Topics Related to Civil War

Bennett Place State Historic Site will commemorate the 160th anniversary of its Civil War surrender with two public programs on April 25-26. These programs mark the end of the 160th-anniversary commemorations of the American Civil War in North Carolina by North Carolina State Historic Sites.

Experience history come alive at the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site 160th anniversary program March 15-16. Thousands of living historians from across the country will descend on Bentonville Battlefield for one of the nation’s largest battle reenactments.     

On Saturday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m., Bennett Place State Historic Site will host a free lecture with local historian Ernest Dollar entitled “Jublio: Moments of Freedom, 1865.”Dollar, who serves as director of the Museums Section for the City of Raleigh, will highlight how enslaved people found and claimed freedom for themselves in the final days of the Civil War in North Carolina. This program will explore perspectives of African American men and women’s first moments of freedom as part of the site’s Black History Month programming.

On Saturday, Jan. 18, the sound of cannons and muskets will once again ring out at Fort Fisher State Historic Site. The event will mark the 160th anniversary of the fort’s capture by U.S. forces in January 1865. This will be the site’s first major event since opening a new 20,000-square-foot visitor center and reconstructed earthworks late last year.

A little more than two years after construction began and local flooding delayed the opening, the new visitor center at Fort Fisher State Historic Site will open to the public Wednesday, Oct. 30 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is free.The new two-story visitor center, which has been in planning since 2010, cost approximately $25.5 million and is expected to serve more than 1 million visitors annually. At 20,000 square feet, it is approximately three times the size of its 1965 predecessor.