Louisiana in the American Civil War
Antebellum Louisiana was a slave state, where enslaved African Americans had comprised the majority of the population during the eighteenth century French and Spanish colonial period. By the time the United States acquired the territory and Louisiana became a state, by 1860, 47% of the states population were enslaved, though the state had one of the largest free black populations in the United States. Much of the population, particularly in the cities, supported southern states rights and slavery, while pockets of support for the U. S. Louisiana declared that it had seceded from the Union on January 26,1861, New Orleans, the largest city in the South, was strategically important as a port city due to its southernmost location on the Mississippi River and its access to the Gulf of Mexico. War Department early on planned for its capture, the city was taken by U. S. Army forces on April 25,1862. For the latter part of the war, both the U. S. and the Confederacy recognized their own distinct Louisiana governors, a wealthy planter and slave holder, Moore acted aggressively to engineer the secession of Louisiana from the Union by a convention on January 23.
All of these strategies were failures, in March 1861, George Williamson, the Louisianan state commissioner, addressed the Texan secession convention, where he called upon the slave states of the U. S. There is too many free niggers, now to suit me, let alone having four millions. The Unions response to Moores leveraged secession was embodied in U. S. President Abraham Lincolns realization that the Mississippi River was the backbone of the Rebellion. If control of the river were accomplished, the largest city in the Confederacy would be back for the Union. The U. S. Navy would become both a formidable force and a means of transporting Union forces, along the Mississippi River. This strategic vision would prove victorious in Louisiana, Braxton Bragg, and Richard Taylor all commanded significant independent armies during the war. Taylors forces were among the last active Confederate armies in the field when the war closed, henry Watkins Allen led a brigade during the middle of the war before becoming the Confederate Governor of Louisiana from 1864 to 1865.
Randall L. Gibson, another competent brigade commander, became a postbellum U. S, other brigadiers of note included Alfred Mouton, Harry T. Hays, Chatham Roberdeau Wheat, and Francis T. Nicholls. St. John Lidell was a prominent brigade commander in the Army of Tennessee, henry Gray, a wealthy plantation owner from Bienville Parish, was a brigadier general under Richard Taylor before being elected to the Second Confederate Congress late in the war. Leroy A. Stafford was among a handful of Louisiana generals to be killed during the war, albert Gallatin Blanchard was a rarity—a Confederate general born in Massachusetts. Governor Thomas Overton Moore, came held office from 1860 through early 1864, when war erupted, he unsuccessfully lobbied the Confederate government in Richmond for a strong defense of New Orleans. Two days before the city surrendered in April 1862, Thomas Moore organized military resistance at the state level, ordered the burning of cotton, cessation of trade with the Union forces, and heavily recruited troops for the state militia
Georgia in the American Civil War
Georgia was one of the original seven slave states that formed the Confederate States in February 1861, triggering the U. S. Civil War. There was not much fighting in Georgia until September 1863, when Confederates under Braxton Bragg defeated William S. Rosecrans at Chickamauga Creek. In May 1864, William T. Sherman started pursuing the Confederates towards Atlanta and this six-week campaign destroyed much of the civilian infrastructure of Georgia, decisively shortening the war. When news of the march reached Robert E. Lees army in Virginia, whole Georgian regiments deserted, the Battle of Columbus, fought on the Georgia-Alabama border on April 16,1865, is reckoned by some criteria to have been the last battle of the war. The ordinance cited the views of U. S. William L, contemporary Georgian religious leaders supported slavery. Governor Joseph E. Brown was a leading secessionist and led efforts to remove the state from the Union, a firm believer in states rights, he defied the Confederate governments wartime policies.
He resisted the Confederate military draft and tried to keep as many soldiers at home as possible to fight invading forces, Brown challenged Confederate impressment of animals and slaves. Several other governors followed his lead, during the war, Georgia sent nearly 100,000 men to battle for the Confederacy, mostly to the Virginian armies. Despite secession, many southerners in North Georgia remained loyal to the Union, approximately 5,000 Georgians served in the U. S. Army in units such as the 1st Georgia Infantry Battalion, the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment, and a number of East Tennessean regiments. Georgias Rabun County in particular, which did not declare secession from the Union, was highly Unionist, the dividing lines were often not as clear as they are sometimes viewed in Rabun county during this period. In A Separate Civil War, Communities in Conflict in the Mountain South, within these two counties and Confederate leaning factions fought brutally directly within the home front between 1861 and 1865.
