First Wednesdays – Confederate Coastal Carolina responds to occupying forces

A previous blog post highlighted the actions of a group of junior military officers in deciding to abandon a few isolated outposts on North Carolina’s coast.  Inner coastal communities, those towns and counties bordering North Carolina’s extensive sounds and rivers, also took actions to deal with the pending threat of attack from United States forces.  Concerned citizens from many inner coastal towns and counties organized Committees of Safety.  These three letters illuminate the response of one river harbor, Washington, N.C., to that danger.  The letters portray the underlying apprehension of Unionism in these communities.  The first letter mentions the “perfect indifference” of some citizens to the possibility of invasion and blames the old Whig party for the influence.  The second letter touches on the same concern stating that if no defense is offered the city then some people will turn to the United States forces for protection.  The third letter indicates the hope of the Committee of Safety that the recent actions of the Governor will “suppress the fullness of dissatisfaction” in the county.  The United States forces occupying the Hatteras Inlet area created similar concerns for all inner coastal areas from Carteret County in the south to Chowan County in the northeast.

Governor’s Correspondence: three letters from Beaufort County’s Civil War era Committee of Safety, Sept. 7-27, 1861