Confederate Coat

Yeah, I was trying to come up with a clever title. Fail.

My coat and I went to Wilmington, NC today. I want to live there. Every time I mention that my husband laughs. I don't think he believes I'm serious. But oh man, if I ever win the lottery I am on the next plane there, buying an historical house, upgrading it, and moving in.

Our first stop was the USS North Carolina, a decommissioned WW2 Battleship.

She was the first fast battleship to join American fleet in World War II and was commissioned on 9 April 1941. A Japanese torpedo slammed into the Battleship’s hull on 15 September 1942.

She is also said to be very haunted. A longtime caretaker who lived aboard after she became a museum claims to have seen aparitions, as do others. Ghosts have purportedly slammed hatches, played with electronics and even hitchhiked out of the parking lot.






Watch the video!

Next we visited the Bellamy Mansion. Sadly, we are not destined to inherit it. Built for Dr. John D. Bellamy beginning in October 1859, it was home to the descendants until Ellen Bellamy died an "old maid" in 1947.

The original buildings are the mansion, the carriage house, and the slave quarters. The mansion proper had to have massive restorations done after arsonists set fire to it in 1972. The picture on the left is the home in 1873.

This beautiful home has amazing architecture and great care has been taken to preserve what originals they could after the fire and recreate others. We had quite the giggle at the family names-Robert, John, Mary Elizabeth-as those are names in OUR Bellamy family as well. I think this is my favorite room. It is called a belvedere and sits at the top of the house.

Our last stop was Oakdale Cemetery. Locals purchased the 65-acre tract on the east side of Burnt Mill Creek east of the town limits and it was the first rural cemetery in the state. The first interment was February 5, 1855. In 1867 the cemetery corporation gave the Ladies Memorial Association a plot of land on which to place a monument to the Confederate dead. The monument is a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier and medallion likenesses of Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and was unveiled in 1872.

It sits atop a burial mound of the bodies of 367 Confederate Soldiers who were not identified.

The Bellamy family plot is in this cemetery as well. This John D Bellamy isn't our boy :)

From the cemetery we headed back north to Morehead City for dinner at the Longhorn. My husband consumed a 16 ounce prime rib and a lobster tail, salad and baked potato. I was stuffed after half a ground sirloin and baked potato. JD had his signature Cheeseburger Only Ketchup as well as my salad. He didn't care for the mac and cheese, which surprised me. Then back to our beach home to do dishes and laundry and play Skip-Bo, which I lost. Three times.

I think this has been the best NC vacation day ever.