The Madden Branch Massacre in Fannin county was one of several atrocities that occurred as the mountain counties divided into pro and anti-Confederate factions. On November 29,1864, six Georgians trying to enlist in the U. S. Army - Thomas Bell, Harvey Brewster, James T. Hughes, James B. Nelson, Elijah Robinson, Peter Parris, and Wyatt J. Parton - were executed by the notorious Confederate guerilla John P. Gatewood, the long-haired, red-bearded beast from Georgia. While concentrated in the mountains and large cities, Unionism in Georgia was not confined to those areas, by summer 1861, the Union naval blockade virtually shut down the export of cotton and the import of manufactured items. Food that normally came by rail from the Northern states were halted, the governor and legislature pleaded with planters to grow less cotton and more food. The planters refused because at first, they thought the Union would not or could not fight, the planters saw cotton prices in Europe soared and they expected Europe to soon intervene and break the blockade.
The legislature imposed cotton quotas and made it a crime to grow an excess, in more than a dozen instances across the state, poor white women raided stores and captured supply wagons to get such necessities as bacon, corn and cotton yarn
Seal of North Carolina
The Great Seal of the State of North Carolina was first authorized by the North Carolina Constitution of 1776, created in its first form in 1778, and largely took on its modern form in 1835. The background on the seal shall contain a depiction of mountains running from the left to the right to the middle of the seal, a side view of a three-masted ship shall be located on the ocean and to the right of Plenty. The date May 20,1775 shall appear within the seal and across the top of the seal, no other words, figures or other embellishments shall appear on the seal. The date of May 20,1775, refers to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, the motto Esse quam videri means To Be Rather Than To Seem. The pole with a cap is a liberty pole, in 1971, the seal was officially standardized after the states chief deputy attorney general discovered that there was more than one version in use. These two dates are on the flag of North Carolina, State of North Carolina Symbols of the State of North Carolina Flag of North Carolina History of the Great Seal of North Carolina
Virginia
Virginia is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as in the historic Southeast. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealths estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million, the areas history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony, slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colonys early politics and plantation economy. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008 and it is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms.
Virginias economy changed from agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia has an area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water. Virginias boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay separates the portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginias Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the river valleys of the Susquehanna River. Many of Virginias rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock and James, the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay, the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era.
The region, known for its clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state. The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains and includes the Great Appalachian Valley, the region is carbonate rock based and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, in this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin
West Virginia in the American Civil War
The U. S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War. In the summer of 1861, Union troops under General George McClellan drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee and this essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form their own government as a result of the Wheeling Convention. After Lees departure, western Virginia continued to be a target of Confederate raids, guerrilla warfare gripped the new state, especially in the Allegheny Mountain counties to the east, where loyalties were much more divided than in the Unionist northwest part of the state. On April 17,1861, the Virginia state convention in Richmond declared secession, nearly all delegates from counties west of the Allegheny Mountains voted against secession, and most people and officials in that area refused any directions from the secessionist state government. On May 15, western Virginia Unionists convened the first session of the Wheeling Convention, many of the delegates were informally or self-appointed, so the Convention only denounced secession and called for a formal election of delegates.
The elected delegates met in the session on 11 June. On 20 June the Convention declared that by acceding to secession, the officials of the government in Richmond had forfeited their offices. The Convention elected replacements for these offices, creating the Restored Government of Virginia. The Restored government was supported in areas where secession was opposed. Union troops held the three northernmost counties in the Shenandoah Valley, and despite the views of most residents. At the Wheeling Convention, some proposed the immediate establishment of a separate state. However, other delegates pointed out that the creation of a new state would require the consent of Virginia, thus it was necessary to establish the Restored Government of Virginia to give that consent, which was granted 20 August 1861. A referendum in October 1861 approved statehood, a convention met. Congress approved statehood that December, with the condition that slavery must be abolished in the new state and this condition required a new constitutional convention and referendum.
