Visiting Ancestors in Plymouth - the one in NC

After we got back from the Netherlands in April (and repaired the scooter that British Airways broke) we set off for a family reunion down in Georgia. I decided it was too far to drive in one day. So we are visiting some cemeteries in NC on the way down and on the way back.

We got packed, including stuff for breakfast and lunch since all the meals at this place are "family style - all you can eat" which equals expensive for breakfast and lunch. We don't eat enough to make it an all you can eat place a good deal for us.
Breakfast was child $14.95 - adult $17.95
Mon - Fri: 8:00-10:30am
Sat & Sun: 7:30-10:30am

Bob thought this was way too much for breakfast so we brought our own from home
Lunch is similarly expensive - child $17.95 - adult $21.95 11:30-5:00

Bob had two coolers for the food (grapefruit, turkey bacon and cocoa for him, bananas, bagels, nutella, and cranberry juice for me), his suitcase, my suitcase, associated canvas bags (for things like maps, diapers, chocolate chips and other snack food) and my scooter. Unfortunately, he packed the scooter on the bottom so every time I used it, he had to unpack the trunk.

Friday I disconnected the modem and he turned off the timer on the TV. I wanted to leave really early, but he was futzing around, so I took some photos of Orange Crush our cat.

We finally left a little before 10

We ran into a big traffic jam on I-95 north of Richmond, so we stopped at Chik-fil-a for lunch. It was, of course, crowded as it was lunch time.

They took our order and gave us a thing to put on the table.

The food was there before Bob had finished getting napkins. I had a chicken salad sandwich

and lemonade and Bob had the regular chicken sandwich and a milkshake. Cost $7.47

I had in mind to go to Holmes Cemetery in NC to see if I could get a cemetery photo and then to go to Plymouth NC to Grace Episcopal Church to re-visit Bob's 3x great grandfather's grave and take more pictures. So we got off I-95 and proceeded down the back roads. We passed the house where Dr. Walter Reed lived with a historic marker in front.

Dr Walter Reed's house

The marker says

"Dr Walter Reed
-----------------
Head of the U.S. Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba 1900-01. Lived here as a young man."

I had put the lat/lon of the cemetery in the GPS, but I saw it was taking us way the hell and gone to the east and when I looked, it had that location on an island only accessible by boat (and it is not on an island). I couldn't get the ap to tell me how to get there. So I scrapped that idea and decided just to go directly to Plymouth. We passed fields of spiky purple flowers.

Purple flowers in the fields

Apparently now, one of the NC crops is lavender, which is one of the "essential oils"

We got to Plymouth and Bob had to use the bathroom, so I suggested that he go to the museum across the street from the cemetery and to take his camera.

Port o'Plymouth Museum 2016

On the Roanoke River is this circa 1923 Atlantic Coastline Railroad station . It is run by the Washington County Historical Society and is primarily a museum dedicated to explaining the Battle of Plymouth. But there is a nod to the original use of the building - Outside the building is an old railroad car.

Old Railroad car outside the museum

On our first visit, we did not get to visit the museum because it was too early in the day for it to be open.

Old Railroad station turned Museum - first visit

He did take his camera, and took photos in the Museum

Porch of the Museum

This museum documents the Battle of Plymouth which was the last major victory of the war for the Confederacy and was the third largest Civil War battle fought in North Carolina.

Torpedos

Torpedo exhibited at the museum

Why the big fight over Plymouth?

The current town of Plymouth is a sleepy southern town. But then, Plymouth's location just upstream of the mouth of the Roanoke River, and the Albemarle Sound, was critical because that was where a sizeable portion of the Federal navy fleet was stationed. With Plymouth in Northern hands, Federal ships could enter the mouth of the Roanoke and make their way upstream along the waterway, threatening the Confederate-held Fort Branch, located above Williamston on the Roanoke River.

Plymouth and defenses

Plymouth was also close by land to the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad line, which ran through the nearby town of Tarboro. This crucial rail route was the so-called “Lifeline of the Confederacy”. The Union captured Plymouth in 1862 and Federal troops stationed in Plymouth had made attempts to destroy the line at the Weldon railroad bridge

Diagram and photos of the Battle of Plymouth

Finally, in early 1864, Robert E. Lee agreed to spare his trustworthy Brigadier General, Robert F. Hoke, from service in Virginia to retake Plymouth. Hoke began his attack on Plymouth late in the afternoon of April 17, 1864.

The battle begins

Plymouth and her four Union forts were defended by approximately 3,000 Federal troops under the command of Brigadier General Henry Wessells. The army was supported by the Federal Navy under the command of Capt. Charles Flusser.After a full day of hard fighting on April 18th, it seemed that the battle was heading towards a Union victory. Then, in the early hours of April 19th, the CSS Albemarle arrived on the scene…

The union roped the USS Southfield and the USS Miami together in the middle of the river hoping that the Albemarle would get entangled. But Cmdr Cooke rammed into the side of the Southfield which immediately began to sink. And when the Union commander was killed, the Miami retreated to Albemarle Sound

The end of the battle

Newspaper and photos

His three times great grandfather might have been in that battle

Archeological dives

And then he took photos of the Albemarle which is outside in the river. The most successful ironclad of the Civil War was not the Monitor or the Merrimac. It was none other than the CSS Albemarle, which sunk or damaged more enemy ships than any other ironclad. The Port of Plymouth Museum has a fully operable, to-scale replica of the CSS Albemarle.

