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.”

At 99, Charles J. Turner Jr. has dug up Georgia battle relics nearly his whole life. That collection and an impressive array of purchases are finding new life at the Atlanta History Center's Civil War exhibits

Charles Turner in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1938 and in 2023 with part of his enormous collection (AHC); canister and shrapnel Turner found at Pickett's Mill decades ago and artifacts he bought on display in "More Perfect Union (Picket photos)

Charles J. Turner Jr. was just a boy when the relic hunting bug hit, and he’s been at it ever since. At age 99, Turner’s still curious about what Civil War treasure rests in the soil of North Georgia.

Turner recalls a seminal moment in 1933 or 1934, during the Great Depression, while he was growing up on Lucile Avenue in Atlanta.

“One of the kids I went to school with lived in the area and he picked up a Minie ball in the woods one day and brought it to school and he showed it to me,” the retired electrical engineer recently told the Picket.

The young hobbyist subsequently got some suggestions for places to look from noted historian and artist Wilbur G. Kurtz, who refurbished the Cyclorama painting and was a technical adviser for the film “Gone with the Wind.”

Visitors can flip through digital version of Sherman's Barnard volume at top of case (Picket photo)

Turner’s passion for digging Civil War artifacts and buying militaria is an incredible boon for the Atlanta History Center. The collector is in the process of donating hundreds of collected items to the institution. Some items he purchased in recent years went directly to the AHC.

Patrons are beginning to see the fruits of Turner’s efforts. A display in the AHC’s new “More Perfect Union” exhibit includes a trove of artifacts he bought, including a flag of the consolidated 6^th and 9^th Tennessee Infantry.

There’s a lot more.

Nearby is a rare cartridge box and rusted canister from the pitched fighting at Pickett’s Mill northwest of Atlanta. Farther down is a copy of photographer George Barnard’s album recording Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s campaign in the South and Sherman’s rank insignia (Picket photo, left). Both items belonged to the Sherman family.

Turner bought the two items from an auction house a couple years back and donated them to the AHC; he dug up the Pickett’s Mill canister in the 1950s/1960s, before the site became a state park.

His generosity will result in educational opportunities for future generations, museum officials contend. Turner's items in "More Perfect Union" are the tip of the iceberg. A gallery opening in several months figures scores of items he personally obtained while relic hunting.

His dug relics will be unveiled in coming months

Much of the relic hunter’s finds and purchases filled a large room and now the AHC is using those items to buttress its already immense collection and tell more stories about the fighting in Georgia. (Photos below, courtesy Atlanta History Center)

The gallery in “More Perfect Union” dedicated to the Atlanta Campaign has been named the Charles J. Turner Family Gallery in his honor.

His dug collection of weaponry will be the backbone of “The Hard Hand of War: Soldiers, Weapons, and Mass Production,” the museum’s second new exhibit about the Civil War. It will open in several months.

“Together, his collection represents one of the most comprehensive covering the Atlanta Campaign,” the history center says.

It’s remarkable that a man who started collecting during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first term in office is still in the game. Now, Turner says, it is time for others to appreciate his collection. Most have gone to the Atlanta History Center.

“That’s where they really ought to be, where people can see them,” Turner said.

Wilbur Kurtz gave the Atlanta boy lasting advice

Turner grew up at a time when stories about the Civil War weren’t far removed from those who experienced its triumphs and tragedies. He recalls the former Confederate soldiers’ home near Grant Park.

The war was very much part of the fabric that made up Atlanta during his youth. “There were sons and daughters of veterans who had stories to tell,” Turner related to the Civil War Picket in a recent phone call.

By the time he was a teen, Turner was on the prowl for finds across the battlefields of metro Atlanta. Relic hunting in Atlanta used to be quite common, since just about the whole city was a battlefield.

