History investigators: Ambitious college class starting this week will focus on the stories of enslaved people at Dawkins House in Union, S.C. The home to where the wartime governor fled is being preserved

Shored-up house (Annie Smith/USC Union), 1850 Dawkins slave schedule; interior door (Picket photo)

A course debuting Tuesday at the University of South Carolina Union won’t be like the campus classes I attended back in the day. There will be no lecture hall, study sessions or a professor regurgitating set material.

Rather, “HIST 480-701 -- Internship in Public History” will turn students into investigators, digging up little-known facts about the Thomas and Mary Poulton Dawkins House in Union and the people – free and enslaved – who lived there before, during and after the Civil War.

The timing of the class is perfect. The once dilapidated home is slowly being rehabilitated into a new campus facility.

“Everything we are doing is bottom up,” said Andrew Kettler, assistant professor of history at the two-year campus (right). He will work with a small, but he believes mighty, group. So far, three students have signed up for the assignment, which includes building an archival history.

Kettler hopes a few students more will join the inaugural effort. He expects a bigger class in the spring once the work and documentation takes shape.

Union, which is south of Spartanburg, briefly served as the Civil War capital of the state after Columbia fell to Union forces in 1865 and Gov. Andrew Magrath fled to Union. From about Feb. 15, 1865, until early April, Magrath ran the state from the Dawkins House. He apparently worked in an informal library near the drawing room, which survives today.

According to histories and local legend, Magrath and his subordinates burned possibly incriminating documents and correspondence in the home’s fireplaces. (The building served as South Carolina's capitol while the city was briefly is capital.)

The 1850 federal slave schedule indicates Thomas Dawkins (left) enslaved about 20 persons, but there may have been more elsewhere. Some likely worked at other locations besides the home, which was called “The Shrubs.” (The project has not yet found an 1860 slave schedule)

Over the years, residents came and went from the Dawkins House, which is located on the small USC-Union campus. But there had been one constant: The deterioration of the building into near ruin.

Now the nonprofit Preservation South Carolina is working with the campus and local leaders to rehabilitate the house into an alumni and corporate center for the college. Raising money for the effort has taken time, but officials continue to make progress.

“This is the first time for PSC to have a class that is going on at the same time as one of its preservation projects,” said Kettler.

There’s a lot at stake. Supporters say it’s important the full history of the home and its occupants be told, warts and all. But they also want the building to be aimed at the future and bring new attention to USC Union, which has a growing enrollment. Currently, it has about 1,400 students; many are affiliated with the athletics programs.

Union County has a long segregation history and the area was known for Ku Klux Klan activity and postwar lynchings. There have been recent efforts, however, to acknowledge that history. Kettler said there is much more to learn.

2021 markers details part of the county's lynching history (Picket photo)

Annie Smith, director of development on the campus, said the course also will seek to identify those individuals who lived in the original structure between 1765 and the early 1800s, before Thomas Dawkins bought and expanded the residence.

The class research will include library, courthouse and genealogical records. Kettler previously told the Picket the aim is less about assigning blame for slavery than moving toward acknowledgement and reconciliation

“We don’t know what we are going to find. It just has to be an honest investigation,” said the professor.

So far, they have possible names for 2 enslaved

A large focus of the class is finding out about the enslaved persons, most of whose names are not know. Names were not included in old census records.

“Focusing searches on that specific population will also allow for uncovering connections to the later history of Black citizens in Union County,” says the class syllabus.

Kettler (right, Picket photo) and a couple students conducted some research over the summer, including at the South Caroliniana Library at the main University of South Carolina campus in Columbia. “We’re digging constantly,” he said.

Kettler, 42, said they have learned the possible names of two of the enslaved. He is not identifying them at this point until he can confirm accounts. One was mentioned in a postwar newspaper article saying the bride was a Dawkins servant (slave). The second may have been a lynching victim in the 1870s, said the professor.

He expects students will glean more names from county-by-county agricultural censuses.

