CSS Neuse Center schedules a March event to roll out exhibition

The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center in Kinston, N.C., will unveil its final phase of permanent exhibits. Entitled, “The Civil War in Eastern North Carolina,” these exhibits will showcase a variety of aspects of the Civil War including causes, military engagements and personalities and the involvement of women and African Americans during the conflict. An event is planned for the evening of March 11. -- Article

Descendants of African-American soldiers honored for efforts to have marble tablets bearing 300 names displayed again in Amherst, Mass.

(Jen Reynolds, Senior Services, town of Amherst)

The Amherst Historical Society this past weekend honored a family that worked for years to have marble tablets containing the names of more than 300 Union soldiers and sailors put back on public display in the Massachusetts town.

The Arthur F. Kinney Conch Shell Award was bestowed to Debora Bridges and Anika Lopes, the daughter and granddaughter of the late Dudley J. Bridges Sr. The three lobbied to have the tablets -- which were put in storage in the mid-1990s -- restored and put on display. 

Bridges died in 2004, but townspeople, officials and descendants of Christopher Thompson of the 5^th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry continued the effort to have the heavy, but fragile monuments refurbished and reinstalled in a suitable setting. The artifacts were finally put on display last summer at Bangs Community Center.

Debora Bridges is a tour guide for the plaques and Lopes serves on the Town Council.

Debora Bridges, Anika Lopes and William Harris during Saturday's presentation

The Conch Shell Award is “given to recognize valuable contributions to the preservation and appreciation of Amherst history.” Referred in colonial times as “ye auld kunk,” the device was used in the 1700s to call Amherst residents to town meeting and worship, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

The historical society said it wanted to recognize Dudley Bridges Sr., a World War II veteran, for spending the last years of his life advocating and fundraising for the effort, and Debora Bridges and Lopes -- who are descendants of Christopher Thompson -- for seeing the work to completion. (Dudley Bridges Sr.’s wife, Doris, was a direct descendant of Christopher Thompson)

The elder Bridges wanted the tablets displayed to honor both white and black volunteers.

E.M. Stanton Post 147 of the Grand Army of the Republic, a national Civil War veterans group, donated the tablets to the town in 1893. They were unusual for the time by mentioning 21 Black soldiers, seven of whom fought with the 54^th Massachusetts and 14 in the 5^th Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry (Colored). Five died during the war.

(Jen Reynolds, Senior Services, town of Amherts)

About 100 African-Americans lived in the Amherst area when the Civil War broke out. According to family history, Christopher T. Thompson volunteered with his three brothers. He was a 44-year-old farmer when he enlisted in January 1864. His son also signed up.

The 54^th Massachusetts, of course, is most known for its valiant attack on Battery Wagner near Charleston, S.C., in July 1863, a scene depicted in the movie “Glory.”

The 5^th Massachusetts Cavalry fought in Virginia, including around Richmond and Petersburg, and guarded prisoners in Maryland. It was sent to Clarksville, Texas, east of Dallas, at war’s end.

Among the names on the tablets are the Thompson siblings: Christopher, Henry and John served with the 5^th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry while James joined the 54^th. Christopher’s son, Charles, also was part of the 5^th Cavalry.

The tablets were displayed in Town Hall until the building was renovated in the mid-1990s. They were placed in storage in 1997 and had been away from the public’s eye since. Four list veterans and a fifth tablet lists those who died during the conflict.

Dudley Bridges Sr. (left) developed a plan to move the tablets from a storage area at a nearby gravel pit to an intersection above Amherst College, not far from Town Hall. The proposal was approved in 2001 and the tablets were restored by a Connecticut firm in 2010. The next steps in getting the tablets in the public stalled for a while.

Christine Brestrup, the town’s planning director, told the Picket that the Amherst Historical Commission was instrumental in having the plaques restored and eventually put on display.

The award was bestowed Saturday afternoon via Zoom at the society’s annual meeting. William Harris, also a descendant of Christopher Thompson and CEO of Space Center Houston, spoke with Debora Bridges and Lopes during the presentation.

Lopes said of the tablets: “They represent unmatched courage and sacrifice that led to my sitting here before you all today with my family as free human beings.”

Harris said the family turned to the National Archives for research on the Thompsons, and they gleaned a lot of information through pension requests on file. The veterans needed depositions about their character and service and there are profiles about them.

(Jen Reynolds, Senior Services, town of Amherst)

“That's actually how I found the file of one of our … ancestors, who is part of the Fort Wagner assault and it was his medical file from and many of you know that these they ended up sending many of the African American soldiers ahead, and it was hand to hand combat.

“And it showed where he had been bayoneted in the battle. He survived that battle. We actually (were) holding his actual medical record from the field hospital where they were documenting his wounds.”

The tablets can be seen at the Bangs Community Center in Amherst from 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m on Tuesdays-Thursdays.

