"Fighting Joe" Wheeler slept here in Newnan, Ga., after likely his finest day in uniform -- at Brown's Mill. The cavalry clash anniversary will be marked Saturday

Wheeler, fought at Brown's Mill, lower right) and stayed at Buena Vista (Picket photos and Library of Congress) 

Twenty-four hours of hard riding while chasing a large Union cavalry force paid off for Confederate Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler and his outnumbered troops on July 30, 1864, when they routed the Yanks at Brown’s Mill, a few miles outside Newnan, Ga.

After the battle, “Fighting Joe” – wearing a blacked plume hat, gray uniform and red sash, according to observers – tiredly rode back to Newnan and Buena Vista. He walked up the stairs at the home of Confederate officer Hugh Buchanan, a future congressman who was in Virginia with Phillips' Legion and recovering from a combat wound to his lung.

Wheeler's men were still in pursuit of the remnants of the Federal command, but the cavalry leader, just 27 years old, needed time to regroup.

Wheeler, according to legend, asked to use the home as his headquarters. Buchanan’s wife, who had hidden their children in the cellar during the day, happily obliged upon realizing there weren't Union troops outside. Mary Buchanan offered Wheeler and staff food and use of the dwelling.

“Shown to the study, Wheeler sat down behind a big plantation desk, spread his maps before him, and fell asleep,” historian David Evans wrote in his seminal “Sherman’s Horsemen: Union Cavalry Operations in the Atlanta Campaign.”

One of about a half dozen interpretive markers at Brown's Mill (Picket photo)

There was no real rest for the weary. Wheeler was back in the saddle the next day, and pressed his officers about the successes and failures of the pursuit as Union survivors tried to get back to safety near Atlanta.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, said the Battle of Brown’s Mill was probably Wheeler’s best day in Confederate uniform, although the soldier is also recognized for his service at Shiloh and Perryville by protecting the Rebel army's rear guard during its retreat.

If Nathan Bedford Forrest was the “The Wizard of the Saddle,” perhaps Wheeler should be dubbed the “Prince of Pursuit.”

Some 160 years after the clash, the Brown’s Mill Battlefield Association will host a public commemorative gathering at 7 p.m. Saturday at the site. The Coweta County park is just a few miles from picturesque Newnan, which was home to a half dozen Confederate hospitals during the Civil War.

“As for General Wheeler, I think his relentless pursuit of McCook's Raid was nothing short of remarkable,” Evans has written. “Outnumbered, outgunned, and hopelessly outdistanced, he rode down, routed, and scattered what he called ‘the most stupendous cavalry operation of the war.’”

Union Maj. Gen. William Sherman had tasked Brig. Gen .Edward McCook (left) and Maj. Gen. George Stoneman with cutting vital railroads south of Atlanta so that he would not have to engage in a prolonged siege of Atlanta. McCook, after damaging some track at Lovejoy Station, hoped to rendezvous with Stoneman. He had nearly 3,000 men under his command.

But Stoneman had chosen to ride toward Macon, with the hope of reaching the large Confederate prison at Andersonville to the south. 

With no rendezvous, McCook hurried toward the Chattahoochee River and Federal lines to the north. Early the morning of July 30, after skirmishes at Line Creek and Shake Rag, troopers of the 8^th Indiana rode into Newnan. They were surprised to find dismounted Confederate cavalry at the railroad depot. McCook decided to avoid battle and continue his push for the river.

Wheeler chased them from Newnan.

“O, how joyfully we hailed them,” Confederate nurse Kate Cumming wrote in her diary. “They came galloping in by two different roads; the enemy in the meantime hearing of their approach, were retreating.”

Children attempted to follow the Union troopers, but were told to go home.

The park opened about a decade ago after a community campaign (Civil War Picket photo)

The Rebels ambushed the exhausted Federal forces at Brown's Mill. “This is where McCook lost control and was broken up,” said Crawford.

