NC's Civil War Experience,One Tweet At A Time

In a few short days, the US will mark the 150th Anniversary of the fall of Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861), an event which triggered a long and devastating Civil War between the North and the South. Historical records show that before the battle at Sumter, North Carolinians were sharply divided on the issue of secession, and only sided with the Confederacy after President Lincoln called on North Carolina to send troops into South Carolina.

Now, a project by the NC Department of Cultural Resources is using modern social networking to tell the tales of regular North Carolina residents caught in "the most desperate War the world ever saw". History buffs can now keep up with entries from diaries kept by NC residents in the days before and during the Civil War, both on a Wordpress blog and on the @CivilianWartime address on Twitter.

"The tweets are short and this blog will be the full citation, to place the tweet into context - a tool to understand the impact of war in their words, not ours," the Department said in an introduction to the project. Among the voices the Department is using is Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston, who was living at Looking Glass Plantation in Halifax County when war broke out in 1861.

The tweets and the blog turn out to be fascinating reading... and perhaps a window into what we would have read... had Twitter been around 150 years ago.

Battleship To Stay In Wilmington For Hull Repairs

Officials at the Battleship NORTH CAROLINA today announced the popular attraction will undergo extensive hull repairs this spring without ever leaving its spot on the Cape Fear River.

The highly decorated World War II battleship has not been out of the water in more than 60 years, and metal plates that have remained underwater are showing signs of deterioration. Work will begin next month on a two million dollar project to replace sections of the starboard side of the bow. That work will show what needs to be done on the rest of the 728-foot-long ship.

Originally, officials said the repairs would require the battleship to take a risky and expensive trip to a shipyard in Charleston, SC or Norfolk, VA, but now workers with a marine construction company will build a small coffer dam around the bow, pump water out and work in an enclosed area. The ship will remain open to tours during the repairs, and the repair work may actually become an additional attraction. The work will be patterned after hull repairs on the USS Alabama in Mobile, which included a walkway atop the coffer dam.

The Battleship NORTH CAROLINA attracts about 200,000 people a year, and has been on display in Wilmington since 1961. It is funded entirely by admission tickets, gift shop sales, donations and investments.