Amherst Town Hall was built in the late 1800s (Wikipedia)

Portraits of 17 Black Civil War soldiers to be exhibited in West Virginia

An exhibit of portraits of Black soldiers who served in the Civil War is coming to West Virginia's capital, Charleston. Artist Shayne Davidson has been touring the country with the exhibit "Seventeen Men," named for the 17 soldiers portrayed in the exhibit, since 2012, West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports. The portraits are based on tiny photos that were in an album once belonging to Davidson’s friend’s great-grandfather. -- Article

2 million artifacts later, Jim Jobling, conservator of CSS Georgia and other Civil War vessels, retires from Texas A&M lab

Jim Jobling, in 2017 at CSS Georgia recovery site, with 3D propeller model (Picket photo)

Jim Jobling, who was on deck when amazing artifacts from the CSS Georgia were brought to the surface in Savannah, Ga., and later tended to them during conservation, has retired from the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University.

The South Africa native was a familiar figure during the 2015 and 2017 recovery of the scuttled Confederate floating battery from the Savannah River. Beneath a hard hat, he was usually dressed in a blue shirt and white pants, helping to bring items onto the barge, where he and others cleaned and sorted them for transport from Savannah, Ga., to College Station.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Savannah District was in charge of removing the wreckage of the ironclad as part of a harbor deepening project. Among the contractors was Texas A&M, renowned for its nautical archaeology program.

Jobling retired on Jan. 7 after 37 years with the university. He served as lab manager.

I have done numerous posts on the CSS Georgia, and visited the recovery operations twice. Jobling, the chief conservator, was always very accessible and helpful. He and the TAMU team sent more than 18,000 artifacts to the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command after they were conserved.

Of the CSS Georgia, Jobling said: “It was a good project, with a lot of good people putting in many hours of hard work -- over and above the call of duty.”

During Jobling's tenure, the CRL took on 203 individual projects, conserving over 2 million artifacts, officials said. "His background is pretty incredible; between his years as a soldier in South Africa to working as a technical diver in Antarctica, he's pretty much seen it all, and as such, he was always clear-eyed and steady-handed at the lab," lab director Chris Dostal told the Picket.

The archaeologist learned to scuba dive as a young man and explored shipwrecks in his native country before moving to the US. At Texas A&M he was involved in both land and nautical projects, among them the La Belle in Matagorda Bay, Texas, CSS Alabama (1864), Heroine (1838), USS Westfield (1863), and treatment of cannons from the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, and Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Fla.

The Conservation Research Lab recently posted a Facebook tribute to “the one and only” Jobling.

“Jim has been many things to everyone who works at or visits the lab. He's an endless font of information -- and stories -- with a true love of history. He's a jokester. He's a problem solver - usually solving problems by cobbling together some clever device. He's there to remind us of what's important when we're feeling down or frustrated, usually with a few ‘Jim-isms’ thrown in (‘What you need to do and that is...’). He's a friend."

Gordon Watts, an underwater archaeologist who has worked on numerous shipwrecks or debris sites, including the CSS Georgia, worked with Jobling in Savannah and said he thinks the archaeologist will keep in touch with the lab in some capacity.

“He and Dr. (Donny) Hamilton made the conservation program at TAMU the best in the US,” Watts told the Picket in an email. “No one better.”

Dostal said Jobling was a great networker and was one call away from reaching someone who could help solve a problem or answer a question.

"I have no idea how many of our former students he has helped over the years, but there are quite a few of us that are forever grateful for his mentorship and friendship. It's a hard-earned and well-deserved retirement, but he is always going to be a major part of the lab, and we already miss him."

Jobling apparently hasn't slowed down since retirement. He is assisting in the study of Revolutionary War-era cannon recently raised from the Savannah River.

Robert Smalls: House bill would name a Beaufort, S.C., post office branch for the Civil War hero, former slave

A bill naming a post office in Beaufort, S.C., for Civil War hero Robert Smalls, who escaped slavery by commandeering a Rebel steamship, has passed a US House committee.

“He leaves an unmistakable legacy of grit, bravery, and determination which is imbued in the spirit of the Lowcountry to this day,” Rep. Nancy Mace said in a statement Wednesday. She calls Smalls an "exceptional American."

At the start of the Civil War, the enslaved Smalls was a pilot on the CSS Planter. On the morning of May 13, 1862, Smalls led the takeover of the ship by its slave crew, sailed past Charleston Harbor's formidable defenses and surrendered the vessel to the Union blockade fleet. His wife and children were among those on board who gained freedom.

Smalls, 23 at the time, was celebrated across the North for his daring ride to freedom and he served as a ship’s pilot for the rest of the conflict.

The entire South Carolina congressional delegation supports the honor at a shopping plaza on, fittingly, Robert Smalls Parkway, Mace said. John Seibels, Mace’s spokesman, told the Island Packet newspaper that the bill will go the House floor for a vote, which he said will likely pass easily.

The naming would be the latest honor for Smalls.

After the war, he returned to his hometown Beaufort and bought his former master’s home. Following a stint in South Carolina’s Legislature, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served several terms.

The congressman fought against the disenfranchisement of black voters across the South, according to the American Battlefield Trust. He also fought against segregation within the military. Smalls died in 1915 at age 75.

“Each day I spend in Congress, I strive to live up to the values which Robert Smalls so clearly embodied," said Mace.