"150th Anniversary of the Battle of Bentonville" Topic

One week from today reenactors will be gathering in North Carolina for the 150th anniversary of the battle of Bentonville. It should be the largest event in the Carolinas. link

I plan to be there (assuming I recover from this stomach bug I have in time). I was down there five years ago and it is a cool event.

Scott, I'm with the 1st/11th NC Inf. Would love to meet a fellow TMPer while I'm there.

Wife ancestor (Great x 4 Grandfather I think) fought there with the 136th NY, A Co.

Alonzo Crandall.

link

Wounded at Gettysburg (friendly fire I believe), but returned in time for the major battles in the West.

Died from the flu in 1918.

Well, despite snow storms on Friday, made it down to Bentoville with little trouble. Expected to find the campsite a quagmire after all the rain but pleasantly surprised to find the ground completely dry. The soil there is very sandy and drains quickly.

The event went very well. The Saturday battle was a bit dull, but the one on Sunday was very dynamic and a lot of fun. Huge crowds of enthusiastic spectators who even cheered the 'visiting team' :)

It was a fun event overall. I had to chuckle when I read your comment Scott. I thought Saturday was a cracking event and Sunday was dull. On Sunday, We were supposed to go down in a blaze of glory with a bayonet charge that was to be repelled by Yankee fire. (I was in the conferate battalion to the Yankee right of the confederate artillery) The battle was ended after two clowns from the confederate Bn on our right ran out to the union entrenchments only to be engaged in a mock brawl by two clowns from the union lines. This was in violation of safety rules so the battle was called by the Provosts. I was looking forward to "dying" in the last hurrah of the confederacy.

Having said that, I'm glad you were able to visit our fair state. And you are right, the crowds were fantastic.

So THAT's what happened! Battle cancelled due to combat? My "battalion" (about 50 men) was on the extreme (refused) Union left in a trench we dug. We got driven out of that by the first attack. We then perfomed a fighting withdrawl with some other troops and fell back to the edge of the woods on the extreme right of the line. There we waited until the Confederate flanking force emerged from the woods and attacked the Union rear. On signal, we pitched into their exposed flank and rolled them up. Shortly after that the battle just stopped and they sounded cease fire. I didn't realize why. Still, it was a lot of fun and we ended up very close to the trail leading back to camp. So we skedaddled ahead of the crowd and got packed and out of there to get home by midnight! :)