Major Civil War Sesquicentennial Approaching in Durham

Consider this: 150 years ago right now, the Civil War's Campaign of the Carolina's was underway as the Union Army moved North and West through North Carolina to the effective end of the conflict at Bennett Place in Durham. A treaty was signed at a courthouse in Virginia, but in Durham the armies of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida were surrendered for a total of 89,270 soldiers relinquishing their arms.

In Durham, history is really coming alive in 2015.

A sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) is an important mark in time, especially at Durham's three state historic sites; more than any other city in NC. Those sites, Bennett Place, Duke Homestead, and Historic Stagville, are all producing events to showcase Durham in the time period before, during, and after the war as they welcome visitors and give them a window on this nation-shaping time in history.

Information about bout Durham's role in the conflict, these sites and their planned events, are all collected on this helpful Civil War website.

Durham saw  the last use of artillery, the last casualties, and is the site of the last fighting in North Carolina, There are major events throughout the upcoming months. Check this webpage, search the Durham Event Calendar for history events, and keep an eye on Durham's Facebook and Twitter accounts and follow the #Durham150 hashtag to keep up with all the Civil War related stories.

Duke University Symposium Marks 150th Anniversary of Civil War

The best way to avoid repeating history is to remember it, record it, and learn therefrom. The Civil War is definitely something from which everyone can learn, and as the war ended in Durham in 1865, there is an opportunity to do exactly that here next week.

Prominent historians from Duke University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and Ohio State University will gather at Duke for a one-day symposium marking the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.

The symposium, “Another March Madness: The American Civil War at 150,” will run from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, March 16, in Perkins Library’s Gothic Reading Room. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the library’s Rare Book Room.

The symposium will feature talks and presentations on a wide range of topics related to the war and its ongoing impact a century and a half later.

Co-organizers Shauna Devine and Margaret Humphreys, both Duke historians, said the panelists are Civil War experts representing a broad range of interests. “Our goal is to provide an opportunity to learn about the many divergent aspects of the conflict, including the medical, military, cultural, political and social history of the Civil War,” Devine said.

Guest speakers include:

-- Joseph Glatthaar, professor of history at UNC, who will speak on the relationships between officers and enlisted men in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia;

-- Susanna Lee, professor of history at N.C. State, who will discuss the wartime conflicts with Native Americans and their claims to Union citizenship;

-- Laura Edwards, professor of history at Duke, who will examine the legal ramifications of the war;

-- Mark Grimsley, military historian at Ohio State University, who will examine Reconstruction violence as an extension of Civil War violence; and

-- Devine and Humphreys who will talk about medical history relating to the war, including the development of new medical standards and diagnostic techniques.

The symposium coincides with a Civil War-related exhibit on display in Perkins Library. “I Recall the Experience Sweet and Sad: Memories of the Civil War” showcases the memoirs of men and women who lived through the conflict, including Walt Whitman, whose work as an army hospital nurse inspired some of his greatest works. An exhibit highlighting Duke’s rich Civil War medicine collection will be on display in the Gothic Reading Room.

For more information, visit the symposium website.

Bennett Place Hosts 'The Road to Secession'

Throughout the past year, Durham's national historic sites have offered special commemorative programing for the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War. One of Bennett Place's largest "First year of the Civil War" 1861 commemorative events is yet to come.

"The Road to Secession" is a reenactment of life in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the beginning months of the Civil War. Beginning at 10am Saturday and again at 3pm Sunday, living historians will recreate the fervor and excitement of the beginning of the War.

A recruitment station and encampment will be set up on the grounds of the Bennett Farm, where civilian interpreters will enlist in the army and be transformed into soldiers. Stump speeches, patriotic music, and other activities will demonstrate the spirit of the Southern cause. Civilian interpreters will also exhibit the domestic chores such as cooking, sewing and gardening as their husbands and sons headed off to war.

This is a signature event of the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War commemorative series. Those interested in participating in the events as a 19th century civilian, soldier, craftsmen or sutlery should contact Bennett Place directly.

Bennett Place Explores 'Carolina Culture' of 1800s As Part Of Free 2nd Saturdays Program On June 11

The largest troop surrender, and the effective end of the Civil War took place in Durham at Bennett Place.  The site is the focus of much interest as the commemoration of 150th anniversary of the Civil war is underway, and Durham's three state historic sites are involved in various ways. 

The joy of raising and cooking food, making clothing and candles, and the artistry of homemade quilts will be shared at Bennett Place State Historic Site at the “Carolina Culture” program, a free 2nd Saturdays presentation on June 11. Other 2nd Saturdays dates are July 9 and Aug. 13.

Enjoy demonstrations of 19th-century gardening, cooking and quilting, in the style much as yeomen farmers James and Nancy Bennett would have done. Visitors will learn about soaking and “carding” to clean wool, in preparation for making clothes for the family.  Visitors also can participate in boiling wax and dipping candles. The strains of Appalachian folk music by Mark and Julee Weems will add to the day’s fun.

