By George Olsen
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/pre/local-pre-966970.mp3
The Civil War Series: The Battles of Kinston
New Bern, NC –
INTRO - Our Civil War series continues this week with a look at how the Civil War affected Kinston where two battles took place one in 1862 during the first full calendar year of fighting and the second in 1865 about two months before hostilities ceased. George Olsen spoke with an individual with a direct tie to that final Kinston battle and has this.
What might prompt a man to develop an interest in the Civil War? Try growing up amongst its ghosts.
"I guess it started with a cousin of mine over in Wilson who we'd go visit occasionally and near their house was a farm with a lot of Indian artifacts. We would hunt Indian artifacts. When they come to Kinston we'd hunt Indian artifacts and all we'd find were bullets. Well, I guess we'll start collecting this stuff."
That "stuff" that Donnie Taylor found as a boy were remnants of the 2nd battle of Kinston better known as the Battle of Wyse Fork. His family owned that land as he grew up, in the midst of a Civil War battlefield. He no longer resides there, though he now owns that land. He's still spending a lot of time walking land where Union and Confederate forces clashed he's now the historic site manager at the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site about an hour west of Kinston in Four Oaks. When you're so closely tied to something, sometimes you might be prone to pump up its significance. Donnie Taylor isn't doing that with his tie to the Battle of Wyse Fork.
"Any battle is significant if you're fighting in it, but as far as the outcome of the war probably neither one of these affected the outcome of the war at all."
Two battles were fought in Kinston the 1st Battle of Kinston took place just blocks from where Lenoir Community College now sits plus the Battle of Wyse Fork on Donnie Taylor's land east of the Kinston city limits. Despite the 2-and-a-half year time span between the two, the battles did have some similarities. The 1st Battle of Kinston was fought as the Union Army headed to Goldsboro to try and disrupt a supply line running from Wilmington to Virginia. The Battle of Wyse Fork was also over a supply line, though this time trying to establish one from the now-Union controlled Wilmington running to Gen. William Sherman's Army Group.
"They knew that if the federals ever moved in from the coast because they captured New Bern in March 1862 and they knew if they moved from the coast that was the most direct route toward Goldsboro which was the cross the North Carolina Railroad running east and west and the Wilmington/Weldon running north and south. That was a supply hub. So there was a sizable number of troops in Kinston at all times, and looking through the official record you can see quite a bit of correspondence with whoever was in command at Kinston at any time with Robert E. Lee because that was a place they wanted to hold as long as they could to keep the supplies running."
Another bit of symmetry involved the iron-clad CSS Neuse. In both battles Union forces tried to take her down. Following the 1st Battle of Kinston Union soldiers tried to destroy the gunboat as it was being built in what is now Seven Springs. They caused some minor damage but were unsuccessful in efforts to completely destroy the ship. Following the battle of Wyse Fork the ship ultimately went down though not at Union hands.
"The Neuse actually participated in firing against federal cavalry. It wasn't used during the battle but it did fire on federal cavalry after the battle was over as the federal cavalry advanced toward town. Once they broke that engagement off that's when they scuttled the gunboat."
The Union won both the Kinston battles but didn't occupy the town. Kinston, for the most part, seemed to be somewhere "on the way to" for the Union. So that's why, even after the 1862 defeat of Confederate forces, Kinston had the distinction of being the easternmost city in the state to remain in Confederate hands during the Civil War. The Battle of Wyse Fork despite it being ultimately a Union victory did bring one final moment of glory for Confederate forces.
"On the 8th of March Gen. Robert F. Hoke did a flank march around the Federals, got behind them and captured the 15th Connecticut and the 25th Massachusetts, which was the last large mass capture of Federal troops in the war."
The Confederates captured about 900 Union soldiers that day, but by the 10th the battle was over, the Union victorious, just as in the first battle of Kinston. In 1862, the defeat could be shrugged off by Confederate forces, which was enjoying victories in larger battles.
"The first battle in early 1862, it also occurred around the same dates as the battle of Fredericksburg, VA where the federals took a tremendous loss there. Whether they had the news then or not, news didn't travel that fast then they, both sides their morale was high."
The same couldn't be said in 1865, and the war came to a halt about two months later. By Wyse Fork, the writing was on the wall and Taylor says many Confederate soldiers in the state many native to the state started to desert and head back to their homes where battlefields started to be reclaimed as farmland where that generation and future generations would seek a living.
"My farm was the center of the federal lines occupied by Gen. Thomas Ruger. And my home where my daughter lives now there was a six-gun federal battery set up just across, and in fact the way it was set up at an angle it would've fired right across my house and it was probably less than 100 feet behind my house."
Donnie Taylor, who owns part of the land where the Battle of Wyse Fork took place and is the historic site manager at the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site. I'm George Olsen.