RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina is unveiling a statewide Civil War Trails guide to help travelers during the final year of the 150th anniversary commemoration.
The original Civil War Trails map was released in 2005 and covered the most significant military action in North Carolina. It includes the Battle of Bentonville, which was the last time the Confederacy mounted a tactical offensive.
The updated map, released Monday by the state Division of Tourism, includes the events such as the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to former slaves who built St. Philips Moravian Church in Old Salem and an encampment in Louisburg of more than 10,000 Union soldiers headed to Washington, D.C.
“The release of the new map is well-timed to draw attention to the most under-told story of the war,” said Wit Tuttell, executive director of the Division of Tourism, Film & Sports Development. “Fort Fisher, Bentonville, the surrender of troops in Durham – North Carolina is where the war effectively ended. The new entries also remind us that within the framework of military action, complex struggles played out in the lives of the people who endured this defining American war.”
Trail markers cross North Carolina from Hatteras Island, site of the war’s first amphibious battle to Robbinsville, a divided mountain community where one of the last surrenders east of the Mississippi occurred.
Civil War Trails is a five-state project that includes Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. North Carolina spent $1.3 million on the project, including money from a federal grant.
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Online: www.civilwartrails.com