Brunswick Town, North Carolina
It was the first successful European settlement in the Cape Fear region, a major colonial port in the 18th century, and home to two provincial governors.
The Brunswick Town Historic District contains the ruins of 18th-century commercial and residential colonial homes, St Philip's Church, Fort Anderson, and Russellborough, the former governor's mansion.
[8] During the next few months, Brunswick Town grew rapidly and became a busy port for exporting longleaf pine products such as tar, pitch, and turpentine used for the Royal Navy and merchant ships.
On September 5 Captain William Dry III rallied a group of around 67 men who were armed with muskets and pistols to take back the town.
[17] However, the grand two-story house and plantation was not completed at the time Royal Governor Arthur Dobbs purchased the land in 1758.
[24] On February 20, 1766, Patriot leaders, John Ashe, Cornelius Harnett, James Moore, Captain Robert Howe and Colonel Hugh Waddell led several hundred citizens to arrest royal officials in the town.
[28] By 1775, the few families that still lived in Brunswick Town fled due to fears of a British attack during the American Revolutionary War.
[29] On July 18–21, 1775, Patriots led by Robert Howe, Cornelius Harnett, and John Ashe attacked Fort Johnston while Captain Collett and Governor Josiah Martin watched from the Cruizer.
The following spring of 1776, a British raiding party from the Royal Navy ship HMS Cruizer attacked Brunswick Town.
The raiding party, led by Captain Collett, burned most of the town's structures including Russellborough and more than likely Saint Phillips Church .
The port was still functioning but by 1830 the town site was completely abandoned and sold to Frederick Jones Hill, owner of Orton Plantation, for $4.25.
The Confederates built earthworks and trenches in the town site, covering the remains of several burnt structures except for St. Philip's Church.
The fort was constructed to protect the city of Wilmington 10 miles (16 km) upstream, a vital port during the Civil War.
[31] During the attack on Fort Anderson in February 1865, cannonballs shot from Union ships in the Cape Fear River hit the walls of St. Philip's Church and are still evident today.
In 1899, the newly formed Cape Fear Chapter of the North Carolina Society of The Colonial Dames of America visited Brunswick Town to pay homage to Revolutionary War casualties.
In 1902, the chapter erected a marble plaque inside the roofless ruins of St. Philip's to commemorate Brunswick Town founder Maurice Moore.
Requested the help of an archaeologist, Stanley South, who began extensive excavations at Brunswick Town in 1958, and retrieved items such as bullets, buttons, and a cannonball inside the St. Philip's Church ruins.
