On March 12, 1865, Union troops under the command of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman set fire to the Fayetteville Arsenal complex as they marched through North Carolina. The United States Arsenal at Fayetteville was built in 1838.
On March 8, 1865, the Battle of Wyse Fork began near Kinston.
On February 14, 1891, the North Carolina Confederate Soldiers’ Home was established by an act of the General Assembly.
On February 12, 1828, Confederate General Robert Ransom Jr. was born in Warren County.
On February 7, 1862, Federal ships bombarded Fort Bartow, part of the Confederate defenses on Roanoke Island. One of three Confederate earthen forts on the west side of the island, Fort Bartow mounted nine guns.
On January 18, 1863, a Civil War tragedy that has come to be known as the Shelton Laurel Massacre took place.
On January 17, 1865, Fort Caswell was abandoned as Confederates retreating from Fort Fisher detonated the fort’s powder magazines. The explosion destroyed the entire southeast face of the fort and damaged the western face.
On January 15, 1865, Fort Fisher, nicknamed “Gibraltar of the South,” fell to Union troops.
On January 1, 1864, Parker Robbins of Bertie County, a free person of color of mixed African and Native American descent, enlisted in the 2nd United States Colored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Monroe, Va.