Quaint Little Stay

 On our journey to stay at military base campgrounds, we stopped at a quaint military recreation area at Ft. Fisher.

The campground is the Ft. Fisher Air Force Recreation Area... open to military only. Part of the rec. area is the training facility for the National Guard. The sites here are very open, and quiet. They have fairly new cottages to stay in as well. If you want to go for a bike ride, the office will rent you a bike for one, or built for two, or a three wheeler, your choice. If you think you would look cooler in a golf cart, they have those too. 

The field was across from our site, and it was a short walk to the river's edge. The water is brackish here because it is near where the ocean and river merge. Like Camp Lejeune, it was within walking distance to the beach. Though the name of the facility is Ft. Fisher, it is actually located in Kure Beach, North Carolina. The reason for the name Ft. Fisher, is the fort that stood nearby during the Civil War, and we will visit that site later.

After our day of rest we took a drive, making a right turn out of the park, and drove to the end of the road. At the end of the road was a landing for the ferry that crosses the river, and a historical hiking path. The hiking path provides a decent shot of the ferry landing. 

Let's get back on the tour trail. As we continued walking the trail, we came across a marker memorializing the construction of a defense dam that was built between 1871-1883. After the Civil War, the Corp of Engineers conducted a survey of the Cape Fear river. The survey did support the closing of the inlet, preventing drifting sand from filling the inlet. In 1870 Congress appropriated

funds under the River Improvement Act. We walked the portion I circled. The first part of the closing of the inlet was from the northeast point (in the circle), to Zeke's Island (1st island jutting out). The Corp of Engineers first started laying heavy wooden cribs filled with stone on the bottom of the inlet, setting them on the remains of an old stone dike.

The dam runs from the end of SR-421 to Battery Buchanan. This is what the Swash Defense Dam looks like today. You can read more about this dam at: https://federal-point-history.org/history-shorts/the-closing-of-new-inlet-the-rocks-1870-1881. 

After we finished that part of the tour trail, we headed back towards the fort. Opposite of the fort is a memorial to the Confederate soldiers that fought in the war. The monument was

unveiled by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1932, on Battle Acre. After we walked these two sites we called it a day, headed home and scoped out our next day's trips.

Our starting point the next day was the North Carolina Aquarium. It's not a huge museum, but fun. Their main attraction when we visited, were otters... that didn't come out to visit. Here is something that is not seen too often.

This is Luna, an albino alligator. Luna is one of about 50 known albino alligators. Luna could never live in the wild because of the lack of pigmentation necessary for her camouflage. The lack of pigmentation, like humans, cannot stop the UV rays of the sun.

Moving from the front exhibit area we entered the section that displayed creatures of the coastal and marsh lands. I look for the black and white of nature, and sometimes I find it. The island coastal exhibit had a couple of turtles that came close to what I Look for.

I forgot to tell you, this aquarium is two-story. From the second floor visitors can watch fish swim around in their huge salt water tank. While visitors are still on the upper floor, they can view a map that tracked all the category 3 and above hurricanes that hit North Carolina, as well as photos of the aftermath from each hurricane. Heading down the stairs, and around the corner... the lower view of the huge tank.

This guy (moray eel, center of the photo) was hiding from the divers that were cleaning he tank. We walked over to one of the other tanks, and at first we wondered what was suppose to be happening... then it happened...

a Giant Sea Bass, weighing about 400 pounds came out of the shadows. Unfortunately I could not get a picture of him as he snuck up on us. The tank is dimly lit because these fish are deep sea dwellers.

North Carolina is rich in fossils, and a good example of this was a full set of Megalodon teeth. 

For those that do not know, Megalodons were verrrrrrry large sharks. It is estimated that these fish could have reached a length of 65 feet, keeping mind that Great White sharks are about 15 feet on the average.

For more information on the museum, you can go to:https://www.ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher.

