![]() ![]() They burned the cotton mills and gristmill, along with the other buildings and vast amounts of cotton, yarn, flour, and hardtack. Potter's forces raided Rocky Mount and Tarboro, and six cavalry companies were sent to destroy the mills. Many lived near the mill in what were described as "neat white cottages, sufficiently numerous to have the appearance of a village."Īs one of the biggest industrial complexes in North Carolina, Rocky Mount Mills became the target of a Union cavalry raid during the Civil War. ![]() The Battles usually employed 50 to 60 mill hands, who were paid approximately $2.50 a week during the late 1860s. The mills used the labor of enslaved people until hired workers, most of them girls and women, replaced enslaved labor in 1852. 1869 described the original mill as built "of rock-granite-with which the spot so abounds, and three stories high with a basement." The mill was powered by a large dam, which also powered a gristmill. After Battle's death in 1829, the mills were owned by Battle and Brothers, a firm headed by his eldest son, William H. By 1825 Battle was the sole owner of the mills, which were built on a 20-acre tract at the falls of the Tar River. Its original facility was the second cotton mill built in North Carolina, following the 1814 Schenck-Warlick Mill near Lincolnton. Rocky Mount Mills was founded in Rocky Mount by Joel Battle and two partners in 1818. ![]()
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