“Tracing formerly enslaved people is very difficult because of name changes,” said Kettler. Others may have moved north decades later during the Great Migration.

The students, working like detectives, will dig up records from myriad sources, such as death schedules and wills. If they can find a Dawkins will, it may list enslaved persons and what they may have received upon Thomas’s death. That could help the effort to find out more about those individuals.

College hopes for an archives open to the public

The public history course outline includes this overview:

“Students will be engaging with archival documents to gain respect for the application and relevance of historical knowledge, as well as support the broader goals of the university and its environs. With the work in this course, USC Union students can begin to explore documents that are to be organized into a “Dawkins House Archive” that will be housed at the future Alumni and Corporate Sponsor Center in the Dawkins House. Our focus on the course will be on answering: What were the historical experiences of those who resided at the Dawkins House?”

Kettler envisions binders of documents at a location ”where people can see the actual letters.” (At left, part of 1867 correspondence by Thomas Dawkins)

Students will share extensive readings during the semester. Topics will include the Dawkins House, memory, the antebellum period, slavery, Reconstruction, “historic sites as powerful institutions,” contemporary Union and modern public history.

The class is half education on the topic and half working through the methods of public history. Students will analyze documents, said the professor. “They will do the work of the historian.”

Resources include census records, newspapers, the Union Country Museum, Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site, diaries and other papers. Kettler wants to see if the county clerk has deeds to property owned Thomas Dawkins. That might help the researchers go back to those who lived in the house way back in 1765.

One goal of the endeavor is to get local folks involved in uncovering the area’s history and make the Dawkins House a destination of sorts. Kettler, who believes a book may result from the project, is available to speak to groups about the Dawkins House as part of South Carolina Humanities’ speaker’s bureau.

For white citizens, a world turned upside down

When it comes to the Civil War period, recorded experiences have almost exclusively been of white people.

Mary Poulton Dawkins was many things in her 86 years, the majority of which were ensconced in the home that was dubbed “The Shrubs” in honor of a family estate by the same name in her native England.

Dawkins (right), who in 1845 married Thomas, a prominent South Carolina judge 14 years her senior, was described by relatives as headstrong and proud of her imported furniture and Queen Victoria.

There was another side of the Englishwoman, however, that doesn’t project well these days.

While of the “highest culture,” Mary had a tendency toward bigotry, an observer wrote, and a paternalistic view of slavery.

Enslaved people had become a majority in Union County during the 1840s.

Following the South’s loss in the Civil War, and the Dawkins’ fortune largely gone, Mary lamented Reconstruction and the brief political power accorded to Black people.

“The negroes on the plantation had really no ill feeling, but poor ignorant creatures, they were intoxicated with the idea of power and always fond of idleness; began to steal and destroy property, scarcely a night without a burning,” Mary wrote in a memoir penned late in life. “There was no redress, no law, and the ‘Ku Klux’ was formed to frighten the negroes, so sensational, supersti­tious.”

Group is raising more money for work on house

Some 120 years after Mary’s death, Preservation South Carolina is raising money for the next phase of the restoration of the residence.

Bill Comer, a Union native who is heading up the DawkinsHouse rehab project for PSC, previously said the refurbished site will provide lessons from the past once it reopens.

Early rendering of what the house will look like when completed (PSC)

The $300,000 state-funded Phase 1 of the work, which concluded more than a year ago, shored up the building. Phase 2 will be much more extensive and expensive.

PSC said they need at least $845,000 for the next phase of work. About $284,000 has been raised or been committed, including a $100,000 award from the Timken Foundation and a $25,000 grant from the SC Department of Archives and History, said Comer.

Donations to the project can be made here.

“We hope to finalize other significant funding arrangements within the next several weeks. Fundraising efforts will be ongoing until the house is fully renovated and ready for use,” Comer said in an email.

It is anticipated Bennett Preservation Engineering of Charleston will begin updating and preparing design specifications for Phase 2 in early October and that construction will begin in January 2027. “Phase 2 will take the building well beyond stabilization to the point that it is ready to accommodate the Final Phase of mechanical, electrical and plumbing construction,” Comer said.

