Blockade runner items on display
By From staff reports
Published in News on July 24, 2016 1:45 AM
KINSTON -- Weapons for delivery to the Confederate Army, bars of tin that weighted the ship for the ocean crossing and hand tools from England will be part of a temporary exhibit opening at the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center July 30.
In conjunction, the "Hands on History: Blockade" program will allow visitors to handle items from 1860s. The program will be 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
The artifacts were recovered from the blockade runner Modern Greece, which provided supplies from England to the Confederacy through the port of Wilmington during the Civil War. Blockade runners had to evade the shoreline barricade created by the Union Navy to make deliveries. The N.C. Underwater Archaeology Branch began recovery of the wrecked vessel in the 1960s, making North Carolina an early leader in the field. Artifacts from that collection will be exhibited at the center through December.
"Many of these items are similar to what blockade runners were carrying into the South throughout the entirety of the war," says Site Manager Matthew Young. "It's also very possible that objects like these were onboard Agnes Fry, the blockade runner recently discovered by the Underwater Archaeology Branch just off the coast near Wilmington."
Visitors will be able to handle items such as original imported glass bottles and English-made block and tackle. Staff will discuss the artifacts and share information about their importance, such as how lead ingots could be melted to make bullets.
The CSS Neuse is the only remaining commissioned Confederate ironclad above water. It was part of a new technology the Confederates used to combat the superior manpower and firepower of the Union Navy. Learn about this technological advance and warfare in eastern North Carolina at the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center. The Confederate Navy launched the CSS Neuse in an attempt to gain control of the lower Neuse River and New Bern, but ultimately destroyed the vessel to keep it out of Union hands.
The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center is located at 100 N. Queen St., Kinston, and open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-t p.m. Admission is adults, $5; senior/active military, $4; student (ages 3-12) $3; ages two and under free.
For additional information, call 252-526-9600, ext. 223.