CHAPTER 5              THE SECESSION OF NORTH CAROLINA REPORTS            477

No. 4.

Reports of Capt. John U. Foster, U. S. Engineers, of the second seizure of

Forts Caswell and Johnston.

NEW YORK, May 18, 1861.

            GENERAL: I have the honor to report the circumstances connected with the seizure of Fort Caswell by the Militia of North Carolina, as they are reported to me by John Russell, fort keeper, who has arrived in this city:

            The fort was taken possession of by the Wilmington Light Infantry, Col. John Cantwell commanding, on April 16. The force was subsequently increased, and a large force of laborers employed to mount the guns; to erect temporary quarters on the terre-pleins; to construct a railway from the wharf to the fort; to deepen the ditch of the fort, and to erect an earthen battery about one-half mile from the fort, on the beach, opposite the bar.

            The eighteen guns inside the fort were mounted, and four others of the same size brought there, and also mounted, beside two guns at the main gates, inside the fort. A considerable quantity of provisions and many boxes of rifles were landed and stored in the fort. The lights in the light-houses and beacons are put out, and the Frying-Pan Shoal light-ship removed. A schooner was sunk in the new inlet to obstruct the channel but it does not appear to accomplish this completely, as vessels pass in and out by it.

            Fort Johnston was also in the possession of the insurgents, but some excitement had arisen from the occurrence of two fires simultaneously— one inside of the fort, which consumed the large building called the hospital, and the other a private house outside of the walls. Both

were supposed to be the work of incendiaries, and some negroes were suspected.

            The troops at Fort Caswell were actively employed in preparing for defense, making ball cartridges, &c., and W. H. C. Whiting, formerly of the Corps of Engineers, had been there to give the necessary directions as a major of Engineers of the so-called Southern Confederacy.

                        Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

                                                                                                                        J. G. FOSTER,

Captain, Engineers

General JOSEPH G. TOTTEN,

            Chief Engineer, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.

(478)Extract from annual report, dated October 1, 1861

Fort Caswell, mouth of Cape Pear River, N. C.— This fort was taken possession of on the 16th of April, 1861, by a militia company from Wilmington, N. C., commanded by Mr. John Cantwell. The fort keeper and ordnance sergeant were forced to leave, and all public property in

the fort and at Fort Johnston, Smithville, N. C., was taken possession of.

            At the time of this seizure very few guns were inside of the fort, and these were of inferior calibers, and without carriages to mount them. The gorge of the main work and the right flank and gorge of the covered way were without traverse circles for guns, which was a serious

want, as these parts now bear more directly than others upon the channel, which has shifted on the bar from the east to the west shore. The fort generally was in good repair, having been quite thoroughly repaired two years since. The shot furnaces were not in good order, and required

rebuilding, as is also the case with those at Fort Macon.

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