McCook held a brief council of war, suggesting the force surrender. Other officers decided to fight and McCook basically gave up command. It was every man for himself then, with separate columns attempting to break out from the trap.

Men fled toward the river and more than 1,200 men were taken prisoner over the new few days. Some men, including an officer who was naked, except for his hat, managed to swim or take a few ferries to safety. McCook got away.

Wheeler's force of about 1,400 riders also freed about 500 Confederate prisoners and seized supplies. It was a bloody debacle, in which there was saber-to-saber fighting, a trail of bodies and the heroic actions of a Union trooper who received the Medal of Honor. About 100 Federal men were killed or wounded, while Confederate casualties were about half that.

A day later, Stoneman was defeated and captured at the Battle of Sunshine Creek.

Painting at Newnan depot shows moment Union troops arrived (Picket photo)

Evans based his brief account of Wheeler’s stay on a 1952 book, “White Columns in Georgia,” Medora Field Perkerson’s account of antebellum residences.

After the McCook defeat, Sherman wrote to generals in Washington, DC:

“August 1, 1864 … Colonel Brownlow reports from Marietta that he has just reached there, having escaped from a disaster that overtook General McCook’s cavalry expedition at Newnan.” He expressed surprise such a large Federal force would be defeated and so many captured.

Wheeler, Perkerson wrote, brought the disaster referred to by Sherman.

The Newnan-County Historical Society's book "Coweta Chronicles" includes Wheeler's official report on Brown's Mill. He wrote of catching up with many of the dismounted Federals about three and half miles south of Newnan. "I determined to attack immediately, notwithstanding the great disparity of numbers."

Buena Vista was built in about 1830. (Civil War Picket photo)

Hugh Buchanan’s son, Edward, was 12 when the Confederates came to Buena Vista after the fight. The boy, who lived to nearly 84, never forgot the excitement. Called Eddie at the time, he tiptoed downstairs in the evening and found Wheeler asleep at the desk, according to a family letter kept by the historical society.

“All over Georgia they remembered Wheeler … a man small in stature but a fine leader and fighter, fine enough for the United States Army to make him a major general in the Spanish American War,” wrote Perkerson.

The house, built in 1830, gained its Greek Revival style when Buchanan added a second floor, according to the Newnan-Coweta History Center. Buchanan and a son bottled a medicine called "Horn of Salvation" at the residence. The attic was said to hold government records before the courthouse was built. An older building was used as slave quarters, according to a 1986 tour of homes.

The home was full of period furnishings and hand-crafted walls and mantels, according to the tour guide.

The seven-fireplace home, fronted by Doric columns, is owned now by Michael and Leah Sumner, who purchased it in 1990. The home did take a hit in a 2021 tornado that caused widespread damage in the area.

Old post card of Buena Vista (Newnan-Coweta Historical Society)

Loran Smith, a columnist and announcer associated with the Georgia Bulldogs football team, paid a visit a year ago and Leah Sumner told him the residence is on the highest ground in Newnan, giving Wheeler an excellent view of the area. Hence, the name Buena Vista, or beautiful view.

“We cherish the opportunity to live in and raise our family in such a special home,” she told the Picket in a recent email.

The area around the Brown's Mill battlefield used to be largely rural but, like most of the Atlanta region, that has changed.

“The farms over which the battle was fought have been subdivided and farmhouses that were present then no longer exist,” said Sandra Parker of the friends group.

Carolyn Turner, head of the battlefield association, said the desk where Wheeler fell asleep is believed to have been lost.

Brown’s Mill, she said, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places (above). “We are very proud of that.”

Bicyclists, hikers, runners and history enthusiasts use the park. Signs provide details on the Atlanta Campaign, the battle and personal accounts by and about soldiers, Turner said.

Evans told the Picket the Confederate cavalry victory at Brown’s Mill, one of few during the Atlanta Campaign, was the result of sheer force of will.

