The New York Times for Sunday 4 December 1864 carried a number of stories concerning the Civil War, then in its fourth year. A lengthy article speculated about the location of Union Major General William T. Sherman's army, which was then marching to the sea, and the probability of a battle in far-off Nashville was discussed in depth. The U.S. Navy received its share of ink in a report on an engagement between some of its gunboats and a Confederate battery near Bell's Mills, Tennessee.
But the Times, like every other newspaper in the North, missed a story that might well have interested New Yorkers a great deal more than events around Nashville or in Georgia. Even as the folks at home were catching up on the news, 200 of their sons in the Union Navy and Army were steaming into harm's way in northeastern North Carolina. Except for the official reports and a brief mention in a New Bern, North Carolina, newspaper, their raid would be lost to history. Such minor forays paled in comparison to Union Army or Navy actions elsewhere and were so common as to attract little comment. Cumulatively, however, they were important to the Northern war effort because the raids struck directly at the resources that allowed the Confederacy to wage war.
This particular expedition, a combined operation, involved Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines. During the Civil War, the Navy routinely put men ashore for a variety of missions. As few as three might lie in wait to intercept Confederate mail; 20 might go in search of a particularly ardent secessionist or attempt the capture of a Rebel officer home on leave; larger groups with boat howitzers might form a light artillery detachment to cover an Army assault. The Navy had a much longer reach at this time than is generally supposed. During the Civil War, naval landing parties ranged up to 20 miles inland from all but the shallowest rivers; records exist for at least 60 such expeditions. Aside from the material benefits, such forays brought home to Southerners the fact that few places were truly beyond the reach and power of the Federal government.
Coastal North Carolina especially suffered from naval raids, as it was laced with waterways that afforded easy access to the state's interior. From the Union base at Plymouth, at the western end of Albemarle Sound, warships could steam up either the Roanoke River to the west or the Chowan to the north. These two rivers, along with the Meherrin, a tributary of the Chowan, bordered the neighboring counties of Hertford and Bertie on three sides, forming a peninsula. Fortunately for the Confederates, their forces were able to block the Roanoke at Rainbow Bluff, about 25 miles upriver, until near the end of the war. That left the Chowan as the avenue of choice for Union raids.
Penetrating the hinterland was relatively easy, since the Confederates did not station large numbers of troops in the Roanoke-Chowan area. In fact, neither side invested heavy forces in the region. This spared the Albemarle counties the devastation visited on Virginia and preserved a valuable supply source for General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The agriculturally rich counties around the Chowan provided much of its food. Several times during the war Lee sent major foraging expeditions into the region, but the bulk of the troops' supplies were routed on a regular basis through commissaries set up by the army.
The source of much of the materiel collected at these commissaries was Union-occupied Norfolk. Some goods were purchased legitimately and then smuggled through the lines, while others were stolen after they were issued to area Unionists. Once in Rebel hands, the supplies were moved through the Dismal Swamp, along the Chowan and its tributaries, and on country roads to Weldon and thence by rail to Lee's army in Virginia. Federal forces repeatedly struck at this network but only managed to disrupt, not destroy, it.
The beginning of 1864 saw a dramatic increase in the number of Union raids along the Chowan. No longer content to burn boats and try to catch smugglers in the act, Union commanders targeted collection points. On 20 January, Navy ships escorted a 500-man infantry detachment under Lieutenant Colonel Wilson C. Maxwell on a raid to Harrellsville. There, the Federals destroyed 150,000 pounds of salt pork, 270 barrels of salt, 10,000 pounds of tobacco, and 32 barrels of beef destined for Confederate forces. Arriving too late to protect the goods, Captain Hillary Taylor with only 41 men of the 68th North Carolina Infantry bravely attacked Maxwell's force as it moved out of town in the predawn darkness, and according to one report, routed them. The Union flight back to the gunboats was a sop to Southern pride but did nothing to replace the precious supplies.
