Concerning the “Cookie Jar” – We all put our hands in the “Cookie Jar”, and the Hands of Federal Officers writing OR Reports may be some of the most “Self Serving Cookie Jar” reports. These reports getting the “Eyes” of so many Superiors, who wouldn’t want to “Reframe Situations, Issues, and Events to Highlight Strengths and Minimize Faults”. I know you have seen them also of OR Reports highlighting of how “We Drove Them Handsomely, taking Many Prisoners and Inflicting Much Damage” – All the While getting their Butts Kicked or Routed. Promotion, Fame, and Reputation were all Bundled in the Report. They were often Grand Examples of “Puffery”. Both North and South.

More Current: 1962 and Authored by a WWII Veteran, a retired Army Col is a Two Hundred Year History of Washington, N.C., and it’s also located under the Counties Tab of the East Carolina Digital Records:

“BEAUFORT COUNTY – Two Centuries of Its History” 1962

By C. Wingate Reed , Col. USA Retd.

The Section about the Washington Fire from Pages 190-191

“A year later, on 20 April, 1864, General Robert F. Hoke, with the aid of the Confederate ironclad Albemarle, recaptured the town of Plymouth; drove the Union gunboats down the Roanoke; and captured some 3,000 prisoners. Under the threat of an advance by Hoke’s Army, Brigadier General Harland, then commanding the Union forces in Washington, was ordered to evacuate the town and return to New Bern.

For three days prior to the evacuation, Washington was subjected to systematic plundering. Pillaging started with the Quartermaster depot of the 1st North Carolina (Union) companies, and soon became general. Sutler stores, government stores, private stores, and then private homes were broken into and looted. Gangs of rowdy soldiers prowled the streets, breaking into homes and destroying what they could not carry away.

Before the Union forces embarked on waiting gunboats and transports, they cut the hose of the volunteer fire companies and set fire to the town and the bridge over the Pamlico. Though the few men left in the town tried to combat the flames, their efforts were in vain. The fire raged from the river, north along Respess Street, to the north end of the town. There may have been some justification for burning the bridge, to prevent Hoke using it in his advance against New Bern, but the burning of Washington was an act of pure vandalism.

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Chris,

As a War Veteran, I can’t get into the Heads of the Soldiers in Town that day and their thoughts of what happened in New Bern. That’s Conjecture.

The mix of Contraband, Untested N.C. Union Soldiers, and Perhaps Orders to return to New Bern to avoid another disaster like Plymouth, may have been in the minds of Officers in command, but I would add “Fear” to that Mix, and that’s the Fall of Plymouth with 3,000 Prisoners and the Whole Garrison at Plymouth easily Taken, and the Confederate Iron-Clad Albermarle adding tons of weight to the Argument to Retreat to a more distant and more fortified location – New Bern. Orders to leave may have also been generated from the need and requirement of troops for Grant’s Overland Campaign. Gunboats were at the Piers of Washington to load the troops, and would have had to have been ordered from New Bern The Retreat would have been orderly as I see it, and less the panic as you have offered. The Cutting of Fire Hoses was Malicious, and the Burning of the Town maybe made easier by Plans which included locations throughout the town which were constructed in advance to set fire.

From Current Day Analysis of a WWII Veteran – I agree with the Col on his analysis.

“The Burning of Washington Was a Pure Act of Vandalism”

In an above post you mentioned an Incident at Plymouth. I can only assume that you may be referring to a report written by a Lt. Davenport, Federal Officer about an event of the Confederates capturing Plymouth, and part of the Garrison, which were USCT ran from the area trying to escape and were shot down by Confederates? It’s been a few years since I read the report, and I can’t remember all of the details, but I was struck with the name Davenport, which settled in a local community adjacent to Plymouth. That’s where my Mothers’ Davenport Father was born, and I know of no Confederate links to the Davenport family. A Lt. Davenport also shows up in some reports in the Plymouth Community for the Garrison troops – After the War. Perhaps the Lt. found a sweet Southern Gal, married and settled outside Plymouth. Who Knows? Every five years or so, the Davenports have a monster Reunion in Plymouth from all over the Country.

