Wilmington & Weldon RR Trestle
Lee's Lifeline
Located on the Roanoke River, the town of Weldon was one of the South's major transportation hubs at the beginning of the Civil War. By 1861, the town served as an important stop for steamboats and canal boats, and it was the junction of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, and Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Confederate commanders readily recognized the strategic significance of the town and its single railroad bridge across the Roanoke River. Weldon consequently became the headquarters of the Department of Eastern North Carolina. Large quantities of war materials and supplies were stored in town, and extensive fortifications were built on both sides of the river to protect the railroad bridge.
The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was the most important of the railroads that intersected in Weldon. From Wilmington, the South's last open seaport, this railroad became an increasingly vital supply corridor for the Army of Northern Virginia during the last years of the war. After blockade runners slipped into Wilmington, their cargoes were transported by rail through Weldon to the besieged Confederates in Petersburg, Virginia. Recognizing the vital importance of this route, Gen. Robert E. Lee called it "the Lifeline of the Confederacy." Despite the bridge's importance as a Federal military objective, it survived the war unscathed.
"Should Col. Sumner succeed in reaching the Weldon (Rail) Road, he will be instructed to do all the damage possible... It might be practicable to destroy any accumulation of supplies the enemy may have collected south of the Roanoke." - Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, March 27, 1865
Marker is on U.S. 158, on the left when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
