Morehead City was the brainchild of John Motley Morehead, the 29th governor of North Carolina. Impressed by its great natural harbor he purchased 600 acres of land then owned by the Arendell family which extended from the Newport River to modern-day 24th Street. He then organized the Shepard Point Land Company with William Arendell, establishing himself as its first president. In August 1857, Mr. Morehead began advertising lots for sale at auction on November 11th in the new city laid off by the Shepard Point Land Company at the recently completed terminus of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad. Lots from only about half of the original 600 acres were sold prior to the war. This section extended from the terminus of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad at Newport River to modern-day 15th street. By 1860 the population of Morehead City was 316. There were about 50 buildings in the town. One of the first buildings constructed was the Macon House in 1860. When the area came under Union occupation two years later it was used for a hospital and subsequently for officer’s quarters. Both Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman stayed there during the war.

The Macon House was located at the southwest corner of East Ninth and Arendell Street (34.7212699, -76.7142091).

Among the first salt works established in North Carolina were those in Currituck and Carteret Counties. The largest salt work in Carteret County was at Shepards Point in Morehead City. The operation was headed by Captain George W. Dill. Federal forces entered the city in April of 1862 and burned it. Housed under a long shed, it consisted of furnaces with a door at one end and a chimney at the other. Two rows of heavy iron kettles were built into the top of each furnace. Large wooden pipes conveyed the sea water from the settling tanks to the kettles. The water was evaporated leaving the salt crystals behind. The furnaces were wood fired.

After Fort Macon fell, martial law was established in Morehead City with Captain Ritter of the 9th NJ as Morehead City’s Provost Marshal. He and his fellow officers set up headquarters at a house that was at 805 Bridges Street. The 9th NJ was encamped at Carolina City (Camp Glenn). In 1863 General Heckman commanded at Morehead City. In the summer of 1863, the 9th NJ built an earthen fort at what is now 12th Street. They threw up a breastwork of dirt with a deep trench on the town side. The Morehead City fort was located at the corner of Arendell Street and 12th at 1205 Arendell Street, the current site of the Hope Mission Thrift Store and parking lot, shown below.

A large hospital building was erected at 804 Arendell Street under the supervision of Surgeon Woodhull of General Heckman’s staff. It was called the Mansfield General Hospital but is no longer standing. It was converted for use as a warehouse for Sherman’s North Carolina Campaign by his chief quartermaster, General Easton. A new 600-bed Mansfield General Hospital was opened in Beaufort.

Governor Morehead was not the only person who appreciated Morehead City’s value as a deep water port. The other was Major General William T. Sherman. As he planned his Carolinas Campaign he intended to reoutfit and resupply his army at Goldsboro, North Carolina. Since his army would be stationary there for several weeks he knew that foraging was not an option to feed them. In order to supply his men he would need a deep water port and a railroad. His two options for a deep water port on the North Carolina coast were Morehead City and Wilmington. Grant favored Wilmington while Sherman preferred Morehead City. In order to make Morehead City work Sherman’s logistical team would need to procure large numbers of shallow draft vessels, requisition buildings for use as warehouses and build others, and expand the wharf so that it could accommodate eight steamers at a time. In an online post Wade Sokolosky published the image below of the Morehead City wharf during the Civil War that he found in the National Archives. He described it as follows “the image below in blue/red depicts the Port of Morehead City during the Civil War. In Blue, was the depot for the Atlantic & N.C. Railroad. From a modern perspective, it is where the yacht basin is before you reach the foot of the bridge. This was before Col. Wright showed up with his engineers. In Red, is everything he constructed between February and April 1865 to support the massive logistics buildup for Sherman. The port went from handling only two ocean-going vessels at a time to eight. The colorization is my editing of Wright’s original blueprint found in the National Archives.” Wade and Mark Smith are coauthors of the excellent book- The Battle of Wise’s Forks, March 1865.

Source

The Morehead City Centennial Jubilee Book https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/17025