"A Soldier's Walk Home" will arrive in Kinston around 5 p.m. May 12 at Harriet's Chapel on the First Battle of Kinston Site. Soldiers from across North Carolina were returning home in May 1865, exhausted at the end of the Civil War. The Soldier's Walk recalls the walk Washington Duke took from New Bern to Durham after he was delivered to New Bern by the Union Army in 1865. It is in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
Staff from the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center will portray 15th Connecticut, U.S. Troops, checking for pass through Union lines, parole, and oath of allegiance paperwork required by terms of the surrender. This event will be free and open to the public. Re-enactor Philip Brown is making the walk from New Bern to Durham, May 11 to 23, and will have to show papers to be allowed to travel.
"A Soldier's Walk Home" represents all soldiers from all wars and other branches of the military. Washington Duke actually was in the Confederate Navy. Another sailor, Lt. Richard Bacot, CSS Neuse Confederate Navy, wrote in his log book. "Went to Provost Marshall's & got a pass to Mars Bluff, S.C. Found I'd have to walk home (105 miles) didn't like it at all but had to face the music."
After the Civil War returning soldiers, sailors, and even civilians had to sign oaths of allegiance to the Union. The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center has three versions of an oath signed by Whitfield Grady as part of a collection on loan to the museum by his descendants.
It was a brother's war that divided families and communities, and now healing the nation would begin. The walk also celebrates the reunification of the U.S. The Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce will also host events in the Kinston area on May 12 and 13. For more information and a full schedule visit http://www.asoldierswalkhome.com/.
The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center offers state of the art exhibits that invite visitors to learn about the ironclad gunboat designed as a new technology to combat superior Union naval forces. The Confederate Navy launched the ill-fated Neuse in an attempt to gain control of the lower Neuse River and the city of New Bern. The CSS Neuse Interpretive Center is located at 100 N. Queen St., Kinston, and open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission charged.