USC Union offers associate degrees in arts and science and a bachelor's in nursing

After that, the house will be owned by the Union Laurens Commission for Higher Education.

“PSC will continue to work collaboratively with USC Union and the commission via a memorandum of understanding to help secure funding and to provide historical preservation counsel until it is completely finished,” Comer added.

Juggling myths and the real stories

The Dawkins House rehabilitation and the university course are coming at a fortuitous time in South Carolina.

Gov. Henry McMaster has championed commemoration, including the state’s importance in the American Revolution. That awareness includes the complex history of slavery and its legacy, said Kettler.

“The base of the Freedmen’s Bureau was in Beaufort, South Carolina,” he said, arguing that’s where emancipation really began.

There are a lot of stories about the Dawkins House, he argued. “School kids know about the myth of McGrath’s silver.”

Upon learning of Rebel Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox in early April 1865, Magrath and his staff raced away from Union as Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Federal troops moved in. 

Magrath apparently hid a silver tea set at the Dawkins' home while he was based there. Mary Dawkins wrote the couple took the set to Mills House in Charleston after Magrath was released and they gave it to him.

The silver tea set story is covered in the book "South Carolina's English Lady," compiled and edited by the late Sarah Porter Carroll in the 1980s. You can read the text on Family Search (right).

Letters and accounts written by relatives of Mary Dawkins -- and included in Carroll's book -- suggest slaves at “The Shrubs” and any other land owned by Thomas were treated more kindly than at other plantations. But that view belies the fact the institution was inherently cruel and violent.

For Kettler and students, this will be in intense exercise in public history, a movement that marries academic with engagement in the community.

Kettler hopes uncovering the history of the house and 19^th century Union will better inform the community of its rich, complex history.

There is a  “mythic, shrouded history we are going to uncover.”

READ MORE:

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/04/as-fundraising-intensifies-to-fix-up.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/01/scs-civil-war-governor-slept-and-likely.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2025/09/craftsman-has-window-to-history-of-home.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2025/02/s-carolinas-governor-fled-to-this-house.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2024/07/south-carolina-community-gets-into-game.html

Tattooed sailors off Fort Fisher: Talk will focus on the history of the art, designs popular during the Civil War and where ink was placed on the body (even there!)

19th century tattoo designs (Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Tattoo Pattern Books)

Ah, sailors and tattoos. They go so well together, and have for hundreds of years.

Whether through images of sweethearts, whales or ships, countless generations of sailors have worn tattoos to show social identity, ethnic heritage or simply for identification should they be killed in battle.

Becky Sawyer, historian at Fort Fisher State Historic Site in North Carolina, has conducted about five years of research on those who in participated in the battles for the Confederate sentinel near Wilmington and had some ink on their bodies.

Sawyer (left) will share the fruits of her work on Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 19, at Pleasure Island Library in Carolina Beach. The talk is entitled “Red, Blue & Black: Tattoos Among Sailors at Fort Fisher.”

“Through images and stories, explore this fascinating and sometimes gritty aspect of maritime history. Not for the faint of heart,” the program advertises.

The Picket asked Sawyer to describe the topic and the resources she used. Her responses have been edited for brevity.

Wait for it: The last question below gets to the “faint of heart.”

Q. What will be the main thrust of your message? Why do you find this a particularly relevant topic?

A. Tattoos have always been a tradition of naval history. Tattoos tell a story of the sailors who fought at Fort Fisher, whether they they were in the maritime service for years prior to the Civil War or joined the U.S. Navy to serve their country. They also tell the story of traditions such as the Kanacha tattoos among the Polynesian sailors with the fleet. Tattoos identified men in a time when there were no dog tags. Several of the men on my list were killed in the Battles of Fort Fisher. Some were sent home north to be buried, like Abel Cole of the USS Brooklyn, who had a blue star between right thumb and index finger. He would be buried in his home state of Maine. William Baker of the USS Sassacus is buried at the Wilmington National Cemetery – he had his initials tattooed on his left forearm