The revised constitution provided for the abolition of slavery, which took effect on 3 February 1865. On 20 June 1863, the newly proclaimed state of West Virginia was admitted to the Union, including all the western counties, all the northern states had free public school systems before the war, but not the border states. West Virginia set up its system in 1863, over bitter opposition it established an almost-equal education for black children, most of whom were ex-slaves. When Union troops occupied parts of eastern Virginia such as Alexandria and Norfolk and they were not included in West Virginia
William Alexander Graham
He was the Whig Party nominee for vice-president in 1852 on a ticket with General Winfield Scott. Graham was born at Vesuvius Furnace near Lincolnton, North Carolina and his Scots-Irish grandfather James Graham was born in Drumbo, County Down, Northern Ireland and settled in Chester County in the Province of Pennsylvania. Graham graduated from Pleasant Retreat Academy and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1825, and commenced practice in Hillsborough. From 1833 to 1840 Graham was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons from Orange County, serving twice as speaker. In 1840 Graham was elected as a Whig to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Robert Strange, in the Twenty-seventh Congress he was chairman of the Senate Committee on Claims. His older brother, James Graham, had been representing North Carolina in the House since 1833, from 1845 to 1849 Graham was Governor of North Carolina. Having declined appointments as ambassador to Spain and Russia in 1849, he was appointed Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of President Millard Fillmore in 1850, in the 1852 presidential election he was the unsuccessful Whig nominee for vice president, as Winfield Scotts running mate.
The ticket only carried 42 electoral votes from the four states of Kentucky, Tennessee, when he Returned to North Carolina, he was a member of the state senate from 1854 to 1866, and senator in the Confederate Senate from 1864 to 1865. In 1866 Graham was once elected to the United States Senate. From 1867 to 1875 he was a member of the board of trustees of the Peabody Fund, from 1873 to 1875 he was an arbitrator in the boundary line dispute between Virginia and Maryland. He died in Saratoga Springs, New York, and is buried in the Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Hillsborough. The United States Navy ship, USS Graham, the World War II Liberty ship SS William A. Graham, and the city of Graham, North Carolina were all named for him, as was Graham County, North Carolina. Montrose Gardens, located in Hillsborough, North Carolina, is one of Grahams former estates and still some of the structures Graham. He lived in the Nash-Hooper House at Hillsborough from 1869 until 1875, the house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.
| added = November 11,1971 One of Grahams sons, named William A. Graham, became a state legislator, two others and John, became politicians, while a daughter, married Walter Clark. In 1842, John H. Hewitt dedicated a song, The Old Family Clock, biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Virginia in the American Civil War
The Commonwealth of Virginia was a prominent part of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. As a slave-holding state, it held a convention to deal with the secession crisis. Opinion shifted after 15 April, when U. S, in May, it was decided to move the Confederate capital from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, in part because the defense of Virginias capital was deemed vital to the Confederacys survival. On 24 May, the U. S. Army moved into northern Virginia, the successes of Robert E. Lee in defending Richmond is a central theme of the military history of the war. The White House of the Confederacy, located a few north of the State Capitol, was home to the family of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis. On October 16,1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a group of 22 men in a raid on the Federal Arsenal in Harpers Ferry, U. S. troops, led by Robert E. Lee and quelled the raid. Subsequently, John Brown was tried and executed by hanging in Charles Town on December 2,1859, breckinridge as their party candidate for President.
When Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected as U. S. president, while a majority of the state would look for compromises to the sectional differences, most people opposed any restrictions on slaveholders rights. As the state watched to see what South Carolina would do, many Unionists felt that the greatest danger to the state came not from the North but from rash secession by the lower South. On November 15,1860 Virginia Governor John Letcher called for a session of the Virginia General Assembly to consider, among other issues. The legislature convened on January 7 and approved the convention on January 14, the election of convention delegates drew 145,700 voters who elected, by county,152 representatives. Thirty of these delegates were secessionists, thirty were unionists, advocates of immediate secession were clearly outnumbered. Simultaneous to this election, six slave states formed the Confederate States on February 4. According to one Virginian teacher, William M, one of the conventions first actions was to create a 21-member Federal Relations Committee charged with reaching a compromise to the sectional differences as they affected Virginia.
