Members of the Military Learn from the Past

During the past couple of days, midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy have been using Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site in Winnabow as part of their training. The midshipmen—all senior engineering students—were studying the remains of the colonial wharves and other cultural and natural assets located on the Brunswick Town waterfront. They are also working with state archaeologists and other preservationists to come up with solutions for protect these historic wharves and other assets.

Brunswick Town isn’t alone in its outreach to and use by members of the military. Troops take tours of Bentonville Battleground in Four Oaks to learn lessons from 19^th century battle techniques and apply them to today’s combat situations. Modern medical units also help out with some of Bentonville’s heath-themed living history programs, contrasting Civil War with modern field medicine

Just this past weekend, members of the National Guard were at Fort Fisher in Kure Beach for a simulated war exercise, where soldiers practice their tactical and planning skills in situations designed to mirror real-life challenges they could face. The fort hosts soldiers for similar exercises throughout the year.

Read Full Post »

Culture Around Every Corner: November 29-December 2

Visiting with World War II re-enactors, singing along with 19^th century holiday carolers and a step back in time to a Civil War Christmas are just a few of the ways you can experience North Carolina’s arts and history this weekend with the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

Start your weekend off Thursday evening with a lecture on race and truth in Thomas Wolfe’s work at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville. The intellectual discovery continues Friday with a lecture on book signing on mariners during the Civil War at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

The weather may be warm this weekend, but you’ll catch the holiday spirit Saturday by seeing how Civil War soldiers and civilians celebrated the season at Bentonville Battlefield in Four Oaks, creating holiday-themed crafts at Town Creek Indian Mound in Mount Gilead or taking a Christmas candlelight tour of the specially-decorated underground tunnels at Reed Gold Mine in Midland. The N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer will offer train rides with Santa throughout the day and cookies and cocoa with Santa and his elves in the Roundhouse in the evening.

The Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City will also be offering a holiday craft workshop and an open house, while the Mountain Gateway Museum in Old Fort will stay open late to celebrate the holidays and the Maritime Museum in Beaufort will provide a great spot to see the annual Christmas flotilla. Aside from the holiday events, the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh will present a lecture on historic preservation in the Near East and the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington will bring World War II to life.

Sunday, the holiday cheer continues with caroling during tours of the 1897 Poe House at the Museum of the Cape Fear in Fayetteville and an Antebellum plantation Christmas open house at Somerset Plantation in Creswell, while the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem will offer a tea and tours of its two visiting exhibitions.

The N.C. Symphony will present Handel’s classic Christmas oratorio Messiah in Southern Pines Thursday and in Raleigh Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Only a few tickets are left, so act fast!

Read Full Post »

Unknown but No Longer Unmarked

Old photographs are amazing – and I’m not talking about pictures of your first day of school or of the dreaded 1980s prom dress.  I mean really old photographs – ones that convey details that have been otherwise lost to time.

An 1895 photograph of the Goldsboro Rifles Monument that showed wooden grave markers led archaeologists to revise their search parameters.

For many years people knew that there were Confederate soldiers buried somewhere near the Harper House at Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site.  After the battle in 1865, about 20 wounded soldiers who could not be moved were left behind in the care of the family.  As part of the History Channel’s “Save Our History” program, a cooperative effort between the Office of State Archaeology and Wake Forest University Archaeology Laboratories was launched in 2007 to try to locate their graves.  Ground penetrating radar (GPR) was tried a number of times, without results.

But, in 2008 an old photograph was discovered—one that had been taken at the dedication of the 1895 Goldsboro Rifles Monument.  It showed about 20 wooden grave markers and their general location could be distinguished.

Today the Goldsboro Rifles Monument is flanked by headstones that mark the graves of the unknown soldiers.

Using the photograph, archaeologists revised their GPR search parameters and discovered what are called “subsurface anomalies.”  The electronic signatures suggested the presence of graves. These areas were carefully hand excavated, and they were indeed graves.

Last year, the Harper House/Bentonville Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy donated official Confederate headstones to mark the graves of the unknown soldiers.   On Saturday, June 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site will hold a 2nd Saturday event called “A Day in the Life of a Civil War Soldier.”  If you visit, you can see the graves of those unknown Confederate soldiers whose day has come again.

 

Read Full Post »

Battlefield Gets Support

Money is being raised to help preserve Bentonville Battlefield.

Check out the link below for all the details.

Group raising money to preserve more of battlefield

Read Full Post »