On July 18, 1863, Union Gen. Edward E. Potter led infantry and cavalry from New Bern to destroy the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad bridge at Rocky Mount. The infantry feinted toward Kinston and then returned to New Bern, while Potter raided Greenville, sent part of his cavalry to Rocky Mount, and occupied Tarboro. His raiders damaged or destroyed bridges, trains, munitions, mills, two steamboats, a partially built gunboat, and stockpiles of army supplies before returning to New Bern on July 23, although Confederate forces restored rail service by Aug. 1. On July 21, Potter halted his cavalry near Grimsley Church to rest, feed their horses, and forage for supplies as they returned from raids on Greenville, Rocky Mount, and Tarboro. After eluding a trap near Falkland on the evening of July 20, the Federals entered Greene County at Fieldsboro on the old Otter Creek Church Road and reached Grimsley Church at dawn. Potter's men confiscated two horses from William P. Grimsley, a Unionist whose plantation home still stands nearby, but after he explained his position to Potter, he received six horses in exchange. Scattered Confederate cavalry units, including two companies of the 7th Confederate Cavalry and three companies of the 62nd Georgia, skirmished with the Federals in Greene County through the day. A Union captain was wounded, and Sgt. Robert Striebeck of the 1st North Carolina Union Volunteers was captured and later died in a Confederate prison. When Potter learned from scouts that more Confederates were approaching, he ordered his troops to cross the bridge over Little Contentnea Creek at Scuffleton at dusk on July 21. Grimsley Baptist Church had been organized in 1752, and the present building, remodeled in 1951, incorporates the structure that stood there in 1863; both Confederate and Federal troops occupied the area at times during the war.