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CONTENTS 8 Beary Merry Christmas 10 This Month in New Bern History 14 Craven freedmen as spies, soldiers 20 Caring for Statues at Tryon Palace 24 Cocktail of the Month 28 Music Events 32 Map 32 Advertiser Directory 40 Artisan Square 42 An Interview with Michaele Rose Watson 46 Art Events 50 More Events 62 Oriental New Bern VOL. 7 • NO. 1 • NOVEMBER 2020 EDITORIAL DEADLINE for the DECEMBER 2020 issue is November 10th. Email articles, events & photos to [email protected] TO ADVERTISE Christine Farver • 252.626.5812 [email protected] or Matt Farver • 252.626.7870 [email protected] New Bern Magazine is a free publication distributed at select locations in Craven and Pamlico counties. Entire contents, maps, advertisements and graphic design elements copyright 2020 Inspired Publishing. Reproduction is strictly prohibited without the publisher’s consent. Subscribe to receive the magazine each month. Visit NewBernMagazine.com to subscribe today! FIND US ON: 4 NEW BERN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 CONTENTS NOVEMBER 2020 NEW BERN MAGAZINE 5 6 NEW BERN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 NOVEMBER 2020 NEW BERN MAGAZINE 7 8 NEW BERN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 NOVEMBER 2020 NEW BERN MAGAZINE 9 This Month in New Bern History By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society Winslow Homer “Thanksgiving Day in the Army – After Dinner: The Wish-Bone” (from Harper’s Weekly, Vol. VIII), courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art website During November our thoughts often turn to family, food and home in preparation for Thanksgiving. Although we deeply associate the story of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving with this celebration, Thanksgiving has strong roots in the Civil War. Through the years, many of our leaders have asked that a day be set aside to express our thankfulness. The Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War asked that days be dedicated to give thanks, and in 1789 George Washington issued a proclamation of thanks during the first year of his presidency. Presidents John Adams and James Madison issued proclamations as well. During the Civil War, the Thanksgiving holiday was a cultural tradition celebrated locally by communities in different regions of the United States. Both the Union and the Confederate Armies held periodic and separate days of thanksgiving in response to military victories. Confederate President Jefferson Davis called for a “day of fasting, humiliation and prayer” to take place on November 15, 1861. Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of a popular women’s magazine, lobbied President Abraham Lincoln to establish a national day of Thanksgiving as an attempt to unify a nation that was strongly divided Continued on page 12. 511 Broad St. • 252.638.8558 newbernhistorical.org 10 NEW BERN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 NOVEMBER 2020 NEW BERN MAGAZINE 11 This Month in New Bern History Continued from page 10. along many lines. On October 3, 1863 Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Day Proclamation that was written by Secretary of State William Seward which offered a hopeful message. On November 26, 1863, President Lincoln held the first official Thanksgiving Day celebration. How did the troops Winslow Homer, “Thanksgiving in Camp” celebrate during (from Harper’s Weekly, Vol. VII), courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art website the war? For many southerners, this day was a day like all the rest. Many refused to celebrate as they viewed Thanksgiving as a New England abolitionist holiday. For the Union troops the response was a bit different. Many remembered past Thanksgivings surrounded by family and loved ones. In 1862, Edward J. Bartlett of Concord, Massachusetts, age 19, enlisted in the 44th Massachusetts Infantry, Co F and was stationed at New Bern. He wrote letters home in 1862 describing his first Thanksgiving as a soldier. There were elaborate preparations, decorations, and food: “First we had oysters then turkey and chicken pie then plum pudding then apple raisin & coffee with plenty of good soft bread & butter. After we had all eaten a little too much, people usualy [sic] do on Thanksgiving days and we who had lived so long on hard tack did our best[,] we had a fine sing.” (Massachusetts Historical Society) The next year he wrote on 15 November 1863 from Nashville, Tennessee, stating: “Our company Thanksgiving in the barracks last year is a day that I can never forget. Six of those boys are now dead. Poor Hopkinson, the president, in his address, [said] ‘that he hoped the next year would see us all at our own family tables.’ He died two months after.” Bartlett spent Thanksgiving 1864 stationed at Point Lookout, Maryland, guarding Confederate prisoners-of-war. He wrote to his sister Martha about his homesickness on the evening before the holiday: “Thanksgiving eve. I sat over the fire, thinking of what you were doing at home, and what I had done on all the Thanksgiving eve’s, that I could remember.” In the darkest days of our history, with thousands of men dying on battlefields far from home, during wartime or peace, Americans still paused and give thanks for what we have. May we honor them by continuing to do so. Happy Thanksgiving. 12 NEW BERN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 NOVEMBER 2020 NEW BERN MAGAZINE 13 Craven freedmen as spies, soldiers by Edward Ellis, Special Correspondent Vincent Colyer was a busy man. His official title – Superintendent of the Poor – barely described the myriad services he was overseeing in dealing with thousands of recently freed slaves and impoverished white people uprooted by the war. Charged by Union General Ambrose Burnside in early 1862 with providing food, clothing, shelter and spiritual sustenance to the astonishing number of men, women and children refugeed at New Bern, Colyer was also using freedmen labor to build the colossal Fort Totten to protect the city’s western edge. Women were organized to deal with livestock, prepare and cook food, wash and repair clothes, and care for children. Some served as nurses; some as teachers. Colyer’s male freedman crews were unloading vessels on the waterfront and rebuilding the railroad bridge across the Trent River that had been lost to FURNEY BRYANT fire on the day of the battle for New Bern. His men The refugee were carpenters, blacksmith and coopers. They worked effectively as wheelwrights and ship joiners, and in building everything from houses to wooded cots for the hospital. In addition to all the rest, Colyer was running a spy network. “One morning,” he wrote in his 1864 book, Report of the Services Rendered by the Freed People, “the provost Guard in front of my door told me that two negro spies sent by the rebels into our lines, had been caught by our pickets.” “I had sent two men to [Confederate-held] Kinston, with instructions that they should report only to me; on their return they were examined by the pickets and officers of the outposts, who, ignorant of our doings in this way, and completely mystified by the negroes, sent the two men under strong guard to General Foster.” “The General himself, not having been told SERGEANT FURNEY BRYANT Continued on page 16. 1st N. C. Colored Troops Eddie Ellis is the author of New Bern History 101 and other works about Bear Talk Craven County’s rich heritage. He can be reached at [email protected]. 14 NEW BERN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 NOVEMBER 2020 NEW BERN MAGAZINE 15 Craven freedmen as spies, soldiers Continued from page 14. by General Burnside of the authority which had been given to me, of sending out men on these expeditions, was going by my door at the time the guard were passing with these men. For convenience he brought them into my office; when, to my astonishment I found that the noted negro prisoners, of whom I had heard early in the morning were my two men. So faithful were they to my order, that though subjected to suspicion and indignity all the morning, from their own friends, they had not betrayed their trust.” “The name of one of these two faithful men who thus opened the way for the carrying on of this important Vincent Colyer service was Furney Bryant. At that time now two years ago, he did not know a letter of the alphabet, and he came within our lines dressed in the rags of the plantation.” “He attended my schools,” Colyer wrote, “and after I left Newbern, on the formation of the 1st North Carolina Colored Reg’t, he enlisted, and with his regiment was ordered for duty with General Gilmore off Charleston; where his gallantry and intelligence caused him to receive the appointment of 1st Sergeant, and a leave of absence of thirty days. On his way home to Newbern he came to New York City and called on me. The contrast in his personal appearance, in his new suit of Army blue, was … remarkable.” Colyer concluded: “Let no one say that freedom is not better than slavery, with such examples before them. In company with three other soldiers of his regiment, he arrived in Newbern in time to participate in the defense of that place against the recent desperate attack of the rebels in February, 1864. The engraving represents him, in company with Corporal Owen Jones heroically defending his native town, and the government which had set him free, against the secessionists.” “Sgt. Bryant and Cpl. Jones defending Newbern February 1864” as drawn by Vincent Colyer. 16 NEW BERN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 NOVEMBER 2020 NEW BERN MAGAZINE 17 18 NEW BERN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 NOVEMBER 2020 NEW BERN MAGAZINE 19 Caring for Statues By Richard Baker, Tryon Palace Conservator When visitors think of the artifacts that are on view at Tryon Palace, they often think of the physical furnishings located inside the buildings.