Local historian: Exmouth’s connection to the American Civil War

How many of you know that Exmouth played a part in the American Civil War?

Our story concerns Collett Leventhorpe, pictured above.

Early life

Leventhorpe was born in Exmouth on 15 May 1815 to his parents Thomas and Mary.

His father died of tuberculosis when he was only nine weeks old. Collett had an older brother, Thomas, who played cricket for Cambridge University.

Collett studied at Winchester College until the age of 14 and he was then tutored privately for the next three years.

In 1832, at the age of 17, Leventhorpe joined the army, serving in Ireland with the Buckinghamshire Regiment followed by his purchasing a lieutenancy in 1835 at the age of 20.

After being stationed in the West Indies for several years, he went to Canada where he became a captain of grenadiers with the 18th Regiment of Foot in 1842 at the age of 27.

Marriage

He then sold his captaincy to go to South Carolina on business for an English company.

The following year, he went to North Carolina on holiday where he met his future wife, Louisa Bryan, daughter of General Edmund Bryan.

They married in 1849 after Collett had graduated from medical college in Charleston, South Carolina, although he never actually practised medicine. That same year he was granted US citizenship.

American Civil War

When the American Civil War broke out, he volunteered for the army and became a colonel in the 34th North Carolina Infantry.

Between 1861 and 1862, he was drilling the regiment and was sent to the Atlantic coast and from there back to North Carolina where he led his troops at the Battle of White Hall successfully slowing the advance of the Union Army.

In the winter of 1853, he helped to repulse an attack on the Siege of Washington and the brigade joined up with General Robert E Lee for the Gettysburg campaign.

Wounding

On the morning of 1 July, Collett was seriously wounded in his left arm, shattering the bone and his hip and he was removed from the battlefield.

He was captured by the Union cavalry during the retreat to Virginia, and was treated by a Union surgeon who wanted to amputate his arm as gangrene had set in.

He refused, but let the surgeon cauterise his wound with nitric acid and refused anaesthesia reportedly saying that "he would have died rather than let an enemy see that a Confederate officer could not endure anything without complaint."

He survived the operation, and was then held as a prisoner at Fort McHenry and Point Lookout before being released when he resigned his commission with 11th North Carolina and took command of the North Carolina Home Guard tracking down deserters.

He was later commissioned as Brigadier General of state troops and he was the only Englishman ever to hold that rank in the US – not bad for an Exmouth lad!

In 1865, he was requested to join the Confederate ranks once again but refused preferring to stay in state service. His troops defended Raleigh when Major General William T Sherman marched on North Carolina but they were forced to retreat to Greensboro where they surrendered on 26 April 1865.

Death

After the Civil War, Leventhorpe was involved with several business enterprises and politics.

He and his wife settled in New York but they also travelled frequently to England. During this time he was known to have sympathies for the Ku Klux Klan but it is not known if he was ever actually a member.

He eventually settled in Wilkes County, North Carolina where he died on 1 December 1889 aged 74.

For an Exmouth lad he certainly had an adventurous life, acquitting himself well on the battlefield but not without suffering. He found happiness with his wife while living in North Carolina in his latter days.

Why not pay a visit to Exmouth Museum to find out more? You can also e-mail [email protected].

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Ed: This article is from Mike Menhenitt's Walking Through Exmouth History series. Use the links below to read previous articles:

Part One: The beginnings of Exmouth, from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age

Part Two: Exmouth in the Iron Age - and the arrival of the Celts

Part Three: Roman coins and Viking raids

Part Four: The impact of the Norman conquest, and how places in Exmouth got their names

Part Five: How Exmouth became a fashionable seaside resort in the 18th century

Part Six: How the docks brought prosperity to Exmouth - and then became the marina

Part Seven: The coming of the railway

Part Eight: Turnpikes, toll houses and inns in Exmouth

Part Nine: Jobs your ancestors had in the town through the ages