“Outnumbered more than 3 to 1, over the course of fifty-five miles and twenty-four hours, Wheeler and his men killed, wounded, or captured more than 1,300 Yankee cavalrymen, almost half of McCook's entire force. “

The Union defeat at Brown’s Mill forced Sherman to change tactics and besiege Atlanta and use infantry at Jonesboro, Evans wrote in “Sherman’s Horsemen.”

While Southern newspapers lauded his triumph, Wheeler was not without his critics. Cumming, the nurse in one of the Confederate military hospitals in Newnan, noted she heard "many complaints against General Wheeler."

Evans said among the critics was Capt. George Knox Miller of the 8^th Confederate Cavalry, who wrote to his wife, "Our forces were handled miserably . . . . If we had a commanding officer with any brains not one of them [McCook's raiders] would have escaped."

"Oh! for a few more Forrests and Whartons to command our cavalry," added Chaplain Robert F. Bunting of the 8^th Texas Cavalry.

“Just goes to show, you can't please all the people all the time, no matter what you do,” quipped Evans.

The anniversary “Toast and Taps” will occur 7 p.m. Saturday (July 27) at the Brown’s Mill battlefield, 155 Millard Farmer Road, Newnan, Ga. 30263. The battlefield association, said Carolyn Turner, will read the names of all who died on the property, salute them and play Taps and sing “Dixie.”

Williams Cleaners, Enfields and three-ringers: Each of these bullets found by Battle of Nashville Trust on acquired battlefield property has a story

Recovered Federal and Confederate spent and dropped bullets (Courtesy of BONT)

When I came across a bit of news this week from the Battle of Nashville Trust about efforts to prepare a portion of Shy’s Hill for public access, I marveled at a photo of fired and dropped bullets found during recent clearing of brush.

I confess to knowing little about Civil War ammunition, so my curiosity led me to ask the nonprofit to describe each bullet and artifact by row.

Lo and behold, I had the answer within minutes (see below).

Bobby Whitson, president of BONT, is a history enthusiast and expert in metal detecting. He provided the details and said Confederate pickets, probably from Georgia or Florida, were deployed on the newly acquired 1.2-acre site. The 5^th Minnesota and 9^th Minnesota on Dec. 16, 1864, rushed up the hill, signaling the beginning of the end of the Battle of Nashville, a major Union victory.

Howard Pyle's depiction of the Minnesota brigade charging Shy's Hill

BONT found evidence of fighting that occurred as the Confederate line, above and to the east, fired on the Union soldiers.

“Even though Civil War relic hunters have scanned Shy’s Hill for decades in their search for artifacts, the clearing of the property led to BONT recovering a number of bullets left undetected over the years, along with other relics including a Union uniform button and unidentified shrapnel,” the group said.

The organization emphasized relic hunting/metal detecting is prohibited on this and other battlefield ground it owns or maintains. That includes Shy’s Hill and Redoubt 1, a few miles north.

“Digging without permission on someone else's property violates many rules,” Whitson wrote in an email to the Picket.

His identification of bullets and other artifacts (photo courtesy Battle of Nashville Trust):

Top row: Silver-washed pewter button, .58-caliber three-ringer, the next eight are .570ish Confederate three-ringers.

Middle row: U.S. general service eagle button, fired three-ringer, six dropped Enfields (one is stepped on), dropped Williams Cleaner, fired three-ringer.

Bottom row: Fired three-ringer, fired Williams Cleaner with separated disk, fired Confederate three-ringer (note the difference in width of the base ring), fired Enfield, two fired Williams Cleaners, two fired three-ringers.

Also recovered were a sabot fragment from an artillery round and an unidentified brass piece (below, Battle of Nashville Trust).

Whitson said the Williams Cleaners are probably Federal “but the dropped three-ringers do not have even thickness in the bases of them, which almost always points to being a Confederate bullet; plus they mic' at .57 with a couple being spot on .577.”

