ML050630175
| ML050630175 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Brunswick  |
| Issue date: | 01/25/2005 |
| From: | State of NC, Dept of Cultural Resources, State Historic Preservation Office |
| To: | Emch R NRC/NRR/DRIP/RLEP |
| Emch R, NRR/DRIP/RLEP, 415-1590 | |
| References | |
| Download: ML050630175 (4) | |
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I THE SITE TO
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In the late 1950s and early 1960s, archaeologists uncovered foundations from Brunswick's earliest days.
The most visible structure is the hulk of St. PhlipI"s Aiiglican Church with its surviving walls dating back'to 1754. Another interesting foundation is Russellborough, an old sea captain's house that was used by royal governors Tryon and Dobbs.
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The visitor center houses several displays that cover the time periods of~both the old town and the fort. In the lobby is a colorful mural created by Claude Howell and Catherine Hen'dricksen depicting a scene from a Spanish attack on the towri in 1748. A cannon on display
- vas recovered from the river in 1986 and is believed to be from the Spanish ship Fortuna which blew up in the river as the townspeople regained control of the port.
The remains of homes, businesses, and other buildings bear witness to' the story of Brunswick. Along with artifacts from the Civil War and the imposing mounds of Fort Anderson, this site offers a unique look at two fascinating periods of American history.
For ther are deeds that should not pass away,
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And names that must not wither
-plaque in St. Philips Church For more information, please contact:
Brunswick Toum/Fort Anderson 8884 St. Philips Road SE WVinabowv, North Carolina 28479 (910)-371-6613 Fax (910)-383-3806
- wwsov.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/bnrns ic/brunswic.htm Hours April-October Mon.-Sat. 9 A.X.-5 P.mt.; Sun. 1-5 P.M.
November-March Tues.-Sat. 10 A.M.-4 P.m. Sun. 1-4 P.M.
Closed Mondays and most major holidays.
Admission is free.
Closed most major holidays.
Groups are requested to make advance reservations.
runswick Town
- Pre-Revolutionary War site
- Cape Fear River port
- Center for naval stores
- Archaeological site ort Anderson
- Confederate fortification
- Part of Cape Fear River defense
- Civil War battle: February 1865
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ColonialtPor-tu-Town and Civil rWar Eartheri Fort
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s 0Cam? 'a a-HISTORIC
- -SITES Division of Archives and History
I-THE TowN OF BRUNSWICK This quiet, picturesque site on the banks of the Cape Fear River has an amazing past.
In 1726 Maurice Moore, the son of a former South Carolina governor, founded this port town. North Carolina was a colony of England, and the town was named Brunswick to honor George I, the king of England, who was a native of Brunswick, Germany.
The port became a bustling shipping area for exporting tar, pitch, and turpentine. These products, derived from the resin of the longleaf pine, evre known collectively as naval stores. This 'sticky gold" was essential for building and maintaining the great wooden sailing ships of the Royal Navy and the merchant fleet that plied the oceans between Europe, the colonies, and the islands of the Caribbean.
With two successive royal governors in residence, Brunswvick was a political center and the colonial assem-bly occasionally met in the courthouse. Official port functions required merchants to pay taxes and shipping costs to the local representatives of the Crown. In 1765 the colonists challenged the Crowrn's authority to distribute hated tax stamps. That action, eight years before the Boston Tea Party, halted collection of the tax along the Cape Fear.
Brunswick's decline resulted from several factors, including the growth of Wilmington and the relocation of the royal governor to New Bern in 1770. Few people remained in Brunswick in the spring of 1776 when British redcoats were put ashore from the Royal Navy ship Cnizer. Some reports indicate that much of the town was burned during this raid. By the end of the Revolutionary War families and merchants had moved to other locations, and the ruins and land became part of Orton plantation in 1842.
FORT ANDERSON After decades of calm, the site once again entered the forefront of history in a national storm, the Civil War. In 1861 the Confederate States of America decided to build a large fort at the site as part of the river defense of Wilmington. The Cape Fear wvas an essential route for supplies moving by railroad from Wilmington to Petersburg and Richmond for General Lee's army.
that overlooked the shipping channel and provided protection to blockade-nimners.
In February 1865, following the fall of Fort Fisher at the 'mouth of the river, Union forces repositioned for an attack on Fort Anderson. Federals attacked from the land and river. After three days of fighting, the Confederates evacuated the fort at night. Union gunloats started firing at first light, unaware that Federal soldiers were breaching the valls of the fort.
The infantry frantically waved sheets and blankets to stop the deadly fire from their own forces. There was a one-day fight north of the site at Towin Creek before the Federals occupied Wfilmington on George Washington's birthday, February 22, 1865.
The Confederate army used manual labor to construct the large sand fortification originally called Fort St.
