UNLISTED, POSSIBLY UNIQUE HANDBILL ANNOUNCING BURNSIDE’S ATTACK ON NEWBERN, NORTH CAROLINA 

EXCEEDINGLY RARE. We found no other copies at the time of cataloging. Not in Crandall, Moire, or Parrish & Willingham. 

Newbern to be Attacked by Gen. Burnside. Letterpress handbill. Wilmington, North Carolina: Journal Office, 13 March 1862. 1 page, approximately 4 1/4 x 5 in. Printed area 7 x 5 cm.

“A dispatch from Gen. Branch at nine o’clock last night, says that the enemy are in large force in the river. Ten Steamers and one transport are two miles below the mouth of Otter Creek [about 12 miles below Newbern,] which is the left support of our Croatan breastworks. The pilots report fifty vessels as coming up, and they are anchoring at the above named place. We will be attacked early in the morning.”

This small handbill was evidently printed as a warning to the citizens of Wilmington and Newbern. Issued by the Wilmington Journal, the notice arrived after the 13 March issue had already gone to press, that number being largely devoted to reporting on the Battle of Hampton Roads, or the clash of the Monitor and Merrimack. Because the paper appeared only weekly, on Thursdays, the publication of this “extra” was evidently deemed necessary.

The intelligence received by the Journal Office proved accurate. Burnside’s troops landed at the mouth of Slocum’s Creek early on the morning of 13 March before marching inland toward New Bern. At the same time, the navy under Commander Stephen C. Rowan advanced upriver, shelling and capturing Confederate fortifications. On 14 March, New Bern fell to Union forces and remained under Federal occupation for the balance of the war.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] 

Old folds, some brown spotting.