Thursday, December 1, 2022

CAM's 60th Anniversary & First USCT Park-- Part 2: Naming the Battle

Said Chris Fonvielle after his research and excavating of the grounds of the Cameron Art Museum (CAM) in Wilmington, N.C., "It convinced me that a firefight had taken place there, but I found no documentary evidence to support the archaeological record."

He began focusing his studies on the battle, piecing together information and eventually giving it a new name.

"Scarce Confederate correspondence from the battleground was postmarked Cross-Roads and Forks Road, as an intersection of the Federal Point Road.  A byroad  that ran towards the Cape Fear River stood about where you enter the Cameron Art Museum's parking lot today," he explained.  "I thought the Battle of Forks Road had a nicer ring to it."

Fonvielle wrote about his discoveries in 2007's "Last Stand at Wilmington:  The Battle of Forks Road."

His research has caused CAM staff for years to embrace the story.  They have hosted living history days with reenactors, but this next step, starting a park devotedb to the United States Colored Troops (USCT) takes the story even further.

--Old B-Runner


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