Diana Mazzella in the Nov. 2nd Elizabeth City Daily Advance had an article about the new Civil War Trails markers in town. It was the site of a battle and burned in 1862.
One marker details the Confederate soldier executed in the retaliation of a Union soldier and family's death in an ambush by Confederate guerrillas. In 1863, there was violence between Union forces and a detachment of black Union soldiers.
SIX NEW MARKERS
A marker at Waterfront Park which describes the Union Navy's destruction of the Confederate "Mosquito Fleet' Feb. 10, 1862, on Pasquotank River was replaced. The city was burned the following day when locals asked retreating Confederate soldiers to burn the town. The Pusquotank County Courthouse was destroyed in it.
Another marker is located where a Union lieutenant and civilian Unionist were shot to death returning from a celebration of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
Another one tells of the ongoing violence between Union symphatizers and Confederate guerrillas in 1863 which prompted local citizens to ask both the Union general in the area and North Carolina's governor to withdraw troops from the area. This request was not accepted and the violence continued until the end of the war.
The last marker is for the ten day posting of black soldiers from the 1st US Colored Troops to quell violence.
Sounds like the Civil War was particularly nasty in Elizabethtown. Why would civilians ask for their town to be burned? They must have REALLY hated the Union.
Great Program, that Civil War Trails. --Old B-Runner
Also, there is a new one describing the Confederate execution Feb. 9, 1863.
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
