Goldsboro

Goldsboro. Major Rail Center. During the Civil War, Goldsboro (then spelled Goldsborough) wa an important railroad junction and a vital link in the Confederate supply chain. Here the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, which ran from Morehead City to Raleigh, intersected the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. These railroads were essential to both sides, but especially to the Confederacy. Blockade runners sailed into Wilmington with supplies that were then transported by rail through Goldsboro to the Confederate army in Virginia using the Petersburg Railroad from Weldon to Petersburg. Confederate troops were stationed here during the war to guard the city and to be transported where needed by rail. Hospitals were also established here to treat the wounded. Some of the men who died here are among the 800 Confederate soldiers buried in a mass grave at Willow Dale Cemetery, five blocks to the south. When New Bern fell in March 1862, earthworks were built 18 blocks east of here along Stoney Creek. Sections of the works can still be found along Claiborne Street., In December 1862, during Union Gen. John G. Foster's raid, his troops temporarily cut the railroad line. In 1865, Goldsboro was Union Gen. William T. Sherman's main objective on his march through the Carolinas.Three Union armies converged here to use the railroads for supply and to prepare for further action after the battles at Bentonville and Wyse Fork in March 1865. Federal Hospitals were established here, and for three weeks more than 100,000 Union soldiers occupied the city.