HOME > Preserve Bentonville > Letter from President James Lighthizer

Preservation opportunity: Bentonville, 173 acres

Dear Fellow Battlefield Preservationist,

Gas is $3.50 a gallon . . . the stock market is down . . . decent cigars get more expensive every day . . . and somebody has pushed the “pause” button on my retirement accounts!

If you are like me, you could probably use some good financial news right about now.

Well, try this: Today, you and I can save 173 acres of hallowed Civil War battlefield ground worth $772,500 at Bentonville in North Carolina for just $100,000!

That, my friend, means CWPT has secured a series of tremendous matching grants to turn every $1 you donate today into $7.72 to help save this precious land . . .

. . . and frankly, I challenge any other entity in America today – for-profit or non-profit – to give you a bigger bang for your buck in this economy –

– especially when you consider that these 173 acres, contained in six separate parcels ranging over ground covered in all three days of this battle, will be added to the 780 acres CWPT has already helped to save at Bentonville, bringing our total to 953 acres!

By acting today, you and I will be adding 22% to what has already been saved at this historic place where, on March 19 – 21, 1865, Confederate General Joseph “Old Joe” Johnston lunged one last time at Union General William “Billy” Tecumseh Sherman, and the armies under two of the war’s most storied figures locked in a desperate struggle.

Private R.J. Heath of the 34th Illinois wrote, “I was there [Bentonville] with a regiment that had faced Beauregard at Shiloh and Bragg at Stones River; that had participated in nearly every battle of the Army of the Cumberland . . . but for desperate valor on the part of the rebels, and for a desperate resistance . . . of our own men, we saw nothing in four years of army life to compare with . . . Bentonville.”

That’s quite a statement, isn’t it? Even after epic battles such as Shiloh, Stones River, and the Atlanta Campaign, this young man testifies in a letter home that he had seen nothing like the fighting at Bentonville in the closing days of the American Civil War.

He was not alone. In hundreds of letters, diaries and reports, men on both sides bore witness to the extreme ferocity of this three-day battle…

“ . . . we heard the bullets whistling their death song . . .”

“ . . . like one continuous peal of heavy thunder . . .”

“. . . all agree that it was one of the hottest places we were ever in . . .”

Please take a moment to download a special CWPT battle map (PDF - 2.23MB), depicting the combat on the first and third days of this struggle, and highlighting in yellow the property we are saving.

The red and blue arrows, markings and lines on the map show you, of course, the troop positions, charges and countercharges, and battle lines of the Federal and Confederate forces during this decisive fight.

The sections of the battlefield shaded in various colors, however, show you a much more recent past. This is the land – approximately 780 acres – which you and CWPT helped to save in just the past five years.

In fact, according to state officials, thanks in large part to CWPT and our partners, we have saved nearly 75 percent of the entire “First Day” at Bentonville, more than doubling the size of that battlefield park! Plus the land that we added was truly must-have, highly significant hallowed ground, where most of the momentous action took place!

Much like Gettysburg, Bentonville was an enormous three-day battle that ranged for miles over literally thousands of acres, and before today, we’ve only been able to save small portions of the second or third day of the battle.

Well, it’s a new day of preservation at Bentonville, and with your help, CWPT is preparing to save as much ground there as we have done for the first day of the battle.

Highlighted for you in yellow are the parcels we are purchasing right now. Those six tracts – ranging in size from 1.6 acres to 52 acres – total 173 acres and will cost $772,500.

As you can clearly see, with these purchases, you and I will be securing key sections of every part of this ENTIRE battlefield; we are adding in extraordinary fashion onto the success we have already achieved at Bentonville, and setting the stage for our concerted push to save the rest of this battlefield!

That’s great news, and believe it or not, it gets even better.

Learn more about this opportunity to help save history:   Read More >