A House Divided

This house was the birthplace of two men who fought on opposing sides during the Civil War: Edward Stanly, the Unionist military governor of North Carolina, and Confederate Gen. Lewis Addison Armistead, who was mortally wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg. Stanly, born here in 1810, accepted the post of military governor from President Abraham Lincoln in May 1862, in the hope that he might lead his hometown and state back into the Union. He was unsuccessful and resigned in March 1863. Armistead, Stanley nephew, was born here in 1817. He fell at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, during Gen. James Longstreet attack on the Federal position atop Cemetery Ridge ("Pickett Charge") and died two days later.


After Union forces defeated Confederate troops in the Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862, this house was selected as the headquarters of Union commander Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. Later in the war, the house served as headquarters for Stanly General Hospital (later called Foster General Hospital) and as a convent for the Sisters of Mercy, Roman Catholic nuns who worked as nurses in the hospital.


John Wright Stanly built his house between 1779 and 1783. During the Civil War, it stood on it original site at the southwest corner of New and Middle Streets (current site of a 1930s Federal building and parking lot). The house was moved in 1932 and moved again to this site in 1966.

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Show me all markers in:  New Bern, NC  |  Craven County  |  28562  |  North Carolina  |  United States of America

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