Around the time he turned 18 in February 1944, Kurtz wrote a letter to his father, Charles J. Turner, with relic location suggestions and the recommendation to learn the history of the battles. (Above, courtesy Atlanta History Center)

The correspondence, which is kept at the Atlanta History Center, starts with this detailed passage:

“Your son’s hobby is an excellent one – I’d say – but perhaps I’m prejudiced, since ‘tis the same one I’ve ridden for more than years than I’d like to say. As for Civil War relics – bullets, etc., the Atlanta area affords but poor pickings at this late date. The primary shortage was brought about by the impoverished citizenry during the trying period immediately following the close of the war – they found out that bullets could be sold as junk lead to hardware stores, etc, and the money could be spent for bacon and cornmeal, next door – so bullet hunting was perhaps more profitable than blackberry gathering – being an all-year-round opportunity and not seasonable. Miss Sarah Huff (died last spring) told me that she had picked them up by the gallon, as a child – and that she knew that many, many others were doing the same things – to the same end as cited above.”

Huff as a young girl experienced the impact of the war in Atlanta and later wrote a book about her experiences.

Kurtz went on to write that Ezra Church, Cascade Road, Beecher Park, Utoy Creek area (right), Venetian Hills, New Hope Church and Kennesaw Mountain still had the potential for discoveries.

(Now, as then, diggers should seek permission from owners of private property. Most governments ban relic collecting on battlefields, parks and other historic sites. Those government sites largely were not in existence during Turner’s youth.)

Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator at the AHC, said the Turners saw Kurtz at the July 1944 dedication of the Peachtree Creek monument at Piedmont Hospital in the Buckhead area of the city.

“Great story, great connection,” he said of their friendship.

Enthusiast struck paydirt years ago at Pickett's Mill

About that time, Charles J. Turner Jr. was drafted into the U.S. Amy and spent the closing months of World War II in Germany, where his unit oversaw labor by Axis prisoners of war.

He later attended Georgia Tech, where he received two engineering degrees. He had a long career with Lockheed before retiring in the mid-1980s.

The lifelong Atlantan nurtured his hobby all this time, amassing a large collection. He stayed mostly within 100 miles of Atlanta, including sites in Resaca and Jonesboro.

Notable relic collectors in the area included Beverly M. DuBose Jr. and his son Beverly M. Dubose III. Their collection was the basis of the old AHC “Turning Point: The American Civil War” exhibit, which closed to make way for “More Perfect Union.”

Jones said the Turner and DuBose relics will comprise "A War in Our Backyards," the largest section within "The Hard Hand of War." The collections will be separate, featuring biographies of the collectors, stories of their discoveries and maps of where they collected. The DuBoses dug relics in several Southern states.

"Both collections highlight the enormous quantity of war materiel manufactured during the war," added Jones.

Turner spent a lot of time at Pickett’s Mill in the 1950s and 1960s “Most of the stuff I found at Pickett’s started out with an old Army mine detector. I graduated up to commercial.”

He found belt buckles, bayonets, rifle barrels, rifle parts, uniform buttons and more. (Turner in the 1990s, right)

“One of the things I enjoyed finding was the shot from the cannon down that gully.”

In late May 1864, cannons mowed down Federal attackers who futilely charged through a ravine toward Confederates waiting for them in strength. At "More Perfect Union," the case of canister is next to an artillery piece that may have fired some of those rounds. (Picket photo, right; click to enlarge)

Turner says he has found thousands of items in the field. He recalls spotting a locket in a creek bed near Dallas, Ga. The item contained a lock of a woman's hair.

The majority of the guns in his collection came from dealers and antique stores.

While in his 80s, Turner began to collect more items pertaining to the Atlanta Campaign, including the 6th/9th Tennessee flag. In the mid-2010s, he began working with the AHC to preserve his collection, officials said.

Charles J. Turner Jr. with the 6th/9th Tennessee flag before it went on display (AHC)

Gallery features a trove of Turner's collection

“More Perfect Union” tells a much wider story than “Turning Point” about the causes and repercussions of the conflict. Topics include slavery, secession, economic forces, Reconstruction and how all of this translates today.

But, of course, there are the items related to soldiers, uniforms and weaponry.

Cased Colt revolver presented by Col. Anson McCook to a fellow officer in the 2nd Ohio;  canteen used by Pvt. John Kemp, 11^th Tennessee at the Dead Angle; cartridge box and cap pouch made by Wellborn, Nichols & Oliver of Dalton, Ga. 