The committee was made up of 4 secessionists,10 moderates and 7 unionists, at first there was no urgency to the conventions deliberations as all sides felt that time only aided their cause. With the failure of the Peace Conference at the end of February, Unionist support by many was further eroded for many Virginians by Lincolns March 4 First Inaugural address which they felt was argumentative, if not defiant. Throughout the state there was evidence that support for secession was growing, the fourteen proposals defended both slavery and states rights while calling for a meeting of the eight slave states still in the Union to present a united front for compromise. From March 15 through April 14 the convention debated these proposals one by one, during the debate on the resolutions, the sixth resolution calling for a peaceful solution and maintenance of the Union came up for discussion on April 4
Texas in the American Civil War
As with those of other States, the Declaration was not recognized by the United States government at Washington. Some Texan military units fought in the Civil War east of the Mississippi River, Texas supply role lasted until mid-1863, after which time Union gunboats controlled the Mississippi River, making large transfers of men, horses or cattle impossible. Some cotton was sold in Mexico, but most of the crop became useless because of the Union naval blockade of Galveston, Houston, in the late winter of 1860, Texan counties sent delegates to a special convention to debate the merits of secession. The convention adopted an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 166 to 8, separately from the Ordinance of Secession, which was considered a legal document, Texas issued a declaration of causes spelling out the rationale for declaring secession. It accuses northern politicians and abolitionists of committing a variety of outrages upon Texans, the bulk of the document offers justifications for slavery and white supremacy, saying that remaining a part of the United States would jeopardize the security of the two.
By February 1861, the six states of the sub-region had separately passed ordinances of secession. However, events in Texas were delayed, largely due to the resistance of Southern Unionist governor, in early December 1860, before South Carolina even seceded, a group of State officials published via newspaper a call for a statewide election of convention delegates on January 8,1861. This election was irregular, even for the standards of the day. It often relied on voice vote at meetings, although viva voce voting for popular elections had been used since at least March 1846. Unionists were often discouraged from attending or chose not to participate and this resulted in lopsided representation of secessionists delegates. The election call had stipulated for the delegates to assemble in convention on January 28, Houston called the Legislature into session, hoping that the elected body would declare the unauthorized convention illegal. On January 21,1861, the Legislature met in Austin and was addressed by Houston, calling Lincolns election unfortunate, he nonetheless emphasized, in a reference to the upcoming meeting of the secession convention, it was no justification for rash action.
However, the Texas Legislature voted the delegates expense money and supplies and—over Houstons veto—made a pledge to uphold the legality of the Conventions actions, the only stipulation was that the people of Texas have the final say in referendum. The following day, convention president Oran Roberts introduced a resolution suggesting Texas leave the Union. S, Federal government and the U. S. Constitution. In the interests of historical significance and posterity, the ordinance was written to take effect on March 2, the date of Texas Declaration of Independence. On February 1, members of the Legislature, and a crowd of private citizens, packed the House galleries. Seventy yea votes were recorded there was a single nay. One of the votes is enshrined in Texas history books
Battle of New Bern
The Battle of New Bern was fought on 14 March 1862, near the city of New Bern, North Carolina, as part of the Burnside Expedition of the American Civil War. The US Armys Coast Division, led by Brigadier General Ambrose E. Branch, although the defenders fought behind breastworks that had been set up before the battle, their line had a weak spot in its center that was exploited by the attacking Federal soldiers. When the center of the line was penetrated, many of the militia broke, General Branch was unable to regain control of his troops until they had retreated to Kinston, more than 30 miles away. New Bern came under Federal control, and remained so for the rest of the war, New Bern lies on the left bank of the Neuse River, about 37 miles above its exit into Pamlico Sound. The river is broad in this vicinity, and is enough that vessels that can navigate the sound can ply the river. In the colonial era, the town was important as a seaport. Nevertheless, New Bern was still a significant military target, as the railroad connected the coast with the interior passed through the city.