“While not all Enfields can just be assumed to be Confederate, the location of these Enfields on the hillside and the arc across the land on which they were found, combined with the other Confederate drops, give them an extremely high probability of being Confederate drops. The fired bullets are a combination of Federal and Confederate,” he wrote.

The trust, with the assistance of American Battlefield Trust, bought the small “core battlefield” vacant lot in April and is hoping to open it to visitors this fall in time for the 160^th anniversary of the battle. There are plans for parking at some point.

“BONT is working with Civil War Trails to install interpretive signage, both at the 4601 Benton Smith Road site and the plateau further up the hill where BONT has placed field artillery pieces in the area most likely used for Beauregard’s battery on Dec. 16, 1864.”

The site was the location of the Federal assault against Rebel troops holding the summit of Shy’s Hill on the second day of the battle. The boys in blue broke the line and routed Hood’s troops, and permanently disabling the Confederacy’s military capability in the Western Theater of the Civil War.

Looking up from the vacant lot toward the summit of Shy's Hill (BONT photo)

“We are devoting the highest level of expertise, time, energy, and resources to preserve fully this hallowed ground on which so many Minnesotans and others were wounded and killed assaulting the Confederate position on the hill,” Whitson said in the news release.

The tract is a short walk from BONT’s Shy’s Hill historic site and trailhead.

Whitson sometimes gives presentations on Tennessee metal detecting, including one in April at Lipscomb University in Nashville.

“What interests each detectorist is different; some do it to get outside and get exercise, some do it for the thrill of the hunt, some do it to save the history, some do it to learn from what is in the ground, and some do it for all of the above reasons. We are simply stewards of the past and of the history; the more we find, the more we validate the history that we are trying to interpret for the community,” he said.

A monument to the 114th Illinois was dedicated at Shy's Hill last fall (BONT)

Items found on trust property are being kept separate from other collections and may eventually become part of a hoped-for museum.

“Unlike treasure hunters, we are historians with detectors that document everything in order to validate what we think we know from the written history,” Whitson said. “What's in the ground does not lie, and each artifact tells a unique story.”

South Carolina community gets into the game by helping to save Civil War home in Union, see that unbeaten streak of all-black high school is recognized

The Dawkins House exterior, interior (Preservation SC) and a news clipping on Sims High streak

After 40-plus years working in Charlotte, N.C., and Southern California, Bill Comer returned to his native South Carolina in June 2020, ready to lend passion and his services to causes that mattered to him and his hometown.

He helped lobby for the all-black Sims High School of Union to receive its due: Last year, the South Carolina High School League recognized the football squad’s 96-game unbeaten streak from 1946-1954 as the longest in state history. 

Comer, 69, a retired health care and finance executive, decided to get off the sidelines for a second endeavor in Union, a community between Spartanburg and Columbia.

Preservation South Carolina, working with state and local partners, is trying to save and restore the Dawkins House, which briefly served as the Confederate state’s capitol during the waning weeks of the Civil War. 

A view of the home's beauty and restoration challenges (Preservation South Carolina)

The deteriorated property was up for a 2023 property tax sale, and Comer thought of buying the site and fixing it up. “I just wanted to save it.” Instead, Preservation South Carolina bought the home and Comer, a board member and treasurer with the group, is project manager for the restoration.

His credo of “I’m always up for a challenge” and getting involved proved beneficial when observers lamented the appearance of the Dawkins House, which has been vacant for many years. 

“I heard so many people say they, ‘They should have done this. They should have done that.’ I don’t see any ’they’ around here,” said Comer, summarizing the attitude of many in this small community to get things done -- whether cementing the record of a football team or saving a building from further decay. (Sims High School closed many years ago. More about that campaign later in this post)

The Dawkins House is destined to become the alumni center for the University of South Carolina Union, a small campus in the heart of the city.

Officials hope the venue will provide an economic boost for Union and Union County, which is home to 27,000 people. About 21% of residents are in poverty, according to the Census Bureau. The median household income lags well below the state average.