Additional Turner items currently on display include:

-- Two canteens, including a Confederate one picked up by a Yankee soldier after the Battle of Resaca in May 1864;

--- Drum carried throughout the Atlanta Campaign by William A. McKinzie with the 78^th Illinois;

-- Sword of Col. John G. Mitchell with the 113^th Ohio;

-- Kepi of Confederate Brig. Gen Francis Cockrell with the Missouri Brigade. He commissioned the item for $35 from a hat maker in Mobile, Ala.; (right, Picket photo)

-- Cartridge box and cap pouch made by Wellborn, Nichols & Oliver in Dalton, Ga.

-- Smith & Wesson revolver used by a soldier with the 125^th Ohio, known as “Opdycke’s Tigers”;

-- An Austrian Lorenz rifle-musket carried by William Blair Mosby of the 5^th Mississippi;

-- Whitworth sharpshooter rifle used by J.E. Gilbert of the Rebel Army of Tennessee. Turner says he used to have four or five Whitworth rifles. “They are hard to find.”

Time has not diminished his passion for hobby

Charles Turner’s passion for collecting hasn’t much faded over the years. He was out in the field about a year ago, a close friend providing the transportation.

 “A lot of my friends are relic hunters just like me.”

The enthusiast looks for Civil War artifacts in 2012 (Courtesy AHC)

One pal drives him out to the field.

“He started hunting with me 20 years ago. I am still collecting whenever I have a chance. I am not able to get out in the field with a metal detector.”

Turner attended a AHC gala held the week “More Perfect Union” opened. He was among the special guests of honor

Wilbur Kurtz’s 1944 letter to Turner’s father was prophetic, calling the boy’s hobby “an excellent one.” (Click letter below to enlarge; courtesy Atlanta History Center)

The historian and artist finished the correspondence with encouragement for the teen to learn about the battles that shaped the destiny of the country and the South. He listed nearly a dozen books, including one by Union Maj. Gen. Jacob Cox and others by or about Joseph E. Johnston, John Bell Hood, Leonidas Polk and Patrick Cleburne.

“If that boy of yours is really serious about these things, encourage him to keep at it as a hobby to the end that he may become fully informed as to what happened – and where – during that storied summer of 1864.”

“Someone should carry the torch for this sort of thing – so why not Junior?”

Junior, who turns 100 in February, still tends to that flame.

Gettysburg's next superintendent specializes in museums and artifacts

The next superintendent at Gettysburg National Military Park and two affiliated sites has been with the National Park Service for 37 years and has experience in museum collections.

The agency on Thursday announced Stephanie Stephens will take over the park, Eisenhower National Historic Site and Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in the fall. All three sites are in south-central Pennsylvania.

Stephens currently serves as the acting regional director for the Midwest region of the NPS. She will replace Kris Heister, who retired a few months ago.

 “Stephanie’s extensive experience in cultural resource stewardship, museum and curatorial leadership, collaborative planning and community engagement is perfectly suited for this position,” said acting Northeast Region Deputy Regional Director Brandon Bies. “Her curatorial knowledge is especially relevant at Gettysburg, home to the National Park Service's largest Civil War museum collection, where the preservation, care, and interpretation of these meaningful artifacts is a central mission.”

Stephens grew up in Twentynine Palms, California, where a military installation and a national park were central to her community.

Stephens has been with the National Park Service for 37 years, in a variety of leadership positions focused on the preservation and stewardship of National Park Service museum collections and cultural resources. In 2016, she was selected as the National Park Service chief curator.

The Picket asked the NPS to comment on whether Stephens has any near-term objectives but has not yet received a response.

Gen. Jacob Cox slept here: Citizen-soldier's division camped on land that became Emory University. His competence and memoirs are lauded, his racial views are not

Jacob Cox (Library of Congress), marker on Clifton Road and walkway nearby on Emory University (Picket photos)

In 1944, Wilbur G. Kurtz – restorer of the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama, rescuer of the locomotive Texas and technical adviser to the film “Gone With the Wind” – wrote a letter to the father of an Atlanta teenager whose hobby was relic collecting.

Kurtz provided some suggestions on places to dig, but ended the correspondence with books the boy should read to really understand what happened in the city in summer 1864.

