Civil War Trails Program Moves To North Carolina
By Deborah Fitts
April 2005

RICHMOND, Va. - Mitch Bowman, executive director of Virginia Civil War Trails, is now exporting his organization's trail-making skills to North Carolina, where a ribbon-cutting on March 14 marked the opening of the "Carolinas Campaign: End of the War" driving tour.

Like Bowman's popular trails in Virginia and Maryland, the North Carolina trail features nearly 100 sites with roadside pulloffs and full-color, digital-processed interpretive markers. It will follow the final stages of the march of Union Gen. William T. Sherman northward through the state - "his march from the sea, if you will," said Bowman.

"This will be the third trail in 11 months, and I don't think I'll do that to myself again," chuckled Bowman. In the last decade he has installed 11 trails, including six in Virginia, four in Maryland and now this latest. The trails highlight 600 Civil War sites overall.

In North Carolina, Bowman hopes to increase the North Carolina trail stops eventually to 200, focusing on the Carolinas Campaign, coastal expeditions, the coastal blockade, and the topic of North Carolina as "the lifeline of the Confederacy," with its wealth of cotton mills, iron forges, railroads and blockade-running expertise.

Bowman's entry into North Carolina was prompted nearly two years ago, when the state Department of Transportation awarded his nonprofit a $1.1 million transportation-enhancement grant to produce the trails. So far Bowman has local matching funds for 120 sites in the state.

The initial trail, 110 miles long, will work its way northward through the state from Fayetteville, following Sherman in March and April 1865. It includes the battle of Bentonville March 19-21, 1865, and ends at Bennett Place in Durham, N.C., where Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered his army on April 26, two weeks after Appomattox.

Bowman noted that North Carolina not only represented a logistical lifeline, but during the war it supplied 125,000 men to the Confederate army (including 47 generals), more than other state. Having one-ninth of the population of the Confederacy, North Carolina provided one-sixth of the army. The state also led in the number of men who died, more than 40,000, half in battle and half from disease or injury. The total represented one-quarter of all Confederate losses.

The March 14 ribbon-cutting was held at Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site. It was timed to coincide with events marking the 140th anniversary of the Carolinas Campaign, which included a major reenactment at Bentonville March 19-20.

Bowman noted that trail stops focusing on the flight of Confederate President Jefferson Davis's government at the end of the war will now extend over a state line, with eight sites in Virginia and three or four in North Carolina. "It's very exciting to jump those borders," he said. Another North Carolina trail theme will address the desire of Union troops to hasten to Washington in time for the Grand Review of the victorious army in May 1865.

More than 40 communities in North Carolina have signed up to provide matching funds for the grant. "I'm really big on that," said Bowman. "I feel that localities should pay for any heritage-tourism product.

"We rely on local citizens who have harbored these stories for generations. It's their story being told to a worldwide audience, and they should desire to proactively participate."

Bowman's recipe for success includes what he calls "a high level of site standard. It should be clearly and accurately interpreted, and with more than a cast-iron sign. There should be parking available and it should be well-maintained."

He said studies show that each trail averages 16,500 visitors a year "that go from point A to point Z," each spending an average of $75 a day. "We are the single most requested program" for visitors contacting the Virginia Tourism Corp. Bowman hinted that his trail-making skills may move to Pennsylvania next.

Those interested in learning more about the new trail may call 800-VISITNC and ask for the trail brochure or go online to civilwartrails.org and click on the North Carolina section.