Summer vacation Day 5: Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson

This quiet, picturesque site on the banks of the Cape Fear River has an amazing past. In 1726 Maurice Moore, the son of a former South Carolina governor, founded this port town. North Carolina was a colony of England, and the town was named Brunswick to honor George I, the king of England, who was a native of Brunswick, Germany.

The port became a bustling shipping area for exporting tar, pitch, and turpentine. This "sticky gold" was essential for building and maintaining the great wooden sailing ships of the Royal Navy and the merchant fleet that sailed the oceans between Europe, its American colonies, and the islands of the Caribbean.

A major pre-Revolutionary port on North Carolina's Cape Fear River, Brunswick was razed by British troops in 1776 and never rebuilt. During the Civil War, Ft. Anderson was constructed atop the old village site.

After decades of calm, the site once again entered the forefront of history in a national storm, the Civil War. In 1861 the Confederate States of America decided to build a large fort at the site as part of the river defense of Wilmington. The Cape Fear was an essential route for supplies moving by rail from Wilmington to Petersburg and Richmond for General Lee's army.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, archaeologists uncovered foundations from Brunswick's earliest days. The most visible structure is the hulk of St. Philip's Anglican Church with its surviving walls dating back to 1754. Another interesting foundation is Russellborough, an old sea captain's house that was used by royal governors Tryon and Dobbs.