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.
Stewart-Hawley-Malloy House: "Roads Almost Impassable"
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.
Stewartsville was the the birthplace of Joseph Roswell Hawley, supporter of Abraham Lincoln, general in the U.S. Army, and U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1881 to 1905. Hawley was born here on October 31, 1826, while his father served as a Methodist preacher nearby. The family returned to the north in 1837. After the Confederate port of Wilmington fell in 1865, Hawley was responsible for delivering supplies from there to Gen. William T. Sherman's troops. Afterward, and during the first year of Military Reconstruction, Hawley commanded in eastern North Carolina. According to local tradition, when he returned to his birthplace to introduce himself to the current residents, they refused to welcome anyone from the Federal army. Hawley nevertheless noted that "it gave me great pleasure to deal kindly with and sometimes grant favors to people from Richmond [present-day Scotland] county as they occasionally came under my notice."
Union Gen. Frank P. Blair, Jr., led his corps past here behind you on Barnes Bridge Road on March 8, 1865. Meanwhile, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston followed Gen. Robert E. Lee's orders to "concentrate all available forces and drive Sherman back," moving Gen. Joseph Wheeler's and William J. Hardee's commands ahead of the Federals.