The Civil War Era
Monroe's Crossroads Battlefield, Ft. Bragg
Monroe's Crossroads Battlefield, Fort Bragg The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads began at dawn on March 10, 1865, as LTG Wade Hampton's Confederate cavalrymen stormed BMG H. Judson Kilpatrick's Union cavalry encampment at the Charles Monroe plantation.
Initially routed during "Kilpatrick's Shirttail Skedaddle," Union troopers eventually regained the field in this prelude to major battles at Averasboro and Bentonville. Open for escorted tours on the first Monday of each month or by special appointment. Click here for more details Fort Bragg Cultural Resources Office on individual and group tours, or call 910-396-6680.
Sandy Grove Church (Fort Bragg)
Built in 1854 on land donated by Peter Monroe, the one-story woodframe church stands on Plank Road, a route taken by General Sherman’s troops on their way to Fayetteville in March 9-11, 1865. Local history suggests that Sherman’s troops bivouacked on the church grounds. Several of the congregation's Confederate veterans were later interred or memorialized the cemetery, among them Private Reubin D. Newsom (CSA), a casualty of the Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads (March 10, 1865). There are 148 graves in the cemetery; the oldest grave being 1859 and the latest, 1977. The vestibule and steeple were added to the church ca. 1919, and the doorways and windows altered, prior to the Army’s purchase in 1922.Open for escorted tours on the first Monday of each month or by special appointment. Click here for more details Fort Bragg Cultural Resources Office on individual and group tours, or call 910-396-6680.
Long Street Presbyterian Church (Fort Bragg)
The present Long Street Presbyterian Church, built in 1846 on land donated by Duncan McLaughlin in 1855, served as the third church of the Argyle Community, a Scottish hamlet settled in the 1750s. The first Presbyterian congregation met in 1756 at Alexander McKay’s home/tavern and the first church was built in 1765, both now archaeological sites. The existing two-story building of classic Georgian architecture includes an upper gallery where slaves attended services. The adjoining cemetery contains over 232 graves (earliest readable marker is 1773, latest is 1932), including Confederate veterans (former congregation members), and memorials honoring military servicemen.
During the Civil War the church served as an enlistment center for a volunteer unit, the “Carolina Boys”, comprised of Murdock McRae McLauchlin, the Long Street Academy schoolmaster and selected Captain, along with his pupils, all members of local Presbyterian Church congregations at Long Street, Sandy Grove and China Grove. In 1866, the remains of some 30 Confederate soldiers killed at Monroe's Crossroads (March 10, 1865) were exhumed from the battlefield and reinterred in the church cemetery, where a marker was installed in 1870 by the women of Argyle. Open for escorted tours on the first Monday of each month or by special appointment. Click here for more details Fort Bragg Cultural Resources Office on individual and group tours, or call 910-396-6680.
The Fayetteville Arsenal
The original arsenal housed a half-dozen brick and stone structures and octagonal corner guard towers. Arms-making machinery from the U.S. Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, VA, was installed in October 1861, and the arsenal became a major supplier of small arms to the Confederate troops. The principal armament was known as the “Fayetteville Rifle,” of which 20,000 were produced.
Seized from North Carolina by the Confederate States of America at the start of the Civil War, the arsenal was General Sherman’s first objective during his infamous march through the South. The arsenal was destroyed by engineers of General Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army on March 14, 1865.
After the war ended, approximately 100-acres of the arsenal property was sold by the U.S. government for residential development. Much of the remnants of the U.S. Arsenal can be seen on display at the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex. 10 am - dusk. 910-486-1330
 Market House
Fayetteville's Market House was an early center of government and commerce, and it was on that site in 1789 that N.C. ratified the U.S. Constitution. It was also on that site that a brief skirmish happened during the U.S. Civil War as Confederate forces evacuated Fayetteville while Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s army entered town. A rear guard detachment under Gen. Wade Hampton surprised a Union cavalry patrol after one of the Federals came around the corner from Russell Street and then fired at Hampton on the south side of the Market House. In the ensuing engagement, several Union cavalrymen were killed or captured. Within a few hours, Hampton’s forces had departed, burning the Clarendon Bridge behind them. To save the building from destruction, Mayor Archibald McLean and a majority of the seven town commissioners went to Sherman’s lines on March 11 and negotiated the peaceful surrender of the town. During Sherman’s occupation of Fayetteville, Federal soldiers flew a United States flag from the Market House cupola.
After the Civil War, the Market House remained an important part of the civic and economic life of Fayetteville, functioning as an open market into the 20th century. The upstairs rooms still serve as meeting space. Located at the intersection of Hay, Gillespie, Person and Green Streets. 910-483-2073.
 Sandford House
Duncan McLeran constructed this two-story Federal-style dwelling in 1797. In 1820, the property was sold and remodeled to accommodate the Bank of the United States, the first federal bank in North Carolina. The house is named for John Sandford, a bank cashier who purchased the property as a residence for his family in 1832 after the bank closed. According to local tradition, the residence was used as a barracks for Union troops during Gen. William T. Sherman’s occupation of Fayetteville in March 1865.