Sign outside the museum about the Albemarle

The Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory decided to build light-draft ironclads the could maneuver through the shallow waters of the state's river system. the Albemarle was one of these vessels

Scale model of the CSS Albemarle

The Albemarle is 158 feet long and 35 feet wide. It had a long iron clad spar on the bow to punch holes in wooden vessels. The Albemarle was constructed in a cornfield in the present day town of Scotland Neck. Led by a 19 year chief contractor with no formal education in shipbuilding, the boat took over a year to construct. Supplies were in such short order that the Captain of the Albemarle, James Cooke, was known to go door-to-door and collect iron skillets, plows, etc. that could be melted down and used for the ironclad’s armor.

The building of the CSS Albemarle Oct 1862 to Apr 1864

James Wallace Cooke was an American naval officer born in Beaufort NC. He was orphaned at the age of four, and was appointed to the US Navy as a midshipman in 1828 at age 16. In 1861 he resigned his commission and joined the Virginia State Navy. He was promoted to commander in August 1862 and after he successfully supervised her construction, he was given the command of the Albemarle.

James W. Cooke - Commander of the CSS Albemarle

Under his command the Albemarle was at the Battle of Plymouth (where she sank the USS Southfield) and the Battle of Batchelors Bay. He was promoted to Captain in 1864 and served for the balance of the war as commander of the inland waters of NC

CSS Albemarle operable to-scale replica

Lieutenant William B. Cushing sank the Albemarle in a nighttime commando raid with a spar torpedo on a motor launch . His bravado was fueled by the death of his relative Charles Flusser, the commander of the Union Navy during the Battle of Plymouth, who was killed by a shot that he fired. The shell ricocheted off the Albemarle’s iron sides and then exploded, killing Flusser instantly. When the torpedo detonated it blew a hole in the side of the Albemarle which sank in 6 feet of water (so the topsides were still above water).

Cushing was blown into the water where he swam to shore and escaped. Of the other men in Cushing's boat, William Houghtman escaped, John Woodman and Richard Higgins were drowned, and 11 were captured.

House in Plymouth NC opposite Grace Episcopal Church with an interesting attic window

Bob had taken the scooter out of the car so while he was in the museum I was scootering around. There were people mowing and weed wacking everywhere - in the cemetery, and across the street - I think it must have been some kind of work release program. They were everywhere. While I was in the cemetery I got a call on my cell phone - I had the calls on our home phone forwarded. It was someone trying to sell me a condo, and I couldn't get him to shut up so I could tell him I was not interested, so I just hung up on him.

Historic Church

Historic Grace Episcopal Church is on the river near the museum. The church dates from 1837 The building was designed by the nationally prominent architect Richard Upjohn, but the church was heavily damaged during the battle of Plymouth in 1864. Only the apse and tower were retained when it was rebuilt in 1893 to the design of C.J. Hartage of Rocky Mount, NC

Historic Church

Grace Episcopal Church

The cemetery surrounds the church

Cemetery from the street

Gate in the wall

and there is a wall on the water street side, and also on the side which is next to the parking lot. There is a gate in that wall. Inside the cemetery individual families have smaller enclosures some of which are surrounded by decorative iron fences like the one for his family.

Beasley enclosure

Although we went to this cemetery in 2002, Bob did not remember it.

2002 photo of the Enclosure in the cemetery which has Bob's ancestors buried in it

Inside the little fenced enclosure are the graves of John Baptist Beasley (1796-1855) husband of (1) Anne Hoskins and (2) Mary Alexander. He was a state senator to the NC Assembly from Tyrell Co 1821-1831 and in 1835. He was listed in the 1850 census as a grocer. The tall monument is his. Mary Alexander Beasley is buried in Canada, but her mother Clarkey Alexander is buried here

The bottom of the grave marker of John Baptist Beasley - Bob's 2x great grandfather

Harriet Alexander Beasley Littlejohn Simmons (1837-1897)- one of J.B. Beasley's daughters

Harriet Alexander Beasley married William Alexander Littlejohn and after he died, she moved to Canada taking her widowed mother and her sister Mary Elizabeth Beasley widow of Mr Knox with her, After her mother died, she married Dennis Simmons and is buried in this enclosure

Harriet Maria Beasley who died in 1864 at 6 months

I looked and saw that there was a cemetery with what I thought was an improbable name of Toodles Cemetery. 16 memorials and no photos (Grace has been extensively photographed by other people). So we went there, and Toodles is actually the name of a funeral home with the cemetery in the back.

Toodles Cemetery

So Bob got out and went and took 170 photos. He said that they had an interesting way of doing funeral home markers. They did a cement block with letters incised in it, and then painted it with gold paint.

Interesting temporary grave marker

We left Plymouth and drove to Williamston to the Hampton Inn there because I wanted to be a little farther along the road to Georgia. I usually stay at a Hampton Inn if there is one available because I like the beds, the breakfast and the internet. After I made the reservation I read some of the reviews - some of them complained about noise, so I was a little apprehensive. But everything was fine. The hotel is somewhat isolated. There was no restaurant that we could walk to. But otherwise it was a standard Hampton Inn. Outdoor pool, nearby gas station, close to the highway. Microwave and fridge, TV and hair dryer. Good internet and reasonable breakfast.

I made the reservation through Booking.com which was a mistake. Reservations made that way are not eligible for the Hilton points, and I do collect those because every now and then I get to stay free with points. We got gas before we checked in to the Hampton Inn.

The girl at the desk told us where we could go to eat, but instead Bob just walked across the parking lot to this subway. I asked Bob for apple slices and a BLT sub sandwich. He brought back the sandwich, but he said he didn't see the apple slices and brought cookies instead.