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.
Laurinburg: Burning Depot
The Carolinas Campaign began on February 1, 1865, when Union Gen. William T. Sherman led his army north from Savannah, Georgia, after the March to the Sea. Sherman's objective was to join Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia to crush Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Scattered Confederate forces consolidated in North Carolina, the Confederacy's logistical lifeline, where Sherman defeated Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's last-ditch attack at Bentonville. After Sherman was reinforced at Goldsboro late in March, Johnston saw the futility of further resistance and surrendered on April 26, essentially ending the Civil War.
During the Civil War, Laurinburg was a stop on the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad. Near the end of the conflict, as Union forces besieged Fort Fisher and closed in on Wilmington, the railyards in the port city were relocated here to a site about three blocks to your left. Some of Wilmington's citizens also fled and came here. On March 7, 1865, advance elements of Union Gen. William T. Sherman's army entered the state from South Carolina. That afternoon, they struck here, destroying the rail yard, depot, and shops, as well as several miles of track east and west of Laurinburg. A detachment of the 5th Tennessee Cavalry witnessed the destruction before moving northeast.