The 148th Anniversary Reenactment on the original 1862 battlefield will be held on December 10-12, 2010.

 

This event has been designated a Maximum Effort event for the 4th Regiment, 1st NC Battalion, Army of Northern Virginia Camp. Come witness this fight on the original 1862 battlefield and witness the dedication and unveiling of our new granite memorial to those units that fought at Goldsborough in December 1862.

The History of Goldsborough Bridge

The Battle of Goldsborough Bridge was fought December 17, 1862 at the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad Bridge across the Neuse River, three miles south of Goldsborough, North Carolina. Troops and supplies aboard trains from the Deep South and the port at Wilmington had to cross this bridge on their way to Virginia, making this bridge a vital link in the Confederate supply chain. Because of the intersection of two railroads at Goldsborough, the Wilmington & Weldon and the Atlantic & North Carolina, Goldsborough had become one of the most important railroad centers in the South. There were other railroad bridges and depots between Wilmington and Virginia, but the presence of the two railroads at Goldsborough, along with the fact that Goldsborough was only 60 miles from Union-occupied New Berne, made the railroad bridge at Goldsborough an important objective for the Union War Department. The War Department believed that the destruction of this bridge would impact the ability of the Confederacy to wage war, if done in conjunction with a major Union victory in Virginia. A defeated Confederate army, denied re-supply, could be swept aside, leaving the Confederate capital at Richmond vulnerable. The time to implement this plan came late in 1862. In December, the commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, General Ambrose Burnside, was planning an attack on General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Plans were made for the Union commander in North Carolina, General John G. Foster, to simultaneously launch an attack from New Berne against the railroad bridge at Goldsborough. This expedition has come to be known as Foster’s Raid.

To visit Goldsborough Bridge Battlefield is to step back in time and take a walk in the footsteps of history. Come see where 15,000 soldiers fought a desperate battle in December 1862. Walk where they walked. See what they saw. Come to Goldsborough Bridge Battlefield and experience a small slice of American History.