Back in the Antebellum days, Wilmington was the largest city in the state of North Carolina.

When the Cape Fear River split and went to the Northwest, it ended up in what is now known as Fayetteville, North Carolina.

That river also formed an ideal passage for getting goods over to people that's located outside of the United States. So, naturally, there was a state port or a shipping dock formed there that would allow ships to take goods that were produced in the United States over to Europe and down into the Caribbean.

That, in turn, caused Wilmington to be the largest city in the state. At that time, and I'm talking around 1810/1815, Wilmington had about 12,000 residents. 12,000 residents was the largest city in the state.