Goldsboro, North Carolina

“ While at Camp McLean, near Goldsboro, the regiment was ordered to Halifax to repel another Federal raid. It remained there only a day or two, the enemy having withdrawn. It returned to Goldsboro where it remained drilling and doing guard duty until the last of January. It was then ordered to Kinston and camped near the beautiful home of Colonel John C. Washington. It was here employed in constructing the breastworks and fortifications for the defence of the town and especially of the county bridge across the Neuse river. ”

“ The season never becomes so cold that the farmers cannot bring fresh vegetables to the markets three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. Wayne County is rapidly developing the live stock, poultry and dairy industries. No section of the United States offers a better inducement to the above named industries than does Wayne County.
In addition to the above advantages Wayne County offers a system of hard surface and sand clay roads of which Goldsboro is the hub, that cannot be surpassed. We also maintain over one hundred public schools located in all sections of the county. ”

“ The surrounding country produces large quantities of tobacco, cotton and grain, and trucking is an important industry, the city being a distributing point for strawberries and various kinds of vegetables. The city’s manufactures include cotton goods, knit goods, cotton-seed oil, agricultural implements, lumber and furniture. Goldsboro is the seat of the Eastern insane asylum (for negroes) and of an Odd Fellows’ orphan home. The municipality owns and operates its water-works and electric-lighting plant. Goldsboro was settled in 1838, and was first incorporated in 1841. ”

“ The road from Winston to Greensboro has resulted in the creation of a city alongside of ancient Salem which is, in every respect the compeer of Durham in the swiftness of its growth and the amount of its trade and manufactures. Winston, Durham and Reidsville have arisen almost like magic, and are expanding into such importance that Charlotte, Salisbury and Greensboro have all felt the consequences of their growth in trade and population. ”

“ The female seminaries of Salem, Raleigh and Greensboro were supplemented, in 1843, in the establishment, by the Chowan and Portsmouth Baptist Associations, of another female school of high grade, at Murfreesboro. This useful and popular institution soon gained reputation and attracted patronage from many of the Southern States. The Edgeworth Seminary at Greensboro was a similar institution under Presbyterian rule. It was a worthy rival of its compeers in the education of Southern girls. The University, Wake Forest and Davidson College were advancing their standards and growing in prosperity. ”

“ The first point to be attained is to secure Wilmington. Goldsboro' will then be your objective point, moving either from Wilmington or New Bern, or both, as you deem best. Should you not be able to reach Goldsboro', you will advance on the line or lines of railway connecting that place with the sea-coast—as near to it as you can, building the road behind you. The enterprise under you has two objects: the first is to give General Sherman material aid, if needed, in his march north; the second, to open a base of supplies for him on his line of march. ”

“ In the town of New Berne, within the rude triangle formed by the rivers Neuse and Trent on two sides, and our line of fortifications on the other, are 6,560 colored people. The town contained in 1860, 5,482 inhabitants, white and colored. Nearly the whole of the white population abandoned the place before our army entered it. The most valuable, active, and useful of the slaves were compelled to accompany their masters.
But the free blacks generally remained, not having the fear of "the Yankees" before their eyes. They are all self-supporting. ”

“ He was shortly followed in death by William Hooper and Archibald Maclaine. Willie Jones had retired from public life; and thus, four most conspicuous leaders almost simultaneously disappeared from public life.
4. Colonel William R. Davie, of Halifax, John Haywood, of the same county, and Alfred Moore, of Brunswick, were greatly influential, and were worthy successors of the older servants of the public who had been thus removed from the arena of their former usefulness. Governor Johnston having been elected United States Senator, was succeeded as Governor by Alexander Martin. ”

“ The majority of his followers, who were little better than highway robbers, had gathered to his standard as the best representative of the king in North Carolina, after the defeat at Moore's Creek.
There is not and never has been a Willisborough in North Carolina. There is a Williamsboro in Granville county, but has never been the seat of government even for a few days. Hillsboro, practically, was the capital in 1781.
The nearest to an organization of Highlanders, after Moore's Creek, was Hamilton's Loyal North Carolina regiment; but this was made up of refugees from over all the state. ”

“ By way of contrast to the Hillsboro town plan, Figure 5 is a drawing of Grenoble, a medieval French city. This drawing is reproduced from The Culture of Cities, by Lewis Mumford. The winding streets are natural paths that have become fixed as streets. Some curving streets mark the location of early town walls, removed as the town grew and as larger encircling walls were erected. ”

“ Such is a brief and imperfect sketch of that family whose name is prefixed. Many events, of thrilling interest, connected with their revolutionary services, have, no doubt, sunk into oblivion; but enough has been presented to stimulate the rising generation to imitate their heroic example and admire their unfaltering devotion to the cause of American freedom.
COLONEL JAMES JOHNSTON. Col. James Johnston, one of the earliest patriots of "Tryon," afterward Lincoln county, was born about the year 1742. His father, Henry Johnston, was of Scottish descent. ”

“ Sloping in a long, gradual sweep of undulating hills and valleys, overspread with the silver network of her myriad streams, from her lofty green-bannered battlements, erected by God, down to her shifting shore, where Hatteras lies in wait for her enemies by sea, North Carolina spreads out the peaceful lap of her bounteous land for her children and for all who cherish her. ”

“ Of these, 1,226 receive help from the government, as dependents. The whole settlement is under charge of Mr. L.J. Howell, whose ability and tact make him a valuable helper in negro affairs. His services, for more than two years, are deserving of honorable mention.
If we must have camps, or African villages, in which temporarily to shelter and feed refuges from bondage, this settlement, located healthfully on the banks of the Trent, is a model for imitation. ”

