Emetine's principal liases of operations were in the coastal areas of the state.
I’addlc-nliccl steamers, like the one pictured above, were common in her time,
and she frequently got vital information from Union vessels.
She Kept the
Yankees Baffled
Lmcliiie Pi^’oll. <*our;ij»4»oii.s North
Carolina woman. Iiari in» fear of the
Northern invaders, and harassed
them in many ways during the "late
unpleasantness.** They couldn't
stop this outstanding Confederate
heroine with anything — not even
chloroform.
Spies arc considered the lowest form
of human life by those whose plans
and secrets they strive to unearth, and
are dealt with summarily and drasti¬
cally when discovered and captured
by war-time enemies.
But to members of a cause for which
these practitioners of a life-and-death
craft do their snooping and prying,
agents of espionage and sabotage are
looked upon as unselfish patriots, con¬
stantly flirting with quick and often
ghastly extinction.
Emclinc I'igott. a North Carolinian
who was a devoted and fanatical sup¬
porter of the Confederacy, played an
outstanding role as a member of the
Southern intelligence forces during
the War Between the States. She har¬
assed the Union armies in this state so
successfully that the Yankees consid¬
ered her a menace of great propor¬
tions.
The Northerners did everything
within their power to offset the ad¬
verse effects of her activities, and once,
after managing to capture her, tried
to end her depredations with a lethal
dose of chloroform, but again she out¬
witted them.
Born in Carteret
Miss Pigott was born in Harlowc
Township. Carteret County. December
15. 1836. and was only 25 years of
age when the war began. It was about
this time that her father moved from
his Harlowc plantation to a farm on
Calico Creek north of the present town
of Morehead City, at that time a very
small village.
Like all other Southern women she
loved the South and dedicated her
talents to the cause of the Southern
Confederacy. Just across the creek
(now Bay View Cemetery. Morehead
City) was a garrison of soldiers who
had been sent to the coast to help de¬
fend the Slate. She witnessed their pri¬
vations and sufferings and sought every
opportunity to nurse the sick and
wounded among them — some of them
in her father’s farm home.
A Tragic Love Affair
Twenty-five years of age at the time;
pretty, attractive and popular, she had
many admirers. One of these, Stokes
McRae, fell desperately in love with
her, and she with him. Often invited
to the officer's balls she always de¬
clined for the good reason that her
lover was a private in the army. With
her own hands she made for him a
Confederate flag of silk mounted on
a gold staff, which he carried with
him until the Battle of New Bern,
where it was lost. Young McRae was
later killed in the Battle of Gettysburg.
When the news of her lover's death
reached "Miss Emclinc," she is said
to have re-dedicated her life to the
cause of the Confederacy.
Her places of activity were many —
the farm on Calico Creek, Morehead
City. Beaufort. Harlowe, New Bern,
Kinston and Concord. She had fisher¬
men meet Northern vessels in Boguc
Sound and Beaufort Inlet. While pre¬
tending to sell fish, they were really
working to find out about the tonnage
of each vessel, what cargo they were
carrying, and to what port they would
next sail. All this information is said
to have been passed on to Miss Erne-
line who relayed it to the proper civil
and military authorities.
The Battle of New Bern
Miss Emeline was present at the
Battle of New Bern, and witnessed the
capture of that city by the Fcdcrals.
She refused to leave the Craven capital
until the last train, which was made
up mostly of flat cars, carrying the
wounded soldiers to Kinston. There
she spent many weeks nursing the sick
and wounded and when the town was
evacuated she went out with the Con¬
federates and finally landed in Con¬
cord.
It was during her stay in Concord
that she met a Mrs. Brent — the widow
of a deceased chaplain in the Federal
army who was trying to get back to
her people in the North. The two
women soon became great friends and
together worked their way through the
( Continued on page 17)
THE STATE. MAY 5. 1951
