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BRUNSWICK CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE
MEETING – April 5, 2016
THE BATTLE OF WISE (WYSE) FORK
SPEAKER: Wade Sokolosky
“For the want of a railroad,” Wade tells us this story would have had a different ending.
The final push to save the Confederacy is here, he says, and this neglected battle needed
to be thoroughly chewed or digested. His goal was to do just that.
How do you move and position up to 13,000 (three union divisions) from Wilmington
to Goldsboro without efficient transportation? The good old Wilmington/Weldon,
(known as “willing but slow”) had been completely destroyed by retreating Confederate
troops. The rails from New Bern/Goldsboro received the same treatment. It seems that
General Schofield received only one order from Grant - GET THAT RAILROAD REBUILT!
General Johnston is still too far away to be effective but guess who does something
good? Braxton Bragg blocks Cox’s Army and threatens the New Bern/Goldsboro
Railroad. Cox has arrived by traveling up the coast to find Bragg and a re-enforcing
Army of Tennessee waiting his appearance.
Determination, patriotism to one’s home and pure grit lives in the heart of many
Confederate soldiers. Wade helps us to “get to know” one such noble example in Sgt.
Truesdale of the 48th Tenn. He was a courageous man who gave the full measure for
cause and home. He lies forever in an unmarked grave somewhere near present day
route 70 close to Kinston.
So, how did around 9,000 committed Confederates contain and almost defeat over
13,000 Union troops? Wade tells us that knowing about when and where the enemy
might be gives you a “leg up.” It helps, as well, if a Confederate nurse and spy named
Emeline Pigott probes for more than just bullets in Union wounded under her care.
Other mitigating circumstances might be “forgetting the past” when the word Bragg is
mentioned. This Confederate command climate includes having the home field
advantage. Slightly better communications and trumps (pun intended) Union pleas.
Palmer always needs more men. Cox’s army pleads that they are getting there as fast as
possible. It takes them one month. This is but a sliver of Wade’s extensive research that
tends to open one’s eyes.
Ya just had to be there to hear about Col. Kise’s “low point” in an otherwise successful
campaign!
On the second day of the battle there is a Confederate advantage as they seize the day.
It seems that the Union right hand is not sure what the left one is doing. May 10 gives
rise to a re-enforced Union force that beats back Bragg after brave and heavy fighting.
Kinston eventually falls.
Wade points us to the importance of The Iron Horse and improved communications.
He suggests that a little known battle could have been pivotal. Bragg, except for lost
opportunities, could have “upset the apple cart!”
By Dan Fink