History Comes Alive: Reenactments at Bentonville Over Time

In March of 2025, thousands of soldiers and civilians will converge upon the small, rural community of Bentonville. Not to fight a battle but to reenact the battle fought on the same soil 160 years ago. Despite the bloody, morbid nature of studying Civil War battles, for as long as the Civil War has been in our minds, people have wanted to recreate and witness recreations of those storied battles. Bentonville is just one site in a much larger, international community of reenactors striving to bring history to life this March. Don’t miss the event on March 15-16, 2025, find more information here.

While we wait to see the reenactment ourselves, let’s look at the surprisingly long and fascinating history of reenacting in America and at Bentonville.

Even during the Civil War, soldiers participated in what some might call a reenactment. Soldiers participated in ‘sham battles’ as a means of practicing maneuvers and preparing for future battles, but they also had an element of public spectacle. These ‘sham battles’ sometimes drew crowds (people have always been fascinated by warfare, including those drawn to spectate the first actual battle of the war¹). including several performed by the Confederate Army of Tennessee in Dalton, Georgia while in winter camp in 1864, roughly a year before they fought in the battle of Bentonville.²

Following the war, some veterans chose to reenact their own experiences, usually as a way of educating and entertaining those who were interested in the war and the experiences of soldiers. Additionally, Civil War veterans’ reunions often involved many elements of reenacting, including recreating encampments but only occasionally included reenacting the fight itself – maybe those wounds were a little too fresh.

Early ‘sham battles’ also often coincided with memorialization efforts. Groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected monuments across the South in an attempt to both honor the fallen soldiers and reinforce their interpretation of the meaning of the war. Also known as the “lost cause,” this revision of the story focuses on only the positive aspects of the Confederate cause, ignoring slavery entirely or framing it as positive, and largely ignoring the Americans on the other side of the battlefield.

In Bentonville, the Goldsboro Rifles, a North Carolina State Guard unit, led the charge for memorialization, erecting the first permanent monument on the battlefield on March 20, 1895. Thousands were expected to attend the unveiling event on the 30th anniversary of the battle, however torrential rains limited attendance to a few hundred people. In addition to oration from former Confederate Lt. General Wade Hampton, the Rifles held a ‘sham battle’ immediately following the ceremony – a common activity for the State Guard unit in the 1890s.

While the Goldsboro Rifles continued to conduct ‘sham battles’ and some Civil War battlefields saw large-scale reenactments in the early 20th century, many Americans moved on from the idea of reliving and reenacting Civil War battles as their minds were filled with other anxieties in a new century marked by two World Wars and a Great Depression.

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By the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s, the dawn of consumerism meant that more people (especially white, middle class people) had spending money and greater access to travel and niche purchases. This, combined with a reinvigorated interested in the Civil War with the 100th anniversary of war starting in 1961, caused the birth of modern reenacting. With more access to supplies, information, and other people with the same interests, people and groups began spending money and time traveling across the country to reenact the Civil War.

Simultaneously, some state governments and the federal government began investing more of the increasingly available money and resources into establishing historic sites and museums dedicated to interpreting the Civil War. This 1960s obsession with the Civil War leaned heavily into the themes of the “lost cause,” neglecting slavery’s role in the fight and the very real sectional conflicts that still existed as the Civil Rights Movement continued across the south. Instead of addressing these historical and contemporary tensions, most centennial events presented the bloody Civil War as, essentially, a good-natured sports rivalry between “two groups of freedom-loving white Americans.”³

First established in 1957 through monetary contributions from the NC General Assembly, Johnston County, and private donors, Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site is an excellent example of historic sites established and opened during the Civil War obsession of the 1960s. The site experienced a flurry of activity throughout the four year commemoration, culminating in a massive 100th anniversary event held in March 1965.

The 1965 event not only included unveiling and opening the brand new visitor center and museum and the unveiling of the newly erected Texas monument, it also included a reenactment of sorts – a mock battle right in front of the visitor center including approximately 500 reenactors from across the country. One of the reenactor groups was the “Rebel Guard,” a group of high school students from Tyler, Texas who brought their own cannon to North Carolina to demonstrate firings.

Once the site was officially opened and the excitement of the centennial faded, programming and education didn’t stop at Bentonville. The site continually hosted events and programs the following decades, but mostly small recreations and firing demonstrations rather than large-scale reenactments.

Reenactments Grow in the 1980s

Reenacting as a hobby continued to grow increasingly popular as the site began to establish itself as a destination location for reenactors across the country (and sometimes the world!). In 1981, the site held the first event featuring a recreation of a battle scenario. Held in the fall, the 1st NC Volunteers and other reenactment units led these events that were the precursor to the reenactments we know today.

More than 600 reenactors traveled and participated in the 1984 event, representing the large numbers that gathered in Bentonville each year in the 1980s. While these reenactments were large, they still hadn’t reached the scale that they would by the 1990s. By the late 1980s, programming began to expand beyond the traditional definition of reenacting in the south that focused almost solely on the experience of Confederate soldiers. Reenactors, living historians, and site staff found ways to portray and interpret not only Union soldiers in the battle, but also the experiences of women and children, African Americans, and medical staff. Below, scroll through the gallery to see images of events throughout the 1980s.

130th Anniversary – 1995

Check out this video to see sights from the 2000 reenactment at Bentonville and hear about the lives of reenactors 25 years ago. Some aspects of these events have changed over the last 25 years but much is similar, especially the passion and dedication of all of the reenactors and living historians.

Civil War Sesquicentennial – 150th Anniversary – 2015

Possibly the peak of Civil War reenacting came in 2015, the grand finale to the nation-wide Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Beginning in 2010, North Carolina and the rest of the nation honored and commemorated the Civil War with events, books, and more. In that time, Bentonville continued to host programs, including a popular nighttime program portraying the operation of a field hospital in the Harper House.

160th Anniversary – March 15-16, 2025

Are you sad you missed all of these great events? Now’s your chance!

The next reenactment in the ‘every 5 years’ cycle is THIS year! Don’t miss the 160th anniversary reenactment and living history event March 15-16, 2025. You can find more information and purchase tickets by clicking the photo below!

You can find more information about the event, schedules, speaker bios, and more as they are available by clicking here!

After sadly having to cancel the event planned for March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 160th anniversary event is set to be a great weekend! More than a thousand reenactors have already registered and are planning to make their way to the small community of Bentonville in March to put on a great show and educate people on the history of the Civil War and the battle of Bentonville.

The New Georgia Encyclopedia has an excellent article on the history of reenacting, explaining “The primary motivation for nearly all Civil War reenactors is a general fascination with history and a specific interest in how ordinary soldiers or civilians lived, dressed, and fought.” The author continues, “Much of the pleasure of participation lies in trying to physically re-create the camp and battle experience of Civil War soldiers in all but the most dangerous aspects.”

Reenacting is an old hobby that allows normal people to make history come alive. Programming at nearly every historic site and museum includes some form of living history because it is a tangible way to experience the past and learn ways life was so different and, often, so similar, to today.

Article by Colby Lipscomb

Sources:

“Civil War Reenacting,” New Georgia Encyclopedia. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/civil-war-reenacting

Images sourced from NC State Historic Sites, many of which appear in the 2024 publication Images of America: Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site by Colby Lipscomb and Derrick Brown

1. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/spectators-witness-history-manassas ↩︎
2. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/civil-war-reenacting ↩︎
3.  Isserman, Maurice and Michael Kazin. America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. Oxford University Press, 1999. ↩︎