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12 “The sound of the last trumpet” until the war came to Beaufort, north carolina, in 1862, the town had acquired a well-deserved reputation as a vacation destination for wealthy southern planters, landowners, and aristocrats. Boating, bathing, and fishing were the chief activities of these out-of-towners, according to George h. allen of the fourth rhode island volunteers, two companies of which were the first union occupiers of Beaufort.1 most of the town’s streets were composed of sand and shell, with pockets of swamp mud dotting the landscape. twentytwo -year-old herbert eugene valentine was a private in company f of the twenty-Third massachusetts volunteers,stationed at Beaufort in 1863.in his diary, he waxes on what the town might have been like before the war, with wealthy tourists from all parts of north carolina“flocking [to] their most frequented watering place—riding out into the country—or sailing to the fort or down the harbor, fishing, or lounging upon the piazzas.” he offers a romantic , quaintly attractive description of prewar Beaufort, with its “splendid view”of “the broad atlantic with here and there a sail dotting with its snowy white the broad expanse.”2 naval paymaster William keeler of both the Monitor and Florida was stationed sporadically in Beaufort during 1863–64.he describes Beaufort as “essentially southern in every particular”—though his perception of “southern” is flavored with a bit more yankee condescension than valentine’s more romantic view of Beaufort. chimneys built on the outside of the houses, most of which have never formed the acquaintance of a paint brush.some of them were surrounded with cool comfortable looking verandahs displaying however no architectural taste or evidence of wealth or refinement. The fences were rough sticks split out of the pines, in many cases secured by driving them into the ground and now and then one boasted of a coat of whitewash.3 “sound of the last trumpet” / 113 keeler described the buildings in Beaufort as “sprinkled down pretty much as the caprice or fancy of the squatter dictated or swamp holes would admit.” he elaborated that these muddy holes would likely, in hot weather, “make most admirable nurseries for mosquitoes”and the sandy streets “will perform the same office for the fleas and sand flies.”4 unlike the hot,sticky towns further inland,however,Beaufort had the benefit of frequent cool breezes that swept off the atlantic ocean and into the windows of several large hotels, the largest of which was josiah Pender’s atlantic hotel on front street. The hotel was the village’s pride and joy. Built from planking squares that resembled stucco, the structure rested on stiles sunk into the waters of taylor’s creek and directly faced the ocean. each of the hotel’s three levels featured an extended porch, and numerous windows enabled dapper southern gentlemen and their petticoat-clad girlfriends and wives to indulge in salty, offshore breezes.5 only three years old, the hotel was swiftly occupied by federal troops almost immediately after nearby fort macon fell. james rumley was a clerk of superior court in Beaufort who kept a personal diary through much of the war.one of his earliest entries described the occupation of the atlantic hotel, an “act of outrage upon private rights”while “capt. Pinder [sic] was about on private business,” which included seizure of “a great deal of valuable furniture .” rumley made no attempt to hide his disgust for the occupying yankees . “as there was no act of the federal congress, authorizing a seizure [of furniture] in this way . . .[it] will no doubt,be appropriated to the private use of officers, soldiers and negroes.”6 rumley was correct, as northern troops swiftly converted the hotel into the hammond hospital to serve as convalescence accommodations for the army and navy. it was managed by a group of nuns from st. catherine’s convent in new york city known as the sisters of mercy.7 in early 1862,rumley was one of roughly two thousand residents of Beaufort .8 The 1860 census for carteret county, of which morehead city and the county seat of Beaufort were the principal towns, shows there were about eight thousand residents,one-fourth of whom were slaves,a smaller percentage than that of most coastal counties.9 Because north carolina was the last southern state to secede,citizens of coastal towns like Beaufort tended to exhibit a much stronger pro-union sentiment than that found in...

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