The farm of James and Nancy Bennitt (or Bennett) was the site of the largest troop surrender of   the Civil War on April 26, 1865. Bennett Place State Historic Site interprets the lives of the Bennett Family and Civil War era soldiers. It is located at 4409 Bennett Memorial Road in Durham, N.C.

Bennett Place is within the Division of State Historic Sites in 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. Information on Cultural Resources is available on their site.

Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War at Durham Historic Sites

Commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War is underway, a war in which Durham had a significant involvement - it effectively ended at Bennett Place.  Three state historic sites operate today at places that constitute an deep inventory of history allowing visitors to step back in time.

Historic Stagville gives visitors insight into a pre-war Durham where white subsistence farmers lived alongside skilled freed blacks next to one of the largest plantations in the South. Stagville, a plantation of 30,000 acres and home to nearly 900 slaves, lay at the center of the Benehan-Cameron family estate. North Carolina was emblematic of the dichotomies that shaped the state and the union before and after the war. Durham reflected both the unionist, peace movement, anti-slavery attitudes prevalent to the west, combined with the plantation pro-slavery and secessionist tendencies to the east.

North Carolina was the last state to secede from the Union but provided the most troops for the Confederacy. In the end, North Carolina troops suffered the most casualties with Durham residents serving in companies that saw the bloodiest battles of the war. The last picket battles in North Carolina were in Durham leading to the truce between Generals Johnston and Sherman. At the Durham farmhouse of James and Nancy Bennitt, now commemorated as Bennett Place, the two generals drafted a document outlining the terms of the largest Confederate troop surrender of the Civil War.

After the end of the war veterans returned home and again worked alongside blacks to forge enterprises launching North Carolina into the industrial revolution and beyond. Duke Homestead is the site where Washington Duke first grew and processed tobacco. Duke's tobacco empire, among others, paved the way for Durham tobacco factories, textile factories and hydroelectric technology. Much of Duke's profits were invested in land and industries but others were used for humanitarian causes, including Duke University.

Each of Durham's Historic Sites offer programming in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. For more information, visit NC Historic Sites. Additionally, Civil War Durham offers additional information and resources about Durham's celebrated Civil War involvement.

Tweets Show North Carolina’s Civil War Home Front, 140 Characters at a Time

Over the next four years, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources historian LeRae Umfleet will use new technology to tell an old story. Through a Twitter account she is tweeting the words of North Carolina civilians who witnessed the triumphs and tragedies of the war. An accompanying blog will contain the full citation for each Twitter message.

"This is of particular interest given Durham's broad involvement in so many pivotal areas of the war," said Shelly Green, President and CEO of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau.  "Visitation by Civil War enthusiasts has always been steady in Durham.  The largest troop surrender of the war--which essentially ended the war--took place here at Bennett Place, so Durham figures large in this ongoing remembrance and anniversary," she added.

“This is a great tool to understand the impact of war in their words, not ours,” said Umfleet, who is the Collections Management Chief for Cultural Resources. “We hope that students, history buffs and cultural travelers will sign up for the tweets and the blog as the stories unfold.”

A tweet from the first week of the project, “I fear there will be civil war,” comes from the diary of Mary Jeffreys Bethell, which is part of the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The corresponding “CivilianWartime” blog entry helps put the tweet in context:

March 11, 1861
“I have just received a letter from my daughter Mrs. Williamson in Ark, says they are all tolerable well, she wrote a very cheerful letter it done me good. Mr. Bethell wrote that he would be at home in a few days, he left here the 5th. of Feb. I have just seen the President’s message, Mr. Lincoln, I think he intends to coerce those seceding States. I fear there will be civil war, and our happy and peaceful Country laid in desolation and ruins, every Christian should unite in fervent prayer to God, in behalf of our Country.”

The Twitter account and blog are extensions of the work of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources to observe the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. For more information about the sesquicentennial commemoration, visit http://www.nccivilwar150.com/.  For more information about Durham's role in the Civil Ward visit http://www.civilwardurham.com/.

The Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau will be working with Bennett Place and other Civil War-related features in Durham as well as the NC Departments of Cultural Resources and Tourism to commemorate the sesquicentennial.

A Time To Remember and Learn

In the grand scheme of things, 150 years is not a long time. It is hard to believe that not that long ago, 1861-1865, the United States was surviving the Civil War.

This image can be downloaded
at http://www.durhamncphotos.com/.

Durham played a large role in the civil war with the largest troop surrender coming at Bennett Place in 1865. Visit http://www.civilwardurham.com/ for a chronology of events that took place in and around Durham.

In observance of the Civil War sesquicentennial the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources has planned more than 200 events statewide. Sesquicentennial programs will examine the roles of women, Cherokee, U.S. Colored Troops and more. The impact of the war on home life, sickness and mortality, battles on land and sea, Civil War music, and freedman’s colonies are among topics that will be explored.

In Durham, Bennett Place State Historic Site, Duke Homestead State Historic Site, and Historic Stagville will all host events around the 150th anniversary. The Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau will continue to promote these events as they come closer so stay tuned for more!