Occupied New Bern

A generous donation helps to illuminate the Civil War history of New Bern

"Company D's Quarters at New Berne While Doing Provost Duty" from Albert W. Mann, History of the Forty-Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, Boston: author, 1908

by John B. Green III

Here in the Kellenberger Room, we have long known that a valuable source for New Bern's history as a Union Army-occupied town are the many regimental histories published in the North after the war.  One researcher has compiled a list of more than 120 Northern state regiments or detached units, which served in New Bern during the course of the war. They came from nineteen states and their stay in or around New Bern varied from one month to three years. Only a small number of these regiments ever published histories but we have endeavored to acquire as many of these volumes as we could. A recent donation by the family of the late Dr. Graham A. Barden, Jr. has added considerably to our collection of these regimental histories.

Dr. Graham A. Barden, Jr. (1924-2018), beloved New Bern pediatrician, had many interests including the study of the Civil War history of New Bern and eastern North Carolina.  In the course of his Civil War studies he acquired a valuable reference library. We were recently given the opportunity to select a number of volumes from his collection for use in the Kellenberger Room. These included Union regimental histories, some Southern items, and general works on the Civil War.

We are truly grateful to the Barden family for this generous donation. We depend on such donations to increase and improve our collections in the Kellenberger Room so that we may better serve the public.

While these volumes have not been cataloged and are not yet available for use, we here include photographs of a selection of the older items.

"The day was a perfect one" - the launch of the Charles G. Blades

Treasures from the Kellenberger Room

Featuring books, pamphlets, photographs, documents, and the occasional object from the collections of the New Bern-Craven County Public Library

by John B. Green III

New Bern's maritime history is long and extensive.  Anytime we can acquire a photograph or document illustrating some portion of this history we tend to jump at the chance.  Two years ago we secured a photograph album of views of New Bern taken by an unknown photographer about 1901.  Two of photos in the album are believed to show the launching of the lumber barge Charles G. Blades, an event which drew hundreds of people to the Neuse River waterfront on January 16, 1901.  A detailed account of the launching of what was said to be the largest vessel ever built in the state appeared in the New Bern Daily Journal the following day.

The Blades was constructed for the Blades Lumber Company at its mill located between Johnson and King streets, just north of the Neuse River bridge.  Named for company vice-president Charles G. Blades, the vessel measured 175 feet long with a beam of 28 feet 8 inches, depth of hold of 12 feet 6 inches, draft of three feet, and was capable of carrying 500,000 board-feet of lumber.  On the day of the launching scores of people clambered aboard for the brief trip down the ways and hundreds more crowded the nearby bridge and adjacent shore and wharves.  Ivy Blades, daughter of W.B. Blades, company president, broke a bottle of water across the bow while christening the vessel the Charles G. Blades.  The lumber barge began its slide into the river to the cheers of the crowd and a salute from the U.S. Revenue Cutter Boutwell.  The momentum of the launch carried the Blades nearly half way across the river before the ship was taken in tow by a tug and returned to the dock.

Citizens gathered on board the vessel before the launch.
The Neuse River bridge can be seen to the right.

The Locomotive

Treasures from the Kellenberger Room

Featuring books, pamphlets, photographs, documents, and the occasional object from the collections of the New Bern-Craven County Public Library

by John B. Green III

New Bern has seen more than fifty newspapers published over the years from James Davis’s North Carolina Gazette of 1751 to the Sun Journal of today.  The Kellenberger Room maintains a microfilm library of most of these papers as well as access to internet collections of New Bern and North Carolina newspapers.  We also have original issues of some of these papers including bound volumes of the early-19th century Carolina Centinel and scattered issues of other 19th and 20th century New Bern papers.  These are generally not available for research because of their fragile condition and patrons are referred to the microfilm or internet editions.

One of the most interesting of the original New Bern newspapers in our collection is the only issue known to survive of a humor and literary newspaper entitled The Locomotive.   Published in New Bern in 1856 by A.R. Raven, editor and proprietor, it bears the image of an early locomotive above the slightly alarming mottos “Cry aloud and Spare not” and “Let Justice be done though a Thousand fall!”  A prospectus published on page three proclaims The Locomotive to be “a lively newspaper, published in Newbern, semi-monthly, on a sheet containing 16 columns” and “will always contain the best of tales, anecdotes, poetry original and selected, witty Editorials, &c., &c.,  - It is the intention of the proprietor to make the ‘Locomotive’ a welcome visitor in every circle, and to carry cheerfulness to the gloomiest hearth.”  Editor Raven may have chosen the name Locomotive as a nod to the 1855 chartering of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad which would bring regular rail travel to New Bern in 1858.

The identity of A.R. Raven, editor and proprietor, has not been determined, although it is possible that he may have been the Alexander R. Raven (1838-1901), North Carolina Methodist minister, whose mother Elizabeth A. Caraway was from New Bern.  Raven was converted “while a young man” at a revival at New Bern’s Centenary Methodist Church and entered the ministry in 1860.  If he was the editor of The Locomotive he would have been about eighteen years old at the time, perhaps accounting for the level of “humor” displayed therein.

The Storm of '33

By John B. Green III

With the approach of Hurricane Joaquin, now is as good a time as any to share some photographs of the damage done to eastern North Carolina by a previous hurricane, the Great Storm of 1933.  The photos are from a newspaper supplement published by the Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia newspapers - A Pictorial Record of Tidewater's Worst Storm . . . North Carolina Edition: Story of Storm's Damage in North Carolina September 16, 1933.  The four-page interior section contains photos of North Carolina's September 1933 hurricane, many of which have not been seen since that time. 

The Great Storm of '33 ravaged eastern North Carolina September 15th and 16th with winds estimated at 125 mph and storm surge levels higher than any ever recorded.  Carteret County was especially hard hit, as was New Bern and almost all areas along the sounds of North Carolina.  Damage in New Bern alone was estimated at more than $1 million.  It's no wonder that local folks thereafter gauged subsequent hurricanes against the Storm of '33.