Raleigh Earthworks Tour Nov. 12, 2023 – Details and Signup

[Note: The trolley tour in November was well-attended and exciting to conduct. Many thanks to all attendees! To be alerted of future events, you can sign up to receive email notices of new articles posted to this website. ARB]

Some folks already know about the Raleigh Trolley tour I will be conducting on Sunday, 12 Nov. 2023, 9 a.m to 12 noon. If you’re planning to attend, here are some details that might be helpful. And in case you haven’t signed up yet, I will give instructions here.

Tour participants will meet with me, Al Bredenberg, and City of Raleigh Museum Director Ernest Dollar at the museum at 9:00 a.m. at the museum located in the beautiful historic Briggs Hardware building at:

220 Fayetteville Street
Raleigh, NC 27601

On a Sunday morning, downtown parking should not be too difficult.

(To the right is an image of the 1863 Henry T. Guion map of the Raleigh fortifications. You should be able to click on this image to inspect the map in more detail.)

We will start with a brief introduction to the history of the Raleigh Civil War fortifications, then load up in the trolley and head out on an exploration of the remnants of the earthworks, as revealed by digital studies of historical maps and other documentation. As we go along, I will discuss eight key locations on the eight-mile ring of entrenchments and share original accounts from Civil War Raleigh, including the identities and experiences of some of the Black workers who were pressed into service to do the construction of the entrenchments and the 18 artillery batteries built around the city. In some locations, we’ll be able to get out of the trolley and see some of the remnants close up.

If you haven’t yet signed up for the tour, you should be able to get access to the City of Raleigh’s ticketing site via this link:

Link to City of Raleigh Tour Registration Page

Just to note, you should print out or save a screen shot of your receipt, if possible, as that will serve as your ticket to the tour. If you have trouble signing up or obtaining your receipt, please let me know via the “Comments” section below. The tour group won’t be overly large, so even if you have trouble with the receipt, don’t worry that you might be kicked off; I’m pretty sure that we will have a list of participants on hand anyway.

If you have a GPS-enabled smartphone, I think your experience will be greatly enhanced by following the route of the tour on the Google Map I have created of the Raleigh earthworks. You should be able to open up that map on your phone by viewing this web page, then clicking on the following link:

Link to Google Map of the Raleigh Civil War Fortifications

Using this Google map, you should be able to zoom in to any location along the way and see where we are in relation to the map. We also plan to have a handout for each participant with a reproduction of the 1863 map with the eight tour stops noted.

If you unfortunately miss this tour, we do plan future events. So stay in touch. This website allows you to sign up to receive an email any time I post a new article here.

ARB — 2 Nov. 2023

7 thoughts on “Raleigh Earthworks Tour Nov. 12, 2023 – Details and Signup”

  1. My husband and I would like to join your tour. I am having trouble using the City of Raleigh website; it will not complete my purchase. I will call tomorrow to see if I can resolve this! IN the meantime, I am wondering if you might put us on the list.
    Pam and Warren Stewart

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    1. Oh, so sorry you’re having trouble signing up! I can see how many positions are open, but I have no control over the registration process from a technical standpoint, and can’t see the list of who has registered. Are you sure you haven’t been able to sign up? I see that the number of seats available has decreased by two since yesterday.

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      1. Thanks for your reply! I don’t think we are registered….as I don’t see a charge on my credit card…
        I sill call the city of Raleigh tomorrow to see about it. I hope we are able to take the tour!
        Pam

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  2. I’ll have to be on the look out for the next tour. I find all of this fascinating. In looking at the map, I see what appears to be the rock quary juat inside the south east perimeter. Is there any remaining evidence of that quary?

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    1. Hello Anthony – Thanks for visiting here and for your interest in the tour. Yes, the old rock quarry appears on the 1863 map. The site is near Rock Quarry Road today, across from the National Cemetery. As I understand it, the quarry was filled in years ago and is now the site of a residential neighborhood. Driving around there, I have seen some large stones here and there, so perhaps those are left over from the quarry. Maybe you already know that this was where the stones for the NC Capitol building were quarried. ARB

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      1. Thanks for the quick reply. Very interesting. I knew the stones were quarried locally but not so relatively close to downtown. I’ll have to be on the lookout for those larger stones you mentioned. I really appreciate your enthusiasm for local history. I have your Google maps overlay of the breastworks installed and find it a great reference when doing my own local exploring.

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  3. So glad to hear of your interest in all this. As I understand it, the Capitol was built largely by enslaved workers. A dedicated railroad track was built from the quarry to the building site to transport the stones.

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