Located on the Roanoke River, 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 the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Confederate commanders recognized the strategic significance of the town and its single railroad bridge across the Roanoke River, and Weldon became the headquarters of the Department of Eastern North Carolina. Large quantities of war materials and supplies were stored there, 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, and from Wilmington, the South's last open seaport, it 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 route's vital importance, 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.