The project comes at an opportune time for the campus (right), with enrollment reaching a record 1,378 students this spring. That upward trend will equate to more students, thus more alumni.

Annie Smith, USC Union marketing and development director, said an alumni association is being established to enhance recruiting efforts, develop a community between current, former and future students, and to provide outside funding and resources.

The Dawkins House will aid that effort as a space for campus, corporate and community events, she said.

“Bringing USCU alumni back to functions at the Dawkins House Alumni Center will not only benefit USCU but will serve as an economic engine for the city and county of Union bringing alumni dollars back to Union for visits and potential employment with local companies,” according to Preservation South Carolina.

'There is a lot of energy ... and optimism'

Comer travels about 70 miles once a week from Lexington, S.C., where he lives, to his hometown Union.

“Whenever you go to your hometown, you like to visit places that meant something,” Comer recently told the Picket. “Several (textile) mills have since disappeared. Most importantly, the high school I went to burned.” The gym is the local YMCA and one classroom remains. “You start to miss those things. Part of your heritage is gone.”

The home had additions built on in the 19th century (Preservation South Carolina)

So he wants something positive to happen with the Dawkins House.

Preservation South Carolina has about $300,000 in the bank and that will be eaten up just stabilizing the structure. Comer expects the overall project cost to reach up to $1.5 million, with the goal of opening in 2027.

People in the community say the Dawkins House is an important landmark. “It anchors one end of Main Street and the courthouse anchors the other end,” said Comer.

Union County has a rich black history and has seen reconciliation after decades of racial violence during and following the Civil War. The board member believes the community is all in for restoring the home. 

Local government officials and economic bright spots are encouraging. “There is a lot of energy and a lot of optimism," said Comer.

The city of Union and Union County thus far have provided about $10,000 in funding for an engineering and stabilization study.

“Union County stands ready to discuss and participate as deemed by the majority of council,” county Supervisor Phillip Russell said. “It is an important piece of history in Union County and we are happy to see all of the support to rehabilitate this house.”

Burning documents in the fireplaces

The Dawkins House is best known for several weeks in the spring of 1865. It was nicknamed “The Shrubs” and was occupied by Judge Thomas Dawkins and his English-born wife Mary Poulton Dawkins (right, Union County Historical Society).

Gov. Andrew Magrath, before fleeing Columbia as Federal troops closed in, got in touch with college chum Dawkins about using the home and others nearby to conduct business amid the chaos.

From about Feb. 15, 1865, until sometime in March or April, Magrath ran the state from the Dawkins House as Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman sacked Columbia and moved on other cities, bent on destruction and submission of Rebel troops. Magrath apparently worked from an informal library near the drawing room. Chaos ruled across South Carolina.

Nearly 160 years later, the two-story clapboard structure is in pretty rough shape and in need of a rescue.

Andrew Kettler, an assistant professor of history at the Union campus, has amassed a lot of research about the town’s history and Judge Dawkins, a prominent political figure who came from a wealthy family. While a unionist before South Carolina seceded, the judge came to support the Confederacy.

One of several remaining fireplaces in the home (Preservation South Carolina)

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.)

Confederates burned documents for myriad reasons, Kettler said. 

“Generally, burning would be to avoid military secrets getting into the enemies hands,” the professor said. “But, at the late stages of the war, such secrets may have become secondary as Confederates may have also wanted to hide evidence of the original treason of the Confederacy in the first place, and any other actions that could have led to prosecutions and trials after the war.”

Quick! Hide the silver, and the documents

A few years before her death in 1906, Mary P. Dawkins wrote her recollections of England and life in Union. She recalled Magrath fleeing Union (he was later captured and held in captivity for several months).

“On parting Gov. Magrath put in my keeping an old-fashioned ladies hat box and a thick …. package as large as a tea-waiter, saying, ‘This is silver, and these papers (packed in package) would hang many a man.’”

The box and package were put away in the store room for safekeeping and placed by her maid Lizzie near a chimney. (Comer said a chimney will have to be taken apart and reassembled; it is uncertain whether this is the same one.)