I am sure you use East Carolina U. Digital Library all of the time. It’s a tremendous treasure trove of material from the Counties taking in lots of history. Here’s a Beaufort County History by Lindsay Carter Warren in 1889, and I have copied a part of that article about the fire.

http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/fullview.aspx?id=wab
Pages 12-13

“The brilliant feat of General Hoke in capturing Plymouth on April 20, 1864, caused General Harland, the Union commander at Washington, to receive an order to evacuate the town. On April 30 the last Federal troops, after firing the different portions of the town, embarked. For the three preceding days the town was given up to sack and pillage. The plundering was not confined to the public stores and supplies but was general and indiscriminate. Gen. I. N. Palmer, who will always be remembered by the citizens of eastern Carolina for his kindness and consideration, as well as for his soldierly qualities at that time commanded the district of North Carolina. He was an honorable foe. In the general orders issued after the evacuation, he thus characterizes these outrages:

“It is also well known that the army vandals did not even respect the charitable institutions, but bursting open the doors of the Masonic and Odd Fellows Lodges, pillaged them both, and hawked about the street the regalia and jewels. It is also well known, too, that both public and private stores were entered and plundered, and that devastation and destruction ruled the hour.

“The commanding general had until this time believed it impossible that any troops in his command could have committed so disgraceful an act as this which now blackens the fair fame of the army of North Carolina. He finds, however, that he was sadly mistaken, and that the ranks are disgraced by men who are not soldiers but thieves and scoundrels, dead to all sense of honor and humanity, for whom no punishment can be too severe.”

A board of investigation, presided over by Col. James W. Savage, Twelfth New York Cavalry, scathingly denounced the burning and plundering of the town, and said “there could be no palliation of the utterly lawless and wanton character of the plundering.”

The fire burned from Pamlico River clear through to the northern limits, and covered eight solid blocks. The bridge was also fired. Nearly one-half of the town was destroyed by this conflagration. No military necessity required the burning of Washington. It was not necessary to cover the evacuation or to aid the escape of the garrison. No hostile force was then investing the town. A few days later, when the Confederates entered, an accidental fire broke out, and fanned by a high wind almost destroyed the other half. After this baptism the town was desolate and ruined. There were scarcely 500 inhabitants remaining of what had been an enterprising and prosperous community of 3,800 three years before.

No town gave more freely of its men and means and no town suffered more for the cause of the Confederacy.”

That’s an interesting story about your ancestor. Do you know that there are now Sons of Union Veterans Camps down in N.C.? I think there are 3-4 camps there now. Expansion has been significant in the past few years from Virginia, N.C., S.C., Ga., Alabama, and an interesting percentage are actually descended from Southerners in blue.

Nothing wrong about being on the outside of the storyline. Sometimes I find being outside the storyline is unpopular history among some Southerners, but it’s all history and the stories need to be told. My recent talk at a CWRT was interesting. I could see that some in the audience might have preferred the glory of the Lost Cause stories vice the stories about Southern Unionists and the like under the hard hand of Confederates.

Done a bit of writing myself on Unionists and on Buffaloes (trying to pin down the origin of that term – came mighty close to doing so). NC is rich in Civil War history even if she is poor in major battles. I am very interested in the contested landscape of coastal NC. The peninsula that is Hyde, Tyrrell, Washington counties changes hands several times. And while I agree with many comments from our fellow contributor I would say something more is happening in Little Washington when federals abandon it and it burns in 1864. After the siege in 1863, the town s fortified in such a manner as to include setting in place flammable materials. In the chaos that is the aftermath of Plymouth fleeing troops equaled a disaster and those fuels were touched off. It was investigated – but evidence suggests that it was accidental. But I concede it was an accident primed to happen.

But that is me, always on the outside of the mainstream NC storyline.

My ancestor was captured at Beech Grove Feb 1864 with the unit that included the men hanged at Kinston. Those men were conscripts who wore gray long enough to find a nearby swamp and change gray for blue. My guy put on blue only. He ended up in Richmond’s Castle Thunder, got the diarrhea, and was dead by March.

