On March 28, 1865, Maj. Gen. George Stoneman’s troops marched through Blowing Rock.
Union cavalry under Stoneman, commander of the Union army District of East Tennessee, conducted one of the longest cavalry raids in history. About 5,000 men under Stoneman’s command entered North Carolina with a mission “to destroy and not to fight battles” in order to expedite the close of the Civil War.
Stoneman’s raid coincided with the raids of Gen. William T. Sherman in the eastern sections of the state.
On March 28, 1914, Erlanger Mills began production in Lexington. The company was conceived of in 1911, when New York textile magnates Abraham and Charles Erlanger needed a source of cotton fabric for their BVD underwear factory in Baltimore, Md. Lexington businessmen convinced the brothers to build a plant near their town.
On March 27, 1931, the General Assembly consolidated what is now UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and UNC-Greensboro into the University of North Carolina system. The streamlined system was intended to reduce inefficiency and redundancy in higher education.
On March 27, 1911, the first land purchased under the newly enacted Weeks Act created Pisgah National Forest.
The Weeks Act, named for Massachusetts Congressman John Weeks, allocated $9 million in federal funds for the purchase of 6 million acres of land in the eastern U.S. that was specifically to be used for conservation.
On March 27, 1950, George Matsumoto was licensed to practice architecture in North Carolina. Known for his Modernist designs, Matsumoto was one of the founding faculty members of N.C. State’s School of Design in 1948. Born in 1922, he grew up in San Francisco. He studied architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, Washington University in Saint Louis and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.
On March 27, 2013, Judaculla Rock, a soapstone boulder in Jackson County, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Though commonly identified simply as a boulder covered with ancient and mysterious engravings, Judaculla Rock is the best-known and largest example of an American Indian petroglyph that can be found in North Carolina.
On March 26, 1749, signer of the Constitution and early political leader William Blount was born in Bertie County.
Blount served in the Continental Army as paymaster before being elected to six terms as a state representative and senator. He went on to accept a position with the Continental Congress, and later served both state conventions called to consider adopting the U.S. Constitution.
On March 26, 1722, Governor Charles Eden died. Shortly after Eden’s death, the town nearest his home, known as “the Town on Queen Anne’s Creek”, was renamed Edenton in his honor.
On March 26, 1830, the North Carolina Baptist State Convention was organized at a home in Greenville. The organization had its roots in the North Carolina Baptist Missionary Society, formed in 1811 as an outlet for planning missionary work. It eventually came to be known as the Benevolent Society.
On March 26, 1758, the first Sunrise Easter Service at Bethabara was held on Manakes Hill, north of what is now Winston-Salem. Though the sunrise service can now be found across many different Christian denominations, it got its start in Germany as a distinctly Moravian tradition.
An account of the time described the service:
The congregation was awakened early with music, and as they sang the sun broke through of black of clouds, throwing its clear beams upon the scene.