In 1866, the Dawkinses traveled to Charleston, where the freed and newly married Magrath was working as a lawyer.

“We reached Charleston and stopped at Mills House. After dark Mr. and Mrs. Magrath came to the Mills house. Mr. Magrath worth a large circular cloak under which he hid the package and my husband took the box from the carriage to the door. Thus the Magrath silver got home.”

Mary Dawkins' writings are featured in the book "South Carolina's English Lady," compiled and edited by Sarah Porter Carroll.

Before the Civil War, Magrath had served as a federal judge, and made a ruling that most certainly made him unpopular with the North, as an article about him states.

“Although opposed to the trade personally, Magrath nevertheless handed slave-trade proponents a signal victory in 1860. In a decision associated with the cases surrounding the Echo and the Wanderer, ships seized for illegally transporting African slaves, Magrath stated that the 1820 federal statute on piracy did not apply to the slave trade.”

Thomas Dawkins' property is listed on two pages of the 1850 schedule (click to enlarge)

The 1850 Federal slave schedule (above) indicates Thomas Dawkins of Union County owned about 30 enslaved persons. It is unclear whether they were on more than one property.

Mary wrote that a few months after hostilities ended, "our servants (were) free and sought for by (Union) soldiers.” One book says she presented a paternalistic view of slavery.

Enslaved people had become a majority in Union County during the 1840s, and the area became a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity during Reconstruction.

Group documents racial violence, backs healing

Curtiss Hunter (right), tourism director for the county and a member of the Union County Community Remembrance Project (UCCRP), which documents racial violence and lynching and promotes healing through preservation, said the restoration of the Dawkins House will boost tourism and community engagement.

Hunter said its full history should be part of its interpretation. “I believe … the story of the Dawkins House should be told as authentic as there is history to prove the content. The integrity will stand on its own merit.”

Comer said the site will provide lessons from the past.

“Those who were slaves should be identified and recognized, just as much as the Dawkins family and their prominent guests. Going forward, people of all races and religions should pass through the Dawkins House's doors and occupy its spaces, to do good without discrimination and to learn.”

Hunter’s group in 2021 put up three marker detailing racial injustices in the county. Among them was Sax(e) Joiner, who was hanged by white men just before Union fell during the Civil War. He allegedly wrote an insulting letter to a white woman and was taken from the jail by a mob.

Timika M. Wilson, co-lead of the UCCRP, said Union County residents have generally embraced its work.

Leaders of the UCCRP take part in 2021 Juneteenth celebration (Photo: UCCRP)

“We acknowledged early on that this project was about ‘History, Not Division’ and the coalition achieved that perspective with open and honest discussion of the generational trauma that has been a part of the fabric of a segregated county in SC,” Wilson told the Picket in an email. “We have come very far, but there is more work to be done.”

The UCCRP supports the Dr. Lawrence W. Long Resource Center in Union and has partnered with it to educate students about the historical markers, the center and a hospital that served the black community for more than 40 years, said Wilson.

Backers notch win for black football team

Discrimination was the law of the land when Comer grew up in Union. School desegregation finally occurred in 1970 across South Carolina, the same year Sims High School closed.

Comer played football at Union High School, including on an integrated 1971 squad.

Sims High was a middle school for many years after it closed (Tom Bosse/HMdb.org)

The former businessman got involved last year in the campaign to recognize the Sims record (92-0-4). He and local archivist and historian Mary J. Gossett pored through records and news clippings.

A 1999 article in the Contra Costa Times in Northern California talked about such unbeaten streaks and included quotes from Paul Glenn, who played on the Sims team. (The football squad did not have state recognition at the time of the 1999 interview).

''It was a grand ride and it helped make men out of us,'' Glenn told the newspaper. ''We knew the whole county was pulling for us and we owed it to the whole county to try and win our games. It will die with all of us,'' he said of the streak.