At the top of the list, in the letter kept by the Atlanta History Center, was “Atlanta,” one of several notable Civil War books authored by Maj. Gen Jacob D. Cox.

The man who went on to become Ohio governor, U.S. interior secretary, congressman and president of the University of Cincinnati was among the most successful citizen-soldiers of the conflict. He served in both theaters of the Civil War, including the Atlanta Campaign.

“I think Cox did fine during the Atlanta Campaign, and his advance southward on 27 June (Battle of Kennesaw Mountain) provided ‘the only advantage of the day,' according to Sherman,” says Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association.

Crawford said he believes Cox’s 1882 account (Ebay photo) of the Atlanta Campaign is largely accurate and “provides some insights that other memoirs lack, whereas his account of the Second Manassas Campaign is tainted by his animus toward Fitz John Porter.”

Civil War historian Robert D. Jenkins, executive director of the Blue and Gray Education Society, said Cox’s book about Atlanta “is fair and good, and for a long, long time was really one of the only reliable histories of the Atlanta Campaign until the middle and end of the 20th century."

I reached out to Crawford and Jenkins on Saturday after stopping to photograph a sign on the Emory University campus near Decatur. Cox’s Third Division of Schofield’s XXXIII Corps camped there on the evening of July 19, 1864, a few days before the Battle of Atlanta and fighting in Decatur.

While I had heard of Cox, particularly his strong performance as a brigadier general at Utoy Creek in August 1864, I didn’t know much about his career.

Cox was a trial lawyer before the Civil War and had to scramble to learn military skills West Pointers already possessed. He fought at Antietam and South Mountain and later moved to the Western Theater.

“In early 1864, Cox marched with Sherman to Atlanta as second in command of the Army of the Ohio. He performed yeoman service during this period. In July, he led a flank attack which caused the Confederate Army of Tennessee to retreat from its strong position on Kennesaw Mountain,” according to an article by Gene Schmiel in “On Point,” a publication of the Army Historical Foundation.

“Cox’s forces were the first to cross the Chattahoochee River, forcing the Confederates into the defenses of Atlanta. Later that month, Cox’s division cut the final supply line into Atlanta, forcing General Hood to abandon Atlanta and opening the way for Union control.”

Cox later played a crucial role in crushing Hood’s Confederate forces at Franklin, Tenn. Crawford points out some critics claim the general took too much credit for some victories.

Nothing in his background indicated Cox (left, after the war) would be a successful military man.

“I have become used to being surprised as to my own fate, and take it rather quietly, feeling a kind of third person’s curiosity at looking on to see what is to become of me,” Cox wrote in 1866.

One aspect of Cox’s service to the country has not aged well.

While his family had abolitionist ties and he was anti-slavery, Cox opposed moves toward racial equality after the war.

“Some of his post-war comments about what to do with 3.5 million former slaves put him on the wrong side of current thinking,” says Crawford. The politician had advocated for a separate colony or territory for blacks.

Cox died in 1900 at age 71.

As for that historical marker, I asked Crawford what happened in the area during fighting for Atlanta. (Emory University as we know it did not exist in 1864; its forerunner, Emory College, was established in Oxford, Ga.)

On July 21, 1864, Cox's division transited west from north of Decatur along what is now N. Decatur Road (known as Paces Ferry Road at the time) to a position north of the Augustus Hurt house. (Above, Crawford map of Cox division leaving the Emory area)

Stanley's division was almost simultaneously marching southward along what is now Briarcliff Road and passing just west of what is now the campus (right, Picket photo).

During the July 22 fighting in Decatur, a 17th Corps wagon train escorted by 43rd Ohio Infantry and part of the 9th Illinois Mounted Infantry was heading south toward Decatur along what is now Clairmont Road, says Crawford.

“Hearing the sound of the fighting and also being warned by couriers and 15th Corps wagon drivers who (Brig. Gen. John) Sprague had instructed to flee northward, the lead 17th Corps wagons turned west on North Decatur Road and passed along the south edge of the campus,” says Crawford.

“Wagons that were farther behind (17th Corps train being about four miles long) turned west on other roads.” 

