This cache is located on the Parade Ground of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry. The city has done a lot of work at this park and it is much nicer than it was several years ago when I first hid this cache. The city landscaped the entire area, added a fountain, walking trail, and a parking lot. Now the area is lighted, but since this isn't the best part of town I'm not sure if I would attempt this one at night. Also, the cache is not located within the nearby rock wall structure or on the monument.
The Fayetteville Light Infantry is North Carolina's oldest military unit and the second oldest militia organization in the United States. At the start of the Civil War, after North Carolina seceeded, the company called enrolled in active service for six months on April 17, 1861 as Company H, 1st NC Infantry. It seized the US arsenal here and occupied it until the Confederate government took control. In May, the company departed for the camp of instruction in Raleigh. The ladies of Fayetteville untrimmed their hats to trim those of the soldiers with black plumes so the "officers and men of Independents strutted like gamecocks, with elaborate plumes on their broad brimmed hats." The company took part in the first major land engagement of the war at Big Bethel, Virginia, on June 10, 1861. When the six month enlistment ended, the group returned to Fayetteville. On February 22, 1862, the Independents were reorganized, and many members received commissions or appointments in other units. Others joined in the Clarendon Guards for duty at Ft. Fisher, leaving a home guard here of men too young or too old to fight.
On August 23, 1793, the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry was organized here as the local militia. When the Marquis de Lafayette visited Fayetteville in 1825, the Independents escorted him
Today, the Fayetteville Light Infantry, which remained in active service through World War I is North Carolina's official historic military command and still musters on the parade ground.
While researching the internet for another one of my caches, I noticed some interesting history on the adjacent church, Evans Metropolitan A. M. E. Zion Church.
"This church is the second oldest African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in the South and the third oldest African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in the world, this Gothic style church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and features beautiful craftsmanship in its two story gable front, interior woodwork, and corner towers. The history of Evans Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church parallels the history of the beginning of the development of our great nation. It was founded in Circa (1796) by Henry Evans, a black freedom ordained preacher and a shoemaker from the foothills of Stokes County Virginia, who after overcoming difficulties was in later life loved and revered. His body lies entombed beneath the chancel of the church built on the original site in 1893."
This cache was placed by a member of the
North Carolina Geocachers Organization