Our next stop after the aquarium was Fort Fisher. Ft. Fisher was the last stronghold making it possible to get Confederate supplies to Robert E. Lee in Virginia.

DISCLAIMER: most of the trees in various photos were not there during the days when the fort was active, that was to provide the necessary range of view to prevent attacks.

The tour starts in the museum, then moves to the fort grounds, however, we chose to start on the grounds. This fort was different from other Confederate forts that were made of brick and mortar. Ft. Fisher was an earthwork fort. The guns seen in the photo are not in

their original position. The mound behind the guns is one of the batteries. The first fort was no more than a few batteries supporting about two dozen guns, and later it was determined that a bigger fort was required to protect the point. 

The new fort was built by Native American Indians (Lowry and Lumbee tribes) and slaves, as well as soldiers. The Native American Indians did not go by choice. This occurred when the Confederacy ordered the conscription of "colored" people, which included the Lumbee and Lowries.

The corral lookin' area was the fort's vegetable garden, and the nine-foot-high palisade fenced area is the batteries where 32 pounder guns were mounted.

These trees are the ones that didn't existed at the time the fort was active... kinda hard to get a good shot at the enemy with these big trees are in the way. The fort was protecting approximately one mile of sea defense, and approximately a 1/3 mile of land defense. Imagine a 1,000 workers, slave, free, and soldiers building this fort. 

Like I mentioned earlier, this is an earth and sand structure. The sea facing side of the fort had 12 foot high batteries with 22 guns. The land side had 15 batteries, 32 feet high, supporting 25 guns.

We will now make our way behind the fortifications to see life for these Confederate soldiers. To the left of the gate is a reconstructed battery fortification. These battery mounds had two 32 pound guns, and built into the mound was the powder magazine. I'm not sure if they had stairs up the mounds like they have today, but I would imagine they had some form of steps to get the powder up to the guns. A lot of the wood you see is an attempt to keep people off the

mounds, and prevent erosion. To the right of these steps is the powder magazine, but we couldn't get behind the locked door.  As I said earlier, each mound/battery had two guns. Like many things that are duplicated, it was done to allow Confederate forces one of the guns if the other was damaged during an attack. The gun that is on display was re-conditioned, and dedicated last year.

These guns were the batteries that protected the fort from land attack. The trees in the background, are the same trees from the picture above.

How would you  like to have been one of the soldiers rotating this gun, or humping the powder kegs up the 30+ steps up to these guns. Here is a better look at the battlefield that is now a forest of

trees, and to the left is the Cape Fear river. 

Two major battles were fought here. Though the fort was constructed in 1862 as a means of protecting Wilmington, successfully, the major battles didn't occur until December of 1864. The Federal forces attempted to cause damage to the fort on Christmas eve of 1864 using the "powder vessel" USS Louisiana which was brought close to shore, and exploding it... no damage was done to the fort. Christmas morning the Federals attempted to secure the beachhead, Confederate soldiers retreated, and the Federal troops got within 75 yards of the fort. There was a disagreement as to how secure the fort was, so the Federal troops were ordered back to their transports. The return to their transports was delayed two days due to weather, meaning that approximately 600 Federal troops and several hundred Confederate prisoners were stranded on the beach for those two days.

The next major attack was January 1865. This battle proved to be a bloody battle. From the sea side Union ironclads bombarded the fort for nearly two days, knocking out the land faced guns. The first Union troops attacked, in the form of the United States Colored Troops (USCTs).  Confederate troops were surprised when they saw Union flags forging their way into the parade grounds. With the land face guns ruined, the Confederacy turned their sea faced guns, and guns from Battery Buchanan to the parade grounds. The Union force did win this battle. Due to poor records on both sides, the losses are only approximations: Union forces totaled 347 killed, 1302 wounded, and 57 missing. Confederacy estimations came around 494 killed, 364 wounded, and 1,500 prisoners. Because of this battle, 72 Union soldiers, sailors, and Marines were awarded the Medal of Honor.

