Beaufort’s Atlantic Hotel transitions to Civil War hospital

When Union soldiers overwhelmed the Confederate troops at Fort Macon on Bogue Banks in April 1862, Beaufort prepared for an extended period of “Union occupation.”

Sure enough, the Northern boys quickly misbehaved. They helped themselves to the provisions stocked at the exquisite Atlantic Hotel, emptying the wine cellar and draining the liquor cabinet.

They ransacked and trashed the majestic hotel, turning it into ruins. What a shame.

The grand and luxurious 100-room lodging facility was built overlooking Taylors Creek in Beaufort, between Pollock and Marsh streets, in the early 1850s. 

 

It became the “favorite place to stay” for traveling man Josiah Solomon Pender of Tarboro in Edgecombe County.

Born in 1819, Pender was a poet, artist and successful jeweler who visited Beaufort frequently. He acquired three steamships and became Capt. Pender for the purpose of “carrying on trade between the ports of Beaufort, New Bern, Bermuda and New York City.”

Pender bought the Atlantic Hotel in 1856, and the property became his base of operations. 

The late Hugh B. Johnston Jr., a noted historian from Wilson, N.C., wrote: “When it appeared that a civil war was imminent, Pender (at age 42) raised and completely outfitted at his own expense a company” – about 50 militiamen known as the Beaufort Harbor Guards.

“On April 11, 1861, the day before the historic attack on Fort Sumter, S.C., they marched without official orders upon the unsuspecting federal officer at Fort Macon…and replaced the Stars and Stripes with an improvised flag showing a green pine tree with a coiled rattlesnake at its foot,” Johnston said.

 

North Carolina Gov. John W. Ellis wanted a “more experienced fighting team” in charge at Fort Macon, so he immediately ordered the “Goldsboro Rifles” unit to relieve Pender from his command.

“Josiah Pender involved himself and his ships in something that would prove far more advantageous to the Confederate war effort, the running of the blockade then being implemented in Carolina waters by the Union navy,” Johnston said. 

“He transferred his family and his base of operations to Hamilton on the island of Bermuda.”

Meanwhile, what was left of Pender’s Atlantic Hotel in Beaufort became Hammond General Hospital, named for Dr. William Alexander Hammond, U.S. Surgeon General, who served under President Abraham Lincoln.

 

Union Gen. John Gray Foster brought in nine Catholic nuns from the Sisters of Mercy at St. Catherine’s Convent, Manhattan, N.Y., to provide nursing and spiritual care. They arrived in July 1862 to treat “200 wounded and sick soldiers.”

 

Conditions were deplorable. The place was filthy with no medicine or bandages. One straw broom stood lonely in the cleaning supplies closet.

Writing for Our State magazine in August 2014, the late Philip Gerard said that Mother Mary Madeline Toban sent her tally of needed supplies and equipment “directly to Gen. Foster, with an ultimatum: If the supplies are not forthcoming, she will take her eight sisters and return to New York.”

“A short time later,” Gerard said, “a small miracle steamed into Beaufort Harbor – a vessel loaded with food, medical supplies, cleaning tools and kitchen equipment.”

Military historian Grant Gerlich said: “When the Civil War broke out, both sides were woefully unprepared for the flood of wounded and dying from the battlefields. Unsanitary conditions took their toll; infection and disease claimed the lives of many of the injured and infirmed.”

“The only trained nurses were women of religious orders. They cared for Union and Confederate soldiers alike, officers and enlisted men, rich and poor, no matter their religion or heritage.”

“Motivated by love of God, they compassionately cared for the sick and prepared the dying for eternity.”