Article • 2022 Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant Highlights

Expanding North Carolina’s Bentonville Battlefield

Pastel colors of the early morning sky lifts behind a horizon of darkened trees and misty open field. — Early morning captured on the Bentonville Battlefield
Courtesy the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Recipient: North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

Award Amount: $71,852.50
Acreage: 34.02

The Battle of Bentonville was one of the last full-scale offensive actions by the Confederate army against Union forces during their 1865 march through the Carolinas. As the largest battle of the Civil War in North Carolina, it holds important significance to the state.

Continuing his march through the Carolina’s, William T. Sherman’s troops encountered Confederate forces near Bentonville. On the morning of March 19, 1865, Union forces attacked what they assumed was a weak Confederate Calvary under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. The Confederate forces reached their peak that afternoon at Morris Farm, when Union reinforcements arrived. The battle took three days, but only delayed the inevitable retreat of Johnson’s army in the face of Union strength and heavy casualties. A month later, Johnston surrendered to Sherman, coinciding with Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, effectively ending the Civil War.

Sunlight streams over a line of trees and across a field of cotton. In the foreground is a wooden rail fence and a small sign noting the site of the Third Brigade. — The morning sun streams over a field of cotton that is part of the Bentonville Battlefield
North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

With the help of a Battlefield Land Acquisition grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, along with the American Battlefield Trust, will acquire two non-contiguous tracts of land for inclusion in the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site. The properties saw intense action during the first two days of battle and are adjacent to several other tracts of the battlefield that are currently preserved. Today the site is part of North Carolina’s planned Mountains-to-Sea Trail that will connect cities and towns with historic sites, natural areas, and scenic districts across the state.

Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants empower preservation partners nationwide to acquire and preserve threatened Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War battlefields. In addition, the program administers three other grants: Preservation Planning Grants, which are open to all sites of armed conflict on American soil, the newly authorized Battlefield Restoration and Battlefield Interpretation grant programs. This financial assistance generates community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.