The Story of Brunswick & Fort Anderson

by Franda D. Predlow, Jack E Fryar Jr (Contributor)

In 1725, Maurice Moore convinced his friends and family from the Goose Creek section of South Carolina to relocate to North Carolina's Cape Fear River and build their own settlement. The Moores quickly laid out a new town called Brunswick that would become the colony's only port with direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. Over the course of its existence, Brunswick was raided by Spanish privateers, sacked by British redcoats, and was home to some of the leading figures in colonial and Revolutionary War North Carolina. Two Royal Governors made their home there, and one of the earliest rebellions against English rule were acted out at Brunswick. During the Civil War, Fort Anderson was built on the ruins of the colonial town. After the fall of Fort Fisher in 1865, Fort Anderson became the last obstacle to the Union occupation of the port of Wilmington, further up the Cape Fear River. In this book, Franda D. Predlow and Jack E. Fryar, Jr. have put together a beginner's primer that initiates history lovers into the rich past of one of North Carolina's most significant historic sites.

128 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Tom Darrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty standard local history book written by amateur writers/historians. I appreciate their love of the topic and desire to inform others of this important site, but the book is rather poorly done. The majority of it is 1-3 page stories on separate topics relating to Brunswick. Specific people or historic sites. There is a sense that the author/editor didn’t think too much about how these would connect, because there is a lot of repeated information. Some entries just seem like the author found some new historical record and decided to write a summary of it.

The page count is padded like crazy. Each chapter starts halfway down the page, there are multiple blank pages and many full page pictures. The picture quality varies a great deal. Some are pixelated and unclear, others are fine. The editor also needed to do more work to make sure that the pictures in longer entries were on the same page as the information.

The one good section is the entry about Fort Anderson. It is a longer, more well written story.

I learned some stuff about the area, but the book needs a modern update.