I came across an article in the March 28, 2021, Wilmington Port City Daily (NC) "Conservationists aim to turn Eagles Island into 'Central Park' for the region" by Mark Darrough."
I got to wondering exactly where it was and what role it might have played in the Civil War? Turns out that I have been there on several occasions thanks to this little old World War II battleship located there.
From the Wilmington (NC) Star-News "My Reporter: What is Eagles Island?" by Ben Steelman.
It is right across from downtown Wilmington and is a group of closely spaced swampy islands roughly 2 miles wide and 7 miles long between the Cape Fear River and the Brunswick River. It has had several names, but its present one comes from brothers Joseph and Richard Eagles who settled in the area in 1725 with land grants. (I would have guessed it came from the eagle birds who might have been there.)
Parts of Eagles Island were used for rice planting and there were even two rice plantations there as late as 1900.
By the 1800s, Eagles Island seems to have functioned as an industrial district for Wilmington with saw mills, turpentine distilleries and similar operations. Various ferries operated between Wilmington and the island from the 1760s until the completion of the completion of the Twin Bridges in 1929.
--Old B-Runner
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