Thursday, August 19, 2010

Artillery and Musket Fire Return to Bentonville Battlefield

FOUR OAKS -- The sounds of artillery and musket fire will once again ring out at Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site during the annual summer living history program on Saturday, Aug. 28. From 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., costumed living historians will demonstrate how soldiers made meals, maintained their weapons and uniforms, trained for battle, withstood the weather and much more.

This free program will feature musket demonstrations at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., and artillery firings at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Visitors can stroll through a Civil War soldier’s camp and discover what role the enlisted man played in battle. Re-enactors from the 27th North Carolina Troops will explain and answer questions about military life during the war. These living historians will also give uniform and equipment talks.

Artillery demonstrations will feature a three-inch ordnance rifle, a typical Civil War field piece. According to one witn ess, the artillery fire at the Battle of Bentonville was so heavy that it “literally barked the trees, cutting off limbs as if by hand.”

The Battle of Bentonville, fought March 19-21, 1865, involved 80,000 troops and was the last Confederate offensive against Union Gen. William T. Sherman. Bentonville Battlefield is located at 5466 Harper House Road , Four Oaks, NC 27524, three miles north of Newton Grove on S.R. 1008. For more info rmation, visit www.nchistoricsites.org/bentonvi/bentonvi.htm or call (910) 594-0789.

Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site is part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities, and the vision to harness the state’s cultural resources to build North Carolina ’s social, cultural and economic future. For more info rmation, visit www.ncculture.com.

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