Location: Battlefield Trail southeast of New Bern
County: Craven
Original Date Cast: 1962
The Croatan Earthwork, an extensive fortification not used during the battle, can be seen 6 3/10 miles southeast of this highway. Here, extensive earthworks can be seen on both sides of the highway in a direct line with this marker.
Troops engaged in the Battle of New Bern:
Union: Major General Ambrose E. Burnside - commanding Division; Brigadier General John G. Parke’s Brigade; 4th and 5th R.I. Inf.; 8th and 11th Conn. Inf.; Brigadier General Jesse L. Reno’s Brigade; 21st Mass., 51st N.Y., 9th N.J., and 51st Pa. Inf.; Brigadier General John G. Foster’s Brigade; 23rd 24th, 25th, and 27th Mass. and 10th Conn. Inf.
Confederate: Brigadier General Lawrence O’B. Branch - commanding Brigade; 7th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 33rd, 35th, and 37th N.C. Inf.; 19th N.C. Regt. (1st Cavalry); Captain Thomas H. Brem’s and Captain A. C. Latham’s artillery batteries. Confederates in Fort Thompson: Captain John N. Whitford’s and Captain W. A. Herring’s artillery companies. (The men in the other Confederate forts did not directly participate in the battle.)
References:
Richard A. Sauers, The Battle of New Bern and Related Sites in Craven County, N.C., 1861-1865 (1994)
Richard W. Iobst, “The Battle of New Bern” (Confederate Centennial Commission, 1962)
John B. Green III, A New Bern Album: Old Photographs of New Bern, North Carolina and the Surrounding Countryside (1985)
Alan D. Watson, A History of New Bern and Craven County (1987)
William Marvel, Burnside (1991)
John G. Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina (1963)
William R. Trotter, The Civil War in North Carolina: The Coast, Ironclads and Columbiads (1989)