After the Civil War the fort fell silent and subjected to erosion by the Atlantic Ocean. The fort was brought back into service during WWII. At the time of WWII, history preservation took back seat to the war effort, with the building of 48 new structures. Because of its distance from Camp Davis, Ft. Fisher needed to be a self sustaining facility. 

I mention Camp Davis because that was the home of the U.S. Army's seven anti-aircraft artillery training centers. You may ask yourself, where does Ft. Fisher fit in? Ft. Fisher was one of five remote training sites for anti-aircraft gunnery and automatic weapons practice. 40mm automatic cannons and 50-caliber machine gun batteries were mounted between the highway and the beachfront.

Do you remember the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Over 25,000 women applied, 1,830 were accepted, and 1,074 completed the same training as the male pilots. In their roles, they flew virtually every type of aircraft that was flown during WWII. These female pilots were credited with flying sixty million operational miles, delivering planes from the manufacturers to ports of embarkation, and training facilities. In 1943 they arrived at Ft. Fisher, and were called into service as pilots towing targets for anti-aircraft artillery training at Ft. Fisher.  The job was a dangerous one, and two of the female pilots lost their lives during their service as tow-target pilots.

After the war Ft. Fisher structures were sold off as surplus, many of the buildings became bungalows in Kure Beach and Carolina Beach area, and are still standing today. Unfortunately time marches on, and some things cannot come along, Ft. Fisher is an example of that.

FORT FISHER circa 1865

FORT FISHER circa 2000

Only about 10% of the fort is still visible. For more information, there are several sites you can visit:  https://www.friendsoffortfisher.org/history-of-fort-fisher.

https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/fort-fisher/history.

http://missilesandmoremuseum.org/exhibits/camp-davis.

https://www.army.mil/women/history/pilots.html.

BREAK TIME FOLKS... FIND A BOTTLE OF WINE/WATER/ICED COFFEE, AND WE'LL BE BACK.

We spoke with locals about spots to visit, one that kept coming up was the Bellamy House Museum. The Bellamy home and slave quarters

were constructed between 1859 and 1861, by slaves, freedman artisans, and white mechanics. Dr. Bellamy and his family owned a plantation on the the opposite of the Cape Fear river too. This home was a small five-story, 22 room, 10,000 sq. ft. home in Wilmington. The Bellamy's no sooner moved in, then forced to vacate Wilmington due to a yellow fever epidemic, then again when the war came along. The slave quarters were

built first so that the slaves helping in the construction had a place to live. The slave quarters was a multi-purpose building, providing sleeping quarters, laundry, and privies. This slave quarters is a rare surviving example of a Southeast urban slave quarters, restored in 2014. The first floor was sleeping quarters, laundry, and privies. The second floor was additional sleeping quarters. Let's look inside.

Sleeping Quarters

Laundry

Privy (1 of 2)

One of the Upper Rooms

Like slaves working the plantations, there were skilled slaves living in the urban areas as well. The skilled labor worked in a variety of professions, some in warehouses, some factories, some on the docks, some in shops, and some on the boats.

The badge to the right is an example of what a skilled slave was required to wear around his/her neck. In the case of this badge, the slave worked on a boat or train, as a porter. As you can see, it is numbered, which may have corresponded to a contract between the slave owner, and the person utilizing his/her service. It also looks like the badges were set up by cities or regions... this one is from Charleston.

Before the tour starts, visitors buy their tickets in the rebuilt carriage house. The original carriage house was condemned and destroyed in 1946, after the last family member that lived on site died, at age 93. The original carriage house would have housed the carriages, horses, and family cow. The second floor would have been where the hay was stored, and the sleeping quarters of the enslaved coachman/butler, and the caretaker. In 2001 the building was reconstructed and turned into the visitor, gift shop, and museum offices.

