Bogue Sound Blockhouse

Bogue Sound Blockhouse. Vermonters' Spirited Resistance. Company K, 9th New Jersey Volunteers, built the Bogue Sound Blockhouse here in the summer of 1862 to guard the junction of the Bogue Sound Road and Newport Road. Protected by a surrounding ditch and earthworks, the log blockhouse was armed with one howitzer. Early in 1864, Lt. Alfred C. Ballard’s Company B, 9th Vermont Infantry, occupied the site., In January 1864, Confederate Gen. James G. Martin’s force of almost 2,000 men advanced from Wilmington toward Morehead City to support Gen. George E. Pickett’s expedition to recapture New Bern, N.C. About noon on February 2, Martin’s advance guard approached along the road from your right and prepared to attack the blockhouse, which was a short distance in the woods to your left. Confederate artillery opened fire on the blockhouse, covering Company A, 17th North Carolina Infantry, which was deployed as skirmishers to attack it. About 200 yards from the blockhouse, the Confederate skirmish line charged. Ballard’s 62-man Vermont contained forty new recruits who had received their rifles only three hours earlier. After a spirited resistance, Ballard’s men broke in disorder, abandoning the blockhouse and earthworks, and retreated east to Morehead City. Ballard lost two men wounded and eight captured. The Confederates suffered no losses in the attack. After burning the blockhouse, Martin’s forces continued to Newport Barracks, which they captured late that afternoon., The earthwork remains of the blockhouse site, extant for more than a century, were demolished in the 1990s for a housing development., (captions) , (upper center) The Bogue Sound Blockhouse , (upper right) Attack on Bogue Sound Blockhouse, February 2, 1864. , (lower right) Gen. James G. Martin - Courtesy of N.C. State Archives; Lt. Alfred C. Ballard - Courtesy of the Vermont Historical Society