Jack Travis had been a re-enactor for twenty years, many of which were with Reilly's Battery, considered during the war to be one of the best artillery units in the Army of Northern Virginia.
James Reilly was born in Ireland and was a devout Catholic. The battery would hold a prayer service before each battle and after the war he created a Catholic Church in Mako.
On coming to America, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served during the Seminole and Mexican Wars with the artillery. He was stationed at Fort Johnson in Smithville, NC, near the entrance of the Cape Fear River when South Carolina seceded in December 1860. Wilmington militia units immediately assembled and in early January, marched on Fort Johnson, forcing Reilly, as the lone ordnance sergeant manning the place, to surrender. North Carolina's governor immediately ordered the militia to return Fort Johnson and Fort Caswell to Reilly as the state had not yet seceded.
Once North Carolina did secede, Reilly turned in his resignation and joined the Confederate Army.
More to Come. --Old B-Runner
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