Mount Olive Tribune NC

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Serving Southern Wayne and Northern Duplin Counties

410 NW Center St. • Mount Olive, NC 28365 • Telephone 919-658-9456 • Fax 919-658-9559

Battle of White Hall re-enactors avoid Yankee guns, but not 100-degree heat

12 June 2008 – By William Holloman, staff writer
Triple digit heat made last Saturday the hottest day of the year at the time and forced Civil War enthusiasts and fewer than expected spectators to find shade trees or even leave for cooler climate.

It had been tagged the eighth annual reenactment of the Civil War Battle of White Hall, a battle that left the town burned by Union troops in December of 1862.

The event is sponsored each year by the Seven Springs Area Historical Commission.

Organizers this year were Bobby and Karen Mozingo, both residents of this small, riverside community that is Wayne County’s oldest municipality.
Battle reenactments were staged at 2 p.m. and again at 9 p.m., but the heat forced many of the participants to leave early.

Many returned for the night battle.

However, Ms. Mozingo said plans are already in the making for a time change.

The annual event next year will not be held during June, July, or August, she said.

Ms. Mozingo, in full period dress, sat in the shade of a tent where period memorabilia was being sold.

She said less than 100 turned out due to the heat.

She said something has to be changed so it won’t be too hot or too cold.
The actual Battle of White Hall raged several days before Christmas in 1862.

Union artillery rained terror down on the Confederate troops that were hunkered down on the North side of the Neuse River.

The Union canon fire rocked the town again Saturday afternoon, but not with the terror that once left widespread misery.

Ms. Mozingo said many reenactors are getting on up in age and simply cannot stand the heat.

It dwindled this year to about half the participants, and those braving the excessive heat were in heavy period uniform of wool, along with battle gear.

She said the heat was so intense most left, but many returned for the night event.

“I didn’t count them, but I looked around and there was a good little crowd. Made it all worthwhile,” she said.

The night event lasted about a half hour.

BATTLE OF WHITE HALL- Confederate Civil War Reenactors l-r, 14-year-old Jarrett Reed of Dunn, and Jordon Houston of LaGrange, slow down for a moment prior to engaging in a reenactment of the 1862 Battle of White Hall at Seven Springs last Saturday afternoon. Note the heavy wool clothing and battle gear. It intensified the sweltering heat as the temperature hit triple digits. Reed and Houston are members of the North Carolina Naval Squadron that served aboard the CSS Albemarle, a Civil War ship. staff photo/WILLIAM HOLLOMAN

The actual battle: A hollow Union victory

By John Cate
staff writer
Compared to some other Civil War battles, the Battle of White Hall was little more than a skirmish, but it was part of a larger campaign which had a major influence on the Civil War in the eastern theatre.

During 1861 and early 1862, the Union forces had managed to occupy much of the coastal region of North Carolina, and would hold it for the duration of the war. Only Wilmington, with its powerful defenses at Fort Fisher, remained in Confederate hands.

Unable to take Wilmington and cut off Robert E. Lee’s dearly needed supplies of ammunition and food that came through its port, the Union turned its attention to trying to cut the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, which delivered supplies from Wilmington and the Deep South to the Army of Northern Virginia. The ideal target for stopping this traffic would be to advance from Union-held New Bern to Goldsborough (as it was spelled then), a major depot on the Wilmington & Weldon.

In December 1862, a Union force of approximately 4,500 men under Brigadier Gen. John H. Foster advanced from New Bern. On Dec. 14, they defeated a weaker Confederate force under Brig. Gen. Nathan Evans near Kinston, forcing them to fall back over the Neuse River. Two days later, the two forces clashed again at White Hall, where Foster used part of his force to hold the Confederates in place while he slipped northward with the rest of it.

If one can trust the official Confederate account of the battle, the defenders got the better of the fighting at White Hall, even if Evans did get past them. A total of 126 Union dead were reported on the field, while the Confederates had losses of just 10 killed and 42 wounded out of a force of 1,500 troops.

The next day, Dec. 17, Foster reached a railroad bridge near Goldsborough, defeated another Confederate brigade under Brig. Gen. Thomas Clingman, and destroyed the bridge and much of the track in the area. However, Foster didn’t believe he had enough strength to capture and hold Goldsborough itself, and he soon withdrew back to New Bern. At the time, Lee’s army was struggling to get enough food for its 70,000 men, even though it had just won a brilliant victory at Fredericksburg. In fact, he soon had to send 15,000 men to the Tidewater region of Virginia because he couldn’t feed them. But the failure of the Union force to capture Goldsborough meant that Lee’s army received just enough supplies to continue successfully defending the Confederate capital of Richmond.

Despite the Union successes that winter, the railroad was soon repaired and returned to service. The Confederates managed to hold Goldsborough against several other Union incursions over the next two and a half years. It wasn’t until March 23, 1865, when William T. Sherman’s Union army reached the Old North State, that Goldsborough finally was captured. By then, it mattered little, since Fort Fisher and Wilmington had surrendered two months prior, on Jan. 15, 1865.