Editing Rocky Mount, North Carolina (section)

===19th century===
A post office was established at the falls of the Tar River on March 22, 1816. At this point, the name "Rocky Mount" officially appears in documented history, referring to the rocky mound at the falls of the Tar River. [[Rocky Mount Mills]], the second [[cotton mill]] in the state of North Carolina, was built there soon after in 1818.<ref name="About Rocky Mount"/> Its proprietors were two entrepreneurs and Joel Battle, grandson of an original colonial settler here. Battle bought out the other proprietors before turning over the enterprise to his cousin James Smith Battle. Until the 1850s, the mill operated with the labor of [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved African Americans]]. They also comprised most of the labor on the cotton plantations.

Beginning then, the mill owners hired exclusively white women and girls as mill workers for the rest of the century.<ref name="Fleming2">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cOWO-ahOKlwC |last=Fleming |first=Monika |title=Legendary Locals of Edgecombe and Nash Counties |year=2013 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=9781467100441}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Gaddis|first=Elijah|title=Early Mill History|url=https://rockymountmill.prospect.unc.edu/mill-history/narrative/early-mill-history/|website=Digital Rocky Mount Mills|publisher=UNC-Chapel Hill Community Histories Workshop|access-date=March 27, 2019}}</ref>

The Battle family was also involved in the construction of the longest continuous railroad in the world up to that time, the [[Wilmington and Weldon Railroad]], which ran about {{convert|2|mi|0|spell=in}} east of the mill.<ref name="Fleming2"/> It connected the area to major ports in [[Virginia]] to the north and the port of [[Wilmington, North Carolina]] to the south. The tracks first reached Rocky Mount on [[Christmas Eve]] in 1839. In 1840, a train of cars en route to Wilmington stopped in Rocky Mount to import some "Old Nash" for special toasts at opening festivities. The fame of Nash County [[apple brandy]] spread from there.

The railroad stimulated development of the town. In 1871, the county line was moved from the Tar River to its present location in the center of the tracks.<ref name="About Rocky Mount"/> The [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]]-[[Tarboro, North Carolina|Tarboro]] stage route also passed just south of Rocky Mount (roughly where [[Interstate 95|I-95]] and [[US 64|U.S. 64]] run today), and for a time was the logical debarking point for railroad travelers wishing to proceed east or west.<ref name="About Rocky Mount"/>

During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the surrounding region was raided in 1863 by [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops under the command of Brigadier General [[Edward E. Potter]]. They burned down the mill, which supplied [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] yarn and cloth. After the war ended, the owners rebuilt the mill.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kelley|first=Lucas|title=The Civil War|url=https://rockymountmill.prospect.unc.edu/mill-history/narrative/the-civil-war/|website=Digital Rocky Mount Mills|publisher=UNC-Chapel Hill Community Histories Workshop|access-date=March 27, 2019}}</ref> On February 19, 1867, [[Rocky Mount Mills Village Historic District|the village]] outside the mill, which was largely devoted to worker housing, was incorporated as a town.<ref name="About Rocky Mount"/>

In the latter half of the 19th century, the [[tobacco industry]] became established in the state. Adjacent to the sandy [[Geography of North Carolina#Coastal Plain|coastal plain]], Rocky Mount was well situated to take advantage of the rapidly rising demand for brightleaf [[tobacco]] that grew best in the sandy soil.<ref name="Biles">{{cite journal |last=Biles |first=Roger |title=Tobacco Towns: Urban Growth and Economic Development in Eastern North Carolina |journal=The North Carolina Historical Review |volume=84 |issue = 2|edition= 2nd |date=April 2007 |pages=156–190|jstor = 23522906|publisher = North Carolina Office of Archives and History}}</ref> Tobacco also shaped the city's social life. Warehouses where tobacco was stored and marketed began hosting balls for the community in the 1880s; these became known as "june germans" for the time of year and style of dance. June Germans eventually transformed into all-night dance parties and attracted musicians and socialites from miles around well into the 1900s.<ref>{{cite news |last=Tomlin |first=Jimmy |date=2014 |title=Dance Till Dawn |url=https://www.ourstate.com/june-german/ |work=Our State}}</ref> By the end of the 19th century, tobacco had surpassed [[King Cotton]] as the town's primary agricultural product.<ref name="Biles"/>