A short distance further up, at Goldsboro, the crossed the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Thus, if New Bern were to fall into Federal hands, the land in this part of North Carolina is low and rather flat, and is sometimes marshy. In 1862, the land was mostly covered with open pine forest, although in places it was broken into low hills with deciduous forests. It is crossed by creeks that sometimes rise to the status of small rivers. One of these, the Trent River, separates New Bern from the land to its south, the slightly smaller Slocums Creek, enters 16 miles farther down the Neuse. It was to be the site for the attacking Federal forces. The entire action, aside from the takeover of the city, was confined to the land between two streams. The railroad ran on a system of berms and occasional cuts about a mile inland from the river and it entered the city on a bridge over the Trent River. A county road passed over the land, connecting New Bern with Morehead City. In the vicinity of the battle, it lay between railroad and the river, but it crossed the railroad about a mile and a north of what would be the battlefield.
The road continued to the northwest, crossing the Trent on a drawbridge some 4 miles west of the city, in the manner of the time, the road was unpaved, as the Union soldiers learned to their sorrow
Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Everett Burnside was an American soldier, railroad executive, inventor and politician from Rhode Island, serving as governor and a United States Senator. His distinctive style of facial hair became known as sideburns, derived from his last name and he was the first president of the National Rifle Association. Burnside was born in Liberty and was the fourth of nine children of Edghill and Pamela Brown Burnside and his great-great-grandfather Robert Burnside was born in Scotland and settled in the Province of South Carolina. His father was a native of South Carolina, he was an owner who freed his slaves when he relocated to Indiana. Ambrose attended Liberty Seminary as a boy, but his education was interrupted when his mother died in 1841, he was apprenticed to a local tailor. He graduated in 1847, ranking 18th in a class of 47 and he traveled to Veracruz for the Mexican–American War, but he arrived after hostilities had ceased and performed mostly garrison duty around Mexico City. In 1849, he was wounded by an arrow in his neck during a skirmish against Apaches in Las Vegas and he was promoted to 1st lieutenant on December 12,1851.
In 1852, he was assigned to Fort Adams, Rhode Island, the marriage lasted until Marys death in 1876, but it was childless. In October 1853, Burnside resigned his commission in the United States Army and he devoted his time and energy to the manufacture of the famous firearm that bears his name, the Burnside carbine. President Buchanans Secretary of War John B, Floyd contracted the Burnside Arms Company to equip a large portion of the Army with his carbine, mostly cavalry, and induced him to establish extensive factories for its manufacture. The Bristol Rifle Works were no sooner complete than another gunmaker allegedly bribed Floyd to break his $100,000 contract with Burnside, Burnside ran as a Democrat for one of the Congressional seats in Rhode Island in 1858 and was defeated in a landslide. The burdens of the campaign and the destruction by fire of his contributed to his financial ruin. He went west in search of employment and became treasurer of the Illinois Central Railroad, McClellan, who became one of his commanding officers.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Burnside was a general in the Rhode Island Militia. He raised the 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and was appointed its colonel on May 2,1861, two companies of this regiment were armed with Burnside Carbines. Within a month, he ascended to command in the Department of Northeast Virginia. He commanded the brigade without distinction at the First Battle of Bull Run in July, and took over division command temporarily for wounded Brig. Gen. David Hunter. His 90-day regiment was mustered out of service on August 2 and he conducted a successful amphibious campaign that closed more than 80% of the North Carolina sea coast to Confederate shipping for the remainder of the war
Florida in the American Civil War
Florida joined the Confederate States of America at the beginning of the Civil War, as third of the original seven states to secede from the Union, following Lincolns 1860 election. With the smallest population, nearly half of them slaves, Florida could only send 15,000 troops to the Confederate States Army and its chief importance was in food-supply to the south, and support for blockade-runners, with its long coastline full of inlets, hard to patrol. On the outbreak of war, the Confederates seized many of the army camps. There was little fighting in Florida, the major conflict being the Battle of Olustee near Lake City in February 1864. However, wartime conditions made it easier for slaves to escape, as southern morale suffered, deserters from both sides took refuge in Florida, often attacking Confederate units and looting farms. Tallahassee became the second-last Confederate state capital to fall to the Union army, in May 1865, Federal control was re-established, slavery abolished, and the state governor John Milton shot himself, rather than submit to Union occupation.
