The plan is to establish a mutual visiting
program of members of the 1st North Carolina Cavalry worldwide. The
visitor bears the costs for the trip and will be housed by the comrades
he is visiting.
On the occasion of the
wedding of Cpl. Gernot Duda and Monika Brummer on July, 14, 2001,
Major Dave Acevedo, Co. A, and 1st Sergeant Gary Edmisten, Co. D, came the long way to Germany to
participate in the festivity. Gary presented a North Carolina
State Flag, which was certified as
having been flown over the Capitol in Raleigh,
NC, on March, 21, 2001.
In May 2002, Cpl. Duda and his
wife travelled to the US to visit 1st Sergeant Gary Edmisten in
North Carolina. As a surprise, Pvt. Richard Hunter from Co. A, in
California, travelled the long distance from the west coast
to see his German friends. The first highlight of the trip
to
North Carolina was a barbeque, arranged by 1st Sergeant Edmisten
for his guests. During the next two weeks they
visited a
lot of historical and interesting sites, like Ft. Fisher, Ft. Macon,
the Bennett Place and Old Salem.
Travelling back to the other side, Gernot and Sabine
Duda started their three week tour through the eastern and southeastern US in September, 2009. First they visited with 1st Sergeant Gary Edmisten, and his wife Teresa, and spent two wonderful days at their home in North Carolina. The trip then continued on to Charleston, SC, and then on to Savannah and Atlanta in Georgia.
In Asheville, NC, 1st Sergeant
Duda did some research to find the old site of Camp Woodfin, the
"birthplace" of Co. G.
The next highlight
of the tour was
Raleigh, NC, where the visitors met with Tom Belton, Curator of the North Carolina Museum of
History, and Capt. Maynard
Riddle, Commanding Officer of Co. I. Tom Belton allowed
them a view "behind
the scenes" down in the secret halls of the museum, and presented for their viewing original uniforms and arms from
the Civil War. At this time 1st Sergeant Duda took the opportunity
to present a $50 donation from Co. G to the museum for
preserving North Carolina Battle Flags. Later they had lunch with Capt. Riddle and got to know each
other better.
Next stop was Winston-Salem,
NC. In Old Salem, Gernot and Sabine Duda met with Chris
Hartley, author of "Stuart's Tarheels." After lunch in the Old Salem
Tavern, Chris graciously signed Gernot's copy of his book.
At Sharpsburg, Maryland, the visitors met with Dick Weeks. He offered to be their personal tour guide on the Antietam Battlefield. During this tour Dick related to them a lot of interesting, fascinating and sometimes funny stories and facts about this battle in 1862.