Fort Hill
Beaufort County, Beaufort County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Fort Hill. Site of Confederate batteries on Pamlico River which enabled Gen. D. H. Hill's forces to besiege Washington in spring of 1863. 5 mi. E.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Fort Hill was the site of Confederate batteries overlooking the Pamlico River, positioned to help besiege the Union-held town of Washington in the spring of 1863. From these works, Gen. D. H. Hill's forces pressed the Federal garrison during the campaign for the town. The site lies about five miles east.
Why it matters
Fort Hill shows how control of a single stretch of river could decide the fate of a town in the long Civil War struggle for eastern North Carolina.
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Related people
- · D. H. Hill
Related events
- · Siege of Washington, 1863
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Daniel G. Fowle
Washington, NC
Daniel G. Fowle, whose home stood on this spot, packed a lifetime of public service into the turbulent decades around the Civil War. He served as a Confederate officer and as the state's Adjutant General in 1863, later sitting as a superior court judge and state legislator before winning the governorship, which he held from 1889 to 1891. His career traced North Carolina's arc from secession through Reconstruction to the New South.
Siege of Washington
Washington, NC
Union troops seized the port town of Washington in March 1862, and it remained a contested Federal outpost deep in eastern North Carolina. Confederate efforts to retake it failed in 1862 and again in 1863, and the Union army finally withdrew on its own in April 1864. The struggle for the town reflected the wider fight for control of the state's rivers and sounds.
African Americans Defend Washington
Washington, NC
During the 1863 siege of Washington, North Carolina, roughly 100 Black men took up arms to help Union forces hold the town. Their service came even before the formal organization of the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers, making them among the earliest African Americans to fight for the Union in the state. They defended a community and a cause that promised their own freedom.
Burning of Washington
Washington, NC
When Union forces evacuated the occupied town of Washington in April 1864, departing troops burned and shelled it, leaving much of the community in ruins. The destruction came at the close of a long Federal occupation of this Pamlico River port. It was one of many Southern towns scarred as armies withdrew.