Always on the outside of the storyline.

Darn it! Memory is going to be in Raleigh!? Now you realize I can’t come to Raleigh without feeling a bit of hostility… after all, it is Wolfpack country and I’m an old Pirate! I might get a hankerin’ to pull down a goalpost or something!

I’ll have to take a look at the Call for Papers and see if I can expand my horizons and write about Unionists in N.C.

It’s been quite sometime since I was last at ECU (84-88), and I doubt any of my professors remain. Dr. John Ellen, a WW2 vet (and D-Day vet as well, if memory serves ) was my Civil War prof. there. I think he retired in the early 90s.

The action between neighbors at Washington sounds a little like Front Royal here in the Valley (the fight between two Maryland regiments), but I wonder if the hand-to-hand matter made it even worse at Washington.

That’s some fantastic information that you are sharing. Perhaps you would be interested in writing a few posts about certain Unionists that stand out for the Southern Unionists Chronicles?

Speaking of Eastern N.C., when I lived in Beaufort (I’m sure you know, quite the beautiful place), I learned that the Monitor pulled in there for a short time. I tried to encourage someone (a well-known CW naval artist) to paint the scene, but when he asked for the reference, I was unable to find it again.

Are you aware of the Kinston hangings of the “Buffaloes” conducted by Pickett? I first encountered the story when I wrote the unit history for the 38th Bttn. Va. Light Art. (the Battle of Plymouth was of great interest to me when writing the book). I’m sure you must be aware of the story.

Anyway, I encourage you to write more about the N.C. Unionists and hope you will consider a few items for the Chronicles! What you mention so far certainly catches my attention, plus all the names of familiar towns in that area strikes a chord.

Ray has offered the “Anytime” trip up to the Reservation on the Pamunkey River, and now that he is retired, I think I will give him a call and take him up on it. Thanks for the Idea.

One of the events concerning Union Troops occurred close by in the Town of Washington, N.C. – Dec, 1862, Which came under attack from the 17th North Carolina and a Company of 3rd North Carolina Cavalry. The Infantry and Cavalry had worked their way down by the River on Main Street, pushing the Federals back that were in Town. The Local Union Troops came to the aid of the Garrisoned Federals, and at the peak of Battle were able to Fight hand to hand Against some of their Neighbors from the 17th NC that were attacking them. That must have been some hairy fighting, especially if they recognized each other.

Washington is a Renissance Town of an Old Colonial Seaport Town, and it is slowly but surely coming alive after so many years of decay. The Tragedy of Washington is the Burning of the Town as Federal Troops departed to catch up with Grant’s Overland Campaign going on by the North Anna at that time.

Robert, maybe you could recognize the efforts of the Local Union Troops in Saving the Town of Washington from being captured by the Confederate Attack.

There’s also an Engagement at Pactolus, right below Greenville, on the road to Washington, by the old sawmill. It’s on the Civil War Trails there in N.C., and there may be a historical marker.

December of 1863, while in an encampment a few miles from Greenville on Rt.# 33 heading to Chocowinity, a Company of 3rd North Carolina were attacked, and 12 Confederates Captured, many of which went over to riding with the Union Troops. P.S. if you want the details, I have the list of men who made the switch.

There’s also a raid on Greenville by the 3rd, and there’s a Church that was burned by the attacking Federal Troops then. You may be more familiar with the details. I have been trying to get to some of these events in North Carolina to continue to flush out the history of the 3rd. Cavalry.

East Carolina has done other events like this, and with your connections – this should be a natural.

Have you ever been to a pow wow with Ray? Veterans are generally honored at pow wows.

It sounds like you both did some wonderful work for women.

On a new memorial in Arlington that includes everyone: I know it is not feasible, on a practical level. It is just a thought. When I started to try to imagine what such a memorial would look like, it got too elaborate and baroque fast. Something abstract, yet very human at the same time, would be better. It might happen by the 200th anniversary of the Civil War.