This Month in New Bern History – November 2020 By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society
Winslow Homer “Thanksgiving Day in the Army – After Dinner: The Wish-Bone” (from Harper's Weekly, Vol. VIII), courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art website
During November our thoughts often turn to family, food and home in preparation for Thanksgiving. Although we deeply associate the story of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving with this celebration, Thanksgiving has strong roots in the Civil War.
Through the years, many of our leaders have asked that a day be set aside to express our thankfulness. The Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War asked that days be dedicated to give thanks, and in 1789 George Washington issued a proclamation of thanks during the first year of his presidency. Presidents John Adams and James Madison issued proclamations as well.
During the Civil War, the Thanksgiving holiday was a cultural tradition celebrated locally by communities in different regions of the United States. Both the Union and the Confederate Armies held periodic and separate days of thanksgiving in response to military victories. Confederate President Jefferson Davis called for a “day of fasting, humiliation and prayer” to take place on November 15, 1861. Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of a popular women’s magazine, lobbied President Abraham Lincoln to establish a national day of Thanksgiving as an attempt to unify a nation that was strongly divided along many lines. On October 3, 1863 Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Day Proclamation that was written by Secretary of State William Seward which offered a hopeful message. On November 26, 1863, President Lincoln held the first official Thanksgiving Day celebration.
How did the troops celebrate during the war? For many southerners, this day was a day like all the rest. Many refused to celebrate as they viewed Thanksgiving as a New England abolitionist holiday. For the Union troops the response was a bit different. Many remembered past Thanksgivings surrounded by family and loved ones.
In 1862, Edward J. Bartlett of Concord, Massachusetts, age 19, enlisted in the 44th Massachusetts Infantry, Co F and was stationed at New Bern. He wrote letters home in 1862 describing his first Thanksgiving as a soldier. There were elaborate preparations, decorations, and food:
“First we had oysters then turkey and chicken pie then plum pudding then apple raisin & coffee with plenty of good soft bread & butter. After we had all eaten a little too much, people usualy [sic] do on Thanksgiving days and we who had lived so long on hard tack did our best[,] we had a fine sing.” (Massachusetts Historical Society)
The next year he wrote on 15 November 1863 from Nashville, Tennessee, stating:
“Our company Thanksgiving in the barracks last year is a day that I can never forget. Six of those boys are now dead. Poor Hopkinson, the president, in his address, [said] ‘that he hoped the next year would see us all at our own family tables.’ He died two months after.”
Bartlett spent Thanksgiving 1864 stationed at Point Lookout, Maryland, guarding Confederate prisoners-of-war. He wrote to his sister Martha about his homesickness on the evening before the holiday:
“Thanksgiving eve. I sat over the fire, thinking of what you were doing at home, and what I had done on all the Thanksgiving eve’s, that I could remember.”
In the darkest days of our history, with thousands of men dying on battlefields far from home, during wartime or peace, Americans still paused and give thanks for what we have. May we honor them by continuing to do so.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Stanly, born in New Bern on 15 December 1815. The Stanly family had quite an illustrious history. John Stanly was a merchant, orator, lawyer and representative to Congress. He is probably most notorious for having shot and killed ex-Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight in a duel here in New Bern. John and Elizabeth had fourteen children, five of whom died young. There were eight living sons: Alfred, Frank, Edward, Alexander Hamilton, Fabius Maximus, Marcus Cicero and James Green. The only daughter to reach adulthood was Elizabeth Mary Stanly who, against her father’s wishes, married Captain Walker Keith Armistead, who eventually served as Chief Engineer for the US Army Corps of Engineers. They had one son, Brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead, who died at Gettysburg, famously leading a Confederate charge at Seminary Ridge.
In Salem, North Carolina, the Salem Band was composed of Moravian Pacifists, German Methodists known for their musical prowess. The Captain of the Band, Samuel Timothy Mickey, wanted to enlist with a regiment to assist the Confederate cause. The band was originally recruited by a North Carolina unit, Wheeler’s Battalion, but that unit was captured at Roanoke Island by the Union Army. In March of 1862 Captain Mickey met with Colonel Zebulon Vance at the Gaston Hotel in New Bern and requested that the band join the 26th North Carolina Infantry. Vance agreed and the band became the 26th North Carolina Regimental Band. There were originally eight members of the band, but they eventually became twelve. They were the smallest band in either Army.
In February of 1902 an elderly black man died and his obituary was posted in the local newspaper. He was born a slave and was greatly respected by blacks and whites. Who was this man?
Mr. Watson joined the Confederate Army at New Bern on January 27, 1862. He joined the 2nd Artillery 36th NC Regiment, Company F, also known as the Cape Fear Regiment of Artillery. On January 15, 1865 he was captured by Union troops at Fort Fisher. Mr. Watson was sent to Elmira prison in New York as a prison of war but returned home in July after signing an oath of allegiance. He moved his studio to Fayetteville Street in Raleigh, NC where he remained until his death. On April 4, 1889 Mr. John W. Watson, aged 61, died in Raleigh and his obituary stated, “Mr. Watson was a photographer and was well known not only in Raleigh, but throughout the State. Mr. Watson is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh.” (Weekly State Chronicle, Raleigh, 05 Apr 1889)
By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society 2019
Born in December 1896, Castillia Henry grew up with his parents and siblings at 90 ½ Queen Street in New Bern. His father, Castillia Henry Sr., had a variety of jobs: as a drayman (wagon driver), porter, and stevedore. His mother, Henrietta Fisher Henry, died prior to 1910 and Castillia continued to reside with his father and siblings. During this period he became a barber, working with his brother Amos.
Henry was buried at the American Cemetery in St. Mihiel, France. On 13 May 1921, his remains were disinterred and sent to Antwerp to be transported aboard the Wheaton to Hoboken, New Jersey. His body was received by his father on 30 July 1921 and Private Castillia Henry was finally laid to rest at New Bern National Cemetery, Section 12, Grave 3434. His name was later engraved on the World War I monument on the grounds of the Craven County Courthouse which honors those who lost their lives in the Great War.
Two Carteret County men who came to New Bern in the 1800’s established lucrative businesses and eventually became partners, leading to a historic event of the Civil War in eastern North Carolina. Who were these men and what was significant about the month of October 1862?