Thunder on the Roanoke

As night fell on April 18, 1864, things looked bad for the Confederates attempting to dislodge the Union forces occupying Plymouth, a port on North Carolina's Roanoke River.

Although they outnumbered the Yankees, the Southern troops were taking a beating from Union gunboats stationed in the river.

Suddenly, in the early hours of April 19th, the tables turned. The Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle arrived on the scene, all guns blazing.

A product of North Carolina ingenuity and boatbuilding skill, the Albemarle had been built in a cornfield upriver by a 19-year-old Elizabeth City native, and this was her first battle.

She quickly defeated the Union ships, ramming and sinking the USS Southfield. The Union naval commander, Lt. Commander Charles Flusser, was killed when a shell fired by his own ship bounced back from the Albemarle's iron deck.

The Union forces surrendered the following day.

The recapture of Plymouth was the last major Southern victory of the war, and bought a few more months of life for the Confederacy.

By 1864, Union forces had drawn a tight noose around Confederate General Robert E. Lee's forces defending Richmond. Only a single thin lifeline remained-the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad.

Thanks to the staunch defense of Fort Fisher and the daring of the blockade runners, Wilmington, NC, remained the only port through which supplies could reach the Confederate states. The Wilmington & Weldon, running north to Richmond, was a vital link in the chain of supply.

Union forces made repeated attempts to destroy the railroad bridge at Weldon on the Roanoke River from their base in Plymouth, NC, which they had captured in 1862. But, due to the CSS Albemarle, they were never able to accomplish this.

Plymouth's brief star turn on the world stage was nearly forgotten until a group of citizens decided to bring the battle to life as a living history event.

"2008 is our 18th year," said Tom Harrison, one of the original organizers of the festival, now named "Thunder on the Roanoke."

The longest running Civil War reenactment in the state, it attracts more than 300 infantry, cavalry and naval reenactors-and some 5,000 spectators-each year.

Today, Civil War reenactors fight the battle of Plymouth over again every April, but this is a reenactment with a difference.

While most battle recreations take place in an empty field, this one is held in the historic village of Plymouth itself. And the star of the show is an operational replica of the CSS Albemarle which comes steaming down the river in the nick of time.

"We have several unique features," said Tom Harrison. "Only a handful of reenactments are both army and navy, and we actually have naval action on the river with the ironclad.

"Also, many battle sites have had cities grow up around them, but here we hold the reenactment in our historic district, right where it originally happened. The reenactors like it that they aren't off in a field somewhere."

Harrison, who portrays Lt. Commander Flusser-and his ghost-during the event, was also instrumental in building the ironclad replica.

Built around a pair of pontoons donated by Stuart Wescott, who runs a Dolphin Watch cruise out in Manteo, the 61-foot copy is a 3/8 scale model of the original 158-foot vessel.

"Pontoons have the advantage of being low maintenance," Harrison said. "We had a local carpenter frame it up. It's powered by a 60 hp outboard, and it has operative guns and gunports."

The replica ironclad spends most of its time tied up to the dock next to the Port O' Plymouth museum. During the summer, it steams daily up and down the Roanoke firing its guns to the delight of a growing number of tourists and history buffs.

The real CSS Albemarle, the most successful, if not the most famous, of the 22 ironclads built by the Confederacy, went to the bottom on Oct. 27, 1864, the result of a daring raid led by Lt. William Cushing, who came to North Carolina to avenge the death of Flusser, his friend and mentor.

The History Channel, who aired a documentary of the incident in 2005, called it "the most daring mission of the Civil War."

Thunder on the Roanoke is held during the last weekend in April, this year April 25-28.

It's a busy time in Plymouth with the annual North Carolina Forest Festival, which last year attracted an estimated 10,000 spectators, scheduled the next weekend, May 2-3.

The climax of the historic reenactment is the Sunday afternoon storming of Fort Compher, which led to the Union surrender.

But, Harrison said, the real headline event is the Torchlight Tour, held Saturday evenings. With admirable military precision, groups leave the church that is the tour's starting point every 10 minutes, following costumed guides past a series of historic scenes, including a moving roll call of the dead in the Grace Episcopal Cemetery. The tour ends with a night cruise on the Roanoke, where the history of the CSS Albemarle is told complete with special effects.

"It's a real grassroots effort," Harrison said. "The tour guides are mainly local women, while our actors are Civil War reenactors, many of whom come back to participate every year. They get the stage direction that night, and the first group through is our dress rehearsal."

Find out more about the events in Plymouth at www.visitplymouthnc.com and about the CSS Albemarle at www.livinghistoryweekend.com.

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