Early on 27 January, Colonel Maxwell and his troops struck again, this time destroying 200,000 pounds of poorly guarded salt pork collected at Mars Hill. Confederate Colonel James Hinton, who was then stationed at Murfreesboro, along the Meherrin River, had only the understrength 68th North Carolina and a handful of small cavalry units to protect Bertie and Hertford counties. In explaining to North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance the loss at Mars Hill, the colonel wrote: "It is fifty-two miles from this point to the mouth of the Chowan and the enemy can land at almost any point. . . . You will readily see that it is actually impossible for me to protect so long a line with so small a force." Hinton also pointed out that local Unionists "familiar with the whole county" accompanied the Federal force to Mars Hill and enabled it to "march the entire distance from their gunboats without touching the main road," and so elude his pickets.
There was a lull in Yankee raiding beginning in April 1864, occasioned by the presence of the ironclad CSS Albemarle and the Confederate recapture of Plymouth. With the ship's destruction in late October, Union forces again captured Plymouth and prepared to move up the tributaries of Albemarle Sound.
On 1 December, Commander William H. Macomb issued orders for Commander Abner Davis Harrell, captain of the double-ender gunboat USS Chicopee, to conduct a raid up the Chowan "as far as you deem necessary, capturing cotton, cattle, and anything belonging to the enemy." If fired on, Harrell was instructed to "burn houses in the immediate vicinity." Macomb specified that the Chicopee was to return no later than 6 December.
In preparation for the expedition, the 240-foot gunboat took aboard a detachment of 126 Soldiers—Companies A and B of the 85th New York Infantry. The troops had been detached from the rest of the regiment when Confederates captured it at Plymouth in April. Presently awaiting reorganization at the military base on Roanoke Island, the companies were a good choice for the mission, as the 85th had participated in the January raids along the Chowan. Coincidentally, most of the Chicopee's crew also hailed from New York, where the ship had been built and commissioned. After embarking the Soldiers, the Chicopee anchored off the mouth of the Chowan at 2325 on 2 December.
The mission up the river had a specific purpose not indicated in Macomb's general instructions to Harrell. Acting on information that Fort Branch, the fortification on Rainbow Bluff, was held by only 500 Confederates, Major General Benjamin Butler had ordered Brigadier General Innis Palmer to work with the Navy to capture it, which would open the way for a Union advance on Weldon. Warning Palmer, "You are surrounded by spies," he instructed him to "let it be confidentially understood . . . that you are going up the Chowan [and it] will be sure to get to the enemy." While Harrell's expedition may have been a feint, it had a very real target: the Confederate commissary at Pitch Landing.
Located several miles west of Harrellsville, Pitch Landing in the prewar years was a small village where area produce was collected in warehouses for shipment. While a variety of goods were traded there, the predominance of naval stores?tar, turpentine, and pitch?gave the place its name.
The Union decision to target Pitch Landing was based on intelligence that it was an active Confederate supply point. This could have come from a local Unionist, a deserter, or an escaped slave. John O. Askew's Pitch Landing plantation, located on a rise above the west bank of Chinquapin Creek, was indeed the site of a Confederate commissary, but for how long is unknown. Captain Edward P. George, a quartermaster in the 49th North Carolina Infantry, served at Pitch Landing until 1863 and returned there sometime before September 1864. George submitted a report from the commissary in the middle of that month requesting clothing for his work force of 30 Negroes "and some light duty men supplied by the Conscript bureau." If Askew's farm, with warehouses either on the property or nearby, was used as a commissary since 1863, it was lucky to have escaped the attention of the Yankees until almost 1865.
Dawn on 4 December came at 0701. The Chicopee promptly weighed anchor and headed north up the Chowan with the first rays of the sun. In tow behind her were the steam launch Picket Boat No. 5 and a flatboat. At 1120, Harrell sent Acting Master C. C. Johnson and the Chicopee's dozen Marines under Orderly Sergeant William Potts in the picket boat up Wickacon Creek. An upstream branch of the Wickacon, Chinquapin Creek, led to Pitch Landing. With a crew of probably seven, the launch was skippered by Acting Ensign J. J. Chapman.
