Top picture shows how the weeds have been cleared away, once again ex¬
posing the ancient breastworks to view. Lower picture shows how the
place looked before work was started. Mayor W. C. Chadwick, of New
Bern, is standing in the foreground.
Fort Totten
Being Restored
By GERTRUDE S. CARR AWAY
TEX years ago elderly New Bern-
inns, still bitter about the capture
of New Bern by “Yankee” troop»
in 1*62 during the War Between the
States, refused to accept n free gift of
historic old Fort Totten, on the out-
IO
Important position near
New Bern during the
War Retween the States
is now being restored
and will be the site of a
coin in unity center and
place of recreation.
skirts of the city, just between high¬
ways 17 and 70, the main fortification
of ten which were built in that vicin¬
ity by the Northern soldiers.
But now, since so much of the old
sectional bitterness has passed, the
city of Xew Bern and the county of
Craven have bought the seven-acre
fort tract for $2,000, under a plan to
clear the property, restore the fortifi¬
cations and maintain the site as a
free, public park.
And members of the Junior Wom¬
an's club, composed of alert and active
young women, have taken the place as
their pot project, having obtained the
sanction of the city fathers and coun¬
ty commissioners to try to get WI'A
sponsorship for erection of a $10,000
community center and recreation hall
there.
The young women have started a
campaign for the purpose with a
bang. Despite the business recession,
they have raised $600 in six weeks.
Benefit dances, bridge parties and all
kinds of money-making devices were
adopted to help get the desired funds,
and competition was developed suc¬
cessfully among six different groups
of the club, all seeking to reach their
financial goal first. Mrs. Otis M.
Banks, Jr., is their enthusiastic presi¬
dent.
When completed, the fort site
should be one of the most accessible
and interesting of its kind in North
( 'arolina. The 40-feet breastworks are
still in a remarkable state of preserva¬
tion, although they have not been used
for 73 years.
Northern troops built a trench and
an earthen embankment all the way
across New Bern, from Ncuse River
to Trent River, entirely cutting the
town off from the interior of the State.
At each river was built a fort; and
in the center was erected Fort Totten.
Took Nine Months to Build
Five hundred Negroes worked on
the fort for nine months, it was stated
here recently by William H. Cook, of
Portland, Oregon, who visited the sec¬
tion to look over the scenes where he
had spent eight years during and after
the war as a civilian clerk in the sup¬
ply department of the Federal army.
Facli laborer, he said, received wages
( Continued on page Iwenty-four)