Naval rendezvous record describes fancy artwork for one Civil War seafarer

Q. Is this all or almost all about Federal sailors? Which campaign(s) against the fort did they participate in?

A. My focus is on the U.S. sailors who served onboard vessels both as part of the blockade off Wilmington/Fort Fisher in 1863-64 and then also the battles of Fort Fisher. There are also former Confederates who joined the U.S. Navy during the exchange in late 1863 and into 1864 who have tattoos which they may have received while in a prisoner of war camps such as Camp Douglas and Fort Delaware.

Q.  How did you learn about these tattoos? Can you describe the themes? Were tattoos well-known among sailors before the Civil War?

A. Researching the muster rolls for the various ships that participated in the battles of Fort Fisher and then cross-referencing them with the Naval Rendezvous Enlistment records along with pension records of those who served in the battles. As for themes – I have broken it down into 11 categories such as names & initials; things of the sea (mermaids, anchors, ships), religious symbols, patriotic symbols, memorials, bracelets, etc. Tattoos are well-known among sailors prior to the Civil War. 

Artist at work (Library of Congress) and two tattoo designs (Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Tattoo Pattern Books)

Q. I know you have researched this for a while and have made previous presentations. When did you begin this research and what piqued your interest? 

A. I began researching this about five years ago or so. At first, it was on foreign-born sailors and then realized the former Confederates who served with the Navy and finding tattoos among the prisoners when they enlisted, and it just snowballed into the research that I have today.

Q. Are there specific sailors you will mention? If so, can you please provide a couple examples?

A. Simon Duggan of the USS Fort Donelson (former Confederate POW) had a cross between his shoulder blades (naval record, below). He was from Ireland. John Love of the USS Wabash had the phrase “Where Liberty Dwells There is My Home” tattooed on his breast. Leander Spaulding (tattoo artist on the USS Tristam Shandy) had a snake and “don’t tread on me” tattooed on his right forearm. Charles Haldgate of the USS Tuscarora had “Dieu Et Mon Droit” (God and my right) tattooed on his right forearm – he was a mariner by trade from Liverpool.

Q. One promotion for your speech says it "is not for the faint of heart." Can you explain why?

A. I found at least two sailors with tattoos on their manhood and then there are tattoos found on the buttocks as well.

Becky Sawyer’s presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 2 p.m. at Pleasure Island Library, 1401 N. Lake Blvd #72, Carolina Beach, N.C. Call 910-798-6300 or 910-251-7351 for more information.

Sign about tattooed sailors research at Fort Fisher in 2023

Manassas National Battlefield Park announces 'unanticipated' discovery of third body at 1862 field hospital limb pit. The young soldier, who wore New York infantry jacket, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery

Marker at the battlefield includes sketch showing Dogan house, where wounded were treated (Devry Jones, HMdb.org)

A young man apparently buried in a New York infantry jacket is the third Federal soldier whose body was discovered by archaeologists in a surgeon's limb pit near a field hospital associated with the Second Battle of Manassas.

The National Park Service on Thursday said like the other two, this soldier found in March 2024 at the site in Northern Virginia will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The agency has not released details on the man -- who apparently died from a neck wound -- until now.

Documents indicate the remarkable discovery of the third soldier was “unanticipated.” Archaeologists found six brass New York State Excelsior coat buttons and seven brass cuff buttons.

"Every soldier who fought on this battlefield has a story, even if we may never know their name," said Manassas National Battlefield Park Superintendent Kristofer Butcher (left) in a news release. "It has been our privilege and responsibility to care for these remains with dignity, guided by science, respect, and our commitment to preserving America's history. We are honored that this soldier will now receive a final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery." 

No date for that burial has been announced.

Asked by the Picket whether there has been an attempt to identify the soldier via DNA, the NPS on Friday said extensive archaeological and osteological analysis was done. "Professional archaeological evaluations concluded that additional analysis was unlikely to yield significant new information. Throughout this process, our focus has remained on treating the soldier with dignity and respect while following professional standards and applicable preservation laws."

