1st U.S.C.T. Occupies the Town
(sidebar)During the Civil War, neither the North nor the South was totally united over the key issues. Just as some Northerners supported slavery and secession, some Southerners were abolitionist and Unionists. These issues could split families, divide communities, and generate violence. As the "official" war progressed, quasi-military organization were formed to wage another war against soldiers and civilians alike. Ambushes and retaliation comprised the "war within the war" between 1861 and 1865.
In August 1863, between here and the river, 1st U.S. Colored Troops encamped as part of a garrison for Elizabeth City. This was the abandoned shipyard of Burgess and Martin (formerly Jim Black's shipyard). The troops hoped to encourage the enlistment of area African Americans to suppress guerilla activity.
Guerilla attacks here had been so frequent that in April 1863 a garrison of local white and black Union men abandoned the town. The town's commissioners, unable to quell the violence, likewise abandoned the attempt. Later that month, Union forces returned and the 1st U.S. Colored Troops, raised in Washington, D.C., assisted in reducing lawlessness. In the countryside, however, guerilla activity remained intense, and Union foraging parties were constantly harassed. The black troops remained here only about ten days before they were transferred to South Carolina, where a siege of Charleston was underway. Lawlessness soon returned to Elizabeth City.
"Last Monday night there were 500 Negro troops sent to E. City to garrison the place. All the officers are whites. On one of the Negro banners was a full length Negro very black & a white girl standing in front of him with both of her hands resting on his shoulders with a ladies hat on and on the band was written in large golden letters ?LIBERTY.' This is the kind of spirit we have got to encounter all winter as they are going to have their winter quarters there. Is it not all terrible?" — Mary Johnson to Sarah Cain, Aug. 22, 1863
Major funding for this project was provided by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, through the Transportation Enhancement Program of the Federal Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century
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