Full Description
Winner: Richard Barksdale Harwell Award
On a cold day in early January 1864, Robert E. Lee wrote to Confederate president Jefferson Davis "The time is at hand when, if an attempt can be made to capture the enemy's forces at New Berne, it should be done." Over the next few months, Lee's dispatch would precipitate a momentous series of events as the Confederates, threatened by a supply crisis and an emerging peace movement, sought to seize Federal bases in eastern North Carolina. This book tells the story of these operations—the late war Confederate resurgence in the Old North State.
Using rail lines to rapidly consolidate their forces, the Confederates would attack the main Federal position at New Bern in February, raid the northeastern counties in March, hit the Union garrisons at Plymouth and Washington in late April, and conclude with another attempt at New Bern in early May. The expeditions would involve joint-service operations, as the Confederates looked to support their attacks with powerful, homegrown ironclad gunboats. These offensives in early 1864 would witness the failures and successes of southern commanders including George Pickett, James Cooke, and a young, aggressive North Carolinian named Robert Hoke. Likewise they would challenge the leadership of Union army and naval officers such as Benjamin Butler, John Peck, and Charles Flusser. Newsome does not neglect the broader context, revealing how these military events related to a contested gubernatorial election; the social transformations in the state brought on by the war; the execution of Union prisoners at Kinston; and the activities of North Carolina Unionists.
Lee's January proposal triggered one of the last successful Confederate offensives. The Fight for the Old North State captures the full scope, as well as the dramatic details of this struggle for North Carolina.
Contents
List of Illustrations and Maps
Preface
Part One: The War in North Carolina
1. Taking the Coast
2. Liberation, Discontent, and the Friends of Peace
Part Two: Military Plans for North Carolina
3. Lee's Design for North Carolina
4. Grant's Suffolk Plan
Part Three: The New Bern Expedition
5. On to New Bern
6. Bachelor Creek
7. Fort Anderson and Brice's Creek
8. The Underwriter
9. Beech Grove and Newport Barracks
10. Decisions at New Bern
Part Four: Carolina Winter
11. The Kingston Hangings
12. The Politics of Peace
13. Ransom's Raid
14. Preparing for the Spring
Part Five: Hoke's Attack on Plymouth
15. Plymouth is the Target
16. The Attack on Plymouth
17. Fort Gray and Fort Wessells
18. The Albermarle
19. Hoke Presses the Advantage
20. The Final Attack at Plymouth
21. Confederate Victory at Plymouth
Part Six: Back to New Bern
22. Washington
23. New Bern, May 1864
Conclusion: The Confederate Resurgence Considered
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: New Bern Order of Battle
Appendix B: Plymouth Order of Battle
Appendix C: Plymouth Casualty Estimates
Notes
Bibliography
Index
