Battle of Goldsborough history program Saturday
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on March 22, 2009 2:00 AM
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News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Members of the 1st N.C. Cavalry at the 144th anniversary of the Battle of Bentonville Saturday. The living history program resumes today.
Civil War buffs will get a chance Saturday, March 28, to see what life was like for the average soldier when a living history program is held at the site of the Battle of Goldsborough Bridge off the Old Mount Olive Highway.
For years, the nearby Battle of Bentonville has captured historians' attention. But the Goldsborough battle, fought in 1862, is closer to home. Local officials created a 32-acre park at the site of the battle for the Neuse River bridge, which involved thousands of Union and Confederate troops.
A re-creation of the battle is planned for December, when the actual battle occurred. Saturday's event will include musket and cannon demonstrations at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
A typical encampment will be set up and tours will be conducted. The event is free and open to the public.
To reach the site from Goldsboro, take U.S. 117 South to Old Mount Olive Highway, then turn left and the battlefield is one quarter mile on your left.
For more information about the battlefield, see www.goldsboroughbridge.com.
A railed fenced parking area contains a Civil War Trails historical marker which details some of the events of the battle, which was fought when Union troops tried to cutline the vital railroad line that ran from the port at Wilmington to Gen. Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia.
An informational kiosk provides visitors with a battlefield map and walking trails surround the cultivated field which Confederate troops crossed during their bloody counterattack against the Union rear guard.
Two sets of well preserved earthworks can be ssen, as well as the site of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad Bridge, the objective of the Union army.