Traces of the Occupation

 

Not all Civil War relics are buttons or bayonets.

Root Hog or Die. No. 5. (excerpt). New York: H. De Marsan, c.1862.

by John B. Green III

The Union Army, in its more than four-year-long occupation of New Bern, created tens of thousands of printed documents.  These documents were almost exclusively military in nature: printed orders, reports, and forms for every conceivable purpose. There was another category of printed items, however, which were privately produced: programs for plays and concerts put on by the soldiers, handbills of humorous or patriotic poetry, and memorial volumes for individual soldiers who had died in the line of duty.  What follows is a selection of such items from the collections of the Kellenberger Room.

Root Hog or Die. No. 5. New York: H. De Marsan, c.1862.  Comic poem, "By a Blue-Jacket," concerning the capture of eastern North Carolina.

Root Hog or Die (enlargment)

Genl. Burnside's Victory March, Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., 1862.  Sheet music celebrating Burnside's victory at New Bern.

Vincent Colyer, Report of the Services rendered by the Freed People to the United States Army, in North Carolina, in the Spring of 1862.  New York: author, 1864.  Account by Vincent Colyer, Superintendent of the Poor, concerning his work with the freed slaves of New Bern and vicinity.

G.H. Sutherland, There is no Place like Home, n.p., 1862.  Sentimental poem about the author's home in the North.

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William A. Stearns, Adjutant Stearns, Boston: Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 1862. Memorial volume for First Lieutenant Frazar A. Stearns, Company I, Twenty-first Massachusetts Infantry. Stearns, the son of the president of Amherst College,  was killed during the Battle of New Bern, March 14, 1862.

A New Bernian speaks her mind.

A tale from the Union Occupation

Carolina and the Southern Cross, November 1912, p.11.

Mrs. Polly Chadwick, an original character with a keen sense of humor, was an elderly widow who had to use her wit as well as her common sense to help herself over many a rough place.  She could cajole Gen. Burnside and obtain her point.  For instance, she would say, "Well, General, if you will guess my riddle it will show you what a time I have had chasing your thieves around."  Then the riddle:  "Through a rock, and through a reel, through an old spinning wheel, though a sheep's shank bone, such a riddle never was known."  Burnside generally gave it up and gave up anything else that Mrs. Polly requested.

One day Mrs. Polly saw Foster's soldiers drumming a man out of the army with great ceremony.  A huge board showing the word "Thief," was strapped to the man's back.  "Hoity toity!" said Mrs. Polly, "what has the poor fellow done?"  "He has been stealing," replied the soldier, "he is a thief."  "Why, man alive," exclaimed Mrs. Polly with admiration, "You have undertaken a mighty big task, for if you drum all the thieves out of your army you'll not be able to find trees enough in North Carolina to furnish the boards to their backs."



[Note: Although the exact identity of Mrs. Polly Chadwick is not known, she may have been the Mrs. Mary "Polly" Chadwick, widow of John Chadwick, who died in New Bern on April 7, 1884, aged 83 years.  Her obituary reads in part, "Mrs. Polly Chadwick, as she was familiarly known, was a universal favorite with the citizens of this city.  Her genial nature, frank and candid demeanor, and jovial disposition claimed the admiration of all who were brought in contact with her, and it may be truly said that, none knew her but to love her."  Sounds to this blogger like someone who may have been able to stand up to a Union general. - John B. Green III]