Before we visit the house, we will learn a bit more about the house. Remember I mentioned earlier that the Bellamy's left the house during the Civil War, from 1862 to 1865, leaving one of their slaves, Sarah, to manage the house. When Wilmington fell to the Union in 1865, the Union army moved into the house, as their Wilmington headquarters. Dr. Bellamy had to go to Washington D.C. and obtain a presidential pardon from Andrew Johnson. The Bellamy's were able to move back into their home in the fall of 1865.

Moving forward to 1972. The Bellamy descendants formed a non-profit organization, Bellamy Mansion, Inc. Unfortunately in 1972 an arsonist set a fire, damaging the house. Because of the damage, restoration was put off until 1989... long time huh. The descendants ended up donating the house to the Preservation North Carolina, and interior restoration began in 1992. In 1994 the house was opened to the public.

The house was a self-guided tour as well. The starting point is at the kitchen. The raised basement (not fully buried in the ground) consists of the kitchen, butlers pantry, dining room, and ironing/children's room. This style of basement was known as either a daylight or English basement.

Kitchen

Ironing / Children's Room

Butler's Pantry

Formal Dining Room

The only room in the basement that guests visited was the formal dining room, which was one the larger rooms in the house, and the only one in the basement with a coal-burning fireplace. You may also notice all the floors throughout the house, they are Southern yellow pine. Their enslaved cook Sarah would have been cooking over the coal-burning stove, and their slave Rosella would be ironing in the ironing room. The ironing room was also assumed to be where the younger Bellamy children ate dinner while the older children and parents ate in the dining room.

Let's get upstairs to the first floor where guests would have been entertained most of the time. On the first floor we found the family parlor, double parlors, and the library.

Formal Double Parlors

Library

Family Parlor

In most of today's home, there is no such thing as a library... it is probably a pool or yoga room. Now days the family parlor and the library are used as art exhibit rooms, celebrating a variety of artists. The artists are rotated periodically.

The fire that was started in 1972 occurred in the family parlor.

I know it is hard to see but, this is a window into the fire damage to the house. That is not a ghost figure in the photo, only me between a window and the object of the photo. The other special item in this room is the gasolier. Oh, you don't know what a gasolier is... well let me tell you. The house had gas lighting, and all a gasolier is... 

the chandelier lighting the room. This is the original Cornelius and Baker Co. gasolier, an almost identical to the one in Jefferson Davis' White House of the Confederacy. The library sustained the most damage during the fire. The chandelier and mantel melted in the intense heat. In the restoration they were able to save a bit of history... in the form of a signature of one of the slaves that helped build this beautiful house.

This is the signature of William B. Gould, a slave that Dr. Bellamy hired out. As a slave, he was literate, escaping to his freedom by joining the Union Navy in 1862.

Like any mansion, the formal parlors, are the most ornate rooms in the house. You might notice that the rooms are carpeted wall-to-wall, the elaborate gasolier (original), and real marble mantels, are all symbols of wealth in the 1860s. Other rooms in the house had faux marble mantels. 

The fancy plasterwork was done by the afore mentioned William B. Gould. During the occupation by the Union, General Hawley hosted Union officers such as William T. Sherman, and Ulysses S. Grant.

There is one other room not mentioned too much, but did exist in this house. This bathroom apparently was a later addition.

As we move to the second floor we venture into four of the eight bedrooms in the house. Originally, the second floor was the only floor that had a bathroom. The bathroom on the second floor reportedly sported a "shower bath" and a commode chair, similar to the one in the photo.  A  house slave would be the lucky person emptying the bathroom and bedroom chamber pots, in the morning, carrying them all the way down to the privies in the slave house. Another sign of wealth... running hot and cold water in the bathroom. The bedrooms on the second floor were very light and airy, and three of them had closets, which was unusual for the time.

We climbed to the third floor, which is where the children slept.

This floor was where the children slept and played. This floor also had another room, the tank room. The tank room contained the water for the bathroom below. This room may have also been the sleeping quarters for the slave nanny when she wasn't sleeping in the slave quarters. The tank is concealed in the wood structure.

