Gypsy Heart
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Fayetteville Arsenal's secrets slowly being unraveled
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=237175
By Don Worthington
David Reid of the Museum of the Cape Fear displays three Civil War-era rifles. He is holding the latest addition to the museum’s collection, a rifle made in 1861.
The mystery of the Fayetteville Arsenal continues to intrigue historians, 141 years after Union Gen. William Sherman ordered it destroyed.
Historians cull clues about the arsenal’s past from letters, maps and reports filed and forgotten in museums and archives. They scan online auctions, looking for period letters and other accounts.
A letter listing the names of Civil War armorers arriving at or leaving Fayetteville can generate much interest.
Imagine the excitement when historians can wrap their hands — carefully protected by white gloves — around a clue.
Historians at the Museum of the Cape Fear are doing just that as they study a rifle made here in 1861 and an artist’s interpretation of what was left after the Yankees burned the arsenal in 1865.
The challenge is to take these artifacts and “give them life, connect them to a face or a person,” said David Reid, the museum’s administrator.
Arsenal workers made more than 10,000 rifles during the Civil War. The museum already had two Fayetteville rifles, one made in 1862, the other in 1864.
The recently acquired 1861 rifle has subtle differences from its counterparts. It is missing the stamp “Fayetteville, CSA” found on later models. And the rifle-maker’s allegiances are evident on the butt plate at the end of the stock.
The plate was originally stamped with the letters “U.S.” at the Harper Ferry arsenal. A worker at the Fayetteville arsenal stamped a “C” over the “U.”
What intrigues museum staff members the most are initials carved or scratched into the rifle’s wooden stock.
“J.A.” is neatly carved into the rifle’s stock.
Near the firing mechanism are fainter scratchings. There are the initials “PB,” most likely Phillip Burkhart, the master armorer at the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. He followed the arsenal’s machinery from Virginia to North Carolina.
Even fainter are the initials “A.M.” and either “51” or “57 NC.”
Museum historians are searching records of the 51st and 57th North Carolina regiments to find matches for the initials.
The 51st was formed in Wilmington and included men from Cumberland, Columbus, Robeson, Sampson and adjoining counties. The 57th was formed in Salisbury.
Both units saw extensive action in the Carolinas as well as Virginia.
The 51st was among the units at Fort Wagner outside Charleston. Soldiers from the 51st helped repel the attack of the 54th Massachusetts, the all-black regiment featured in the movie “Glory.”
The museum purchased the 1861 rifle from a dealer in New Bern for about $12,500. It awaits work at the North Carolina Museum of History, where dirt and rust will be removed.
The rifle will then return to the Museum of the Cape Fear. Museum officials hope to revamp their Civil War displays to include more information on the arsenal.
“Our goal is to show how the rifle was produced, how it changed during the war,” Reid said.
Museum officials also hope to find more clues about how the Confederates expanded the arsenal, adding blacksmith and carpentry shops and other munition operations.
“This was the Fort Bragg of its time,” Reid said.
Utter destruction
When Sherman captured Fayetteville in March 1865, he ordered: “I will destroy the arsenal utterly. Since I cannot leave a guard to hold it, I therefore shall burn it, blow it up with gunpowder and then with rams knock down its walls.”
Accounts of the time suggest his troops followed his orders.
When Nena Morrow sat down to paint her version of the destroyed arsenal, she took some artistic liberties.
She painted a single tower still standing, surrounded by several trees.
The painting has been part of the North Carolina Museum of History’s collection since 1913. It is one of two Morrow paintings the museum owns.
Local museum officials learned that the state had the painting when they asked for a photograph of it. They wanted it for an exhibit on archaeology at the arsenal site.
“When we requested the photo, they asked if we also wanted the painting,” Reid said.
Like the rifle, the painting offers cryptic clues.
The museum staff did not know much about Morrow, the painter. But they did know that Helen Poe, one of the eight children of Fayetteville brickmaker E.A. Poe, had attended The Home School, operated by a Mrs. Morrow at 623 Hay Street.
Mrs. Morrow was Fannie J. Morrow, Nena’s mother. Nena taught at the school. The Poe House, where E.A. Poe’s children were raised, is now part of the museum complex.
Nena Morrow’s father was Dr. William Morrow, a surgeon. He died Sept. 19, 1868, after a duel at the Fayetteville Hotel on Hay Street.
He and Robert Winship Stedman had argued following an out-of-town political convention.
Dr. Morrow shot Stedman in the heart. Stedman shot Morrow in the chest and thigh. Both men died.
Stedman fought in the battle of Fort Wagner as a member of the 61st North Carolina Infantry. He is credited with firing an abandoned cannon, stopping a Yankee boat. “There was no braver soldier among the hosts of the Confederate army than Robert Winship Stedman,” wrote the Wilmington Journal after the battle.
Fannie Morrow lived to be 101, dying in 1936. Her obituary described her as “one of the most beloved women of Fayetteville.”
Nena Morrow taught French and Spanish at the State Normal School and Industrial College in Greensboro.
It is not known when she painted the Arsenal picture.
Her artistic abilities were reviewed by the Revue du Vrai et du Beau of Paris in 1924. Her works — “Murmuring Eno,” “Gift” and “Harbour” — had a “keen zest for colour,” and her technique was “pleasing with a very pleasing modern accent and powerful originality,” wrote reviewer Comte Chabrier.
Cape Fear Museum officials are unsure whether Morrow’s painting will return to Fayetteville. A copy may be commissioned and displayed at the Poe House, Reid said.
