Joseph N. Spence
(Pasquotank County)
Featured Character – 1864 Confederate
Decline
Joseph
N. Spence
Courtesy of Bob Jones
Joseph
Newton Spence was born in Pasquotank County in
1840 and became a young
farmer. At the age of 20, Spence enlisted in Captain William F.
Martin’s
Company F, 7th regiment North Carolina Volunteer Infantry. Though his
company
was fortunate to escape from the Union attack at Fort
Hatteras in
August 1861, it was
captured at Roanoke Island
in February 1862,
and Spence was not exchanged until August of that year. He then took a
year
off, after which he joined Company A, 8th Regiment North
Carolina Troops,
where he saw action at Drewry’s Bluff, the Bermuda Hundred, and Cold Harbor,
Virginia.
While attempting to recapture Fort
Harrison in
Virginia
on September 30, 1864, Spence took a bullet in the ankle, becoming one
of the
150 out of 175 men in the company to be killed, wounded, or captured.
He was
hospitalized and survived the war, returning home to South Mills, where
he
resumed his life as a farmer. He was married and fathered 5 children.
Spence
died in South Mills, Camden County on
March 5, 1917.