Since the Chicopee was unable to ascend the narrow, winding waters of Wickacon Creek, the bulk of the landing force disembarked to the north at Eure's Landing ten minutes later. Seventy Sailors under Lieutenant Edward A. Walker, Acting Ensign James A. Crossman, and Acting Master's Mate J. A. Belcher accompanied Lieutenant Colonel Will W. Clark and the men of the 85th New York. Also, Dr. G. L. Simpson voluntarily went ashore. With the assault force safely landed, the Chicopee dropped back downriver at 1430 and eventually anchored off Fisher's Landing. As the sun set just before 1700, Commander Harrell had the ship's battery manned and lookouts stationed. On board the gunboat, the night was quiet until 2345, when musket fire was heard to the west-northwest; the Sailors could do nothing but wait.
After having set out, the main landing force marched the nine miles to Pitch Landing, crossing Thomas Bridge over the Wickacon along the way, without incident. They arrived at the commissary around mid-afternoon, about the same time as the contingent of Marines. There does not seem to have been any fighting at Pitch Landing, perhaps because the few Confederates on hand were unaware Yankees were in the area. The only paper to report the raid, the North Carolina Times, claimed that a "company" of Rebel soldiers "guarding a lot of goods in transit for their army" was surprised. Navy records reported that seven prisoners were taken—but not Captain George, who posted a 23 December letter from Pitch Landing.
What the Yankees did seize was an immense quantity of goods intended for Lee's army. Harrel reported that captured "beef, pork, candles, etc., were marked with the United States brand, all of which it is said were received from Norfolk, Va." Loading 85 bales of cotton, the most valuable commodity taken, into ten wagons took much of the afternoon, and Colonel Clark elected to spend the night at Pitch Landing rather than risk moving along the heavily wooded roads in the dark.
The darkness, however, was welcome cover to Master's Mate Johnson's squad of Leathernecks. With almost 200 Soldiers and Sailors on hand, the dozen Marines would not have added significantly to the combat capability of the raiding party. The picket boat would be more vulnerable than the column on its return trip through an alerted countryside. Johnson waited until moonset, at 2241, and then set off down Chinquapin Creek.
At a quarter to midnight, as Picket Boat No. 5 approached Tar Landing on the Wickacon, she was ambushed by Confederate cavalrymen. This was the musketry heard by the Sailors on board the Chicopee. The gunboat's muster sheets list five Federals wounded during the two-day expedition. These men were most likely Marines and/or Sailors shot by the Rebel troopers. The Yankees, however, gave as good as they got—probably better, since the Union records claim "several rebels killed and wounded" in this brief skirmish—and the boat pushed on toward the Chowan. At some spot along the Wickacon, however, Chapman tied up his boat for the remainder of the night. Wounded men needed attending, and a heavy fog was rolling through the early-morning darkness making navigation impossible.
Back at Pitch Landing on the morning of 5 December, the main column put the Confederate warehouses to the torch. All the goods except the cotton were consigned to the flames and the horses and mules shot, save for the teams needed to haul the bales back to the river. The cotton was simply too valuable to be destroyed, and the Soldiers and Sailors were all due a share of its sale. Oddly, the raiders did not burn the Askew home. The warehouses were 700 yards from the home, perhaps distant enough to seem a separate and unrelated operation. Nevertheless, when the Yankees departed they were accompanied by 43 of John Askew's slaves.
The Union column moved north along the roads it had travelled the day before and after recrossing Thomas Bridge burned the span. By noon, the Yankees had arrived back at Eure's Landing with the wagonloads of cotton. The Chicopee, however, was not in sight.
