"Posted to the Most Desolate Point...On the Atlantic Coast"-- Part 1

From the Oct. 11, 2013, Civil War Day by Day, UNC Library.

Follow up letter from Benjamin Lewis Blackford to his father 11 October 1863: "Cape Fear or Bald Head 30 miles south of this is the most desolate point I suppose on the Atlantic Coast."

Benjamin Lewis Blackford began his Civil War service as a private in Samuel Garland's regiment and later became a lieutenant of engineers stationed at Wilmington.

On October 11th, he was going with part of his "Corps to Cape Fear this morning to make a reconnaissance. I intend to start this work and return in a day or two to my old camp at Wrightsville. Cape Fear or 'Bald Head' (referring to Bald Head Island at the mouth of the Cape Fear River) 30 miles south of this is the most desolate point I suppose on the Atlantic Coast, but of great importance in the defence of this town."

--Old B-Runner