CSS Neuse II

The hulking CSS Neuse II is said to be the only full-scape replica commemorating a Confederate ironclad vessel. Its inspiration was constructed in an attempt to regain control of the lower Neuse River and retake the city of New Bern during the Civil War. The steam-powered Neuse was built slowly due to encroaching Union forces, iron shortages, an inadequate rail system, and a worker strike.

In April 1864, a year-and-a-half after the Neuse contract was signed, the vessel finally departed Kinston. The Neuse only made it half a mile along the inland waterway it ran aground. It was a month before the Neuse was unstuck. By that time, military operations had shifted north.

The excavated remains of the actual CSS Neuse are displayed in a Kinston museum situated near where the ship was scuttled in March 1865, three days before the Union army occupied the town. 

The late Vietnam War veteran and activist Ted Sampley led the placement of the Neuse II on a formerly vacant lot in downtown Kinston. Master shipbuilder Alton ‘Doc’ Stapleford built the ship during his retirement, constructing the CSS Neuse II according to the original plans for its predecessor, an Albemarle-class ironclad gunboat.