Colonel John L. Cantwell was the 51st North Carolina’s first commander. He only led the regiment for six months before resigning for personal reasons. A year later, he reentered service as captain of Company F, 3rd Regiment North Carolina Troops. In May 1864, Cantwell was captured at Spotsylvania and imprisoned at Ft. Delaware, where he became a member of the Immortal 600. He was released on May 26, 1865, after taking the Oath of Allegiance.
(Image by K. Ward)
Before the war, John Cantwell had been a prominent resident of Wilmington. He was a prosperous produce broker, served as clerk of court, and commanded the local militia. Now, after enduring the stress of battle and the brutality of military prison, he would have to return home and begin rebuilding his life in a country devastated by war. Cantwell was 36 years old, a widower with a six-year-old son. His house in Wilmington had been seized by the Federal authorities. With no other place to go, he moved in with relatives in Hillsboro.
Colonel Cantwell wrote the following letter to Dr. Armand J. DeRosset in Wilmington, asking for employment. DeRosset was a commission merchant before the war and resumed business when the conflict ended. Dr. DeRosset’s son, William, commanded the Third North Carolina when Cantwell served with that regiment.
Hillsboro NC 17th July 1865
Dear Sir
Col De Rosset informs me that you will probably resume business in Wilmington, personal feeling, affection & a desire to relieve my relatives here of the tax of feeding me from means that are limited, make me very solicitous to obtain employment. In this vicinity there are no openings. I therefore, recalling your frequent evidences of partiality to myself, take the liberty of begging an additional kindness & request that you will take me into your employ at such salary as you may think justified by your interests or if your business will not permit a salary at present, so anxious am I to return home that I shall be content to do so for my board. (Bread & meat & a pair of blankets in the office if no better can be had) promising that my best efforts shall not be wanting & feeling assured that that they will not be exerted in vain to give satisfaction.
I trust my dear sir that you will give this a favorable consideration & that you will afford me the opportunity of renewing my residence in Wilmington, which otherwise I fear I shall not be permitted to secure for some time.
The Colonel has promised to write to you in my behalf trusting that our united effort will have a successful issue.
I am very Respectfully
Jno L Cantwell
Dr A J De Rosset
Wilmington NC
It’s not clear whether or not Dr. DeRosset hired John Cantwell, but the former colonel returned to Wilmington before the end of 1865. In September of that year, he petitioned the Freedman’s Bureau for return of his house at the corner of Market and 6th Streets. His request was approved and he and his son, Robert, took up residence there.
Cantwell went to work as the general freight agent for the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad. In 1870, he was once again a produce broker, and by 1880 he was the secretary and treasurer of the Wilmington Produce Exchange. Cantwell remarried in 1869, and he and his second wife had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Cantwell died on December 21, 1909, eight days shy of his 82nd birthday.
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