Caring for the Wounded

As the fighting surged past Harriet’s Chapel and the battle moved into Kinston, surgeons of both armies began caring for the wounded, and the chapel became a refuge where men from both sides found treatment. Fighting around Harriet’s Chapel was among the fiercest of the battle, and the building also served as a defensive position while the battle raged. When Union forces arrived, dead bodies lay scattered about the floor, and their surgeons immediately appropriated the church for a hospital. Soldiers brought the wounded there for treatment as surgeons used bone saws for amputations and others tried to treat and comfort men lying on the floor or on the pews. Union troops carried most of their wounded back to New Bern, but wounded Confederates remained in Kinston. The land around Harriet’s Chapel became a burial ground for Union and Confederate dead. The Federal government removed Union remains to New Bern National Cemetery in the 1860s, while the Confederate dead remained there until 1881, when they were reinterred in Maplewood Cemetery.

North Carolina · United States