I'm looking for it. hahah. I found an old map a 'yankee' drew up from archives (from the map's own description) from 1865 that shows the location of the battlements.

they were never manned since we surrendered after we saw that sherman burned ATL and COL.



who wants to help me look? that pic is a section, I have the whole map.

/teaser

4/20/2010 11:44:09 PM

Seems St. Mary's would be a good place to start. Maybe try contacting them and see what they know about the history of their property.

4/20/2010 11:59:05 PM

I'd totally help.

A lot of that area, including St. Mary's, has to keep some kind of historical record--especially Mordecai, since it's always billed as a historic site.

4/21/2010 12:26:55 AM

"we"

4/21/2010 12:30:05 AM

There's a historic marker for the old breastworks on Wake Forest Road across from the old Mordecai plantation house just past Glascock.

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 7:20 AM. Reason : .]

4/21/2010 7:18:58 AM

Just drove past. The marker is maybe 20 yards south of Glascock and says that the remains stand 1/3 mile west.

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 8:45 AM. Reason : .]

4/21/2010 8:45:22 AM

Yeah, send me the whole map. Although in my experience, civil war "walls" were usually just big ditches.

4/21/2010 10:19:45 AM

Green area between Park Dr. E. and Park Dr W., maybe? Seems like that was low lying land although it's been a long time since I've driven down those streets.

4/21/2010 10:29:04 AM

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 10:37 AM. Reason : Should be accurate to a half a block. These old maps are never to scale.]

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 10:39 AM. Reason : They're about to dig up the area near IHOP that the wall passes through.]

4/21/2010 10:36:52 AM

^ Very nice!

4/21/2010 10:51:31 AM

if you look on google maps, the terrain map, it kinda goes with what skack says. there are also some creeks and stuff on there that may serve as a point of reference.

4/21/2010 11:03:25 AM

You'd think that if it was a wall of any size, property lines would still be influenced by it. Any idea on height, masonry or earthen, etc?

We'd probably be looking for land that hasn't been disturbed since like railroad right of ways. Central prison dates from that period and still contains some original walls.

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 11:08 AM. Reason : .]

4/21/2010 11:04:10 AM

Wait a second, I've "heard tell" of a civil war era cave around Cleveland St/Tilden St. Kids still go there to drink/smoke/whatever. Citation needed...

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 11:37 AM. Reason : could be an old ammunition store from the wall]

4/21/2010 11:22:28 AM

Quote :

"Although in my experience, civil war "walls" were usually just big ditches."

that's really interesting. my parents have a mill dam on their property that was built in the 1770s. we were told by the previous property owner that the trenches running kind of along the stream past the dam were civil war trenches. they're really big ditches. maybe they were "walls". hmmm.... got any more info on that kind of stuff?

4/21/2010 11:40:51 AM

ArcBoyeee, can you email me the whole map? when I get a chance, I can compare it with detailed aerial photography. I'll PM you my email address.

4/21/2010 12:13:13 PM

Very nice dude. Also smc congrats on pulling that out.

St Mary's def would be a start. Id check those hills and you probably can find something based on them.

Would love to do some trekking through Raleigh to assist if you need some ground crew.

4/21/2010 7:43:11 PM

I stopped by a few of these sites on the way home from work.

Poplar St. There's a small city park there, and a stream that runs north to south. In other words big ditches. South of poplar street, where that "turret" would be, is covered in overgrowth. It's the backyard of a pretty old church. No obvious signs of ruins, but I did see one very old piece of concrete barely exposed in the ground. There's all sorts of concrete in the stream, but it's obviously old highway debris. The railroad doesn't match up in my overlay, so I could be a block or more off anyway.

Just north of cleveland street(cleveland st is north of Tilden St off Glennwood in the overlay map) is a very large hill. Would make a good natural barrier.


This would continue into the old methodist orphanage/fred fletcher park, but that area's been heavily modified.

^^^Here's a photo of typical breastworks. They're usually not deep, just what they could shovel out in a hurry. A local civil war buff might could tell you more.


[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 7:58 PM. Reason : .]

4/21/2010 7:49:25 PM

any luck finding that cave?

4/21/2010 9:24:15 PM

Nah, and I can't find any mention of it on google, so maybe I made it up. It's all private property so I didn't want to push my luck.