After the war, Capt. John E.P. Daingerfield bought the property. Daingerfield, who had been clerk at the Harpers Ferry arsenal in 1859 during John Brown’s raid, came here when munitions and equipment were transferred to the Fayetteville Arsenal from Harper’s Ferry in 1861. Maj. John C. Booth, commanding officer at the Fayetteville Arsenal, appointed him military storekeeper and paymaster. Daingerfield served in the 2nd Battalion Local Defense Troops, commonly referred to as the Arsenal Guard, and occupied the house with his wife Matilda and his four children. By appointment, call to schedule. 910-483-6009. www.womansclubfay.com
 Averasboro Battlefield Complex
The Averasboro Battlefield Site Complex marks the spot of a Civil War battle that began on March 15, 1865. The battle was the result of a Confederate offensive maneuver to delay Union General Sherman’s progress through the South. Battle casualties were high for both armies. The Yankees reported 477 casualties, while the Confederates lost approximately 500. A little over 24 hours after the battle began, it ended with the Confederacy withdrawing its troops after achieving its mission.
The battlefield is marked with interpretive signage pinpointing key physical locations within the battle. The site also contains two plantation homes: Oak Grove, which was built in 1793 and Lebanon, built in 1825.
The Smith family, who were owners of Smithville Plantation, occupied the home just before the battle. Once the fighting became extreme, they were told to evacuate into the woods to the Cape Fear River. A letter written by Janie Smith, a copy of which is displayed at the museum, explains how Confederate troops arrived and camped on their land at least a week before the battle and how their properties were used as hospitals by Union troops once the battle commenced. Tues-Sat 10 am - 4pm; Sun 1pm - 4 pm. www.Averasboro.com
 Old Bluff Church
Scottish immigrants formed their first congregation on these grounds in 1758. A century later, the Old Bluff Church building was constructed and remained in use until 1908. The present day Bluff Presbyterian Church congregation, located in nearby Wade, maintains the old church.
As you face north entering the Old Bluff churchyard and cemetery, you are pointed in the direction in which the lead element of Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s Left Wing advanced on March 14, 1865. Over two days, the wing’s 30,000 officers and men, with their supplies and equipment, passed by in the face of sporadic and increasing Confederate resistance. That resistance culminated in the Battle of Averasboro on March 15–16 and the Battle of Bentonville on March 19–21.
Early on March 15, half a mile north along the Fayetteville-Raleigh Stage Road, Confederate cavalrymen skirmished with the Union vanguard at Silver Run Creek and Mill Pond. Later, Sherman established temporary headquarters there. The rainy weather that week made the roadway nearly impassable and the soldiers miserable. Despite the terrible weather, at nightfall on March 15, Union Col. William Hawley’s brigade prepared for a hot meal and a night’s rest here at Bluff Church after working all day corduroying the road. At 7:30 p.m., however, the brigade was called forward to assist the Union cavalry, which was halted and engaged, as the Battle of Averasboro began. One of the soldiers described the seven-mile trek to the battle site by saying, "Men had their shoes sucked off by the mud, while others stumbled, lost their guns, and were thankful that they were not trampled under by the moving column and buried alive."
This site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Internal tour by appointment. 910-891-5019.
 Confederate Monument/Cross Creek Cemetery
Founded in 1785, Cross Creek Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Fayetteville. Mrs. Anne K. Kyle, who served as a nurse during the Civil War, established the Confederate Burial Ground soon after Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his army left Fayetteville in March 1865. She and Fayetteville Mayor Archibald McLean selected a spot in the back section of the cemetery overlooking Cross Creek to inter the soldiers.
After the war, Mrs. Kyle and a group of Fayetteville women worked together to erect a monument in memoriam of the Confederate dead. To raise funds, the women raffled a homemade silk quilt and sold tickets for a dollar each. The monument was erected in 1868 and is the oldest Confederate monument in North Carolina. It was constructed by George Lauder, the most productive nineteenth-century stonecutter in North Carolina. Lauder, a native of Scotland, also worked on the State Capitol in Raleigh and at the Fayetteville Arsenal before opening his own marble yard in Fayetteville in 1845.
Another memorial was dedicated by John R. Tolar in the late 1860s, in remembrance of his father and eight uncles who were killed or disabled during the war. In addition to the Confederate dead, many other Civil War veterans, both Southern and Northern, are interred in the cemetery.
 Confederate Breastworks
As Union General Sherman was making his way through Fayetteville with his army during the Civil War, a number of battles and skirmishes occurred in the area. The Confederate soldiers threw up breastworks early in 1865 to defend Fayetteville from Sherman’s army.
Breastworks were aboveground trenches that provided basic protection against enemy attacks. They were usually built on top of waterlogged ground where it was difficult to dig trenches. The name breastwork comes from the fact that the fortifications are about breast high. Earth, rocks, sandbags, masonry, tree trunks and any other material that could be found in the area was used to provide cover for trenches 7 to 8 feet high. In some places breastworks were as high as 30 feet. Ramsey Street at Cochran Avenue
Confederate Women’s Home
The Confederate Women’s Home was built in 1915 for the widows and daughters of North Carolina’s Confederate veterans, but was torn down during the 1960’s. It was located in the open empty lot beside the school and was torn down in the 1960's. About 300 yards from this marker is the Confederate Women’s Cemetery, which dates back to the 1800's. It’s marked by a brick column archway entrance next to the Gee Graveyard. Even though it is overgrown, the stones are visible. Glenville Avenue
|
Iron Mike Statue
Sicily Drop Zone