Gray Phantoms Of The Cape Fear

Story of blockade runners, the captains, the crews, the cargoes, the opponents, and the unbelievable escapes.

In Down the Wild Cape Fear, novelist and nonfiction writer Philip Gerard invites readers onto the fabled waters of the Cape Fear River and guides them on the 200-mile voyage from the confluence of the Deep and Haw Rivers at Mermaid Point all the way to the Cape of Fear on Bald Head Island. Accompanying the author by canoe and powerboat are a cadre of people passionate about the river, among them a river guide, a photographer, a biologist, a river keeper, and a boat captain. Historical voices also lend their wisdom to our understanding of this river, which has been a main artery of commerce, culture, settlement, and war for the entire region since it was first discovered by Verrazzano in 1524. Gerard explores the myriad environmental and political issues being played out along the waters of the Cape Fear. These include commerce and environmental stewardship, wilderness and development, suburban sprawl and the decline and renaissance of inner cities, and private rights versus the public good.

"This first of two volumes on North Carolina women chronicles the influence and accomplishments of individual women from the pre-Revolutionary period through the early 20th century. They represent a range of social and economic backgrounds, political stances, areas of influence, and geographical regions within the state. Even though North Carolina remained mostly rural until well into the twentieth century and the lives of most women centered on farm, family, and church, Gillespie and McMillen note that the state's people "exhibited a progressive streak that positively influenced women." Public funds were set aside to advance statewide education, private efforts after the Civil War led to the founding of numerous black schools and colleges, and in 1891 the General Assembly chartered the State Normal and Industrial School (later UNC-G) as one of the first publicly funded colleges for white women. By the late 19th century, as several essays in this volume reveal, education played a pivotal role in the lives of many white and black women. It inspired their activism and involvement in a world beyond their traditional domestic sphere"--

Continuing from Volume I, Volume II intersperses numerous soldiers’ letters with those from home. The issue of slavery from both the owners and individuals is brought forth. Did colored men really serve as Confederate soldiers? Did free black men? Union soldiers described southern women as defi ant, beautiful, crude, and pitiful. Read of women aboard blockade-runners, the fall of Wilmington, Sherman’s march, Stoneman’s western raiders, and the end of the war. Did any civilians die due to these raids? Did they idly sit by as their lives and homes were destroyed? The war did come to their doorstep during the second half of the confl ict. Both Volume I and II tell something from each of the state’s 87 counties. Perhaps you may fi nd information about your ancestor among these pages. Information from period newspapers, as well as mostly unpublished letters, tell their stories.

Presented here are excerpts from diaries and letters written by Southern women from different walks of life and areas of the country. Mary White, a fifteen-year-old girl, attempted to get through the blockade in Wilmington, North Carolina; Nancy Jones lived in fear amid the violence that rocked Missouri and saw her close friends and family murdered and her young son taken prisoner by the Yankees; Sarah Dandridge Duval and her family were refugees living near Richmond, Virginia. The book includes personal reminiscences from Union and Confederate women living in Winchester, Virginia, a town that reportedly changed hands 76 times during the war, and the reactions of Southern women to the surrender at Appomattox.

Confederate Slave Impressment in the Upper South

The lifeblood of the Confederacy, the blockade runners of the Civil War usually began life as regular fast steam-powered merchant ships. They were adapted for the high-speed dashes through the Union blockade which closed off all the major Southern ports, and for much of the war they brought much-needed food, clothing and weaponry to the Confederacy. This book traces their operational history, including the development of purpose-built blockade running ships, and examines their engines, crews and tactics. It describes their wartime exploits, demonstrating their operational and mechanical performance, whilst examining what life was like on these vessels through accounts of conditions on board when they sailed into action.

A stunning, full-color celebration of some of the world’s most famous lighthouses, the shoreline they stand on, and the people who have worked to protect them The lore and history of North Carolina’s seafaring past comes to life in the text by Cheryl Shelton-Roberts and photographs by Bruce Roberts.