On March 11, 1879, the Western North Carolina Railroad’s Swannanoa Tunnel opened. The tunnel opened the mountain region to growth and freed it from its relative state of isolation.
Authorized by the General Assembly in 1855, construction of the tunnel was spurred by a drought in 1845. The drought resulted in a total crop failure on mountain farms. Pack trains and loaded wagons were unable to provide frontier families with enough food to carry them through to the next crop.
On March 10, 1948, the central building of Highland Hospital in Asheville was destroyed by fire, which swept from the facility’s kitchen through the dumbwaiter to all four floors.
Nine women, including Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald, were killed.
On March 10, 1865, Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton surprised Union Gen. Hugh J. Kilpatrick at Monroe’s Crossroads. Kilpatrick’s 3rd Cavalry Division was protecting the left flank of Gen. William T. Sherman’s army as troops headed north.
On the night of March 9, Kilpatrick’s division camped at Monroe’s Crossroads, in what is now Hoke County. Confederate cavalrymen led by Hampton approached the camp from behind and found the rear of it completely defenseless. They retreated to plan a surprise attack.
On March 10, 1764, Governor Arthur Dobbs consented to a request from the Assembly of North Carolina that all remaining military stores at Fort Dobbs be removed.
The fort, named in honor of the governor, was the only permanent frontier fort in the colony of North Carolina. It served as the military headquarters for a company of approximately 50 men and as a safe haven for settlers during the French and Indian War. The post had not been garrisoned with soldiers since December 1761.
On March 10, 1918, Edenton residents formed the Cupola House Association, the earliest community preservation effort in North Carolina. The association hoped to save the structure from further demise after the owners sold interior woodwork to the Brooklyn Museum.
On March 9, 1903, the General Assembly granted brothers B.B. and D.D. (short for Blanford Barnard and Dauphin Disco, respectively) Dougherty a charter for the Appalachian Training School for Teachers.
The school had its roots in the Doughertys’ Watauga Academy, which they established in 1899 to train public school teachers for jobs in western North Carolina. With both brothers at the helm, B. B. Dougherty was considered head of school, while D. D., was the principal.
On March 9, 1966, Herbert Aptheker attempted to speak to students near the Confederate monument at UNC-Chapel Hill. The campus police chief escorted him a short distance away to a spot technically off-campus. There, Aptheker, a historian and member of the Communist Party, spoke to 2,000 students from the sidewalk outside the rock wall that separates the campus from Franklin Street.
On March 9, 1891, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University was founded as a land grant institution for African Americans. The school, originally named the Agricultural and Mechanical College, was established as a result of the Second Morrill Act, enacted by Congress in 1890, which mandated separate colleges for the “colored race.”
On March 8, 1865, Gen. William T. Sherman, traveling with the 15th Corps, crossed the state line and entered what is now Scotland County. Orders went out that Union troops should treat North Carolinians less harshly than South Carolinians, who were blamed for starting the war.