282 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

The War Between the States 283

command of Confederate Point and fortunately proved himself
to be a most capable, efficient, and acceptable officer.

Later in the war the importance of Wilmington to the Con-
federacy became manifest, and General Whiting, doubtless the
best engineer officer in the army, and a gentleman of most re-
markable intellect and attainments, was assigned to the com-
mand of the district. General Hebert had command of the
lower defenses. His headquarters were at Fort Johnston. It
was here that he narrowly escaped being captured. One dark

the occasion of the first meeting Captain Bell issued orders
that they should all come together for drill the next morning,
and one member of the force proposed to the captain that the
soldiers of the ‘home guard’ should be required to bring camp
stools with them, so that when they were tired they could sit
down and rest. Captain Bell put them through the various
drills marching around the town, and it was observed that when
one of the company got opposite to his own home he left the

ranks and was no more seen. The ‘home guard’ being thus
nigit young Lieutenant Cushing, of the Federal N avy, who weakened so that they could not face any kind of an enemy,

achieved great fame by blowing up the ram Albemarle, made it was moved and seconded by one of the members that the or-

a raid on Hebert’s private quarters, and came near carrying off ganization be now discontinued, to which motion Captain Bell

the general to the blockading squadron. On another occasion, remarked that he thought so, too, and the motion being unani-

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Cushing passed up the river to the vicinity of Wilmington and mously carried, thus ended the famous ‘home guard.
spent a day within sight of the town, without, however, gaining

any information.

In 1863, Col. Thomas M. Jones, a brother of Capt. Pembroke
Jones of the navy and associated with the Cape Fear by his
marriage with Miss London, was given command of Fort Cas-
well, but, his health failing, in 1864 he was succeeded by Col.
C. H. Simonton.

One of the amusing incidents connected with the early days
of the war is recorded by Dr. W. G. Curtis in his Reminiscences
of Smithville-South port:

“Much confusion prevailed at first, and the old citizens of
the town proposed the establishment of a ‘home guard’ for the
protection of their home interests. Consequently, a public meet-
ing was called at the courthouse, and after much discussion
an organization was formed. Mr. John Bell was

CHANGES DURING THE WAR.

Wilmington, the principal seaport of North Carolina, also
became the most important in the Southern Confederacy. Prior
to the beginning of hostilities it had sustained a large tratlic in
naval stores and lumber, and now it was to be for a time the
chief cotton port of America. A startling change in the aspect
of the port soon became apparent. The sailing vessels, even
to the tiny corn-crackers from Hyde County, had vanished ;
likewise the two New York steamers. The long line of wharves
was occupied by a fleet of nondescript craft the like of which
had never been seen in North Carolina waters. A cotton com-
press on the western side of the river, near Market Street ferry,

good-natured was running night and day to supply these steamers with car-
y military discipline whatever. goes for Nassau and Bermuda, while other newcomers were
busily discharging their anomalous cargoes of life-preserving
and death-dealing supplies for the new Confederacy.

The good old town was sadly marred by the plagues of war
and pestilence and famine. Four hundred and forty-six of the
population, reduced by flight to about three thousand, had been
carried off by the epidemic of yellow fever brought from Nas-
Sau by the steamer Kate; and hundreds more of the younger
generation, who gave up their lives in the Confederate cause,
had been brought to their final resting place in Oakdale Ceme-
tery. Suspension of the civil law, neglect of sanitary precau-
Upon ; tions, the removal of nearly all the famine stricken women and

elected cap-

gentlemen, who proposed a great number of things hitherto un-
heard of in any military organization, the principal one being
that they were liable to become fatigued by the exertion of

marching. Inquiring of the citizens if they were well and lis-
tening to their replies that ‘they were not to say well, that they
had a mighty hurting in their heads and a misery in their
backs,’ which being duly reported to Captain Bell, he would
reply by saying that he was ‘sorry for their infirmities but that.

mustang liniment was a good thing, and that a small quantity of
plantation bitters taken internally would finish the cure.’