which possessed 5 guns each. Oth
er gun emplacements were strewn
along the line of defense, but
none were as impressive as the
above-mentioned. As the months
passed into years, the duty at the
Fort was often boring for the
soldiers stationed there. These
artillerymen of the 14th Regiment
of the North Carolina troops, had
some of the routine broken by
visits from the people of Wilming
ton and surrounding area, parti
cularly on Sunday.
During the months of 1864, the
function of the fort was to ex
amine all ships entering the river
and heading toward Wilmington.
Asbury related an interesting in
cident which was reported by
James Sprunt aboard one of the
blockade runners: “While passing
Fort Anderson, a gun was fired,
but having received no intimation
at Fort Fisher that we would be
detained on the river, we con
tinued our course, which was im
mediately arrested by another gun
sending a round shot through our
rigging. We were boarded by
Lieutenant McNair (still known
as crazy Mac) who laughingly
remarked that his next shot would
have sunk us, as his orders were
to stop all vessels passing the
fort, for inspection.’’
“On January 15, 1865, Fort
Fisher fell,” Asbury said. “The
next day companies ‘B’ and ‘S',
‘H’ and T, of the 14th Regiment
evacuated Fort Holmes and Fort
Hedrick on Baldhead or Smith
Island. On January 17, they join
ed company A at Fort Anderson,
now comprised of 6 companies,
plus 900 men from Fort Caswell.
On the 22nd, the Federal Navy
moved up 15 vessels from the fleet
of 58 at Fort Fisher, and com
menced firing on Fort Anderson.
On February 16, General Cox
moved his command part of Scho
field's army, to Smithville, and
moved up the river, encamping
within 2 miles of Ft. Anderson.
The next morning at 7 o’clock,
the- Yankee forces took Ft. An
derson and 50 prisoners, with
small loss of life.
“The Confederates had slipped
out during the night, much to the
chagrin of the Yankee troops, who
found themselves being fired upon
by their own ships in the river.
It was necessary to raise a white
flag to halt the firing. General
Cox caught up with the remnants
of the Ft. Anderson troops at
Town Creek. They had burnt the
bridge, and in the ensuing skirm
ish, General Cox lost 40 men.”
Asbury illustrated his talk with
colored slides showing some of the
gun emplacements and the work
being carried on at the site. The
work is under the direction of
Stanley A. South, archaeologist.
In the remaining portion of the
program, Asbury pointed out that
Brunswick County has a great
deal of historic tourist appeal. He
stated that over 7,000 people have
visited the site since the first of
the year, and that many have in
quired about additional points of
interests in the county.
By the use of colored slides,
Asbury took the group on a trav
elogue of some of the historic
sites throughout the county, such
as Belvidere Plantation and men
tioned the earthworks at Easy
Hill, at the junction of U. S. 17,
74 & 76. He also showed other
plantations: Clarendon, Lilliput,
Pleasant Oaks, along the river.
Continuing, he showed the Light
house at Price’s Creek the light
house at Baldhead, built in 1817,
Ft. Caswell, the Russell House,
completed in 1840, the Whitlock
House, completed in 1820, and the
Walker House, completed in
1850’s, all in the Winnabow area,
the Tripp House, completed in
Waterfront
ji#
Everytime we mention alliga
tors or snakes in The Pilot we
draw a rebuke from one or more ,
local real estate men. ‘‘What are
you trying to do, ruin us”, they
want to know? ‘‘Leave off these
scare stories”, they counsel us.
Well, at the risk of offending :
these fellows, we want to report
something that happened the oth
er day to give a reverse twist to .
this old line of thinking. We were ,
riding through one of the new de- ,
velopments with an upstate couple
and their kids when one of the
boys wanted to know if he could
get out and run along the road
barefooted. Seeing a nearby pond,
we said to him “You’d better stay
in this car. See that pond over
there ? Well, there may be an
alligator in it.” With that the
father slammed on brakes, threw
open the door and said “You don’t
say! Come come on and let’s see
if we can see one.” They were so
enthusiastic that we didn't have
the heart to tell them that there
1760’s at Shallotte Point, and
Hickory Hill, built in 1812, at
Calabash.
Asbury pointed out that since
there is no local history written
for the school youth, that organi
zations like the UDC’s should feel
a keen responsibility to stimulate
and encourage interest in history,
perhaps by projects or written
essays on the Confederacy period,
using various personalities from
this area, as well as sites such
as Fort Anderson.
"There is a wealth of informa
tion to be drawn upon from such
undertakings,” he declared.
Most tornadoes occur in spring
and early summer when masses
of warm, moist air drift north
ward from the Gulf of Mexico
and collide with cold, dry fronts
from the Pacific.
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irobably never had been a gator
n that pond since the world be
gan.
We had the rare privilege this
past week of hearing two old
lands at the art of flounder
striking get together to compare
lotes. What’s more significant,
:heir area of operations are con
siderably alike, thus making their
somments all the more authentic.
Jne of the fishermen was John
dolden most of whose operations
lave been in and around Holden
3each, and the other was Tommy
3owmer of Southport, who likes
:he waters of Davis Creek for this
tind of fishing. Both had been
;his spring and each had had
good luck.
The best tale John told was of
the big one that got away. Seems
that he had spotted a big bed
ind had been so greatly impressed
vith the size that he had called
:o one of his companions to see
t. “I’ll bet the fish that made
t weighed 10-lbs”, he said, scuff
ng in that direction with his
foot. When he did, the bottom
irrupted and - a flounder of fully
that size flashed off through the
ivater to safety.
Tommy had a couple of yams
to add. One was about a 5
pounder that he had hit with his
gig, but so far aft that the al
most missed. “That fish had me
as much as I had him,” he said.
"When I finally got him in the
boat I found that I had hit him
about four inches from the tip of
his tail.” Tommy added that he
thinks that if he is to continue
this sport he will have to go to
using glasses.
His other story was about grop
ing along in the blinding light of
the gas lantern and suddenly
coming upon a floating object
that looked for all the world like
a mine. “That really gave me a
thrill,” he said, “until I remem
bered that there are buoys shaped
like that. This was one of them
that had got adrift, but for a
minute I thought X was on the
verge of being blown up.”
We are not to be classed with
the nature lovers who like to
watch lightning play across the
sky, but last night while we were
out of doors taking stock of the
damage caused by the hail storm
some of the most beautiful and
most unusual we have ever seen
was lighting up the sky. It was
not this vicious, forked-tongue
type that can make you its next
victim; but far away over the
water there were splashes of
glowing red which appeared to
come from the ocean and fade
away into the darkness. It was
deep red and almost awesome in
its beauty.
Phones GL 7-2871 and GL 7-4951
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