History and Attractions • Tours • Sports and Recreation • Shopping

First Battle of Kinston 1862 &
Battle of Wyse Fork 1865 Battlefields

First Battle of Kinston - One block south of U.S. 70 East at the corner of Meadowbrook and Harriet Drives.
Battle of Wyse Fork - Hwy 70 East toward New Bern near the community of Wyse Fork
(252) 523-2500; (252) 522-0540
Hours: Dawn until dusk
Admission: Free
historicalpreservationgroup.org

In the twilight of a December night, the sounds you hear might be a breeze tickling the grass, or the long lost voices of Confederate and Union soldiers fighting to the death. The bloody First Battle of Kinston began on Dec. 10, 1862 and left 685 people dead after 3,000 Confederates faced 20,000 Union troops. Now you can walk this hallowed ground.

A plaza on the battlefield displays the U.S. flag flanked on either side by the Confederate and Union flags flown at the time of the battle. A walking path tops a berm, and along the side are markers for each state whose soldiers fought in the battle, along with the state’s regiments.

The battlefield is part of the North Carolina Civil War Trails program, which helps provide historical markers to interpret campaign sites and corridors of the Civil War.
The Second Battle of Kinston, often called the Battle of Wyse Fork, was fought March 7-10, 1865, near Southwest Creek. Confederate forces numbered 8,500 against 12,000 Union troops as the federal army advanced from New Bern toward Goldsboro. Their goal was to secure the New Bern-Goldsboro Railroad so it could supply Gen. William T. Sherman’s army. The battle left 1,500 Confederates and 1,001 Union casualties.

At present, 56 acres of earthworks are preserved.

Self-guided driving tour brouchures for both Wyse Fork battlefield and First Battle of Kinston battlefield are available online and in printed form.

CSS Neuse Museum

100 N. Queen St.
(252) 522-2091
Hours: 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Thursdays
Admission: Free

Historians have learned much about Confederate Navy life from other artifacts salvaged from the CSS Neuse. Museum visitors can see coal rakes used to keep the coal evenly burning in the boat’s huge boilers, cannonballs, ammunition shells, a belt buckle, wrenches, files, shovels, sockets, the cook’s stove, the bell from the CSS Neuse and an intact bottle of Lea and Perrin’s Worcestershire sauce. A rare English-made cuff button from an officer’s coat, a button bearing the N.C. state seal and another with the Confederate Navy emblem are among the treasures on display.
A wall plaque offers information on some of the boat’s crew members, including Capt. Joseph Price and 2nd Lt. Richard Bacot. Also on the wall are photos showing the rescue operation undertaken to bring the CSS Neuse up from its watery grave in the Neuse River.
A cut-out scale model of the boat gives visitors a birds-eye view of life aboard a Civil War gunboat, and a video presents a history of the boat.

CSS Neuse State Site and Gov. Richard Caswell Museum

2613 W. Vernon Ave.
(U.S. 70 Bus.)
(252) 522-2091
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays
Admission: Free
www.nchistoricsites.org/neuse/neuse.htm

The story of Richard Caswell’s life is memorialized in a museum at the state site bearing his name. Caswell was a Revolutionary War hero, North Carolina’s first elected governor and a prominent businessman. He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and only ill health prevented him from becoming a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
* * *
One of only three remaining Civil War ironclads, the CSS Neuse was a ram, designed to collide with, and sink enemy boats. Free guided tours of the remnants of the ship are available at the site. She was built in nearby Whitehall, now Seven Springs, just a short distance away. Confederate Naval Cmdr. James W. Cook, a native North Carolinian, oversaw her construction as well as that of the CSS Albemarle and an unnamed ironclad in Tarboro. Iron confiscated from Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad Company tracks between Kinston and New Bern was rolled into plates and used to cover the boat. The propeller and shafts were made in the Confederate Naval Yard in Charlotte. The boiler is believed to have come from the Baltimore and Ohio No. 34 train, and her engine from a saw mill in New Bern.
The story of the boat’s construction, her short life and her eventual 100-year sleep beneath the waters of the Neuse River is a captivating one. You’ll learn why N.C. Gov. Zebulon Vance allowed railroads to be plundered for iron, why construction was delayed so long, how Union sailors nearly captured the coveted ironclad and why it finally sank with an 8-foot hole in its port side.

CSS Neuse II

Corner of Herritage and Gordon Streets
(252) 523-1954
Hours: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday;
9 a.m-5 p.m. Saturday;
1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday
Admission: Free. Donations appreciated
cssneusefoundation.com

Visit the world’s only full-sized facsimile of a Confederate gunboat to realize what a sailor’s life was like during the Civil War. The project is under the direction of master shipbuilder Alton Stapleford, who is often at the site when visitors tour the boat. The 158-foot long boat draws visitors from across the United States and from foreign countries. If you’re fortunate, you may visit the Neuse II while teens train as Confederate naval cadets.
The boat rests a scant distance from the “cat hole” in the Neuse River where the original ironclad gunboat was fitted with iron plating.