NPS documents indicate the 2024 excavation yielded four new surgically amputated limbs and the body of the soldier. “Found in direct association with this soldier's interment was a rubber pocket comb,” the agency said. The Army has requested personal effects, including the comb, for burial.

The limb pit was discovered in 2014 during excavations associated with water pipe maintenance at the park. Two burials and seven (possibly eight) amputated limbs were removed in 2015. Excavations continued in 2024.

In total, three sets of human remains and 16 amputated limbs were excavated and removed from the property. (At right, femur with lodged bullet, Kate D. Sherwood, Smithsonian Institution)

The field hospital was established at the John Dogan farm, not far from the Deep Cut section of the battlefield. The property was known as Rosefield at the time.

Union soldiers occupied this property on August 29, 1862, first using it as an artillery placement site, and later as a field hospital after surgeons “took control of the house” for the remainder of the three-day battle, the NPS said.

Second Manassas was a decisive victory for the Confederacy..

Park officials say they have not been able to identify the soldier, his New York unit or exactly where he was wounded. 

Excelsior Brigade was in fierce fighting

The NPS provided details of the initial find in 2018, saying it was the first time a surgeon’s “limb pit” from the conflict has been excavated and studied.

Brandon Bies, then park superintendent, told NPR that the men were likely wounded during a charge up Deep Cut, held by thousands of Confederates. “As (Union soldiers) start to get closer, within 300, 400 yards, they start to receive rifle fire and musket fire," he says. "Men are dropping left and right." 

The Excelsior Brigade, made up of several New York regiments and a veteran of multiple campaigns, fought near the Dogan farm and Deep Cut. Daniel Sickles organized the brigade, but it was led by Col. Nelson Taylor (right) in this battle.

Analysis of the third soldier indicates he was approximately 16 to 19 years old and standing between 5 foot 1 and 5 foot 3 inches.

Soil conditions, historic plowing and backhoe excavation during the water line project led to the remains being in poor condition, according to the NPS.

Roughly 40% of the human remains were intact, and “no complete long bones were present. Historic plowing of the area crushed and relocated the skull (minus an occipital bone) and right arm” documents show. “The knees may also have been affected by the backhoe during waterline excavation. Fragments of assorted bones and teeth were found in soil within the excavated area. Little of the pelvis remained.”

Other items found with the individual include a jacket clothing hook and the hard rubber comb. A report concludes that “A lead artillery case shot ball recovered from the neck area of the remains could indicate cause of death, although this remains inconclusive.”

The soldier may or may not have been in the Excelsior Brigade or wounded near Deep Cut. It's possible he was wounded the evening of Aug. 29 in the fight at Groveton.

Examination of bones showed severity of wounds

A glance of photographs of the amputated limbs of the soldiers found in 2015 shows the bleak realities of war. Surgeons sawed them off with precision because the bullets caused so much damage and soldiers needed an opportunity to ward off deadly infection.

As casualties piled into tents not far from the fighting, Civil War surgeons had to make quick decisions on who might have a chance of going home – without an arm or leg – and who was too seriously hurt to be operated on.

That appeared to be the case with the two soldiers.

The first was in his 20s and died of injuries from an Enfield bullet striking his upper leg.

“Surprisingly, the bullet was still lodged in the femur bone, likely because it slowed as it passed through the man’s cartridge box, the National Park Service said at the time

The second skeleton was that of a man estimated to be between 30 and 34 years old. (At left, Brandon Bies assists in 2015 dig / Kate D. Sherwood, Smithsonian Institution)

He died as a result of a buck and ball shot to the upper arm, pelvis and leg.

The bones were found in a shallow pit, indicating they likely were buried in haste. According to Smithsonian Institution experts, the surgeons were allowed by Confederates to conduct the hasty operations after the battle, when the wounded had been in the sun and rain for days. They may not have had chloroform at their disposal.