Comer told the Union County News that the South Carolina high school association lost or did not receive records after desegregation. The Sims streak could not be validated without additional research.

Romanda Noble-Watson, director of communications with the South Carolina High School League, told the Picket she did not have any information about the records.

As Comer pointed out at the November 2023 meeting of the South Carolina High School League, the Sims streak has been recognized nationally.

That came with a 2004 publication of its record book, said Chris Boone, a spokesperson for the National Federation of State High School Associations. The NFHS recognizes Sims' mark as the third-longest in the country, behind De La Salle High School (151-0-0) in Concord, Calif., and Independence High School (113-0-0) in Charlotte, N.C.

Willie Jeffries, who played for Sims High School and is the legendary former coach of South Carolina State, also spoke in favor of the school streak being recognized, which the South Carolina HIgh School League's executive committee voted to accept.

You can see a video of that meeting on the Sims record here.

Bill Comer, Mary Gossett and former SC State coach Willie Jeffries (Bill Comer)

Gossett told the Union County News last year she spent more than a month on research.

“It was a challenge. I was trying to reconstruct the past from 1946 to 1954. Not a lot was written about Sims High School, which is why it became quite a challenge to gather the facts but I was able to find records and even understand enough to make use of it to support the winning streak. I just had to find it.”

The Picket has reached out to Gossett for comment. Comer said her “documentation was indisputable.”

The high school, meanwhile, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places and there are hopes the building, which has been empty for 15 years, may be reused, perhaps for a performing arts center. The building was a middle school from 1970-2009.

Breathing new life into an old residence

While Comer feels passionately about the Sims record, the Dawkins House is perhaps a bigger project, with uncertain future funding and questions about the home’s integrity. Preservation South Carolina hopes to get a report soon on the latter.

Given the age of the house and wear, any college or community events will need to occur on the main floor. The upstairs won’t be able to handle large crowds, so it likely will be office space, according to Comer.

Although many rooms look bad, the house still has quality features including, beaded and dovetail wood, joints and beams (photo left, Preservation South Carolina).

“We’re bucking the odds,” said Comer of the project. “The people in Preservation South Carolina are very determined.”

The retiree said his desire to give back stems from growing up in the community.

People are tired of familiar places disappearing.

“The more these landmarks fall away, there is less talk about them,” Comer said. And forget about throwing up your hands in despair when confronted with a daunting task.

The time to act, Comer says, is now.

Here's the recipe for the new bombproofs and traverses going up at North Carolina's Fort Fisher: Do research. Add precast concrete. Cover with a whole lot of dirt

Bombproof construction begins, pieces for tunnel entrance next to original traverses (Fort Fisher)

A construction project this summer at Fort Fisher State Historic Site in North Carolina is something you don’t see every day – or will likely see anywhere else.

Sections of precast concrete were placed Friday near a giant mound of dirt as crews begin to build a replica bombproof -- an earth- and timber-covered structure that protected a garrison from shelling.

The Civil War site near Kure Beach and contractors are engaged in an extraordinary effort to recreate three traverses, bombproofs, a magazine and a sally port that were vital parts of the Confederate fort, which fell in furious hand-to-hand combat in January 1865.

“This is a one-of-a-kind project,” said Ben Warren project manager with Bordeaux Construction of Morrisville, N.C. “We build much larger projects, but many things on this project are unique.”

Rendering of traverses, sally port and visitor center behind (Fort Fisher)

A portion of the vital fort’s earthworks was leveled during World War II to make way for an airstrip when the area was used to train anti-aircraft and coastal artillery units. The work is in conjunction with a new visitor center, also being built by Bordeaux Construction.

The earthworks project requires nearly three dozen pieces of precast concrete. About half have arrived, said Warren. The pieces were made by the Alcrete plant in Jacksonville, N.C.

Chad Jefferds, assistant site manager at Fort Fisher, told the Picket there will be a new tunnel allowing visitors to pass through the fort at the center sally port, as would have been the case originally, along with bombproofs under the traverses.