You might have noticed the window location... they provided light, as well as ventilation. One thing missing from my photos is the hallway walls. The hallway walls were built with windows in them to aid in cross ventilation. There was one other place of interest on the children's floor... the stage.

Ellen Bellamy used this stage as a "doll house". It was also used for neighborhood charades. On the left of this photo is a little compartment hiding something important to this floor. That compartment is the gas control valve for the lighting on this floor.

The final floor, and fifth floor, is called a Belvedere (beautiful view). Beside the view, the Belvedere was used to cool the house, this was done by opening the windows.

I'm sure in the early days of this house they would have had beautiful views of the water, and countryside around them.

Some things I didn't talk about, were stairs, and porches. Getting around the house inside is a staircase for family, friends, and guests, and the only exception for slaves was from the second floor to the third floor, otherwise the slaves used an outside staircase at the back of the house. The porch on the first floor wraps  around the house. The second and third floors are at the back of the house.

If you would like to read more about the mansion museum, go to: https://www.bellamymansion.org.

We continued our tour of downtown Wilmington, visiting the Burgwin-Wright House. 

Visit: https://www.burgwinwrighthouse.com.

This section will be short, the house was under renovation, we could only walk the outside, and out buildings.

We started in the raised basement at the gift shop, from there we were taken on a guided tour of the grounds. This location did not start out as a regular house... it was a jailhouse. The foundation of this house was built atop the old Wilmington jailhouse, which was made from ballast stone. For those unfamiliar with ballast stone, it was used in ships when they were not carrying cargo. After they arrived in port, the rock was offloaded, and thrown away. 

Anyway, in 1770 John Burgwin built his elegant "town home" mansion. John Burgwin owned a plantation some 10 miles away, but didn't want guests to have to travel the distance to visit. This home was built to entertain guests, showing his wealth. The house only sits a few blocks from the sea, vice a 10 mile ride for the guests.

The tour starts in the garden. As you can see in the photo, the bottom section is the old jailhouse. The basement contained the cells, and the dungeon. The dungeon was not the happiest place to find yourself... mostly because when it rained, the dungeon would partially fill with water. From the garden we strolled up the stairs to the outdoor kitchen. But before we get to the kitchen, we passed a couple covered outdoor cells.

These cells were outside for the purpose of shaming those incarcerated in them. The folks that spent their time in these cells were debtors. I always thought it was senseless to put people in jail for not paying their debts, then keeping them their until they payed their debts. The folks would be provisioned by their families... vicious circle ya think.

This here is the outside kitchen, meaning outside of the house. Originally it was a one-story building, but later on when there was a new owner, the room above was added for a doctor's office. This property is also part of Preservation North Carolina, and is used for educational purposes, entertaining fourth grade students. 

Once in the space you can see that there was much effort made to keep the structure as close to time period as possible. You have now toured all that is possible to see until renovations are completed, sometime in April or May.

Let's talk about one of the myths that has to do with Wilmington, and that myth pertained to the tunnels under Wilmington. The story goes that the  tunnels were part of the underground railroad, when in fact, Wilmington was too far south for moving slaves to freedom. The fact is... the tunnels were built to control the creeks that would flood regularly. When the creeks would flood, construction went down, slowing town growth. Another issue with flooding creeks was the raw sewage being dumped in them... in other words... people were taking their business to the street, creating a health hazard. By 1926 the tunnels were closed off due to constant cave-ins.

One last stop on this tour. 

In its day, this was known as the "cage". Many of the colonies used the cage for public humiliation through peer-pressure. It could be used to hold a single person, or a group. In the case of Wilmington, this cage was used to segregate the free, and enslaved blacks. It was outside, with no protection from the elements, which I imagine would have caused health issues for those being punished.

I REALLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO GO ON THEIR WEBSITE AND TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE INSIDE OF THE HOUSE.

Neither of the Preservation North Carolina properties offer pins...but we will survive.