The entire pit was not excavated in 2015, apparently because of time and funding limitations. While archaeologists believed there were more partial remains, they did not expect a whole set to be found when they returned in 2024. Officials have been tightlipped about the project for more than two years.

The remains of the first two unknown soldiers were buried in a new section of Arlington National Cemetery in September 2018 (At far right in Picket photo, above).

At the time, Bies said analysis of isotopes in the bones, which looked at what had been in drinking water the men consumed, indicated they are likely from New York or New England, according to CNN.

The NPS news article did not include photos, but the agency said it was reviewing them for possible release. "Any materials that are shared publicly will be carefully reviewed to ensure they protect sensitive archaeological information and maintain respect for the soldier's remains."

The public can see the related documents on this page.

This ornate gift from blockade runners to Fort Fisher's commander features palmettos, flags, cannon and a tiny replica of the Banshee. You can learn about the silver epergne at an Aug. 17 talk

Col. William Lamb and wife Daisy; silver epergne (Fort Fisher State Historic Site) and sketch of Banshee

It’s been said Col. William Lamb, commander of the Confederacy’s Fort Fisher, was a blockade runner’s best friend.

His garrison, based at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, safeguarded the vital port of Wilmington, N.C. The city was an important destination for ships that dared to run past the Union blockade, risking gunfire or running aground. Lamb’s troops and artillery provided cover fire for those missions.

Among the scores of vessels that made the journey was the English-made Banshee, which was made especially for the job. Banshee made eight successful runs to Wilmington before it was captured offshore in November 1863 – by then, its investors had made seven times their investment.

The vessel’s owner, the Anglo-Confederate Trading Co., commissioned a silver epergne, or table centerpiece, to show appreciation to Lamb for his efforts to safeguard efforts to supply the resource-starved Confederacy. The officer wasn’t a professional engineer, but he made Fort Fisher a formidable bastion.

The privately owned lavish piece, which features a cannon, four Confederate flags, a Palmetto tree and a replica of Banshee, is the subject of a talk this coming Monday by Ray Flowers, an interpreter and historian at Fort Fisher State Historic Site. His 7 p.m. presentation will be held at the Federal Point History Center in Carolina Beach. The epergne will not be present.

Flowers (at right, with artifact) is passionate about the piece’s impressive combination of art and utility.

“Without a doubt, this is the most extraordinarily phenomenal single artifact, pertinent to Fort Fisher that will ever grace this property,” Flowers wrote in an email to the Picket.

“It is a tangible monument of Fort Fisher post commandant William Lamb's vigilance in maintaining the lifeline of the Confederacy, as he would come to be recognized as the ‘Guardian Angel of Blockade-Running.’ This exquisite trophy is emblematic of both the success of this smuggling operation as well as the potentially lucrative nature of the venture.”

It's a fancy dinnerware piece with a cause

I had never heard of an epergne before researching this post, and I still have difficulty spelling it.

Epergne is a French word for “saving,” with the idea of placing small dishes of food  on a stand in the central part of the dining table so that guests wouldn’t have to spend time passing dishes. Unlike a “lazy Susan,” the base does not revolve. Sometimes, small candies or candles might be featured.

The artifact has made four one-day appearances at Fort Fisher but has never been on display for an extended time, said park officials, adding they would like to see it there again.

The epergne was made by Elkington & Co. of Birmingham, England, said Flowers. (Click photo to enlarge)

“Lamb was presented with a photo of the promised centerpiece in December 1864, shortly before the fort fell in mid-January 1865. Fortunately, he did not gain possession until 1866.”

By then, the war was over and the colonel had been released from brief confinement. A native of Norfolk, Va., the soldier returned there after the Civil War and was active in business and politics.

The inscription at the base reads: "Presented to Colonel William Lamb, C.S.A. commanding at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, by the owners of the steamship ‘Banshee’ in recognition of the eminent service and valuable assistance at all times so continuously rendered during the period she was engaged in trading between Nassau and Wilmington from May to November 1863."