4/21/2010 9:31:18 PM

just got back from walking around Dix Hill. just a few possible places I'm going to look. Most of the places that could be potential hits are in S ral since the wall went for a dive south after dix. I have the whole map and have overlayed it on a iMaps (the new beta one) layered overlay of the city's 2' topography lines. I cant get it to post here.

Going to get a nice high res copy printed and gonna go looking tomorrow after 5p when I get off work. Who wants to come with me? PVT me and I'll give you the meeting place and my number. come armed with cool GPS-like gadgets and beer plz.

WALL TYPE:

I know there was a mix of masonry in places (near the battlements) but mostly earthen and stone. At or above breast/height.

The marker on WF road is invalid since that new development has destroyed all that was left of the remains. Already checked that out.


EDIT: CENTRAL PRISON was not completed until 1884 after it was started in 1874. It therefore would not have been there when the wall was started on July 6th, 1863 and finished a year later (almost every able bodied man and slave built the damn thing so fucking quick).
[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 10:11 PM. Reason : moar!]

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 10:15 PM. Reason : dammit.]

4/21/2010 10:07:42 PM

The civil war berms at Fort Lee are only about 2-3' tall and just look a mound of dirt. You could be looking right at them and not know what they were unless you were told.

4/21/2010 10:11:55 PM

.

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 10:12 PM. Reason : damn double post]

4/21/2010 10:11:55 PM

any takers?

4/22/2010 1:34:25 AM

I'd totally join you guys if I was in NC

4/22/2010 4:54:43 AM

Ive got a lab to finish today. If I get it done before 5 Im in. Shooting you a PM now with my info...

4/22/2010 9:34:13 AM

Quote :

"In 1861, the lands now comprising the eastern State Fairgrounds, N.C.S.U. Faculty Club, the School of Veterinary Medicine, and north to the North Carolina Museum of Art were combined to form Camp Mangum, a training facility for Confederate soldiers. It was named after Lt. William Preston Mangum, who died at the First Battle of Bull Run, and William Person Mangum, a former U.S. senator and father of Lt. Mangum. [6] While most of the Meredith land remained part of the Tucker Farm during the Civil War, the western edge was part of the camp."

interesting tid bit i found while researching this.
i had no idea a confederate camp used to occupy the fair grounds.

4/22/2010 3:30:00 PM

I always thought that was the Faircloth farm and he left it all to Meredith at his death, thus getting the northern stretch of Gorman named after him.

4/22/2010 4:56:44 PM

^^that also encompassed western edge of NCSU north campus. David Clark's lab bldg was first called Mangum Hall. I know that's why Nelson Hall School of Textiles was built there after the 1914 Tompkins fire. They had just acquired the land.

Master Yoda and I are abt to bust this legend.

4/22/2010 6:45:08 PM

We went out and ran around several places in south and east raleigh. Lots of places it runs are developed which probably completely destroyed it. Found a couple interesting places neither of us knew about in Raleigh, and Arc got educated about SE raleigh

4/22/2010 11:52:58 PM

oh lawd.

but that federal cemetery is way cool off rock quarry

4/23/2010 2:42:06 PM

Raleigh not rly in Confederacy, it fielded a 10,000 man army of Union guerilla fighters that went around attacking supply trains. I think it was called American Legion or Legion of America or something like that.

4/25/2010 9:33:22 AM

Quote :

"i had no idea a confederate camp used to occupy the fair grounds"

The fairgrounds used to be where the Rose Garden is now. Prior to that it was closer to downtown.

4/25/2010 10:16:12 AM

correct^, off new bern ave.

4/25/2010 7:56:49 PM

there is only one way to properly describe all of this...

fucking rad

4/25/2010 8:59:11 PM

^^where off new bern? near the DMV?

4/25/2010 9:39:02 PM

check out right side. look for the horse track loop.

4/26/2010 12:09:32 AM

I would be interested in knowing more about this cave.

4/28/2010 7:27:02 PM

ha ha, the Penitentiary and Lunatic Asylum are buildings they chose to show in detail.

4/28/2010 7:30:52 PM

^^^Yep, it's exactly where I thought it would be. it is catty-cornered with the current DMV building. the "out of place" looking street beside the fairgrounds is still there... Cotton Place currently... butts right up to the DMV.

4/28/2010 7:51:11 PM

bttt

2/9/2011 9:44:25 PM

thx.

2/9/2011 9:59:50 PM