“ In just a half century the iron lines, beginning at the sea, have reached and pierced the mountain barriers of Western North Carolina. From State to State rush the tireless ministers of our wealth and pleasure. Instead of the wagon toiling slowly in the rear of weary axemen, we see the long and well-appointed railroad train sweep by with the speed of the hurricane, bearing the wealth of States, and doing more in the course of twenty-four hours to diffuse civilization and luxury than our ancestors could have accomplished in as many years. ”

“ In soil, in climate, in minerals, in water-power for manufactural purposes, and in area of territory, North Carolina has the advantage of New York, and, with the exception of slavery, no plausible reason can possibly be assigned why land should not be at least as valuable in the valley of the Yadkin as it is along the banks of the Genesee. ”

“ Ever since the close of the late war, the colored people of North Carolina have shown a remarkable unanimity in their efforts to procure education for themselves and their children. In this desire they have been nobly aided by the white men and women, and their progress has been rapid. It is the belief of all that only in enlightened public sentiment can safety be found for our peace and liberties; and thus the State is doing all that can be effected for the culture and mental improvement of all classes of its population. ”

“ N.W. of the city, where there is now a Battle-Ground Park of 100 acres (including Lake Wilfong) ; this park contains a Revolutionary museum, and twenty-nine monuments, including a Colonial Column, an arch (1906) in memory of Brig.-General Francis Nash (1720–1777) , of North Carolina, who died in October 1777 of wounds received at Germantown, and Davidson Arch (1905) , in honour of William Lee Davidson (1746–1781) , a brigadier-general of North Carolina troops, who was killed at Catawba and in whose honour Davidson College, at Davidson, N.C., was named. ”

“ It can hardly be realized amid the present luxuries and enjoyments of the American people, what dangers and privations were encountered by the white settlers in North Carolina two hundred years ago; for while now thronging cities, teeming fields and busy highways of a people numbering many millions cover the land, then cruel and crafty Indians, always hostile at heart to the tread of the white man, surrounded the defenceless homes of the scattered colonists and filled the great forest stretching three thousand miles toward the setting sun. ”

“ Excepting some care received by our sick from the Sisters of Charity while we were at Charleston, Goldsboro’ was the first place in the South where Southern women manifested any sympathy for our deplorable condition. Here, the last time we came, the ladies of Goldsboro’, though the guards strove to keep them back, burst through the lines, and came into our camp loaded with baskets of provisions, which they distributed among the sick and most needy. ”

“ This Congress was the first great step in the Revolution, which was to deliver North Carolina and America from the dominion of a distant King and Parliament. The men of America were soon to be free from all foreign interference in their government. It was a bold and hazardous step in Colonel Harvey and the men over whom he presided as Moderator, but safety in the end was the reward of those who thus dared to be free. ”

“ In the decade following the enactment of the Missouri Compromise there was prodigious material growth in every section of the American Union. In North Carolina the real prosperity of the people was imperceptible, by reason of the heavy emigration to the South and West. Not only population, but wealth, was continually withdrawing to more profitable fields of labor and speculation. ”

“ General James Moore marched northward from Charleston with his brigade, but died in Wilmington. His death was a serious loss to North Carolina and the cause of liberty, for in military genius, as in patriotic devotion, he had few equals and no superior in America. Colonel Francis Nash succeeded to his place. General Howe was sent to Savannah, having with him his old command, the Second North Carolina Regiment. Four new regiments were ordered by the Provincial Congress and were soon put in the field. ”

“ No braver or wiser man has ever borne a part in the conduct of affairs in North Carolina.
11. Apprehensive for his own safety and that of his family, Governor Martin at once made preparations for leaving New Bern. He sent his family to New York by sea, but went himself by land to Fort Johnston, at the mouth of the Cape Fear. * But even Fort Johnston proved unsafe as a place of refuge, and in July the Governor left it and went on board the war sloop Cruiser, then lying in the river before the fort. On the same day Colonel Ashe, with five hundred men, burned the fort to the ground. ”

“ The Convention at Hillsboro limited the seat of the State government to some point in Wake county. The capital had been migrating from town to town for nearly the whole period of North Carolina's existence. The Legislature also passed a bill creating the University of North Carolina, and the terms of the Halifax Constitution, as to popular education, were thus first put into some shape of accomplishment. ”

“ Whilst all these disturbances were going forward, North Carolina increased greatly in population. Disturbances, in fact, in these young American states, seem to have been merely like the ebullitions of vigorous youth, which grows in spite of them, and through which all their powers are brought into exercise. In 1698, the first settlements were made on Pamlico River, the Indians of that vicinity having been nearly destroyed by fever and the ravages of war with more powerful tribes. In 1707, a number of French Protestants removed into Carolina from Virginia ”

“ Thus began an institution of learning in which distinguished men were to be prepared for usefulness in almost every honorable employment among civilized men.
7. Tennessee had been conveyed to the general government soon after the ratification of the United States Constitution, North Carolina reserving to herself the right to locate land warrants in a certain portion. ”

“ The design of a town—the arrangement of streets and lots—expresses the ideas of the people about the right framework in which a good life can be lived.
For our study of colonial towns we are fortunate in having beautiful maps of ten North Carolina towns, all made by the surveyor Claude Joseph Sauthier. The Hillsboro map, figure 3, is one of these drawings. Sauthier traveled over North Carolina between 1768 and 1770, surveyed and made maps of Bath, Beaufort, Brunswick, Edenton, Cross Creek (now Fayetteville) , Halifax, Hillsboro, New Bern, Salisbury, and Wilmington. ”