Advance tickets for the country’s largest Civil War re-enactment of 2020, the 155th anniversary of the Battle of Bentonville slated for March 21-22, are limited but still available. Other weekend family activities are free.
Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for children aged seven-12; younger children are free. Advance purchasing also allows purchase of a combination ticket for both days at $20 for adults and $10 for children. Battle reenactments will be Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Food vendors will be present also. Come early for an entertaining day out.
The weekend activities will include lectures, games, music and other free family fun. Only the battle reenactments are ticketed and include calvary mounted drill demonstrations an hour before the battles. Program presenters will include Mark Bradley, renown Civil War Historian and Carolyn Cole, speaking on descendants of enslaved from the Cole Plantation.
Bentonville Battlefield is the largest Civil War Battlefield in the state and the site of the only offensive battle to stop Gen. William Sherman’s march north from Savannah. This was one of the last major battles fought during the Civil War, involving over 80,000 troops covering 6,000 acres of farmland in Eastern North Carolina.
Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit preservation of Bentonville Battlefield and construction of a new visitor center. Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.johnstoncountync.org/155th-bentonville-reenactment/.
The 2020 event is sponsored by the Friends of Bentonville Battlefield Inc. (FOBB), the Johnston County Visitors Bureau and the N.C. Division of Historic Sites within the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Bentonville Battlefield is located three miles north of Newton Grove on U.S. 701 and then three miles east on S.R. 1008. For more information on Bentonville, call (910) 594-0789 or visit website www.bentonvillereenactment.com.