The traverses are being built in the same line as those that have withstood the effects of time and change. Rebuilding the fort will involve the reconstruction of the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th traverses.

Click to enlarge to see rebuilt features, including tunnel and bombproof (Fort Fisher)

“You will not see the precast concrete tunnels, as they will be clad in wood, such that the tunnels will appear as though they were built from timber, same as they were built originally,” Warren said in an email.

Jefferds said the concrete will be placed, waterproofed and buried over the next several weeks “so that work can begin on the gun emplacements atop the recreated mounds. The current timeline for the work has everything being completed by early September, but this is all highly dependent on weather.”

The site, with the exception of a tour stop, closed in April. The new 20,000 square-foot visitor center, a significant upgrade, is just north of the east-west line mounds of earth known as traverses that were part of the defenses. Much of the eastern part of the fort has been claimed by the ocean. 

Visitors will use tunnel to explore  features in new traverses (Fort Fisher)

Crews will work to ensure any exposed portions of the concrete will be made to look like they appeared during the battle.

“Visitors will be able to walk through the tunnel and bombproofs, as well as up into the gun emplacements themselves,” said Jefferds.

“We are in the process of sourcing reproduction munitions, boxes, barrels, etc. to make the bombproofs appear as they may have during the Civil War.”

With the three traverses will come two gun emplacements, which will have a heavy cannon in each, along with two 12-pounder Napoleons in the center sally port.

The project will allow people to interact with the fort in a whole new way, as the tunnels and bombproofs have been caved in and inaccessible since the late 19th century, said Jefferds.

The new visitor center rises to the north of construction area (Fort Fisher)

The design of the recreated earthworks is based on historic maps, photographs and descriptions. Architectural and engineering firm Clark Nexsen made the designs, which will be similar to the original mounds, said Warren.

Dennis Stallings, design director for Clark Nexsen, said it had an archaeological consultant on its team, Commonwealth Heritage Group, which “provided documentary research along with archeological research and provided a comprehensive report on the original fort and its construction."

There were archeological investigations in 1970 and another in 1981 that provided context.

“We aimed to create earthworks that appeared historically accurate while seamlessly incorporating modern construction techniques,” Stallings wrote in an email. “This endeavor presented a unique challenge, as we found little precedent to guide us.”

“The reward is a project that is immensely satisfying as architects. It is a one-of-a-kind endeavor that millions of people will interact with over the coming decades,” he said.

New visitor center is in the middle, at left is current one, new traverses far left (Bordeaux Construction)

Fort Fisher was built on the peninsula between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, south of Wilmington.

On Jan. 15, 1865, after a naval bombardment, the Federal army attacked from the western, river side while Marines pushed in from the northeast bastion. The fall of the “Gibraltar of the South” cut off blockade runners and the last supply line through Wilmington to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. U.S. Colored Troops were among those taking part in the attack.

Essentially everything between Shepherd’s Battery on the western end of the fort’s land face and the center sally port were the scenes of intense fighting during the US Army’s assault. The fighting went from along the traverses from west to east and was often hand-to-hand.

Jefferds said planning is underway for a grand opening ceremony, which should take place toward the end of September “if everything stays on schedule.”

Montage of Timothy O'Sullivan wartime photos of traverses; click to enlarge

The new museum will be three times larger than the current one, with more room for groups, educational space, rental opportunities, staff offices, etc. The exhibit area is also larger and will be based on the experiences of the place by the people who lived, fought, and died here.

While Fort Fisher is still the focus, the approach in developing our exhibits was much more driven by people, including underrepresented groups, said Jefferds.

“The (visitor center) exhibit casework and artifact installation will begin next week and will wrap up on the last week of August, at which time the only remaining work will be on the earthworks and fortifications,” said Warren.

The old visitor center has been torn down.

"Doing so allows us to create a better viewshed of the fort from the new visitor center as well as create green space for programming," said Jefferds.