This Englishman lived for adventure, riches

One of Fort Fisher's formidable guns after its capture (Library of Congress)

While blockade running occurred at ports across the Confederacy, the epicenter was Wilmington, which depended on Fort Fisher. Union land and naval forces attacked the sentinel twice before it fell in early 1865, and the loss was crippling to the South.

Owners and captains of the blockade runners had a massive risk and reward balancing act during Fort Fisher’s existence.

Among the most enterprising was English-born Thomas “Tom” E. Taylor (below).

In 1862, the Anglo-Confederate Trading Co. employed the 21-year-old as their "supercargo," (owner's representative). “All told, they operated or owned 15 vessels engaged in blockade-running. Taylor himself ran the blockade 28 times, 26 of the 28 were either in-or-out of Wilmington,” said Flowers.

Taylor has been described as both a thrill seeker and opportunist.

“Although sympathetic to the South’s cause and her struggle for independence, Taylor put his vessel and his life in harm’s way not for patriotism, but for the enormous profits that could be accrued by successfully running the Federal blockade,” wrote Confederate navy author R. Thomas Campbell in a 2007 issue of Military Heritage magazine.

In his 1896 memoirs, “Running the Blockade: A Personal Narrative of Adventure, Risks, and Escapes during the American Civil War,” Taylor wrote extensively about the Banshee, detailing one attempt in which several Federal gunboats fired upon the vessel as it neared the protection of Fort Fisher.

“Their shots were soon dropping close around us: an unpleasant sensation when you know you have several tons of gunpowder under your feet,” wrote Taylor, who became friends with Lamb. Blockade runners carried both military and civilian goods.

Notwithstanding the loss of the Banshee by capture, “she earned sufficient on the eight successful round trips which she made to pay her shareholders 700 per cent on their investment,” he said.

Sixteen of the side-wheel Banshee’s 17 trips to Rebel ports had been successful.

The U.S. Navy, ironically, used the captured ship in the first attempt on Fort Fisher, before assigning it to the Potomac Flotilla in Chesapeake Bay.

Commander's wife was there during attack

Flowers said Lamb, who was in his late 20s during the war, was the architect and commander of the “grandest, single sea-coast sandcastle in the Confederacy.”

He called Wilmington the last gateway on the Eastern Seaboard to the outside world as “the fortunes of the neophyte nation were moored to the docks of the port city's harbor. This story requires no exaggeration or embellishment; it is also leavened by an incredible love story, as Lamb's Northern-born wife, Daisy, shared the victories and vicissitudes of that war with him as they coupled beneath their star-crossed banner on Confederate Point.”

Daisy, born Sarah Anne Chaffee in Rhode Island, lived in a small cottage near Fort Fisher (above, photo Fort Fisher).

Lamb was severely wounded and captured when Fort Fisher fell to Union forces on Jan. 15, 1865, after a stalwart defense. The wounds he received during the final assault would leave him on crutches for seven years, according to NCpedia. (Daisy escaped capture.)

The Lambs, who had three children, subsequently moved to Virginia. Daisy died at age 54 in 1892. William was 73 when he passed in 1909.

The epergne remained in possession of the Lamb family until last year, said Flowers. “Hopefully, it will go on temporary display here at the new visitor center by the end of the year, or soon after.” (Above, inscription at base, Fort Fisher)

The new owner may make the artifact a gift to the state upon his passing, officials said.

The program on Col. Lamb and the silver epergne is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17, at the Federal Point History Center, 1121 N. Lake Park Blvd., Carolina City, N.C. Parking is at Carolina Beach Town Hall across from Dollar General. Call 910-458-0502 or 910-251-7351 for more information.

What's the story with a Civil War bullet found on a coastal North Carolina school playground? It looks like a Federal soldier removed it to unload his weapon

Boys with three-ring bullet they found at school (Morehead City Elementary photo); Map of area (Wikipedia)

Morehead City Elementary School at Camp Glenn isn’t just the home of the Dolphins. It’s also home to a boatload of North Carolina military history -- from Confederate and Union camps during the Civil War to a National Guard training center in the early 20^th century.

