Rocky Mount

Town in Nash and Edgecombe counties, east-central North Carolina; population (1990) 49,000. It is situated on the Tar River, near its falls, 77 km/48 mi east-northeast of Raleigh. Rocky Mount is one of the world's leading bright-leaf tobacco market and processing centres. Other manufactures include textiles, clothing, furniture, fabricated metals, chemicals, electrical components, and stone, glass, and clay products. North Carolina Wesleyan College (1956) is 6 km/4 mi to the north.

The town's site was settled in 1818, when the Rocky Mount Cotton Mills were built by the falls. In the 1840s railway service reached Rocky Mount, and today the tracks of the Seaboard Coast Line bisect its main street, also delineating the county border.

Rocky Mount

Town in Franklin County, southwest Virginia; population (1990) 4,100. It is located 29 km/18 mi south of Roanoke, in the east foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It produces textiles, furniture, and plywood, and has a tobacco market. It was the longtime home of Confederate general, Jubal Early.