According to Civil War historian Chris Fonvielle of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Camp Burgwyn was a Confederate encampment outside Wilmington. It was located off the Old New Bern Road — essentially, modern-day Princess Place Drive — in the vicinity of what is now 23rd Street. The camp must have spread out considerably, Fonvielle notes, since Civil War-era artifacts have been found as far north as Martin Luther King Boulevard.

The questioner was wondering if Camp Burgwyn was in the vicinity of the new worship center for Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, now under construction off Martin Luther King Boulevard. That seems a little far out, though from Fonvielle’s description, the site might have been on the far edges of the camp. The berms or mounds on the site, however, may not be of Civil War origin.

There’s some question about who’s the namesake of Camp Burgwyn. (There’s also a question about the spelling: “Burgwin” or “Burgwyn”?) It might be for members of the Burgwin family of Wilmington; one possiblity might be Capt. John Henry King Burgwin, a Mexican War veteran who died of his wounds from fighting Indians in New Mexico in 1847. His family plantation, The Hermtage, was located in what is now Castle Hayne.

Fonvielle, however, thinks a more likely candidate is Col. Henry King Burgwyn of Northampton County, N.C., a cousin of the Wilmington Burgwins. (His branch of the family took a different spelling — the sort of thing that gives genealogists gray hairs.) Burgwyn, the “Boy Colonel,” was killed in action July 1, 1863, on the first day of Gettysburg, while commanding the 26th North Carolina. Burgwyn — only 21 at the time of his death — was the youngest regimental commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and possibly in the entire Confederacy.

Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting, the Confederate commander for the Wilmington district, was prone to name installation after Confederates who died in battle, Fonvielle noted; one good example is Fort Anderson, next to Brunswick Town, named foir Brig. Gen. George Burgwin Anderson, who died of his wounds at the Battle of Antietam. (Ironically, Anderson was a nephew of John Henry King Burgwin and had inherited his U.S. Army cavalry saber.)

For a good book about the Civil War in this area, by the way, check out Fonvielle’s “The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope.”

Date posted: December 10, 2009

User-contributed question by:
Bruce Padgett