Bennett Place

Yesterday, Jim Wise offered a great little article on Bennett Place in the Raleigh News & Observer. The folks at the Bennett Place State Historic Site do a great job interpreting the events that unfolded there as the Civil War drew to a close. It's an important, but too often overlooked, episode in Civil War history. For those interested in more, be sure to read Mark Bradley's excellent This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place (UNC Press, 2006).

Civil War 150

This morning, as I sipped my morning coffee, I read with interest this article from the Miami Herald on growing national interest in the approaching Civil War sesquicentennial.



The North Carolina Office of Archives and History is already organizing a four-year long series of programs, symposia, and other commemorative activities in connection with the sesquicentennial . Virginia is as well. This anniversary is a great opportunities for historic sites, professors, public school teachers, and a variety of others who interpret history for the public to ask big questions about the war and its meaning. I fear that the economy will curtail spending on such efforts, but I hope the anniversary energizes citizens to consider what the war means for our history and for our times.