Preserved Civil War Earthworks in Bentonville, North Carolina

We officially wrap-up our North Carolina Battlefield Tour Series with another stop in Bentonville, NC to check out some preserved earthworks on the battlefield. Thank you to everyone who joined us throughout the trip.
You can view the entire series here: • Petersburg and North C...
The American Battlefield Trust preserves America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educates the public about what happened there and why it matters. We permanently protect these battlefields for future generations as a lasting and tangible memorial to the brave soldiers who fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War.

[@christopherwhedbee5986]

My wife’s great grandfathers artificial leg is in the Bentonville battlefield museum. Robert Alexander Hanna.

[@thomash8501]

I'm a member and supporter of the American Battlefield Trust and feel like I get so much more than I give! Please support the Trust as well. This organization is crucial in preserving our history. “A generation which ignores history has no past - and no future.” - Robert A. Heinlein

[@TermiteUSA]

I love being a member. The map books are excellent.

[@Exilemainstreet]

I'll check it out.

[@dennisunglesbee1391]

Also a member and totally agree

[@chrisdavern9482]

@@dennisunglesbee1391 shame they don’t do overseas memberships

[@napoleonlempereur3021]

👍🇨🇵

[@blukeblue1235]

I would LOVE to hang out with Gary on a battlefield!

[@bavarian7603]

Love Bentonville battlefield!

[@hatuletoh]

Super cool. I think it's likely that is an original log, given that it was found in situ. It would take an amazing set of coincidences for a log from a later period to be buried in the remains of the earthworks so as to give the appearance of being from the time the works were actually built. Possible, but less likely than the log being from 1865. My favorite part of the Little Bighorn battlefield--if one can have a "favorite" part of a battlefield; perhaps, "most interesting" or "most affecting" would be a better way to say it--anyway, on the extreme eastern end of the battlefield are extant rifle pits dug by Company K of the 7th Cav, the only ones to survive the battle. They were maybe a half-mile or a bit more away from Last Stand Hill and the path were most of the main body fought and fell, but the landscape prevented them from seeing the fighting they heard taking place. Co K had been the detached to stay back to guard the supply wagons, and though they heard the fight errupt, their officers made what turned out to be the wise decision not to try to rush to Custer's aid. However, much to their consternation, once the shooting to the west died down--which it did before the Co K officers had definitely decided to remain in place, or so they later said anyhow--rather than their victorious comrades returning from a successful battle, the Co K men began to take accurate, long-range rifle fire from gradually increasing numbers of native warriors. The Co K guys began to hastily dig in, but they did so under fire and taking losses, and the pits you see today aren't wide and shallow because they've eroded, they're wide and shallow because that was as deep as the men who dug them could safely go. They carved out enough dirt to be able to lie flat, and by the time they had completed that much, anyone who rose up out of their pit got a bullet in the brain. They remained pinned down there for...two days? Three days?...something like that; in any case, they had to make desperate scrambles down to the river for water, and the survivors were down to their last few rounds when the native tribes packed up and left them alone because the knew that an army relief force was approaching (under John Gibbon, if I recall. Or maybe it was Crawford?). Imagining those men lying flat in those pits for days, tormented by thrist and bullets, not knowing the fate of the rest of the command made for a vivid and horrifying mental image. I'll bet a lot of those Co K guys were wishing they'd never left Ireland, although probably not as much as the guys from the other 7th Cav companies.

[@thomaslance5428]

Durham guy here. Every year when we went on vacation to Carolina Beach, we'd stop at the battlefield on the way back, having visited Fort Fisher down there. Last few years it's been Atlantic Beach and Fort Macon.

[@dennisunglesbee1391]

My wife and I did Fort Macon this year. We loved it. I highly recommend it.

[@kevindecoteau3186]

Thank you for preserving the past....not glorifying the war but the people who were there.

[@jamestownvirginia8463]

If you get near Manassas, off featherbed Rd. are many earthworks from second Manassas in pristine condition just off the R.R tracks. They're Confederate.

[@BoxOfficeVegasLLC]

Thank you, guys!

