The Republican journal., 1906-05-03
take the places of the men whose time

fore l succeed in recruiting my COM
plement, for the agents from the North
were there as thick as blackbirds.
Among them l met Capt. R. S. Aver of
Montville, who was looking after the
quota of the town of SearSmont, and
John French, who was doing the same
thing for the town of Palermo. We
were at Roanoke Island on Christmas
day. Some of the army officers of that
station had been invited to wedding
that was to take place across the is
land about nine miles distant, and they
kindly invited me to take seat in the
army wagon drawn by four mules and
accompany them, which | gladly did.
+ AS TO the details of that wedding |
will simply say at this time that the fun
ran fast and furious from start to fin
ish. You can judge of my astonish-
ment when the first man l met there
was Captain Partridge | had met as
the captain of schooner that hailed
from Elizabeth City, N. c. We met in
the port Of Georgetown, S. C.. in 1859,
while | was mate of the brig Torcoa OF
Camden. The vessels laid side by side
at the mill taking in lumber for three
weeks, and he being jolly good fellow
| became we'll acquainted with him.
AS soon as | saw him | knew him, but
he did not know ME. The reason was
obvious. At that time [, as working
man, did not wear very good clothes
in blue broadcloth with shoulder straps
and gold lace. On making myself
known to him he instantly remembered
me and as he was one of the king pins
of that locality you may be assured
that | was 1t for that evening and did
not lack for partners for their plays
and dances for that night, or for
hearty reception every time l happen
ed in that locality during the remand
er of the war. Among Others he intro
duced me to a young lady named Peg
gv BONN, who was the most intelligent
and ladylike of the lot. She informed
me that her mothers father was man
from Maine. that his name was Drink
water, and that he was a native OF
Northport. He had been wrecked on
that coast and remained, married, and
died there.
| will now return to this North Caro-
lima inland sea. Behind the sand dunes
are what are called the Sounds. There
are four of them, all connected by mar
row straits. The most important is
Pamlico Sound, which is about so miles
long and 80 miles wide, with an average
depth of water of 20 feet. This sound
extends from Morehead City to Roa-
noke Island and has three outlets TO
the ocean, or Inlets as they are called,
viz, HatteraS, Ocracoke and Oregon
inlets The other sounds, viz, Abe
marie. Carrituck and Croaton have no
passage-WaN to the ocean and vessels
must 90 out and in one of the ln!etS OF
Pamlico Sound or through the Dismal
swamp canal into the Elizabeth river
to Norfolk Albermare Sound is about
80 miles long and from ) to Is miles
wide Carrituck Sound is about 30
miles long, while Croaton Sound is
sheet of water about - miles long and
! about miles wide that separates Roa-
noke Island from the mainland aud
| connects Pamicu and \ b e m a L e
| sounds. These, with the various creeks
and little bays with the rivers that
empty into them, made nearly a thous-
and miles over which the Union gun
+! boats had to cruise continually, and
| venture to say that during the two and
a half years there was not an inch of it
| did no go over, fighting our way over
i good part of it.
| | will now give the reasons why the
| I. S. Government wished to hold that
| important territory, and also why the
rebels did not want us to have it. They
put up many a good fight i'll order TO
drive us out and managed to keep us
| busy. For six months at time | was
not out of the reach of rebel shot and
our ship bears the distinction of having
| been struck with more rebel shot than
any one other vessel Ill the I. 5. Navy
during the war of the rebellion. By
actual count we were hit 25G times, and
we were hit very many times when we
were too busy to stop to count.
1t will be remembered that the three
first battles of the war of the rebellion
were not successful to our arms, viz
Big Bethel, Bull Run and Balls Bluff.
The first victory that came to cheer the
loyal hearts of the North Was the
capture of Forts Hatteras and Clark
in August, 1861, by the I. 5. Navy
under the command of Commodore
Stringham Many said that it was a
barren victory, for the forts were all
there was. There was nothing else
but sand dunes, not even an inhabitant.
But the Government knew more than
that. 1t knew that the Rebels had
quite a formidable fleet of small gun
boats in the sounds, commanded by
I1N llC1 -. .. ~, wiz uuu
resigned the position of commander in
the L. S. n. This fleet was composed
of about twenty small steamers, which
slipped out through these inlets during
the three months before we captured
the forts and captured very many small
vessels from US. The Government also
knew that many small vessels from
Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York
and even Boston were continually run
| ming supplies through these inlets into
the sounds for the rebels. Owing to
the dangerous shoals no efficient block
ade could be maintained off this danger
Gus coast. The Government knew that
these inlets were keys to one of the
gardens of the world. They knew that
the rich alluvial lands along these
sounds adjacent to the swamps were
| the greatest corn and hog producing
lands in the world. The Government
knew that during the Florida war of
| 1856 with the Seminole Indians, the
whole supply of grain and bacon for our
troops came from the six lower counties
of North Carolina out through these
inlets The Government also knew
that the largest part of that material
furnished our troops during the war
with Mexico came from this very sec
ton. ut must be remembered that
| there were no railroads i'm those DAYS J