Civil War Battlefield Conservation in North Carolina

Averasboro

The protection through an easement over 81 acres of the Confederate line during the battle of Averasboro on March 16, 1865, was made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Farmland Preservation Program. The Fund’s North Carolina partners also included the Averasboro Battlefield Commission, the Sandhills Area Land Trust, and the Cumberland County Conservancy.

Betonville

Major General William Tecumseh Sherman had begun his advance against General Joseph E. Johnston in May 1864 in north Georgia and had pushed the Confederates to Atlanta. Following his victory at Atlanta, Sherman turned his forces east, marched to the sea, and then headed north through the Carolinas. They defeated Johnston’s Confederates in the battle of Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865, and continued their advance through the Carolinas.

The Conservation Fund and its partners have protected three critical areas, now within the Bentonville Battleground State Historic Site. Ross W. Lampe of Smithfield donated an acre, which includes rifle pits, to the Fund which donated the land to the Battleground in 1991. A loan from the Fund’s Battlefield Revolving Fund, established by grants from The Gilder Foundation, enabled the Bentonville Battleground Historical Association to purchase eight acres near the Harper House, a field hospital during the battle, and add them to the Battleground. The Fund worked in partnership with the state of North Carolina which purchased eight acres of the Harper Farm and added them to the Battleground.