Founded in 1776, Washington, North Carolina, was the first city in America to be named for General George Washington and is still occasionally called "Original Washington." The scars of the Civil War remain visible there: to the west are the remains of the Union Army ship Picket, jutting from where it blew up on September 6th, 1862, and along Main Street stand houses built in the 1850's, '60's and '70's, reflecting that the town was burnt by Union troops during their evacuation after the fall of Plymouth, North Carolina. Two houses on Water Street, built in 1780 and 1795, survived the fires and barrages of the war and still bear cannon balls embedded in their walls from the shelling of the town by Rebel troops on the southern shore of the Pamplico River.