An old print of Wilmington's Market Street.
History in Anecdotes
For 200 years, there lias always
been something fascinating hap¬
pening down in New Hanover.
By PAUL PLEASANTS
If you take time to read the story
of New Hanover’s fight to keep the
Confederacy’s last sea lane open, you
surely will begin to wonder why this
significant and dramatic phase of the
Civil War is not more celebrated.
At the mouth of the Cape Fear
were two entrances to the sea, so
devious that only skilled pilots could
negotiate them. And though the Union
had as many as 55 warships guard¬
ing the spot, daring sailors continued
to U4* these inlets to run the block¬
ade until Fort Fisher, their protector,
fell.
This came in January, 1865. when
the heaviest bombardment in naval
history was turned loose on the forti¬
fications at the end of New Hanover’s
ocean-river peninsula. At the same
time, the 1 .900 defenders under Colo¬
nel William Lambc faced a seaborne
invasion of 10,000 men. A bloody
hand-to-hand battle ended in Union
victory, and the Confederacy was
doomed to starvation. It was the first
sea-to-land battle in history.
One of the many vivid anecdotes
of the blockade-running episode con¬
cerns John William Anderson, a
20
Smithvillc (Southport) mariner, who
contracted yellow fever in Nassau and
reached the coast of North Carolina
aboard a blockade-runner, obviously
dying. He was the only pilot aboard,
and. as the vessel neared New Inlet,
she was sighted by a Federal block-
ader which gave chase. The dying
man. in his cabin, requested that he
be brought to the wheel, where he
calmly gave directions for crossing the
bar, dying immediately after the ship,
the Mary Celeste, came under the
protection of the guns of Fort Fisher.
First Attempt
The first settlement of the Lower
Cape Fear apparently was planned
by Indian traders from New England.
These traders, in 1660, bought land
from the Indians and explored the
mouth of the Cape Fear, probably
with the idea of grazing cattle there.
Meantime, a group from Barbadoes
had become interested and inspected
the area. When the New Englanders
learned of this visit, they decided to
postpone their own permanent settle¬
ment. and so turned their cattle loose
and left a paper in a box advising the
Barbadoes group that this was a bad
place for a home.
This tricky little dodge made no im¬
pression on the Barbadoes men. They
reported that they had found “writ¬
ing left in a post." the contents where¬
of tended to “disparagement of the
land about the said river.”
They called this "scandalous writ¬
ing" and affirmed that they had seen
in the area "as good land and as well-
timbered as any wc have seen in any
other part of the world, sufficient to
accommodate thousands of our na¬
tion, and lying commodiously by the
said river’s side.”
The Barbadoes group landed at
the Cape Fear in 1664 with some 600
persons in two groups, including a
group settling near the Northeast River,
and John Vassal was the chief man.
However, the Lord Proprietors picked
John Yeamans as Governor. The col¬
ony was a failure by 1667. and the in¬
habitants went to New England.
First Rebellion
In October of 1765, 500 people
gathered at Wilmington to demon¬
strate against the stamp act. On the
31st, a similar demonstration, which
must have been pretty rowdy, oc¬
curred. Then on November 16, three or
four hundred persons descended upon
William Huston, distributor of stamps,
and forced him to resign.
In January, two merchant vessels
arrived and were seized because their
papers had not been stamped as the
act required. The patriots assembled
in Wilmington on the 18th of Feb¬
ruary and resolved to resist. Led by
John Ashe, Alexander Lillington, and
Col. Thomas Lloyd, a large armed
force moved across the river to
Brunswick, scat of Governor Tryon.
A group boarded the vessel of the
port collector, and forced him to re¬
lease the two vessels with unstamped
papers. Five hundred men surrounded
Tryon’s place, forced the royal comp¬
troller, Mr. Pennington, to resign,
and swear never to issue a stamp pa¬
per in North Carolina. Also forced to
swear were the stamp collector and
all the clerks of the county courts and
other public offices. Two months
later, Parliament repealed the law.
On July 21, 1774, patriots of the
New Hanover area met in Wilming¬
ton under the leadership of William
Hooper, and a committee was ap¬
pointed to prepare a circular letter to
the several counties of the province rc-
THE STATE, MARCH 22. 1952