Caswell Center Museum

2415 W. Vernon Ave.
(252) 208-3780
Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, and by appointment
Admission: Free
caswellcenter.org

The Stroud House, home to the Caswell Center Museum, built in the late 1800s once was the main house of a plantation. In 1911, thanks to Dr. Ira Hardy, it opened as the state’s first residential facility for mental retardation patients. Touring the museum gives visitors a glimpse into treatment methods used nearly a century ago.

Caswell No. 1 Fire Station Museum

118 S. Queen St.
(252) 522-4676; (252) 527-1566
Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue., Thur., Sat.
Admission: Free

Almost every man, at some time in his youth, yearned to be a fireman, riding on the back of a red fire truck and ringing the bell to tell everyone within hearing distance that help was on the way. See some of the late 19th century’s fire equipment, including a truck that was on the scene during Kinston’s devastating fire of 1895 that destroyed nearly all downtown homes and businesses. The building, on the National Register of Historic Places, is the city’s original fire station and the oldest brick structure in Kinston.

Community Council for
The Arts

400 N. Queen St.
(252) 527-2517
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Tuesday-Friday;
10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday;
Admission: Free
kinstoncca.com

Art lovers won’t want to miss a stop at the building now housing one of the finest arts centers in the state. The state-of-the-art 30,000-square-foot center is today on the National Register of Historic Places. Visual art occupies one-third of the space, with exhibits changing every six to eight weeks. As many as 300 works by up to 200 local, regional, national and international artists are on display at any given time. A large, detailed train display is part of the permanent exhibit, and runs from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every first and fourth Saturday of the month.

Harmony Hall

109 E. King St.
(252) 522-0421
Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.,
Tue.-Sat.
Admission: Free

Jesse Cobb built this colonial showplace in 1772, four years before the American colonies’ war for independence. Richard Caswell, Revolutionary War hero and North Carolina’s first elected governor, once owned the house and for a brief time it became the state’s capital, housing important records and accounts. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Harmony Hall is lovingly restored and furnished with meticulous attention to detail. Many original features, such as brickwork and moldings, are examples of work by early Kinston craftsmen. A garden features flowers and plants indigenous to the area and appropriate to the age of the house. A turn of the century schoolhouse sits at the rear of the property, complete with desks and blackboards.

Heritage Place

231 N.C. 58 South on the Lenoir Community College campus
(252) 527-6223 ext. 508
Hours: 9 a.m-5 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays;
9 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays
9 a.m.-3 p.m. Fridays
Admission: Free
lenoircc.edu/nsite/lrc/heritage/home.htm

You won’t find a better collection of historical information about eastern North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina than at Heritage Place. Walking into the room is like taking a step back in time. Pick up a family tree packet and trace your roots. Read priceless family notes and records donated to the center, as well as wills, deeds and vital statistics. You can even study U.S. Census reports from 1790 to 1930, or local newspaper records from 1855 through current issues. Online help from Ancestery.com and HeritageQuest is available.

La Grange Arts Center

102 W. Railroad St.
La Grange, NC 28551
(252) 566-3740
Hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesdays & Saturdays; Tuesdays for classes;
Admission: Free

Housed in the historic Commodore Barrow House, built circa 1905, the La Grange Arts Center serves as a cultural center hosting exhibits, craft shows, and art classes. The center, the first brick home in La Grange, today includes exhibit areas, a studio for classes, a clay room and kiln. There is also an updated kitchen for catered affairs. Visitors may also enjoy architectural details original to the home including a beautifully “grained” staircase and hall woodwork as well as a Eastlake frieze dividing the front and back hall.

Maplewood-Hebrew-Cedar Grove Cemeteries

Shine and Davis Streets
Hours: Dawn until dusk
Admission: Free

The city’s oldest municipally-owned cemetery is a 21-acre treasure of unique monuments on graves dating back more than a century and a half. Many members of Kinston’s leading families are buried here, and some tombstones date back to the 1840s. One area contains a large mass grave of Confederate soldiers who died during the Battle of Kinston in 1862. The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the original monument 30 years later.

The Walk of Honor

Off Herritage St. in Tiffany West/Neuseway Park
(252) 522-0517
Hours: Dawn until dusk
Admission: Free
walkofhonor.com

The Walk of Honor is a permanent commemorative walkway that is paved with bricks engraved with the names of honored men and women who have served our great country. It parallels the picturesque Neuse River as it winds its way through the beautifully landscaped Tiffany West and Neuseway Veteran’s Park. Along the way small sitting areas and memorials will afford quiet places for reflection and tribute.