page_title: Ted Sampley
section_title: CSS Neuse replica and local activism
hierarchical_section_title: Ted Sampley / CSS Neuse replica and local activism
caption_attribution_description: English: Model of CSS Neuse at Neuse Museum in Kinston, NC This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 00000444
context_page_description: Theodore Lane Sampley was an American Vietnam War veteran and activist. He primarily advocated for those servicemembers still considered missing in action or prisoners of war as of the end of hostilities in 1975. A staunch political conservative, he also ran for local political office several times. He is credited with the research that identified Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie as the Vietnam fatality buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and for his role in organizing the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle event in Washington. In Kinston, North Carolina, where he lived for much of his adult life, he was known for his local civic activism, most notably his effort to build a replica of the Confederate ironclad CSS Neuse, the only full-size replica of a Confederate ironclad, in the city's downtown.
  A native of Wilmington, North Carolina, he enlisted in the Army in 1963. Two years later, he was deployed to Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, where he did a year's tour of duty as a combat infantryman.
context_section_description: Sampley was also involved in efforts to revitalize downtown Kinston, where he owned several other businesses besides his pottery shop. In 1991 the Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce recognized his efforts. The following year the Raleigh News & Observer honored Sampley as a "Tar Heel of the Week".
  In the late 1990s, he grew disgusted with the sight of one overgrown vacant lot on a major intersection. He proposed to a group of Kinstonians he assembled at a local cafe that they organize to build a life-size  replica of the CSS Neuse, an early ironclad of the Confederate States Navy whose remains are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and put it on the lot as a tourist attraction.
  Listeners were doubtful, but two weeks later, at their next gathering, Sampley was accompanied by Alton Stapleford, a retired master boat builder. He explained how it could be done, and in 2002 the Neuse II Foundation was established and construction began. Local volunteers spent the next several months putting timbers into place; the 158-foot (48 m) replica is the only full-size replica of a Confederate ironclad. It opened to tourists in 2009.
  In the 1990s the state's Department of Natural and Cultural Resources had built the first structure to house the remaining hull of the original Neuse on another lot in downtown Kinston. Sampley and other local historians believed that site possibly also contained the true grave of North Carolina's first governor, Richard Caswell, who had also done the original land survey of Kinston. Sampley announced a contest to find that site, with the state to judge the winner; however officials at the department were angry that he did so without informing them. Sampley was unperturbed: "It's a question the state should have answered a long time ago", he wrote.
  In 2004 Sampley and a fellow activist pressured both the Lenoir County commissioners and the Kinston city council to pass a resolution stating that God was the foundation of American government and that the Founding Fathers had never intended for the modern degree of separation of church and state. It was modeled on a resolution that had recently been passed in Greene County, Tennessee. While it passed the city council unanimously, many members said they felt they had been "coerced" into doing so by Sampley's tactics. "I feel like I have a very strong belief in God.", said one. "But I don't like getting stuff like this crammed down my throat."
caption: Model of CSS Neuse at Kinston museum
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