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On Saturday, March 3, 2018, we toured the Goldsboro Bridge Battlefield. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful spring day. The battlefield is as advertised. It was and is now an agricultural field. The infantry and artillery exercises and parking were in adjacent fields.
The encampment was well set up and immaculate. The tents were very white and in straight rows.
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It had been cold the night before as the re-enactors camped out. There were several camp fires which soldiers and ladies were warming. The ladies were in period costume which added to the ambiance of the occasion.
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Prior to the training and demonstrations, there was a lot of conversation and we were welcome to join in. The soldiers were anxious to tell who they were, where they were from, and what they did.
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As the marchers approached, their flags were flying in the brisk breeze.
The day's program was not an enactment but was for training and education. After the infantry completed their marching, it was explained what the process was for loading and reloading the muzzle-loading .58 caliber rifles. There were seven steps which took about 20 seconds. Safety was stressed. It was very important that a second load not be placed upon the initial unfired load before firing as you know what the results could be: devastating.
The artillery gave us a similar demonstration of their loading and firing procedures. Again safety was foremost but procedures could be bypassed if faced with charging cavalry or closing infantry.
After the demonstrations, we were given a tour of the Battlefield by Randy Sauls, who is the recipient of the 2018 Raleigh Civil War Round Table Gatton Award. He has devoted twenty years of his life to this battlefield and provides walking tours of its features as he describes the events leading up to, during, and after the battle.
Randy is founder and president of the Goldsboro Bridge Association and obviously an avid supporter of the battlefield. He is responsible for saving the Goldsboro Bridge battleground from neglect.
Randy did a super job and we were most appreciative of his effort and time.
One thing of particular interest was that one of the original piers is still supporting the current bridge. This is also true of the abutments.
We had eleven participants on the tour. These included the following: David Justice, Roger Gillies, Jack Milani, Randy Sauls (tour guide and honorary Raleigh CWRT member), Griff Bartlett, Bob Graesser, Fred, John Kucik, and Ted Kunstling (not pictured). Ted also brought along his six year old grandson (not pictured). You can tell that Ted has long-range recruiting plans!