That rich history collided in mid-May with two fifth-graders, Evan J. and Will B., who were enjoying recess in the front playground. They found a .58-caliber bullet observers believe likely was used by a Union soldier in 1862 during the siege of nearby Fort Macon.

The artifact has since been placed in a display case near the front entrance; where it will greet students returning to school next week.

“It was located along the fence/property line where a new fence has been installed in the last year, where our school grounds butt up against a boat dealership,” Principal Christy Propst told the Civil War Picket. (Morehead City Elementary photo)

“I feel certain the bullet was unearthed during the process of installing the fence. During other projects like installing a playground set, we have found old tin cans and lids that are roll top of that makes sense.”

Paul Branch Jr., an author and retired historian for Fort Macon State Park, said the Camp Glenn training site and the elementary school are located in what was formerly a small coastal settlement known as Carolina City.

Joseph Shadek of the 8th Connecticut Infantry made this sketch of an 1862 Union military camp in Carolina City (Courtesy of the Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library)

“A Confederate camp called Camp Argyle existed briefly near Carolina City for the 7th North Carolina Regiment before it was sent to New Bern,” said Branch. “After the battle of New Bern, Union forces advancing from New Bern to capture Fort Macon occupied Carolina City on March 22, 1862, and established their headquarters there, with camps for Connecticut and Rhode Island troops in the area,” he said.

Carolina City also had a railroad spur line leading to a wharf on the sound, from which Union soldiers, siege artillery and supplies were ferried across Bogue Sound to occupy Bogue Banks during the siege of Fort Macon, added Branch, who has written two books about the fort.

“Although there was no fighting at Carolina City, the bullet was probably dropped by one of the soldiers while camped there and then found by the two children,” he said.

Case at school includes photo of boys, bullet (lower right) and history of Camp Glenn

I asked readers of the Authentic Campaigner Facebook page to identify the discovered bullet. They said it was a three-ringer Burton or Minie Ball – and said it was likely Federal and had been “pulled.” I asked for an explanation.

“Loaded into a rifle, not fired, pulled out with a screw attached to the rammer,” said one commenter. “Happened mostly for misfires or if coming off picket line or any other situation where you couldn't just fire it, but needed the gun unloaded.” 

The very top of the round shows evidence a worm screw had been used to reach the bullet in the barrel, commenters said.

Propst said the school at first used Google AI to try to identify the bullet. She then reached out to the History Museum of Carteret County (below) for help.

Museum executive director Gracie Bender said researcher Dee Lewis and volunteer curator Barbara McCreary determined the round came from the Civil War.

“Discoveries like this do turn up from time to time along the Crystal Coast, though they’re not an everyday occurrence,” Bender said. “While Morehead City itself did not see major battles, the area was part of a heavily militarized coastline. Union forces occupied nearby Beaufort and Fort Macon early in the war, and troops moved throughout the region. Because of that activity, stray artifacts occasionally surface.”

“It’s hard to say whether it was dropped during the Civil War or arrived later through soil brought in during construction,” she added.

The museum interprets the Civil War as part of the larger story of coastal North Carolina — focusing on Fort Macon, Union occupation, local civilian experiences and the strategic importance of the ports and sounds. Fort Macon was forced to surrender in April 1862.

Carolina City died out after the Civil War and was absorbed by Morehead City. In the early 1900s, Camp Glenn was established on part of the land as the annual training grounds for the North Carolina State Guard/National Guard. (At right, Craig Swain photo at HMdb.org)

A Coast Guard/Navy Air Station was briefly established here in the early 1920s. A Navy Section Base was also established here in World War II.

“Carolina City and its environs have seen a lot of military use over the years,” said Branch.

Propst, the principal, said after Camp Glenn the grounds were home to a naval hospital and a state highway patrol training facility before becoming a school.

“Lots of history on these grounds,” she added. “I’m not local to the area, but it has been interesting to learn.”