Name: Elle Stockton
Age: 26 Years Old
Hometown: Atlanta, GA

Why Kinston: I am a huge history nerd and recent college graduate with a degree in African American Studies. The time in history that interests me the most is the Civil War. Kinston is the site of the second largest Civil War battle in North Carolina. It’s home to the remains of one of only four Ironclad warships in the world. So the question wasn’t if I wanted to go, it was how fast could I get there.

The Civil War pitted North against South, brother against brother, and forever changed what we were to become as a nation. I’ve studied this war and the reasons behind it. I’ve read about President Lincoln’s motives. I know all the Generals and the main characters of the stories written in history books. What I don’t know are the stories of the men and women – black, white, or other – that have been left out of the pages of those history books. Those are the stories I want to learn more about on my trip to Kinston.

After a seven-hour drive from Atlanta, I pull into Kinston and decide to check immediately into my hotel. I’ve reserved a room at the Mother Earth Motor Lodge. From a history lover’s perspective, this is the place to stay. It’s been renovated to look like it’s directly out of the 1960s. I get to study another era. I even get to sleep in another era. I’m already loving this town.

Morning comes and I am off to The CSS Neuse Interpretive Center. This museum is the main reason I came to Kinston. It houses one of only four Ironclad warships in the world. As I enter the main exhibit hall, the ship’s 158-foot-long hull stands before me. It is a massive wooden skeleton. I walk around the battered timber on the ground floor and then climb the stairs to view it from above.

When built, this ship had more than 100 men assigned to it. It took 20 men to operate each gun. Its steam-powered engine kept the boat at a constant temperature of 130 degrees. The most enlightening of all these facts? The bathroom was a bucket. Now take a moment to let that register. A bucket. 200 men. 130 degrees.

Today, thankfully, there are no buckets on display in the museum. The deteriorated, but preserved wreckage is all that’s left of a Civil War gunship that never quite saw the action for which it was built. The CSS Neuse was called to help take back New Bern. But a half-mile down the river from where it was moored, the ship ran ashore. It was armed and ready for battle then it got stuck in the mud. Left with fewer defenses, New Bern fell to the Union.

The CSS Neuse did eventually make it back to its moorings in Kinston. It was there it took its final stand in 1865. During the Battle of Wyse Creek, it provided cover for retreating Confederate troops. The crew eventually scuttled the ship to prevent it from falling into Union hands. After that, it sat at the bottom of the Neuse River for nearly 100 years until its remains were exhumed and placed in this museum.

Today, the exhibits around the relic tell the story of the Ironclad. They also tell the story of life in Lenoir County for black people during the Civil War. It’s here that I learn how many Southern slaves took advantage of the fog of war to escape towards freedom. Some of these newly freed folks frequently served as scouts and spies for the Union.

Black men were not legally allowed to serve as combat soldiers in the Confederate Army, but they were enlisted as cooks, teamsters, and manual laborers. After the Emancipation, many Southern black men actually took up arms against their former masters on the battlefield. By the time the war was over, black soldiers made up 10% of the Union Army and had suffered more than 10,000 combat casualties, but their sacrifice helped free more than four million people.

Glancing around the museum, I would guess there are about 50 people taking in the exhibits. Of those visitors, I would say about half were African American. It’s great to see that more black people, myself included, have become interested in Civil War history. Specifically, piecing together the stories not printed in history books or taught in classrooms.

I end up spending about four days around Kinston – going to the museums, exploring the battlefields, taking in the stories. For me, the visit is both educational and cathartic. Coming here, I knew the facts as told from history books. Leaving here, I know more about how I am connected to that time. I understand the stories and sacrifices my relatives made to get me to where I am today – an educated, proud, black woman ready to make her own history.