NEW Civil War Park Opens in Ca Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Civil War Park Opens in Carolina Beach, N.C.
by Chris E. Fonvielle Jr. James Burriss, nineteenth cen tury farmer, waterman, and river pilot, could never have imagined that his land on Federal Point (modern Carolina Beach), North Carolina would be used as a Confederate encampment site in 1861, a Confederate defensive position in 1864, a battlefield 1865, and a Civil War park in 2021. But it was, it was, it was and it is. The Federal Point Historic Preservation Society and the Town of Carolina Beach held a grand opening ceremony for the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Civil War Park on February 11, 2021, the 151st anniversary of the Battle of Sugar Loaf in the 1865 Wilmington Campaign. Despite the ongoing viral pandemic and a cool, overcast day, 110 people attended the event including civic leaders, municipal officials, Federal Point Historic Preservation Society members, local historians, preservationis and Civil War enthusiasts. The last private owner of the property, across North Lake
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America’s Monthly Ne Beach Boulevard from Carolina Beach Town Hall, was the late Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. (1926–2010), a Carolina Beach resident, U.S. Army veteran, long-time employee of the U.S. Corps of Engineer and member of the Federal Point Historic Preservation Society. Keenly interested in the history the Lower Cape Fear, he donated approximately ten acres that fea ture Confederate earthworks of the so-called “Sugar Loaf lines” to the Town of Carolina Beach fo a public Civil War park. It took eight years of committee planning meetings, volunteer workers clearing thick vegetation that covered the proposed park grounds, an archaeological dig, and designing interpretive signs for the project to finally come to fruition. Eri Jelinski, Carolina Beach’s Parks and Recreation Director opened the proceedings, followed by remarks from Elaine Henson, president of the Federal Point Histo Preservation Society; Mayor LeAnn Pierce; and Leslie Bright, Park Committee Chair. “It was a great day for the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. family, Federal Point Historic Preservation Society, and the Town of Carolina Beach in opening the park and fulfilli
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ry Ann Lewis, and Elaine Henson , Carolina Beach, N.C., Feb. 11, of History, UNC Wilmington, then spoke on the importance of Wilmington and the Sugar Loaf lines during the Civil War. The parcel of land on which the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Park is now located belonged to James Burriss in 1861. North Carolina’ Adjutant General’s Office originally established Camp Wyatt (named for Pvt. Henry Lawson Wyatt, the first Tar Heel soldie killed in action during the War) on the tract in June 1861, before moving it further south thr months later. In October 1864, Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting, commander of the Department of the Cape Fear, ordered engineers to construct a line of heavy fieldworks as auxiliary defenses to Fort Fisher, ½ miles to the south, that would stretch from Sugar Loaf Hill, a fifty-foot high natural sand dun on the east bank of the Cape Fear River, eastward for about 1 ½ miles to Myrtle Grove Sound (modern Carolina Beach canal). Fort Fisher was the main guardian of Wilmington, N.C., the Confederacy’s last major seaport open to maritime trade with ARMS! 14 ed Fight 7
ibbon to open the . John Gregory. Europe, especially Great Britai and by late 1864, most importan city. Confederate spies reported that U.S. forces were organizing a joint army/navy operation to close Wilmington Harbor to blockade running by attacking Fort Fisher at New Inlet, the northern entryway into the Cape Fear River. For more than three years, Confederate commerce vessels had evaded, and continued to evade, U.S. Navy gunboats blockading the Cape Fear coast. At least 106 differ steamships and an undetermined number of sailing vessels had been employed as blockade-runners to smuggle vital military supplies for soldiers on the ba tlefront and domestic products for civilians on the home front into the Confederacy by way of Wilmington, far more than came into any other Southern seaport If a Union combined attack o Fort Fisher occurred, as appear increasingly likely, General Whiting determined to keep
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