Salisbury

City and administrative headquarters of Rowan County, west-central North Carolina, in the Piedmont, 51 km/32 mi southwest of Winston-Salem; population (1990) 23,100. It is an industrial centre, manufacturing textiles, machinery, chemicals, furniture, paper products, glass, mobile homes, rubber hose, soft drinks, and pharmaceuticals.

It is home to Catawba College (1851), Livingston College (1879), a technical institute, and a Veterans Administration hospital.

History Settled in 1753 as a road junction, Salisbury saw action in the American Revolution, just before Guilford Courthouse (February 1781). It was the site of one of the largest Confederate prisons during the Civil War; its National Cemetery houses the graves of 11,700 Federal soldiers.