Sailor’s letters will be discussed at Cape Fear Civil War Round Table meeting

Wilmington’s Cape Fear Civil War Round Table (CFCWRT) invites you to a presentation at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, at Harbor Church, 4853 Masonboro Loop. Enter at the front of the church through the doors marked “worship center.” Becky Sawyer, interpreter and collections manger at the Fort Fisher State Historic Site, will speak about a trove of long lost letters written by a mariner aboard a U.S. Navy ship in the last days of the war.

A native of the St. Louis, Missouri, area, Sawyer earned a Masters degree in public history from UNCW. She is also a highly accomplished reenactor who researches costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries to enrich the experience of history.

Over the course of the past three years, with the assistance of Rick Morrison, Sawyer and other staff of the Fort Fisher State Historic Site have been transcribing letters belonging to Sidney Stockbridge who served as a clerk on the USS Pawtuxet in the second battle of Fort Fisher in January 1865. These letters are on loan from Joe Stockbridge of Surry, Maine, the great nephew of Sidney Stockbridge.

After the fall of Wilmington on 22 February 1865, the USS Pawtuxet, proceeded to Beaufort, N.C., the Union base for the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Once ready for more sea service, the Pawtuxet, transferred to the James River Squadron in Virginia.

By March 18, 1865, the James River Squadron comprised at least 42 war ships, including several monitors and other ironclads. With the Union’s final push towards destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia, Stockbridge writes about daily life on the James River including seeing the hustle and bustle of City Point, the obscure spot where the Appomattox River joins with the James River about 30 miles below Richmond.

As the headquarters of the combined Union force, City Point was one of the busiest seaports in the world in 1865. Grant had somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,000 well fed and well equipped troops in the vicinity to oppose Lee’s rapidly dwindling army of about 55,000 poorly equipped and under nourished soldiers.

The culminating Civil War campaigns in the Eastern Theater are seen as titanic clashes of great armies led by the preeminent generals of the war: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant of the U.S. Army and the Confederate paladin, Lieutenant General Robert E. Lee. Without a doubt, land forces dominated the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign, but maritime forces were crucial to victory.

U.S. Navy dominance of the sea lanes and inland waterways allowed Grant to continually move his forces around the right (eastern) flank of Lee’s army. Vast quantities of supplies and huge numbers of reinforcements moved safely and reliably aboard ships from both northern ports and southern bases like Beaufort, N.C., and Port Royal, S.C. Conversely, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was totally dependent on land transportation for its supplies and reinforcements and those routes were subject to interdiction and damage.

CFCWRT meets the second Thursday of every month. The program starts around 7:15 p.m. Refreshments and a book raffle are offered. Guests are welcome. Yearly membership is $30.

Bill Jayne is president of Cape Fear Civil War Round Table

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