Emeline Piggot
When Emeline was 25, just after the Civil War began, she and her parents moved to a farm at Crab Point in Carteret County on the coast. Just across the creek from their home, the soldiers of the Confederate 26th North Carolina Division were stationed. It was their duty to defend the coastline.
Emeline Piggot
She had a passionate desire to assist the Confederate cause. She offered her services as a spy and gathered food and clothing for the soldiers. She hid these items in designated hollow trees, so the soldiers could retrieve them later. She cared for wounded soldiers who were brought in from the attacks on the North Carolina coast. At times she nursed them back to health in her home.
Working in three neighboring counties, she distributed mail and supplies to the soldiers and gathered information about Federal ships, their tonnage, and cargo, and passed it on to the authorities across Calico Creek.
In 1862, General Ambrose Burnside’s army forced the Rebels to retire to Kinston, some 40 miles to the west. Emeline left with the wounded on the last train out before the Northerners occupied the town of New Bern. Many residents fled. When the Yankees arrived, the houses were empty, and the army used them as barracks, offices, and hospitals.
When she returned home, she found the Yankees had occupied the entire area. New Bern was an important shipping port and a stop on the Atlantic and Northern Railroad. It became the center of Union operations in eastern North Carolina for the rest of the Civil War. The Confederates tried to take it back twice, but failed.
Emeline continued to gather intelligence about Northern blockade ships in port. She carried letters and other items from family members to Confederate soldiers. She made numerous dangerous journeys to New Bern and the seaports.
She narrowly escaped capture several times, and disregarded her own safety in order to complete her mission. She sometimes carried up to thirty pounds of supplies and intelligence information in huge pockets hidden under her hoop skirt.
She discovered that she could obtain valuable information while entertaining Union soldiers in her home. While Emeline distracted the enemy in the parlor, her brother-in- law, Rufus Bell, dispensed food from her pantry to hungry Rebel soldiers out the back.
Local fishermen also gathered information as they sold fish to the Yankees. They then reported to Emeline, who became North Carolina’s most famous spy and smuggler.
In 1865, as the war was ending, Union officials were watching Emeline and Rufus Bell very closely. One day, while they were making their rounds, they were arrested and jailed. The Federals confiscated the carriage Emeline and Rufus traveled in on their errands of mercy.
While the Yankees were trying to find a female to search her, Emeline ate some important information and tore up other papers. She shredded some of the mail she carried, but the Unionists discovered the items that were hidden in her hoop skirt.
Sources vary on what happened to Emeline next. Some say she was tried and sentenced to death. Others say she was never tried. Whatever happened, after two months, she was inexplicably released and sent home. She had been nothing but trouble to the soldiers who guarded her.
After the war, Emeline greatly enjoyed telling others about her escapades, but she never revealed how she came to be released from prison. She died in 1916 at the age of 80 and was buried in the family cemetery on the north side of Calico Creek.
I was born a Tarheel, and I greatly admire her courage.
Copyright © 2006 Maggie MacLean
Tags:
