Bentonville to hold events Saturday, Sunday
By From staff reports
Published in News on March 16, 2012 1:46 PM
FOUR OAKS -- A living history event at the Harper House at the Bentonville Civil War Battlefield will be held Saturday night from 7 to 10 p.m.
The house was converted into a temporary hospital during the Battle of Bentonville in March 1865, when thousands of men were casualties on both sides.
The "War So Terrible" program will have the give visitors a chance to see how the temporary hospital would have operated. Tickets, which are $5 each, are limited and will be available on Saturday. Parental discretion is advised.
The program is designed to compare Civil War medical care to modern military medical care. A modern surgical company from the Navy/Marine Corps and medical units from the Air Force and Army will participate with field demonstrations that show current techniques used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Musket and artillery demonstrations also will take place on both Saturday and Sunday. The daytime events are from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. each day and are free.
Concessions will be available from the Bentonville Fire Department.
During the nighttime tour, guides will lead civilians by candlelight on a search for wounded soldiers in the field and will witness re-enactors, as surgeons and medical personnel, performing amputations and providing other medical care.
Later in the day, on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., research historian Ansley Wegner will give a presentation on her book, "Phantom Pain," about the hardships endured by Civil War amputees and North Carolina's artificial limb program for veterans, the first in the South.
The battlefield is located at 5466 Harper House Road near Four Oaks, about three miles north of Newton Grove on state road 1008.
For more information, visit www.nchistoricsites. org/bentonvi/bentonvi.htm or call (910) 594-0789.