The gunboat had set out upriver from her overnight anchorage at 0915, arriving off Eure's Landing a half-hour later. Seeing no sign of the Federal Sailors or Soldiers, Commander Harrell had the double-ender turned around, and she steamed back down the Chowan to search for Chapman's picket boat and the Marines. The ship waited off Fisher's Landing until noon and then returned to Eure's to find the main column. At some point, either on the gunboat's way northward or as she was re-embarking the large landing force, the launch steamed out of the Wickacon and reached the Chicopee.
The bales of cotton were loaded on the flatboat and the Chicopee, and the 43 freedmen and seven prisoners were escorted aboard the gunboat. The Federals then destroyed the ten wagons, which were no longer needed, and killed the horses and mules that had pulled them, which they did not have room to transport. By 1700 the Chicopee, with Picket Boat No. 5 and the flatboat again in tow, was under way and passing Fisher's Landing.
The procession halted off the mouth of the Roanoke at 2100, and Commander Harrell sent the picket boat to Plymouth with dispatches. A half-hour later, the Chicopee headed across Albemarle Sound toward Roanoke Island to return the infantry companies. Harrell would report that "perfect harmony existed between the two branches of the service during the whole expedition." In the early hours of 7 December, the double-ender dropped anchor off Plymouth; the commander had exceeding his deadline by several hours but was nonetheless in time for the Federal push up the Roanoke River. That effort, however, ended in failure after two Union vessels were sunk by torpedoes and the Confederates reinforced Fort Branch.
Northern newspapers never mentioned the Pitch Landing raid, and even in the minds of participants it was quickly eclipsed by subsequent events. But the facts that the combined operation involved only a relatively small number of men, did not result in a momentous battle, and was not attended by the usual horrible and lengthy casualty lists characteristic of Civil War operations do not diminish its value. Taken together, these types of raids had a serious impact on Southern resources, slowly but steadily draining the Confederacy of the means to wage war.
The use of U.S. Navy gunboats to deliver Sailors and Soldiers behind enemy lines and retrieve them before major enemy forces could be marshaled allowed the North to virtually strike at will, at little cost in lives to either side. Had this been done on a more consistent and larger scale, the story of the war might have been very different and much shorter.
Did the Pitch Landing raid make a difference? To Robert E. Lee's hungry and freezing soldiers in the trenches around Petersburg during the winter of 1864-65, it certainly did.
A Family Connection?Commander Abner D. Harrell may have been aware through personal contacts of the existence of Pitch Landing before the Civil War. The possibility exists that he was related to the wife of the area's principal landowner, John O. Askew. Harrell enlisted in the Navy from the state of Tennessee but had been born in Virginia. At that time, large concentrations of Harrells lived in northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, as well as a small group in Tennessee. Family genealogists acknowledge a relation between the eastern groups that predated the Revolutionary War. |
Withheld from Lee's ArmyConfederate supplies and equipment captured at |
Sources:
Author interviews with local historians: Maxine Blythe, president, Harrellsville Historical Society; Richard Taylor, postmaster, Harrellsville; Sally Koestler (www.sallysfamilyplace.com/pinetree.htm#Naval); Mike Parker; Dr. Raymond Jones; William Gillam.
Logbook of the U.S.S. Chicopee, December 2-7; National Archives & Records Administration, Washington DC (hereinafter NARA).
John Wheeler Moore, Historical Sketches of Hertford County (Winton, NC: Liberty Shield Press, 1998).
The New York Times, 4 December 1864, The Historic New York Times Project, http://www.nyt.ulib.org/index.cgi.
The North Carolina Times, New Bern, Saturday, 24 December 1864.
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vols. 49, 60, 88, 96, 108 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901).
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vols. 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1894-1922).
James D. and Rebecca Parker Pearce, The Poor Town News, http://www.poortown.com/.
Return of Provisions Received and Issued at Pitch Landing, NC, by CAPT E. P. George, NARA.
David Sullivan, The United States Marine Corps in the Civil War (Shippensburg, PA: White Man Publishing Co., 1998).
Gerald W. Thomas, Divided Allegiances: Bertie County During the Civil War (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives & History, 1996).