Federals Occupy Greenville

Federals Occupy Greenville. "The bridge … was destroyed". , On July 18, 1863, Union Gen. Edward E. Potter led infantry and cavalry from New Bern to destroy the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad bridge at Rocky Mount. Potter sent the infantry toward Kinston and part of the cavalry to Rocky Mount, occupying Greenville and Tarboro with the rest. The raiders damaged or destroyed bridges, trains, munitions, and mills before returning to New Bern on July 23, but the Confederates restored rail service by Aug. 1., Union Gen. Edward E. Potter's 800 raiding cavalrymen swarmed down the street in front of you at about 3 P.M. on Sunday, July 19, 1863. Entering Greenville unchallenged Potter reported that the town was "completely surrounded by a strong line of entrenchments, but there were no troops, excepting a few convalescents and sick in the hospital.", Potter's men were hard on Greenville. "The bridge across the Tar River at this place was destroyed," reported Potter, as well as Confederate army supplies. Residents reported that the soldiers also broke into bars and got drunk, looted shops, and robbed people in the streets. The raiders also entered the courthouse and the jail, where they freed, according to the New York Times, "25 negroes … who had been imprisoned in attempting to get inside our ones, in order to join the colored regiment at Newbern." The paper asserted that the former slaves would "soon be clad in the military blue of our army.", That was a common occurrence in this part of North Carolina, as more than 5,000 former slaves from the eastern counties served in the U.S. Army and Navy. Many escaped Pitt County slaves enlisted in the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers and other regiments of U.S. Colored Troops. Hundreds of other slaves left their plantations to follow behind Union columns as refugees, as they did with Potter's raiders., To the relief of Greenville's residents, Potter's men mounted up and moved out around 6 P.M., riding west on the Tar River Road, modern State Highway 43. "At midnight," wrote Potter, "we halted at Sparta, within 8 miles of Tarborough.", [Captions:] , Co. James C. Beecher, commander of the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers , Historical Data Systems, Unidentified soldier, U.S. Colored Troops , Courtesy Library of Congress, Greenville jail, constructed 1855 and demolished 1882, stood at 3d and Evans Sts. across from the courthouse. , Courtesy Robert Kammerer, Gen Edward E. Potter , Courtesy U.S. Army Military History Institute, Potter's Raid from New Bern to Rocky Mount