Secession was declared January 10,1861, after less than a month, the first six states to secede had the largest population of slaves among the Southern states. Although the vote to secede passed 62-7, there was a pro-Union and anti-Confederate minority in the state, Florida sent a three-man delegation to the 1861-62 Provisional Confederate Congress, which first met in Montgomery, and in the new capital of Richmond, Virginia. The delegation consisted of Jackson Morton, James Byeram Owens, and James Patton Anderson, who resigned April 8,1861, Ward served from May 1861 until February 1862, when he resigned and was replaced by John Pease Sanderson. Davis, protection of slavery was the reason for Floridas declaring of secession. As Florida was an important supply route for the Confederate army, Union troops occupied major ports such as Cedar Key, Key West, and Pensacola early in the war. Governor John Milton, an ardent secessionist, throughout the war stressed the importance of Florida as a supplier of goods, Florida was a large provider of food and salt for the Confederate Army.
The 8, 436-mile coastline and 11,000 miles of rivers and waterways proved a haven for blockade runners, the states small population, relatively remote location, and meager industry limited its overall strategic importance. Milton worked to strengthen the state militia and to improve fortifications, since neither army aggressively sought control of Florida, many of Floridas troops were sent to serve in Virginia in the Army of Northern Virginia under Brig. Gen. Edward A. Perry and Col. David Lang. The Florida Brigade fought in many of Robert E. Lees campaigns and it sent them to the Western Theater for the remainder of the war. The only Confederate forces remaining in Florida at that time were a variety of independent companies, several battalions. They were reinforced in 1864 by troops from neighboring Georgia, by 1840 the Anglo-American population became the majority among people of European descent, influencing the development of the culture. It became more racist and based on a division of white and non-white, into which latter group the Muscogee
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. The population is 112,067, according to the 2010 Census it is the eighth most populous city in the state, Wilmington was settled by European Americans along the Cape Fear River. Its historic downtown has a one-mile-long Riverwalk, originally developed as a tourist attraction and it is minutes away from nearby beaches. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Wilmington, North Carolina, in 2003 the city was designated by the US Congress as a Coast Guard City. It is the port for the USCGC Diligence, a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. The World War II battleship USS North Carolina is held as a war memorial, located across from the port area. Other attractions include the Cape Fear Museum, the Wilmington Hammerheads United Soccer Leagues soccer team, Wilmington is the home of EUE Screen Gems Studios, the largest domestic television and movie production facility outside of California.
Dream Stage 10, the facilitys newest sound stage, is the third-largest in the US and it houses the largest special-effects water tank in North America. After the studios opening in 1984, Wilmington became a center of American film. Numerous movies in a range of genres and several series, including Iron Man 3, Foxs Sleepy Hollow, One Tree Hill, Dawsons Creek. In recent years, the end of tax credits to the industry has severely impacted filmmaking in the entire area. The area had long inhabited by various cultures of indigenous peoples, at the time of European encounter. The ethnic European and African history of Wilmington spans more than two and a half centuries, giovanni da Verrazano is reportedly the first European to observe the area, including the citys present site, in the early 16th century. The first permanent European settlement in the area came in the 1720s when English colonists began settling the area, in September 1732, a community was founded on land owned by John Watson on the Cape Fear River, at the confluence of its northwest and northeast branches.
The settlement, founded by the first royal governor, George Burrington, was called New Carthage, governor Gabriel Johnston soon after established his government there for the North Carolina colony. In 1739 or 1740, the town was incorporated with a new name, Wilmington, in honor of Spencer Compton, many of the settlers were indentured servants, mainly from the British Isles and northern Europe. As the indentured servants gained their freedom, the colonists imported a number of African slaves as laborers into the port city. By 1767, slaves accounted for more than 62% of the population of the Lower Cape Fear region, many worked in the port as laborers, and some in ship-related trades
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