Occupation of Tarboro

On July 18, 1861, 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 returned to New Bern, while Potter raided Greenville, sent part of his cavalry to Rocky Mount, and occupied Tarboro. The raiders damaged or destroyed bridges, trains, and mills before returning to New Bern on July 23, though the Confederates restored rail service by Aug. 1. Potter and a cavalry battalion occupied Tarboro about 9 A.M. on July 20, 1963, after driving off Confederate cavalrymen coming from the direction of Hamilton. He ordered Maj. Floyd Clarkson of the 12th New York Cavalry to block the Hamilton Road about a mile east of the Tar River bridge. Clarkson, with three cavalry companies and a howitzer, first burned two vessels in the river near the bridge, then clashed about four miles from Tarboro near Daniel’s Schoolhouse with Maj. John T. Kennedy and three companies of the 62nt Georgia Cavalry from Fort Branch. After a couple of charges and a few shots from the howitzer, Clarkson retreated to Tarboro under sharp Confederate fire. Federal casualties were 6 dead, 14 wounded, and 18 captured. Maj. George W. Cole led three companies of the 3rd New York Cavalry across the river to assist Clarkson, but about a mile east of Tarboro he encountered Confederate Lt. Col. John C. Lamb, who had marched from Fort Branch with two companies of the 17th North Carolina Infantry and a two-gun section of the Petersburg Artillery. Cole and Lamb exchanged small-arms and cannon fire, and Cole withdrew. The Federals left Tarboro about 5 P.M., partially burned the Tar River bridge, and began the march back to New Bern. The Blount-Bridge House, built here for Thomas Blount in the Federal style about 1808, later became the home of Lt. Col. John L. Bridges, who as a captain served with distinction in the 1st North Carolina Volunteers at the Battle of Big Bethel on June 10, 1861, commanded the garrison at Fort Macon that fall, and whose brother Robert R. Bridges served in the Confederate Congress until the end of the war.

Tarboro, North Carolina · United States