Confederate blockade found off coast of Wilmington

North Carolina archaeologists might soon be adding to Civil War history books — discovering a potential Confederate wreckage miles from Wilmington. 

What is believed to be a Confederate blockade runner was discovered thanks to an ongoing grant between the American Battlefield Protection Program and the N.C. Underwater Archaeology Branch of the Office of State Archaeology.

“In conditions of limited visibility of inches — or less — underwater archaeologists diving on the recently discovered shipwreck of a Civil War-era steamer are gathering data helpful to identifying the vessel recently discovered off the North Carolina coast,” according to a press release from the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Despite the poor visibility, Billy Ray Morris, director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the Office of State Archaeology, said in the press release that his department has managed to confirm several details from a sonar image.

“All of this evidence, when viewed in light of the extensive historical documentation on hand, supports rather strongly our working hypothesis that this wreck is Agnes E. Fry," he said. “The Agnes E. Fry was one of three possible vessels that could have been in that vicinity.”

Chris Southerly, assistant state archaeologist, said the surveys use side-scan sonar and marine magnetometer technology to create a topographic map showing what might be on the ocean floor. 

“We were surveying and collecting current data and comparing it with known Civil War shipwrecks in the area in primarily Brunswick County and New Hanover County,” Southerly said. 

He said the discovery of this wreckage helps to better tell the story of what was going on in the latter part of the Civil War with the port of Wilmington, blockade running and the Union blockade in general.

“The fall of Fort Fisher to the Union forces in early 1865 pretty much spelled the end of the Confederate army because Wilmington was the last Confederate port that was open in the South,” Southerly said. “The supply lines and the resources that were coming in could no longer reach Lee’s Army in Virginia. The role that the blockade runners had to keep that trade going was significant for the war itself and how it played out.”

It is important to understand the evolution of design that took place for the blockade runners and other Civil War ships, Southerly said. 

“The more information we can get on the designs, the more we can understand the nautical archaeology side of the Civil War,” he said.

Bradley Rodgers, director of Maritime Studies at East Carolina University, said blockade runners were crucial forms of transportation during the Civil War.

“They were low to the water, fast, and very important in terms of transporting materials to and within the Confederacy,” he said. “Blockade runners were, in many ways, the lifeline of the Confederacy.”

Southerly said throughout the excavation process, archaeologists aim to use the least disruptive process possible.

“In most states in archaeology, we try to document the sites and then leave them alone,” he said.

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