In December 1862, during the American Civil War, both Union and Confederate forces competed for control of strategically vital transportation infrastructure in eastern North Carolina. The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad Bridge represented a crucial supply line from the port of Wilmington, making its control essential to both sides' military operations in the region. Union Major General John G. Foster organized an expedition specifically to destroy this bridge and disrupt Confederate supply chains.
On December 17, 1862, Foster's expedition reached the railroad near Everettsville in Wayne County, North Carolina, where they began systematically destroying tracks leading toward the Goldsborough Bridge. Confederate Brigadier General Thomas L. Clingman's brigade mounted a defensive effort to halt the Union advance, but their forces proved insufficient to prevent the destruction. Foster's troops, despite facing defending Confederate soldiers, overpowered the resistance and successfully burned the bridge, achieving their primary objective.
With his mission accomplished, Foster ordered a withdrawal toward his base at New Bern on December 20. During the return march, Confederate forces launched another attack against the Union column, but Foster's men repulsed this assault while sustaining significantly fewer casualties than their Confederate opponents. The destruction of the Goldsborough Bridge represented a tactical success for the Union, temporarily severing an important Confederate supply route and demonstrating the Union's growing capability to conduct offensive operations deep into Confederate territory during the winter of 1862.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
Union: ~90; Confederate: ~60
Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the US, drawing on NRHP records, battlefield archives, census history and geological data to tell the full story of a place.