John Guss, site manager, inside the Bennett Home

First and foremost I would like to extend a very special THANK YOU to each of our volunteers who supported this wonderful celebration and helped make it a complete success by performing the essential duties of living history, visitor services, parking logistics, and maintaining the cleanliness of the grounds. Collectively we made our 50th Anniversary of Bennett Place one of the most memorable occasions in recent years.

In addition to the reenactment of the surrender and the wonderful lectures by all of our authors and historians, a very special gesture of gratitude should be noted to the North Carolina Society Military Order of the Stars and Bars for their generous contribution of our new historical interpretive wayside, which now stands on the park grounds. I would also like to pay a special thanks to Mayor Bill Bell for bringing greetings from our grand city of Durham, Deputy Director Dale Coats, who provided salutations from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Mark Bradley, for giving us an enlightening keynote address, and Jim Wise, who presented a splendid lecture on the 50 years of historic preservation of Bennett Place. Above all else, many thanks goes to the men and women of the United States Army 82nd Airborne Ceremonial Band for taking time out of defending our country to provide us with magnificent patriotic music at the Unity Monument Ceremony on Sunday afternoon. That was indeed the highlight for me.

Even with our celebration of achievement for the 50 years in preserving Bennett Place, we must now look ahead to new challenges and goals and continuing our mission of historic preservation and education of America’s prosperous heritage. Our new museum design is well underway with a blueprint and enhanced storyline in progress and the observance of the Sesquicentennial is now very much in our presence with more and more interest of this commemoration being recognized. Thus, we progress in to the Spring and Summer with much enthusiasm and a number of outstanding educational living history events to look forward to, which you will note in our special events calendar.

Please join us by bringing family and friends out to Bennett Place to walk this hallowed ground where one of the most important historic events of the American Civil War occurred, that helped begin the reunification of our nation.

Again, THANK YOU for your continued support of this national treasure.

Sincerely,

John Guss, Site Manager

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