[@Brandon_737]

I was going to go do my first reenactment at Bentonville. As a 6th generation North Carolinian that battle holds a special place in my heart as does the battle of New Bern since my house is built literally part of the battlefield near fort Thompson. Highly recommend The Last Stand in the Carolinas book about Bentonville. Amazing read.

[@TermiteUSA]

I stopped there on the way back from Florida to Maryland,after changing a flat tire, and had the place entirely to myself. But that was long ago in that other century(1980's). It was very gray and rainy and not very warm so I had my camera under my rain jacket and rather than carry it I had to put it on. Nonetheless I walked carefully around inside one of the gun emplacements and among the works until I came to a spot where the scarce light made it down to the ground and purely for fun wondered if I could catch a fake ghost like a rabbit running across the slow shutter. No such luck. There are NO detectable ghosts there. Only the ones we feel with that other twinge of nostalgia or whatever happens when you know a place that is now beautiful, but was one day miserable. It was Very suitably Grey.

[@napoleonlempereur3021]

🤔👍👍👍

[@blukeblue1235]

That log is amazing. It' like finding an arrowhead or other artifact. You are looking at something tangible from the past and stepping back in time.

[@whippy107]

There's some nicely preserved trenches at River's Bridge, SC.

[@JOEHOVA]

great job once again.

[@dennisunglesbee1391]

Great video. I was able to walk these trails back on Feb 17th of this year. I had last visited in Jan. of 2007 and was so pleased to see all the new trails and exhibits.

[@molipaul]

Thank you, Garry and Kris. I live in Greensboro (about two miles from Guilford Courthouse Battlefield). I’ll have to make a day-trip to Bentonville to check it out. Your enthusiasm and tremendous knowledge really take us back in time- bringing back to life these sacred places, people, and events. 👍

[@greenriverviews6819]

I smash the like button of these videos before I start watching.

[@ryanfromrust]

Raffle off a Civil War road trip with Gary. That would be intensely valuable. Sorry for a three week old comment. More 3D battlefield videos please. You have the best ever made videos ever yet made. Thank you! 😁 Top comment @29 votes: "My wife's great grandfather's articial leg..."

[@carsonapplebaum2266]

Always awesome to see people so energetic about such an important part of our nations history, really keeps your faith in humanity going!

[@paulstan9828]

😁👍 I like his energy it makes the videos more interesting. I’m not sure about inside a car on a long trip though. Ha!!!

[@mitchellmaytorena1137]

I’ve really been enjoying your videos lately. I’ve been binge watching in my free time. I live in Oregon so most battlefields are far away.

[@unbreakable7633]

I grew up in Nashville and used to play in the trenches the Confederates dug on Shy's Hill. As a child I could stand more than waist deep in them but years later when I visited Shy's Hill as an adult, the trenches were a shallow ditch, then some years later I saw them again, barely a trace in the ground.

[@GIJOE-eh7ri]

Haven't even watched the video yet and I know it's going to be great 👍

[@jeffreydavidson5870]

The North Anna/Ox Ford battlefield has some amazingly intact earthworks as well, also Confederate. In walking the trail last summer, there was a spot where I was about 90% sure I saw a section of a revetment log.

[@richardglady3009]

Great description of trenches. Thank you for the video.

[@kimberlya62]

I’m actually going tomorrow! Will you all still be there then? I had two third great grandfathers in the 17th NC, and I’ve been trying to visit all of the battlefields, and the specific locations where they were in those battles. I just love the energy and such valuable information! Thank you!

[@AmericanBattlefieldTrust]

Thanks. An no sorry-we shot this one in May

[@kimberlya62]

@@AmericanBattlefieldTrust Thank you very much, I did walk the Cole Plantation Loop today to see the trenches, which I may not have done were it not for your video! 👍

[@jerichostevens2711]

oh cool, you guys were just up the road from me in fayetteville....

[@jeffpalmer8335]

Was lucky enough to see that log on a tour in July that Derrick gave to Trust members. Great tour. Bentonville is a great place to visit.

