Nelson Tift of Georgia-- Part 2: A Varied Career Before the War

From Wikipedia.

NELSON TIFT

(July 23, 1810-November 21, 1891) 

Born in Groton, Connecticut and moved with his family to Key West in the 1820s, where he assisted his father in the mercantile business.  He moved to Augusta, Georgia in 1830 and went into business.  During his travels, he opened many side businesses and ventures.  he arrived  in what would later become Albany, Georgia,  and set up a small trading post.

One of his children, Frances, married  to Captain Thomas N.  Nelson of the Confederate Army, who was killed at Tupelo, Mississippi.  (I will write about him tomorrow in my Saw the Elephant blog.)

In 1840, he was elected  as colonel of the local militia unit.  In 1841, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives and was reelected to the one-year position in 1847, 1851 and 1852.  While a state legislator, he supported reopening of the international slave trade.  Although not an advocate of immediate secession, he accepted the final decision and  and lent his services to his new nation.

He founded and  published the Albany Patriot from 1845 to 1858.    In 1850, he owned  eight slaves, in  1860, he owned nine in Albany and another nineteen spread out over two locations  in Dougherty County.

--Old B-Runner

Fort Caswell: Third System of Forts, Captured Twice Early in the War

From NCpedia.  By Paul Branch.

The fort was named after North Carolina's first governor and Revolutionary War hero Richard Caswell (1729-1789), and was a permanent masonry  garrison fort built by  the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the eastern end of Oak Island in Brunswick County between 1826 and 1838.

It guarded the mouth of the Cape Fear River as part of a national chain of forts for coastal defense of the United States known as the Third System.  The fort was designed by  Brigadier General  Simon Bernard as an irregular  pentagon with a completely encircling outer wall, or covered way, and an interior main work that was loopholed for defense.

The fort was never fully armed, and, until 1861,  it was usually occupied by  army caretakers, usually a single ordnance sergeant.

Following South Carolina's secession from the Union, fears that the Federal government  would send troops to occupy North Carolina's forts, prompted secessionists in the state to seize Fort Caswell on January 9, 1861.  But, North Carolina had not yet seceded and the fort was returned to the United States.

However, after war had begun, North Carolina troops again took over Fort Caswell on April 16, 1861.

--Old B-Runner

Wilmington in the Secession Crisis-- Part 2: "Great Popular Excitement and Enthusiasm"

After the war, the widowed wife of Confederate Colonel William Parsley, Eliza Hall Nutt Parsley, recalled:  "In 1861, when amid great popular excitement and enthusiasm, South Carolina seceded from the Union, the people of Wilmington were deeply stirred by conflicting emotions.

"Meetings were held and speakers for and against secession swayed the multitudes which attended them.  A prominent secessionist was attorney Oliver P. Meares.

Her husband, William M. Parsley, had been among the men who seized Fort Caswell during the Star of the West crisis in January 1861.  Then in April, was elected captain of the Cape Fear Riflemen.

Cape Fear historian James Sprunt wrote that Meares "was an ardent secessionist and a fiery speaker, and the younger element were carried away by his eloquence."  When North Carolina seceded, he was among those who occupied Fort Caswell.

Both men later served as officers in the Confederate Army.

--Old B-R'er

Wilmington (NC) in the Secession Crisis, 1861 Tonight at the History Center in Carolina Beach, NC-- Part 1

From the Federal Point Historic Preservation Society.

The society will be holding its monthly meeting tonight at the Federal Point History Center at 1121-A North Lake Park Boulevard, adjacent to the Carolina Beach Town Hall.  (That is right off US Highway 421.)

The meeting starts at 7:30 pm and this month the guest speaker is Bernhard Thuersam and the topic will be "The Secession Crisis in Wilmington, 1860-1861."

It will focus on local people, viewpoints and events leading up to North Carolina's reluctant removal from the United States. A fundamental point to be examined is prominent North Carolina Whig and Unionist Jonathan Worth's assertion that his state was "forced out of the Union."

Early news of the Star of the West relief expedition in early January 1861 of Fort Sumter by President James Buchanan startled Wilmingtonians who feared Forts Caswell and Johnston would be seized by federal forces.  This would be a repeat of the British occupying Smithville (Southport today)  and thus sealing the Cape Fear River off from commerce.

Prominent Wilmington citizens of Wilmington acted immediately and seized the forts, only to have to relinquish then as the state had not yet seceded.  Of interest, Fort Johnston was surrendered to the Wilmington citizens by U.S. Ordnance Sgt. James Reilly who later in the war, as a Confederate major, surrendered Fort Fisher after the woundings of Col. Lamb and General Whiting.

I'd Sure Like to be There.  --Old B-Runner

Confederate Soldier and Sailors Are American Military

I was on the road as it were these past five days and not doing blog entries as I was at the largest Memorial Day commemoration, the one in Indianapolis involving a famous race.  This is why there were no posts the last five days.

I know there are many today who seek to besmear the good reputation of the Confederate soldier, but I am sure if you asked the rank and file what they were fighting for, the answer would be defending their homes and families and Southern Rights.  Very few of the rank and file owned slaves, probably no more than 85-90% as they were the poorer Southerners.  Officers were the ones most likely to have slaves as they were richer.

Those who say the war was fought only for the right to keep slaves by the South overlook Lincoln's promise to the South before the war that slavery would be allowed to continue where ever  it already existed.  Meaning that all they had to do to keep their slaves was to remain in the Union.  Surely, that would be easier than fighting a war with a much more populous and richer part of the country and risking invasion.

Yet, They Went Ahead and Seceded.  There Just Had To be Something More To It.  --Old B-Runner

Florida in the Civil War

From the Punta Gordo Historical Center Blog "Gem of the Sea and the Charlotte Harbor Blockade During the Civil War."

Florida became a part of the Confederacy early in the secession movement, being the third state of the original seven to withdraw from the Union.

Florida had a very small population at the time and nearly half of them were slaves.

It only sent 15,000 troops to the Confederate Army.

Its chief importance was in food supply and blockade running because of its long coast full of inlets which were hard to patrol.

--Old B-R'er

155 Years Ago, October 14, 1861: Chincoteague Island Secedes From the Confederacy

OCTOBER 14, 2016:  In the presence of Lt. A Murray of the USS Louisiana, citizens of Chincoteague Island, Virginia, took an oath of allegiance to the United States and presented a petition in which they stated their "abhorrence of the secession heresy."

--Old B-Runner

Confederate Major James Reilly-- Part 2

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