FB01 - First Battle of Kinston Driving Tour Series Traditional Cache

Prologue:
In December of 1862, Union Gen. John G. Foster led an expedition of ~12000 Union Troops, with 640 cavalry and 40 cannons plus more than 200 supply wagons from his garrison (Fort Totten) in New Bern towards Goldsboro. The column of troops was 4-1/2 miles long. His mission was threefold - to capture the town of Kinston, to destroy the boatworks at Whitehall where the ram gunboat CSS Neuse was being built, and finally, to disrupt the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad (by destroying its bridge over the Neuse River in Goldsboro), a vital line which was being used to supply and reinforce the Confederate defenses in Fredricksburg, VA where Gen. Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac was attacking Gen. Lee’s forces defending the Southern capital of Richmond. Confederate Gen. Nathan Evans' Brigade of approx. 2000 troops was dispatched by rail to stop or delay Foster’s advance to Goldsboro, and their first of several skirmishes was made near Southwest Creek just outside of Kinston.

On Dec 13th as Foster's column approached Kinston, he chose not to attack along the "lower roads" crossings of Southwest Creek (Lower & Upper Trent Roads & Wyse Fork Road), but ordered "demonstrations" (or feints) up these roads to fool the Confederates into believing he was attacking via those routes. He instead continued westward along the route you see approaching from the east, "parallel to Vine Swamp" (Lightwood Knot Rd). At 'Sandy Foundation' (this cache site), Foster turned his column north along the Wilmington Road (today, US-258), assuming the Confederates would be less fortified at this point on Southwest Creek than at the lower crossings.

When scouts from the 3rd NY Calvary reported they had been fired upon by Confederates dug in on the north side of Southwest Creek, & who were in process of destroying the bridge that crossed the creek, Foster ordered his troops into battle formation for attack.