Philip. There were nvo batteries, each with five cannons,
fighting writh little head-way, Union comnmanders concluded that {he fort was too strong to assault and iithdrev their forces.
However, they rttumed for a second att4rnpt oni January 12, 1865' For two and one-half da-s Federal ships bombardl ithe fort on both land ard sea-face. On the fifte'entli more that 3,300 Union X
l infantry, includiig the 27th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, assaulted the land face. After severl hours of fierce hand-to-hand combat, Federal troops chptured the fort that night The Confederate army evacuated remaining forts in the Cape Fear area, and within weeks Union forces over-ran Wilmington. Once Wilmington fell the supply line of the Confederaicy was severed, and the Civil War was soon over.
FoRr FISHER TOAY The visitor 'enter contains exciting exhibits, a 16-foot fiber optic map detailing the second battle, a video presenta-tion, and gift shop.
Approximatelyl ten per-
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row risa cent of the original fort B-remains. A quArter-mile
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tour trail surrounds the remains of the fort vith scenic views of both the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean.
Exterior exhibits,i including a partially restored gun emplace-
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ment, enhance'historic
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interpretation.' Special events and programs are offered throughout f
the year. Guided tours are I
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available daily. State headquarters for under-water archaeology is also located here.
For more information, please contact:
Fort Fisher.
-Post Office Box 169 Kure Beach, North Carolina 28449 (910) 458-5538 Fax (910) 458-0477 IHoutrs Apr.-Oct.: Mon.-Sat. 9 A.M.-5 P.M., Sun. 1-5 P.M.
Nov.-Mar.: Tues.-Sat. 10 A.M.-4 P.M.
Closed Sundays, Mondays and most major holidays.
Admission is free.
Hours are subject to change.
Groups are requested to make advance reservations.
Visitors requiring special assistance should contact the site prior to visiting.
Visit our WAeb site for additional historical information and map printouts.
s%'vwvah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/fisher/fisher.htm I...
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Nme I (o not know now that there is another place exceptingperhaps Ridzrnond, re should nt sooner see lost ihan this.7
-Maj. Gen: W. H. C. WVhitingyJ-
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Commander*of the Distict of the Cape Fear August 24,1863
'At the dawn of the American Civil War, the Confederacy took control of a neck of land in south-em North Carolina near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and constructed whtwas to become the largest and one of the most important earthwork f
fortifications in the South.
?I fr by the Malakoff Tower (a Crimean War fortifica-tion) in Sevastopol, Russia, expansion of the fortress began. ByJanuary 1865 Fort Fisher embraced one mile of sea defense and one-third mile of land defense. More than five hundred African Americans, both slave and free, worked with Confederate soldiers on construction; occasionally as many as one thousand men were working, although maintaining adequate labor was difficult.
Unlike older fortiflcitions built of brick and
,-- mortar, Fort Fisher was inaidemostly, of earth and
'saind, which wivas ideal forsAbsorbifi the shock of
- heavy explosives. The se'fae,&
equipped uith tienty-three guns,' consisted faseries of twveh en-B Aoot-high batteries bouiided on the south end by two larger batteries forttfl and sixty feet high. Of the
smaller mounds, one sen'ed as a telegraph office and" another was converted into a hospital bombproof The land face w-as equipped uith twentyone guns distributed among its fifteen mounds. Each mound was thirty-two feet high with interior rooms used as bombproofs or powder magazines and connected by underground passagesways.
Extending in front of the entire land face w-as a nine-foot-high palisade fence.
Colonel Lamb recognized the importance of Fort Fisher to the defense system of the Cape Fear, to the Af aj. Gen. 1I!1'. C ll7iSfing Two major battles were fought there, and many Union soldiers received the Congressional Medal of I lonor for their gallant participation in that fight-ing. Today only a few of the mounds remain, since mue h of the fort has been eroded by the ocean.
f Vilmingto'n,;and to the stival of the mnfederacy. Massive and poweeful, Fort pt Federal blockading ships at a distance Cape Fear River, shielding Wilmington
.ck and insuring relatively safe passage for' rate naval travel. Wilmington was the last rt open to the Confederacy and the destination
!rs called blockcade-niners, which smuggled is into the southern states and supplied Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. These veled from Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Nova Scotia, where southern cotton and tobacco were exchanged for food, clothing, and munitions from British traders.
ATTACKS ON Fo~r M
1 The Union army and navy planned several attacks on Fort Fisher and the port of Wilmington but made no attempt until December 24,1864.
After two days of Col. ltlliam Lamb GIBPRLTAR OF THE SOUrH Until the arrival of Col. William Lamb inJuly 1862, Fort Fisher wias little more than several sand batteries mounting fewer than two dozen guns. Under Colonel Lamnb's direction and design, which was greatly influenced Civil Mlir encampments are part of special events at Fort Fisher: