144 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

market house was again and for the third time destroyed by
fire.”

Reference was made to two of these fires by Sir Charles Lyell,
the famous geologist, who was in Wilmington in December,
1841, and again in January, 1842, and still again in December,
1845. In a letter written by him from Wilmington in Decem-
ber, 1845, he said: ‘The streets which had just been laid in
ashes when we were here four years ago are now rebuilt; but
there has been another fire this year, imputed very generally to
incendiarism, because it broke out in many places at once. There
has been a deficiency of firemen, owing to the State having dis-
continued the immunity from militia duty, formerly conceded
to those who served the fire engines.” Some mention of the fire
of 1843 is also made in the article on Governor Dudley.

FIRST CAPE FEAR IMPROVEMENTS.

I find in the annual report of William P. Craighill, then
major of Engineers, and brevet lieutenant colonel, United States
Army, for the year 1873, a brief history of old surveys and maps
and charts made of the Cape Fear River between its mouth and
the port of Wilmington, which is a record of some value to us. I
have also found in the records of the War Department of 1828,
a lengthy report by Capt. Hartman Bache, of the Engineer
Corps, transmitted by Maj. Gen. Alexander MacComb, chief
engineer, to Hon. James Barbour, Secretary of War, who in
turn transmitted it to Congress, which had called for it by reso-
lution dated the 20th of December, 1827. This report is not
only interesting but valuable, as it indicates the initial measures
recommended and subsequently carried out by the Federal Gov-
ernment for the removal of obstructions to navigation between
the bar and the port of Wilmington, the navigation of the river

being greatly hampered by shoal water, which afforded, under
the most favorable conditions, a channel of less than nine feet.

It also appears from this report and from other data, that the
State work under Mr. Hamilton Fulton, State engineer in 1823,
was unsuccessful and was condemned in its most important fea-
tures by Captain Bache and by those who were directly inter-
ested in the commerce of the Cape Fear River.

About the year 1819 the State authorized Mr. Peter Brown, »

an eminent lawyer residing at Raleigh, then intending to visit

Early Years 145

Great Britain, to employ an engineer for the purpose of im-
proving our rivers and water transportation; and Mr. Brown
engaged Hamilton Fulton, at a salary of $5,000.

The work of putting in the jetties below Wilmington seems
to have been under Mr. Fulton’s direction; but it is said that
the engineer in charge was Mr. Hinton James,! who had been
the first student to enter the State University. Afterwards,
Mr. James, it is said, was mayor of Wilmington; and he lived
in the town to a ripe old age. Mr. Fulton’s work may have been
founded on correct principles, but his plans, not only for the
Cape Fear River, but for other improvements, were beyond the
financial resources of the State, and after some years they were
abandoned.

STEAMBOAT LINE TO CHARLESTON.

The progress of river improvement by the Federal Govern-
ment during a period of ten years, from 1829 to 1839, was
very slow, and it resulted in a gain of only two feet depth below
Wilmington; but, after an hiatus of eight years, in 1847 it be-
gan to be pushed forward with great diligence and success from
Wilmington to the sea, resulting in a safer channel of thirteen
feet at high water and nine feet at low water. It is notable that
in 1853 some of the citizens of Wilmington, enterprising men
that they were, impatient at the slowness with which river and
harbor bills were passed by Congress and anxious to continue
the work without interruption, subscribed $60,000 (a large sum
in those days for a small community) in furtherance of the im-
provement of the river and bar under the direction of an officer
of the United States Engineer Corps. This was officially ap-
proved June 9, 1853, by Hon. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of
War. The officer in charge of the work was General Woodbury,
who married a daughter of General Childs. Meanwhile, there
was much enterprise shown by the merchants of Wilmington in
shipbuilding, in a large and increasing turpentine and lumber
trade, in the establishment of packet lines to Baltimore, Phila-
delphia, and New York, and in a daily mail steamboat line to
Charleston, consisting of the steamers Vanderbilt, North Caro-
lina, Gladiator, and Dudley.

1His tombstone was recently discovered by Rev. Andrew J. Howell, of
Wilmington, in the graveyard of the old Hopewell Presbyterian Church
in the northern part of Pender County, formerly a part of New Han-

over County. The inscription on the plain marble slab states that Mr.
James was born September 20, 1776, and died August 22, 1847.

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