The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-01-26

state are among them. Both are soon |
&c know what progress means in the
coming of a railroad but there are
those who love quaintness and the
old-time ways, who deplore the inevi- |
table change.
A trip down the historic Cape Fear
river on Captain John w. Harper's
steamer Wilmington is of course one
of the incidents of a trip to Southport,
the captain being, like Fort Fisher,
Old Brunswick, and the Dram Tree"
an old landmark.
In this moEch, with plenty of up
country mud coming down the Cape
Fear, the river is as muddy as tbs
Mississippi, n when the sunshine
touches the broad stretch the water
takes the tint of old gold.
After leaving Wilmington there IS
first the Dram Tree" where since the
earliest days it has been the custom of
first dram when leaving and the last
when entering Wilmington. 1t is /
cypress, standing well out into the wa
ter at a point of land. The river ar
every mile grows wider and wider and
Col.4d its shores speak what stories
not a few seafaring men to take the
Englishmen and Spaniards in their
ships, of pirates, who in fact 50 har-
ried the feeble settlements on the low
er river as to really cause the settle
ment Of Wilmington; of the terrible
times of the Civil war, when the river
was the main artery along which How
ed the supplies most sOrely NEEDED by
tue hard-pressed C~onfederacy, brought
-, nv +hn Iarino h1no1Eada rSInnnrS the
sWiftest steamers of their times. Then,
too. there are the grand old planta-
tions, such as Orion, with the loft
ri lars of the colonial mansion CLEAN
ing white against the green setting
of the live-oaks; the ruins of Old
Brunswick, with the tree topped walls
Of old st. Phillips church, the tombs
with their stately marble shafts, All
within the great walls of the Confcd-
crate earthwOrk, Fort Anderson. II
is a historic stream, this slow rolling
and muddy Cape Fear.
FORT CASWELL.
AS Southport is neared there looks
to the southeast clusters Of buildings
on the ocean beach, with the VaSr
mounds which mark the modern FORT
fcatiOns and in which Turk the
great disappearing guns. 1t Is Fort
Caswell. one Of the strongest OF the
United States forts on the coast. In
the old DAYS, before the Civil war, the
old Fort Caswell was a fine example OF
Notifications of the first half of The
last century, but when it was evacua+.
ed bv the Confederates the night at
ter that on which the famous For
Fisher was taken, it was so torn by
the explosions of the magazines anC
by the fires lighted everywhere as &c
be one left Of the most picturesque
ruins to be found anywhere. so II re
NAMED until the war with Spain. II
old times, up to. 1900, it was merely
in charge of an ordinance sergeant
the Ompan of artillery which was u
nm IT'S guns in case Of trouble Del1z
ouartered at old Fort johnston, II
Southport, which really was not d Tor
at all, but merely a garrlSoned posi-
Of old Fort Caswell but little now re
mains. the major part having Oce1
removed to make way for the moderl
battery of 12-inch disappearing guns
the glories of a great series Oh forum
cations, with fine quarters Tor oHlcer
and men, railway, electric HSntS, elc'
replace the gloom and quiet when MAJ
SO long brooded over the fort Wh!cl
bears the historic name OF hlchar
Caswell, North Carollnas nrSt COVER
nor under the constitution. VI u
Fort Johnston, at Southport more tina
. century and a half old, only the off
GERS quarters now remain. up to 100
there was a battery for ~salutes, etc
quarters for officers and men, we
kent grounds, in front being a walka
wav arched over entirely by cedar
in the rear, stately live-Oaks and
front n of the things yet remalnln
in the shape of a sea wall Dullt {
shells and cement by General, late
Governor. BENJAMIN Smith, after Whol
the town of Southport (Whlcn UNI
1899 was Smithville) was named. Ihcl
was q block house, which ought by a
means to have been preserved. "nle
the iconoclastic war department Id
removed in 1SS9-a case Oh aosoi'
vandalism.
THE SOUTHPORT PILOTS.
During the Civil war Southport WI
the home of the most daring Oh u
Confederate pilots, men VINO, III sou
cases. received as much as So,VOo u
bringing in a steamer from NdSsa
getting her safely under the protectit
of the guns of Fort FIsner tnFo"s
New Inlet and so TO wilmington;
was the richest town in all the 20.
federacy and there alone specie pa
ments never ceased, since in the tran
actions among the people there go
vas the currency used. One Won
have thought that h pilots won
have accumulated snug fortunes, b
then and later, too, designing perso
ont-traded the supplemented and no
est sailormen and so got their wea't
or a greater part of it. Nearly all t
old pilots who used to run the o5oc
.ade are gone to the great beyond
the dean of item yet remains, whll
haired Captain Thomas M. Thompse
whose attractive home is as white d
IT. shane aS a cruiser. when