Dec. 5, 1863 - Wild's African Brigade liberates coastal North Carolina

Dec. 5, 1863

Wild's African Brigade liberates coastal North Carolina 

Currituck, North Carolina, in Currituck County

* Awesome "bonus" material here: I was on my 1861 Completist Trip [Summer 2025] and therefore seeking South Mills (ok, yes - that's 1862), but was delighted to hear this story for the first time by stumbling upon this NC Civil War Trails marker. #IBrakeForBugles 

* Always nice to see the USCT in action and even better if they are terrorizing their former enslavers!

* Gen. Wild is an interesting figure, as covered well here. Severely injured at South Mountain, he takes command of his USCT with gusto

* Apparently this is "the first of any magnitude undertaken by (N)egro troops since their enlistment was authorized by Congress, and by it the question of their efficiency in any branch of the service has been practically set at rest," according to Tewksbury, writing for the New York Times, grasping that the raid was more than a military success.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=276262

Currituck County Courthouse

Center of the Community

The town of Currituck has been the seat of county government since 1723, and the core of the courthouse to your right and jail in front of you were here before the Civil War. By 1860, the county had 7,415 residents, of whom 4,669 were white, 2,523 were enslaved blacks, and 223 were free blacks. The whites voted overwhelmingly for secession and this square became a Confederate recruiting center. The "Currituck Atlantic Rifles" was organized here, as was the "Currituck Light Cavalry" under Capt. Demosthenes Bell. The latter became Co. G, 4th North Carolina Cavalry.

Because of the importance of Currituck Sound for military transportation, and the county's proximity to Norfolk, Va., Federal troops under Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside occupied the county after the Union victory at Roanoke Island in February 1862. In December 1863, three columns of U.S. Colored Troops led by Gen. Edward Wild converged here on a raid from Elizabeth City. They liberated slaves, destroyed Confederate camps, and occupied these courthouse grounds. Federal soldiers carried off many early county records. Some were returned in 1976.

On July 23, 1903, Henry M. Shaw Camp No. 1304, North Carolina Confederate Veterans, met at the courthouse and had dinner on the grounds. Local resident J.B. Lee wrote that "the yard of the court house and those of the hotels were filled with a solid mass of humanity. Old Veterans … children; young men with their best girls; and old maids and batchelors [sic] made the crowd one of the largest ever assembled in Currituck county."

The Confederate monument to your left has an unusual history. The original design featured a Confederate soldier atop an obelisk similar to many such monuments. Confederate veterans erected the base in 1912, but the project languished until 1922, when Northern philanthropist Joseph P. Knapp offered to complete the memorial. The idea of a Northerner funding the monument prompted opposition that subsided when the framed plans were exhibited on the courthouse.

I made it to the Dismal Swamp Canal (not shown) and visited the parallel A & C Canal, which seems relevant to this action. 

The perfect Confederate monument 

 

No, seriously- let met get this straight: these traitors LOSE the war but then decide to throw themselves a party and build a monument. But along the way they run out of....something. Money? Effort? You know those Confederates! But rather than accept the assistance of a fellow American, whose only offense is that he didn't also commit treason, these bitter deserters want to declare victory and go home. And that's The Lost Cause, everybody! 

 

Sources:

https://www.nps.gov/people/edward-wild.htm

https://coastalreview.org/2021/10/black-soldiers-role-in-civil-war-raid-gets-new-recognition/