[@craigwarren4619]

Hi yes thats real. Im in Australia. I think these battle fields are so interesting. Just to think some people fort over them. To see what happened in the Ukraine now and to understand what it would have been like there then has put a different perspective on the hole war for me not just the battle stories but the attitude of the people who live at the time. We don't think like them now. Our lives are different now. Only a few people ride horses now. I suppose fear hasn't changed though. Thay must have had strong belief in what they were fighting for. Well that enough dribble from me. Ill go back to Garry now. Bye. G I couldn't do it

[@jankovarik9714]

I'm headed to the Bentonville Battlefield in a couple of weeks...can't wait to see this trench!

[@MrJeffcoley1]

That log must have been huge. I have a log I dragged out of the woods used for a retaining wall in my garden, and it doesn't look anywhere near that good after only 5 years.

[@shiningstaer]

hey guys! actually commenting while on a computer. i used to be way more plugged in. hopefully this is the beginning of a new rebirth of me technology dominance. i will see you all at leesburg. chris from richmond. cant wait to get some autographs!

[@model-man7802]

Been all over Bentonvilles Battlefield

[@larrymurley2211]

Could you tell me what units fought there in the Confederacy, and who were their commanders, My great grandfather Jefferson Kasey Murley, of the 32nd Miss Inf. Div. fought there at Bentonville. I wrote about him in my book, "After Bloody Shiloh"

[@wadesokolosky3720]

The consolidated 8th - 32nd Miss were part of Lowrey's Brigade, Cleburne's Division, Cheatham's Corps. Lowrey's Brigade did not arrive on the battlefield until March 21, the last day of the battle.

[@MrX965785055]

Is there a animated battle video for the Battle of Bentonville? That was the last battle of the Civil War that my second great-grandfather from the 20th Ohio Infantry had fought before he was mustered out of service and sent home

[@tbone6203]

Grew up there- try claborne st in goldsboro- trenches in a neighborborhood

[@tbone6203]

Found buckles and buttons there in 89

[@davegoodridge8352]

Oh my. One should almost remove their shoes there, it’s almost holy ground.

[@thomasprescott3377]

Have they processed a dendro date on the revetment log?

[@jackiejenkins1249]

The earth works in my neck of the woods have the same.. some logs... they also made like a stone wall then covered it with earth.. I knew it was rare... just didn't think it was that rare...

[@JonStallings]

Very cool to see the old log. Seems like it would take a lot of energy to build the earthworks. Was there any evidence that when the battle came the men were already too exhausted?

[@wadesokolosky3720]

No, the Army of Tennessee started digging shortly after their arrival on the battlefield the morning of March 19, 1865. They would occupy these trenches for three days.

[@ZM7241994]

Is this part of a new trail, or an addition to an existing one?

[@northerngentleman3643]

God bless you Kris,,I wouldn't last 5 minutes

[@Chiller01]

Fascinating look at a lesser known battlefield. The morale of the men creating those earthworks must have been desperately low.

[@NazbolGaming]

Based

[@timfrye3586]

Great channel and great information, man

[@rendezvous5784]

It would be cool but I'm sorry, I don't believe it is an original log from the earthworks. Have a piece of that log carbon-dated, I would love to be a believer!

[@timfrye3586]

the Last Battle

[@davidlane9129]

One of the most prevalent trees of that time period in the eastern U.S. was the American Chestnut, a hardy wood that can easily last 100+ years, just a thought as to why that log could easily be part of the original revetment.

[@mikekellum6238]

Um, why can’t I find Bentonville NC on any internet map?

[@jeffreydavidson5870]

Search for the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site instead. As I recall there's not really a town as such called Bentonville anymore, it's just kind of an area with that name.

[@mikekellum6238]

@Psalm 39:4 thanks

[@BalancedTrust]

The Civil Wars

[@acoffeeguy6285]

Hey there is an historical civil war town that is being sold off of natchez trace

[@tomusic8887]

I can only see your face while you are pointing at the earth works 🤷 a drawing of the section would be nice, so vague only words

[@steve5123456789]

5:45 Not impenetrable enough it seemed.

[@RealAgent711]

comment

[@dustin1931]

A defensive confederate is a defeated confederate.

[@Chiller01]

Yep, they lost.

[@bradforward850]

You lost! Get over it,.