Photo of the Day

Wrapped in the flag.

Fort Macon was built on the North Carolina coast after the War of 1812 to guard Beaufort harbor from attacks by pirates or enemy warships.

And, for a few decades, the US Army garrisoned troops at the Fort.

But then, as the threat of foreign warships subsided, Congress cut back on funding.

The Fort is disrepair.

The Fort fell into disrepair.

The troops left.

And, by the start of the Civil War, it was empty except for a 52-year-old ordnance sergeant and his wife who served there as caretakers.

Josiah S. Pender, Confederate commander who captured Fort Macon from its sole Union Army defender.

But Confederate commander Josiah Pender didn’t know these details.

And, when he arrived at the Fort with a North Carolina militia unit in April 1861, he expected to have to fight to seize it for the Confederacy.

Depiction of Union Gen. Burnside’s amphibious assault forces arriving at Roanoke Island at the start of the North Carolina campaign, Feb. 1862.

A Massachusetts soldier involved in the Union’s fight to reclaim the Fort a year later tells the story:¹

“After the war broke out and [the Confederates] were seizing the forts, a strong force of Confederates, with a great flourish of trumpets,

“presented themselves one morning at the sallyport of the fort, demanding its immediate and unconditional surrender.

“Now it happened that the only occupants of the fort were an old ordnance sergeant and his wife who had been in charge of the property for many years.

“The old sergeant came to the gate, and looking over the crowd, said to the officer in command that under the circumstances he thought the garrison might as well surrender,

“but he would like the privilege of taking the old flag and marching out with the honors of war.

‘To this the officer assented

“and the old sergeant hauled down the flag and winding it around him, he and his wife marched out, greatly to the surprise of the officer, who found that they two comprised the whole garrison.”

During the Great Depression, workers with the Civilian Conservation Corps restored the Fort and it is now a North Carolina state park.

The old sergeant and his wife were held in Beaufort for a year, until Union troops took the town.

And his gallant display of patriotism became a local legend.

******************************

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

1. Day, D. L. (David L.). My diary of rambles with the 25th Mass. volunteer infantry: with Burnside's coast division; 18th army corps, and Army of the James. 1884. 33BOK-0-669. East Carolina University Digital Collections. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/16786. Accessed 2 Jul. 2024.