John Guss, site manager inside the Bennett Home

Greetings from Bennett Place!

Summer is just about over and it has been wonderfully mild compared to the two previous 100+ degree scorchers. While we have had an overabundance of rain, visitation to the park has increased perhaps due to a milder climate for being outside to sightsee, but we also believe Bennett Place is coming into its own more and more as one of the more popular tourist stops among fellow North Carolina historic sites and museums. It is one of the few historic sites in the Old North State that has more national significance than just local history.

With the pleasing increase of visitation we are preparing ourselves for the 150^th Anniversary of the Surrender activities in April 2015. We will have a week-long commemoration from April 17-26, 2015 with a variety of special presentations and lectures, book signings, special tours, as well as the surrender reenactment. However, there are plenty of wonderful events yet to be enjoyed before it is our time in the spotlight. Recently the Battles of Chancellorsville, Virginia, Fort Wagner, South Carolina, and of course Gettysburg, Pennsylvania generated much additional interest in the East, but the Western theater is about to take center stage this Fall with a large scale reenactment of the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia on September 20-22.

In 2014, much of the focus will be in the state of Georgia with the battles before and around Atlanta, Georgia where Sherman and Johnston squared off until Johnston’s temporary removal as commander of The Army of Tennessee. Commemorative events will continue with Sherman’s March to the Sea, while in Virginia, we will witness the historical events of a new general, Ulysses S. Grant, who will take command of the Army of the Potomac giving Robert E. Lee all he can handle. The year of 2015 will mark the final year of the war with Virginia and now North Carolina sharing the historical events of the last hard fought battles and the two more prominent places of its conclusion, Appomattox Court House and Bennett Place.

Until then, we still have plenty of splendid educational and family fun activities at Bennett Place, first with our Tar Heel Fair and Farmer’s Market September 28-29, and the Christmas in the Carolinas December 14-15. Please check our Calendar of Events on our website or on our Bennett Place Facebook page for additional upcoming events and activities.

Fundraising for the new museum gallery exhibits, which will open in April 2015, continues to increase with us getting closer to our goal of $50,000. If you would like to make a contribution there are numerous ways either online http://www.bennettplacehistoricsite.com/museum-fund/ , by mailing in a gift, or stopping by Bennett Place and dropping money into the museum donation box.

In closing, I want to thank everyone for your continued to support of our cause in preserving not just North Carolina’s heritage, but our nation’s heritage. With continued government and community cutbacks, we all need to band together to support our historic landmarks across this great nation. They are an important cornerstone of who we are as a nation and as individuals.

Come walk this Hallowed Ground.

John Guss, Site Manager

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