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Cross Country Vacation Sept./Oct. 2025-Post 11

Posted on November 17, 2025 | 2 comments

Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site, Four Oaks, North Carolina

“The Battle of Bentonville, fought March 19-21, 1865, was the last full-scale action of the Civil War in which a Confederate army [led by General Joseph E. Johnston] was able to mount a tactical offensive. This major battle, the largest ever fought in North Carolina, was the only significant attempt to defeat the large Union army of General William T. Sherman during its march through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865.”

The result was a Union victory with an estimate of Union 1,527 casualties and 2,606 Confederate casualties.

“Visitors to the battlefield can tour a restored Harper House, used as the field hospital for the Union’s Fourteenth Army Corps, and includes a reconstructed kitchen and enslaved people’s quarters. Exhibits at the park’s visitor center focus on the battle, and include interactive maps, artifacts and displays about soldiers and commanders from both armies. There is also a 15-minute audiovisual program about the battle. Outdoor exhibits in the park include the Federal XX Corps reserve trenches, the Harper family cemetery, a Confederate cemetery, several monuments, and a 10-mile driving tour with 8 tour stops. The site also features nearly 5 miles of walking trails along original trenches built during the battle.”

John Harper Farmhouse

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

The separate kitchen:

Slave Quarters

Yes, there is a lock on the outside of the door to the slave’s living space.

There are many helpful signs of all kinds to keep you oriented.

Levi Phillip Creech’s original family home. It was moved and restored and is now adjacent to the Bentonville Battlefield, and owned by Mr. Larry Laboda. Creech was a private in Company C, 50th North Carolina Infantry, Confederate States Army.

Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site

I was glad to have visited Bentonville (I only wish I had more time to explore), since it put together more pieces of American history for me. On a previous cross-country road trip, the Hubster and I visited Bennett Place where General Joseph Johnston surrendered his army to General William Sherman on April 26, 1865.

After the war, Joseph Johnston and William Sherman became friends. Johnson died of pneumonia in 1891, which was contracted at Sherman’s funeral for which he was a pallbearer.

See the world around you!

Bennett Place North Carolina

Posted on September 21, 2023 | 13 comments

I am going to show my ignorance here, by stating that I did not realize that the surrender of the Northern Army of Virginia by General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse did not end the American Civil War.

On our road trip, the Hubster and I discovered Bennett Place, where I learned the rest of the story.

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

General Joseph E. Johnston was the highest-ranking United States officer to resign his commission and fight for the Confederacy. William T. Sherman left his position as superintendent at Louisiana Seminary and Military Institute to fight for the Union.

The two met in battle in 1861 at First Manassas (Bull Run) where Johnston’s Confederate army forced Union troops, including a brigade led by Colonel Sherman, into a full retreat.

After recovering from wounds sustained in 1862, Johnston was sent to the Western Theater of Operations.

Within two years, the men confronted each other at Vicksburg and again in the Atlanta Campaign.
They faced off for the fourth time, in 1865, in the Carolinas Campaign, and ultimately jointly orchestrated the war’s final chapter at Bennett Place.

In 1846, James and Nancy (Leigh Pierson) Bennett purchased the property here. They supplemented their farm income by tailoring clothes, selling liquor, providing transportation with their wagon, and renting space in their home to travelers.

On April 17, 1865, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and Union General William T. Sherman, met under a flag of truce midway between their lines on Hillsborough Road, seven miles west of Durham Station, to discuss surrender terms.

Johnston suggested that they use this nearby farmhouse, the home of James and Nancy Bennett, for privacy.

Sherman offered terms similar to those that General Ulysses S. Grant had given to General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia on April 9, 1865.

After negotiations, on April 26, Sherman and Johnston met at Bennett Place, where Johnston accepted the terms and surrendered the armies under his command including those in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, about 89,270 Confederates. It was the largest surrender of troops in the war.