Dan River - Vital Supply Line - Confederate Lifeline - Eden, NC, USA
Posted by: 
NCDaywalker
N 36° 29.150 W 079° 45.841
17S E 610711 N 4038546
The marker gives a lesson on the importance of the Dan River to the war effort in North Carolina. The bateaux transported coal and other goods to assist troops in the area.
Waymark Code: WMZRFD
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 12/28/2018
Views: 3
Inscription.
The Roanoke Navigation Company opened the upper Dan River here for batteau traffic in the 1820s, and the towns of Leaksville (present-day Eden) and Madison became river ports. During the antebellum era, farmers shipped their produce downstream to markets in eastern North Carolina and Virginia. On the return trip, the bateaux carried goods bound for the town merchants. When the Richmond and Danville Railroad reached Danville, Virginia in 1856, batteau traffic decreased below that point.
After the Civil War began in 1861, batteau owners continued to ship goods up and down the river. In Danville, Confederate authorities soon established hospitals, prisons for captured Union soldiers, and a large quartermaster commissary. Early in 1863, the Confederates commandeered Dan River batteau to transport iron and large quantities of grain and other foodstuffs from Madison and Leaksville to the Danville commissary. From there, the railroad transported supplies to Confederate forces in Virginia.
In the summer of 1863, the Danville firm of Jones, Neal, and Farrar contracted with the quartermaster in Danville to furnish coal to heat the prisons and hospitals there. Because coal was in short supply in the South, the company reopened the Wade Coal Mines two miles west of Leaksville. In 1863-1864, Union prisoners from Danville dug a large quantity of coal there; it was loaded on the bateaux nearby and shipped downstream to Danville. Leaksville Landing, one of the batteau docks, was located a short distance upstream from here.
Type of site: Transportation Route or Facility
Admission Charged: No Charge
Driving Directions:
The marker is in Eden, North Carolina, in Rockingham County. The marker is on S. Hamilton Street near North Carolina Highway Old 87, on the left when traveling north. As one crosses the bridge, the marker is located in the Leaksville Landing parking area on the north side of the Dan River.
Address: Not listed
Phone Number: Not listed
Website: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Post a picture of site showing the signage or other notable feature. Please tell what you saw or learned.