On December 13, a new marker was unveiled on Route 64 in Plymouth, North Carolina to mark where Confederate troops massacred African Americans. The Civil War Battle of Plymouth, N.C., took place on April 17-20, 1864. After Union forces surrendered, their Confederate captors massacred between fifty and one hundred African Americans.
Union forces under Brigadier General Henry Wessells surrendered to Confederate commander Robert Hoke. Hoke captured 3,244 men, of whom approximately 80 were United States Colored recruits awaiting assignment to their units and 111 Black naval personnel serving on gunboats. There were also ten Black men serving as cooks in white units. 166 white Unionists were serving in the Second North Carolina Regiment, as well, were also captured. These were North Carolina white men who were Unionists. Approximately 1,000 Black refugees were also in Plymouth when it was captured.
Plymouth was a small town when the war started. In the 1860 Census there were 409 whites, 401 enslaved African Americans, and 62 Free Blacks. It was a local center for the production of tar, pitch, and lumber. The town was captured in May of 1862 by Union naval forces hoping it would close the Roanoke River to Confederate traffic. In December, the Confederates tried to retake Plymouth, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
When the Confederates under Hoke attacked in April of 1864, they possessed nearly a two to one advantage over the Union forces in Plymouth. The Confederate had seven thousand troops for the effort. The Confederates had thirty-five pieces of artillery and were supported by the new Confederate ironclad Albemarle. After three days of fighting, the Union forces surrendered. The town was looted by the victorious Confederates.
When the town fell, a number of the Black recruits and hundreds of the Black civilians fled. Witnesses said that they were hunted down and executed. Warren Gross, a Union soldier, said that when Confederates captured Blacks “who surrendered in good faith were drawn up in line and shot down…like dogs. Every negro found with United States equipments or uniforms, was…shot without mercy.” Another Union soldier, John Donaghy, wrote that the Blacks “were shot down in cold blood after they laid down their arms.” Several days after the battle, white Union troops heard firing near the river. When they asked what the shots were about, a Confederate guard told them “They lined up them d****ned niggers you all enlisted and they are shooting ’em off’n the dock.”
A Black survivor said that he saw the Confederates take captured Blacks to the river, strip their clothes, and then soot them or bash in their brains with rifle butts.
After the battle, the Confederate commissioner for prisoner exchange said that the charge that a massacre had taken place was false. However, before the capture of Plymouth, Confederate officer John Graham wrote that “it is understood amongst us that we take no negro prisoners.”
Among the Union troops captured were dozens of white North Carolina men who joined the United States Army. Eight of these were executed by the Confederates for having deserted their Confederate units. As many as two dozen other white North Carolinians may have been executed by the Confederate soldiers.
On April 21, 1864, Lt. General Braxton Bragg wrote to North Carolina Gov. Vance asking that the disposition of the Black soldiers be kept out of the newspapers. This included the turning of Black prisoners over to slave masters.
Eight days before the capture of Plymouth, the Fort Pillow Massacre occurred. This involved the execution of Black soldiers by forces under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The leading scholarly article on Plymouth wonders if news of the Western massacre may have influenced the Confederates in their treatment of the Blacks at Plymouth.
Another aspect of Plymouth was the involvement of Ransom’s Brigade in the action. In 1864, Ransom’s Brigade on March 9 captured a camp of Black cavalrymen. “We did not take any prisoners,” one of the Confederates wrote later. He wrote; “Officers and men were perfectly enthusiastic in killing the “d—-d rascals:” He added that “Ransom’s Brigade never takes any negroes prisoner.”
Major John Graham of Ransom’s Brigade wrote to his father that as they were marching on March 13, 1864 ladies came out to cheer his men saying “kill the negroes.” He wrote that “it is understood amongst us that we take no negro prisoners.” On March 17, Private Gabriel Sherrill of the brigade said “wee have no quarter for a negroe.”
We do not know how many Blacks were massacred at Plymouth in April of 1864, but the State of North Carolina estimates 50-100. Some may have included woman and children.
Sources:
Massacre at Plymouth: April 20, 1864 by Weymouth T. Jordan Jr., Gerald W. Thomas
