Vol. 41, No. 4
$3.50
America’s Monthly Newspaper For Civil War Enthusiasts
48 Pages, April 2021
NEW Civil War Park Opens in Carolina Beach
Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Civil War Park Opens in Carolina Beach, N.C.
by Chris E. Fonvielle Jr. James Burriss, nineteenth century farmer, waterman, and river pilot, could never have imagined that his land on Federal Point (modern Carolina Beach), North Carolina would be used as a Confederate encampment site in 1861, a Confederate defensive position in 1864, a battlefield in 1865, and a Civil War park in 2021. But it was, it was, it was, and it is. The Federal Point Historic Preservation Society and the Town of Carolina Beach held a grand opening ceremony for the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Civil War Park on February 11, 2021, the 151st anniversary of the Battle of Sugar Loaf in the 1865 Wilmington Campaign. Despite the ongoing viral pandemic and a cool, overcast day, 110 people attended the event including civic leaders, municipal officials, Federal Point Historic Preservation Society members, local historians, preservationists, and Civil War enthusiasts. The last private owner of the property, across North Lake
Boulevard from Carolina Beach Town Hall, was the late Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. (1926–2010), a Carolina Beach resident, U.S. Army veteran, long-time employee of the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and member of the Federal Point Historic Preservation Society. Keenly interested in the history of the Lower Cape Fear, he donated approximately ten acres that feature Confederate earthworks of the so-called “Sugar Loaf lines” to the Town of Carolina Beach for a public Civil War park. It took eight years of committee planning meetings, volunteer workers clearing thick vegetation that covered the proposed park grounds, an archaeological dig, and designing interpretive signs for the project to finally come to fruition. Eric Jelinski, Carolina Beach’s Parks and Recreation Director opened the proceedings, followed by remarks from Elaine Henson, president of the Federal Point Historic Preservation Society; Mayor LeAnn Pierce; and Leslie Bright, Park Committee Chair. “It was a great day for the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. family, Federal Point Historic Preservation Society, and the Town of Carolina Beach in opening the park and fulfilling
Mayor LeAnn Pierce, Eric Jelinski, Mary Ann Lewis, and Elaine Henson cut ribbon to open the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Civil War Park, Carolina Beach, N.C., Feb. 11, 2021. John Gregory. the wishes of Ryder Lewis,” commented Elaine Henson. Mary Ann Lewis officially dedicated the park named for her late husband by cutting a ribbon at a newly constructed wooden bridge leading into the historic grounds. Chris E. Fonvielle Jr., professor emeritus in the Department
Newly installed kiosk at the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Civil War Park. Photo by John Gregory. 38 – American Battlefield Trust 10 – Black Powder, White Smoke 40 – Book Reviews
28 – Central Virginia Battlefield Trust 30 – Emerging Civil War 22 – The Graphic War
of History, UNC Wilmington, then spoke on the importance of Wilmington and the Sugar Loaf lines during the Civil War. The parcel of land on which the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Park is now located belonged to James Burriss in 1861. North Carolina’s Adjutant General’s Office originally established Camp Wyatt (named for Pvt. Henry Lawson Wyatt, the first Tar Heel soldier killed in action during the War) on the tract in June 1861, before moving it further south three months later. In October 1864, Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting, commander of the Department of the Cape Fear, ordered engineers to construct a line of heavy fieldworks as auxiliary defenses to Fort Fisher, 4 ½ miles to the south, that would stretch from Sugar Loaf Hill, a fifty-foot high natural sand dune on the east bank of the Cape Fear River, eastward for about 1 ½ miles to Myrtle Grove Sound (modern Carolina Beach canal). Fort Fisher was the main guardian of Wilmington, N.C., the Confederacy’s last major seaport open to maritime trade with
24 – Inspection, ARMS! 18 – The Source 8 – The Unfinished Fight
Europe, especially Great Britain, and by late 1864, most important city. Confederate spies reported that U.S. forces were organizing a joint army/navy operation to close Wilmington Harbor to blockade running by attacking Fort Fisher at New Inlet, the northern entryway into the Cape Fear River. For more than three years, Confederate commerce vessels had evaded, and continued to evade, U.S. Navy gunboats blockading the Cape Fear coast. At least 106 different steamships and an undetermined number of sailing vessels had been employed as blockade-runners to smuggle vital military supplies for soldiers on the battlefront and domestic products for civilians on the home front into the Confederacy by way of Wilmington, far more than came into any other Southern seaport. If a Union combined attack on Fort Fisher occurred, as appeared increasingly likely, General Whiting determined to keep
H Lewis Park
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14 – This And That 16 – Through the Lens 7 – Trivia