The Bentonville reenactment.

On a remote hill in near Smithfield, the Yanks and the Rebs are at it again. Artillery booms and battle flags snap above the the piles of pretend “dead.” It’s the reenactment of the Battle of Bentonville, last Confederate offensive of the Civil War, as Generals Johnston and Sherman face off across the North Carolina countryside.

Johnston’s troops hang tough, and Colonel Hardee leads a legendary cavalry charge, but soon the Southern troops are forced to retreat behind a distant hill. Before long, the reenactors are headed home, all but the ones having limbs “amputated” over at the living history event in the Harper House, a restored plantation house used in 1865 as a field hospital.

While battles in Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee are the best known conflicts in the Civil War, North Carolina saw its share of battles, though you may never have heard of them. During the early years of the war, Union forces took the Outer Banks and New Bern, using them as staging areas for attacks on the interior. In response, the Confederates built a fleet of ironclads, of which the Merrimac is only the most famous.

As the war ran on to its end, several critical battles were fought on North Carolina soil. The fall of Fort Fisher, on Kure Beach, cut the final supply line of Lee’s army in Virginia, making defeat inevitable. Sherman marched through eastern North Carolina, while the western part of the state was invaded by Union cavalry under Gen. George Stoneman.

In 2005, the North Carolina Civil War Trails project began identifying and erecting information signs at hundreds of sites, many of them interpreted for the first time. They are linked by driving trails that stretch across the state, providing unique perspectives on warfare and its costs.

Bentonville is the centerpiece of the “Carolinas Campaign: End of the War” driving trail which follows Sherman’s march through North Carolina, from his destruction of Fayetteville’s arsenal on March 10, 1865, to Johnston’s final surrender. This took place at Bennett Place (now a state historic site) just outside Durham on April 26, two weeks after Lee surrendered in Virginia.

The Averasboro Battlefield reenactment.

Red, white and blue signs sporting red bugles lead visitors to interpreted sites along the trail, often following the same roads used by the soldiers themselves. The End of the War Trail follows NC 82, a N.C. Scenic Byway, from Fayetteville north to Averasboro Battlefield (March 15-16, 1865), where an active volunteer organization maintains a battlefield museum and cemetery, plus a nearby plantation house used as a hospital. Every year, the battle is reenacted, this year on the exact dates, March 15-16, 2008.

The trail continues on to the Battle of Bentonville State Historic Site, where you can view a large fiber optic map of the battle before walking a trail past trenches, cemeteries, and several monuments. The battle here, requiring thousands of reenactors, won’t be staged again until 2010, however a living history event on the weekend of March 15-16 will include infantry and artillery demonstrations, and lantern lit tours of the historic Harper House.

Confederate Ironclads Swarmed in NC Waters
On the Roanoke River, the Port O’ Plymouth Museum tells the tale of the CSS Albemarle, most successful of the ironclads. A 63-ft. replica cruises the river with guns blazing, along with a model of the torpedo launcher used to destroy it, in what the History Channel called “the most daring mission of the war.”

The CSS Albemarle ironclad.

The annual Thunder on the Roanoke reenactment in Plymouth is one of the state’s largest Civil War events, scheduled this year for April 25-27. The three-day battle in April, 1864, was a Confederate victory, thanks to the presence of the ironclad CSS Albemarle. The reenactment climaxes with a naval battle featuring the ironclad replica, a very unique event that involves naval reenactors. For more information, visit www.plymouthmuseum.com

In Kinston, another ironclad, the CSS Neuse, has been rescued from the river. A State Historic Site preserves the ship’s wooden hull and some original iron plating, along with many artifacts. Plans call for a replica ship to soon cruise the Neuse.

All across North Carolina, sites tell the story of the great conflict. Another section of the NC Civil War Trail revisits the events that severed Lee’s tenuous lifeline and led to the final collapse of the Confederacy. Fort Fisher in Kure Beach protected Wilmington’s blockade-runners until it fell, on Jan. 15, 1865, to the largest amphibious attack before World War II’s Normandy invasion. Today, Fisher’s still impressive fortifications include a restored battery equipped with an operational 32-pound seacoast cannon.

Crossing by ferry to Southport, the trail continues up the Cape Fear River to Fort Anderson State Historic Site, and on to Wilmington, then the state’s largest city (pop. 10,000). Wilmington’s extensive waterfront historic district boasts many antebellum buildings, including the magnificent Bellamy Mansion used as Yankee headquarters.

Civil War Trails further west in the state, follow the route of Stoneman’s Raid, and the activities of the famed Thomas Legion, made up of Cherokee warriors.

Stoneman’s cavalry zig-zagged from Boone to Asheville during the closing months of the war, with a sidetrip through Salisbury to burn the POW camp there. Nearby Thomasville, one of the South’s major hospital towns, escaped destruction. Union and Confederate troops, united in death, lie side by side in its cemetery.

For an extensive list of North Carolina Civil War Trails, visit www.civilwartraveler.com. You can download a brochure and map there or at www.visitnc.com, or pick one up at any visitor’s center. The Web site of the N.C. Civil War Tourism Council, www.nccivilwar.com, also has good maps and itineraries that follow the interstate highways which can be downloaded and printed.

Renee Wright is a freelance travel writer living in Charlotte,
besteditorial@gmail.com