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=237175
By Don Worthington
David Reid of the Museum of the Cape Fear displays three Civil War-era rifles. He is holding the latest addition to the museum’s collection, a rifle made in 1861.
The mystery of the Fayetteville Arsenal continues to intrigue historians, 141 years after Union Gen. William Sherman ordered it destroyed.
Historians cull clues about the arsenal’s past from letters, maps and reports filed and forgotten in museums and archives. They scan online auctions, looking for period letters and other accounts.
A letter listing the names of Civil War armorers arriving at or leaving Fayetteville can generate much interest.
Imagine the excitement when historians can wrap their hands — carefully protected by white gloves — around a clue.
Historians at the Museum of the Cape Fear are doing just that as they study a rifle made here in 1861 and an artist’s interpretation of what was left after the Yankees burned the arsenal in 1865.
The challenge is to take these artifacts and “give them life, connect them to a face or a person,” said David Reid, the museum’s administrator.
Arsenal workers made more than 10,000 rifles during the Civil War. The museum already had two Fayetteville rifles, one made in 1862, the other in 1864.
The recently acquired 1861 rifle has subtle differences from its counterparts. It is missing the stamp “Fayetteville, CSA” found on later models. And the rifle-maker’s allegiances are evident on the butt plate at the end of the stock.
The plate was originally stamped with the letters “U.S.” at the Harper Ferry arsenal. A worker at the Fayetteville arsenal stamped a “C” over the “U.”
What intrigues museum staff members the most are initials carved or scratched into the rifle’s wooden stock.
“J.A.” is neatly carved into the rifle’s stock.
Near the firing mechanism are fainter scratchings. There are the initials “PB,” most likely Phillip Burkhart, the master armorer at the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. He followed the arsenal’s machinery from Virginia to North Carolina.
Even fainter are the initials “A.M.” and either “51” or “57 NC.”
Museum historians are searching records of the 51st and 57th North Carolina regiments to find matches for the initials.
The 51st was formed in Wilmington and included men from Cumberland, Columbus, Robeson, Sampson and adjoining counties. The 57th was formed in Salisbury.
Both units saw extensive action in the Carolinas as well as Virginia.
The 51st was among the units at Fort Wagner outside Charleston. Soldiers from the 51st helped repel the attack of the 54th Massachusetts, the all-black regiment featured in the movie “Glory.”
The museum purchased the 1861 rifle from a dealer in New Bern for about $12,500. It awaits work at the North Carolina Museum of History, where dirt and rust will be removed.
The rifle will then return to the Museum of the Cape Fear. Museum officials hope to revamp their Civil War displays to include more information on the arsenal.
“Our goal is to show how the rifle was produced, how it changed during the war,” Reid said.
Museum officials also hope to find more clues about how the Confederates expanded the arsenal, adding blacksmith and carpentry shops and other munition operations.
“This was the Fort Bragg of its time,” Reid said.
Utter destruction
When Sherman captured Fayetteville in March 1865, he ordered: “I will destroy the arsenal utterly. Since I cannot leave a guard to hold it, I therefore shall burn it, blow it up with gunpowder and then with rams knock down its walls.”
Accounts of the time suggest his troops followed his orders.
When Nena Morrow sat down to paint her version of the destroyed arsenal, she took some artistic liberties.
She painted a single tower still standing, surrounded by several trees.
The painting has been part of the North Carolina Museum of History’s collection since 1913. It is one of two Morrow paintings the museum owns.
Local museum officials learned that the state had the painting when they asked for a photograph of it. They wanted it for an exhibit on archaeology at the arsenal site.
“When we requested the photo, they asked if we also wanted the painting,” Reid said.
Like the rifle, the painting offers cryptic clues.
The museum staff did not know much about Morrow, the painter. But they did know that Helen Poe, one of the eight children of Fayetteville brickmaker E.A. Poe, had attended The Home School, operated by a Mrs. Morrow at 623 Hay Street.
Mrs. Morrow was Fannie J. Morrow, Nena’s mother. Nena taught at the school. The Poe House, where E.A. Poe’s children were raised, is now part of the museum complex.
Nena Morrow’s father was Dr. William Morrow, a surgeon. He died Sept. 19, 1868, after a duel at the Fayetteville Hotel on Hay Street.
He and Robert Winship Stedman had argued following an out-of-town political convention.
Dr. Morrow shot Stedman in the heart. Stedman shot Morrow in the chest and thigh. Both men died.
Stedman fought in the battle of Fort Wagner as a member of the 61st North Carolina Infantry. He is credited with firing an abandoned cannon, stopping a Yankee boat. “There was no braver soldier among the hosts of the Confederate army than Robert Winship Stedman,” wrote the Wilmington Journal after the battle.
Fannie Morrow lived to be 101, dying in 1936. Her obituary described her as “one of the most beloved women of Fayetteville.”
Nena Morrow taught French and Spanish at the State Normal School and Industrial College in Greensboro.
It is not known when she painted the Arsenal picture.
Her artistic abilities were reviewed by the Revue du Vrai et du Beau of Paris in 1924. Her works — “Murmuring Eno,” “Gift” and “Harbour” — had a “keen zest for colour,” and her technique was “pleasing with a very pleasing modern accent and powerful originality,” wrote reviewer Comte Chabrier.
Cape Fear Museum officials are unsure whether Morrow’s painting will return to Fayetteville. A copy may be commissioned and displayed at the Poe House, Reid said.
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