North Carolina's Topsail Battery

Earlier today, I wrote about Lt. William Cushing destroying the blockade-runner Adelaide by New Topsail Inlet on this date 150 years ago.

I couldn't find any more information about the Adelaide, but I did find some stuff on a marker that I have seen many times on US-17, south of Hamstead, NC.

It reads:

TOPSAIL BATERY

Confederate breastworks were constructed in this vicinity in 1862 to protect Wilmington from an attack from the north and for coastal defense.

The NC Dept. of Cultural Resources had an essay with more information on it.

The earthworks were constructed in the fall of 1862 to protect Wilmington from an attack coming down the Old New Bern Road (present-day US-17) from New Bern.  Its secondary purpose was to protect New Topsail Inlet and Topsail Sound for blockade-runners.

The attack from New Bern never materialized, though Union General J.G. Foster did plan one.  Reinforcement troops and artillery were sent to the site in 1864 by Confederate General Whiting.

The Topsail earthworks did see action several times.  On Oct. 22, 1862 (today's date 150 years ago) Lt. William B. Cushing destroyed the blockade-runner Adelaide nearby.  A week later, Cushing was back and set fire to a large salt works and was fired on from artillery in the battery.

During August 1863, Cushing again tried to enter the inlet but was driven off.  That same month, Cushing destroyed the blockade-runner Alexander Cooper and captured several of its men.  In Oct. 1864, the same Cushing became even more famous for sinking the ironclad CSS Albemarle.

The remains of the Confederate earthworks are threatened by development.  Originally they stretched for over a half mile and at points stood 10 feet high from the bottom of the dig pits to the top.  A large section was destroyed in the 1950s by the widening of US-17 (which is five lanes in the area).

That Cushing Was Something Else.  --Old B-Runner