As I prepared this blog post, I reviewed my 2011 article on the little-known Aug. 5-7, 1864, engagement at Utoy Creek. (Below, Picket photo of Federal trenches)

Coincidentally, I had mentioned both Kurtz and Cox in that post.

In 1932, Kurtz wrote about an Atlanta family that hid in a bombproof, or "dugout," during the fighting there. Up to 26 people huddled inside at the height of the fighting in western Atlanta.

Gen. Cox on Aug. 11, 1864, wrote this compelling passage.

“In this bomb-proof four families are now living, and I never felt more pity than when, day before yesterday, I looked down into the pit, and saw there, in the gloom made visible by a candle burning while it was broad day above, women sitting on the floor of loose boards, resting against each other, haggard and wan, trying to sleep away the days of terror, while innocent-looking children, four or five years old, clustered around the air-hole, looking up with pale faces and great staring eyes as they heard the singing of the bullets that were flying thick above their sheltering place.”

A flier checked a bag carrying five pieces of Civil War artillery ammo. She didn't know they had been stolen by a grandchild from Fort Morgan on Mobile Bay, officials say

The artillery rounds were wrapped in paper towels (TSA-Gulf Shores photos)

Alabama’s Fort Morgan State Historic Site will not press charges after a juvenile took artillery ammunition from the coastal Civil War fort and the artifacts were detected by the Transportation Security Administration in the checked bag of the child's unwitting grandmother.

The TSA recently posted an article about the July 18 incident at Gulf Shores International Airport. It said screener Justin Dupree spotted the five iron balls, at first thinking they appeared to be a medicine ball wrapped in paper towels. 

The article called the items cannonballs, though observers said most are likely canister or grapeshot  The largest was described as being about the size of a grapefruit.

“I had never seen anything quite this unique,” said Dupree, a TSA officer for four years. “I’ve seen inert grenades and training munitions but never an Indiana Jones-esque stolen artifact-type situation.” He was concerned they might have been live.

The TSA contacted local authorities, who determined the prohibited rounds were inert and did not contain explosive components.

TSA officer Justin Dupree in the checked baggage area of the airport (TSA)

Capt. Nathan Lusk of the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office told the Picket in an email that the items were taken by the juvenile from a storage area at the fort.

“Fort Morgan personnel were able to confirm the items as their property due to paint markings they apply to artifacts. The grandmother stated that she did not know they were stolen. Fort Morgan’s director chose to not press charges, so there was no further action from us.”

The pieces were returned to the state park. Heather Tassin, the site manager, said, “Due to this being an active investigation we are unable to provide any comments.”

The airport is about 20 miles east of Fort Morgan, which sits at the mouth of Mobile Bay.

Fort Morgan is nestled in a popular vacation area (Picket photo)

The historic site played a prominent part in the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay.

Mobile was one of the last major Confederate ports still open at the time. Fort Morgan, with a garrison of about 600, and other fortifications meant to keep Union Adm. David Farragut out. The bay was heavily mined with what were then called torpedoes.

On Aug. 5, 1864, the monitor USS Tecumseh struck a mine within a few hundred yards of the fort. More than 90 hands died when the monitor rolled over and sank. The other 17 Union vessels began to move back, but Farragut, on board the USS Hartford, demanded the fleet move through, uttering “Damn the Torpedoes!”

Farragut triumphed over the opposition of heavy batteries in Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines. His fleet secured the surrender of the ironclad CSS Tennessee and defeated the squadron of Confederate Adm. Franklin Buchanan.

The USS Tecumseh buoy off Fort Morgan; Dauphin Island is in background (Picket photo)

Farragut’s brazen assault was one half of a Union operation. Troops landed on Dauphin Island and laid siege to Fort Gaines, which had few ships to help in its defense. Confederate Col. Charles D. Anderson had half his infantry foe’s number and surrendered

After the fall of Fort Gaines on Aug. 8, Yankee troops moved on Fort Morgan across the bay, forcing its surrender on Aug. 23.

Mobile itself was heavily fortified and the Union command moved on after securing the bay. The city surrendered in April 1865, three days after Appomattox.