Topics Related to Civil War

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.

Take a wagon ride around the historic Harper farm at Bentonville Battlefield’s annual fall festival on Saturday, Oct. 26. The program will include historic trades demonstrations, displays from community organizations, and an “old-timey” festival atmosphere featuring wagon rides, kid’s games, food trucks, live music, and more!

The 160th anniversary reenactment of the Battle of Bentonville will take place March 15-16, 2025. Tickets for the event, “A Terrible Storm,” are now on sale.

The Museum of the Albemarle will host History for Lunch on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at noon in the Gaither Auditorium. Chris Meekins, born and raised in Elizabeth City, has been a public historian in the state of N.C. for over 30 years. For most of his career, Chris was an archivist, but in March 2020, he switched hats to become an editor for the Civil War Roster project. Tasked with packing up the old Roster office, Chris also decided to track the project's history. Since the Civil War, there have been several attempts to document the service of N.C. men in the war.

The transformative impact of naval advancements and technologies significantly influenced the outcome of the American Civil War despite receiving lesser attention than the land battles.

The CSS Neuse Museum will present the upcoming program “Sailors in the Summer: Ironclads and Naval Living History,” scheduled for Saturday, July 13 that will highlight some of these advances.

 The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources has been awarded a $100,000 Battlefield Restoration grant from the National Park Service to produce a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) to guide the restoration of key portions of the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Johnston County.

The sound of cannonfire during the Battle of Bentonville, it was said, boomed with a distinct echo.

“The din of battle roared like one continuous peel of heavy thunder,” wrote one eyewitness.

On Saturday, June 22, Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site will recreate some of that noise during its “Heavy Thunder: Summer Artillery and Infantry Program.”

The Museum of the Albemarle will host History for Lunch on Wednesday, June 19, at noon in the Gaither Auditorium for an informative talk by Barbara Snowden, Currituck County Historian.