Thirty caches are located in five different regions throughout NC. Instructions for sending the documentation are in the passport. Once all five regions are completed, you have earned a special NC Civil War trackable geocoin. Mail the passport to the address inside the passport – then your passport will be returned with your unique coin.
All of the containers are the same - camouflaged 6 inch PVC tubes - the code word you need for your passport is inside the container on a laminated card and also taped on the container that holds the log sheet. Date your logbook and add your code word in the numbered area for the cache. As the containers may become over tightened, carry a TOTT to ease the opening process.
Passports will be available at the event, some Civil War Museums in NC, and via mail if you send me you address or you can download your passport here.
Wilmington & Weldon RR Trestle: Lee's Lifeline
Located on the Roanoke River, the town of Weldon was one of the South's major transportation hubs at the beginning of the Civil War. By 1861, the town served as an important stop for steamboats and canal boats, and it was the junction of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, and Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Confederate commanders readily recognized the strategic significance of the town and its single railroad bridge across the Roanoke River. Weldon consequently became the headquarters of the Department of Eastern North Carolina. Large quantities of war materials and supplies were stored in town, and extensive fortifications were built on both sides of the river to protect the railroad bridge.
The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was the most important of the railroads that intersected in Weldon. From Wilmington, the South's last open seaport, this railroad became an increasingly vital supply corridor for the Army of Northern Virginia during the last years of the war. After blockade runners slipped into Wilmington, their cargoes were transported by rail through Weldon to the besieged Confederates in Petersburg, Virginia. Recognizing the vital importance of this route, Gen. Robert E. Lee called it "the Lifeline of the Confederacy." Despite the bridge's importance as a Federal military objective, it survived the war unscathed.