Documenting the American South

Monument Name

Confederate Monument, Bentonville

Type

Column

Subjects

Civil War

City

Four Oaks

County

Johnston

Description

The monument is a granite column with a broad trapezoidal base on which the names of the Confederate dead from the Battle of Bentonville are inscribed. The column is topped by a cannonball-like sphere. It marks a mass grave containing approximately 360 Confederates who died at the Battle of Bentonville, March 19-21, 1865.

Inscription

Front: IN MEMORY OF / THE CONFEDERATE/ DEAD / ERECTED UNDER / THE AUSPICES OF / GOLDSBORO RIFLES / OCTOBER 10, 1894.

Left: ON THIS SPOT AND / IN THIS VICINITY / WAS FOUGHT / THE BATTLE OF / BENTONVILLE / MARCH 19, 1865.

Right: TWENTY THREE OF / THOSE BURIED HERE / HAD THEIR LAST HOURS / SOOTHED BY THE / LOVING CARE OF / JOHN HARPER AND / HIS NOBLE WIFE / AMY A. HARPER.

Rear: Nor shall your glory / be forgot While Fame / her record keeps. Or / Honour points the / hallowed spot Where / Valor proudly sleeps.;

Names inscribed around the base: Everett King, Co. B, 1 N.C. Batl’n / G.C. Taylor, Co. A, 1 N.C. Batl’n / M.J. Taylor, Co. B, 1 N.C. Batl’n / Arnold Rabon, Co. C, 1 N.C. Batl’n / Duncan Brown, Co. A, 1 N.C. Batl’n / J.A. McPhaul, Co. A, 1 N.C. Batl’n / Jacob Sours, Co. D, 1 N.C. Batl’n / Capt. R.G. Rankin, Co. A, 1 N.C. Batl’n / T.J. Blount, Co. A, 61 N.C. Reg’t / Zac Ellis, 1 N.C. Batl’n / Marx E. Cohen, Harts Battery, S.C. /

J.R. Stringfield, Co. C, 6 Ga. Reg’t / J.W. Glover, Co. F, 6 Ga. Reg’t / S. King, Co. H, 27 Ga.Reg’t / T.J. Nail, Co. H, 27 Ga. Reg’t / A.B. Williams, Co. A, 34 Va. Reg’t / F.M. Williams, Co. C. Ark / Allen Lansdown, Co. E, 23 Ga. Reg’t / G.S. Beavers, Ga. / D.B. Nolger, Co. K, 39 Ala. Reg’t / Lieut. George M. Stoney, 1 S.C. Reg’t /

Col. R.M. Saffell, Tenn / Columbus Gilliam, Co. F, 1 Tenn Cal / E.A. Smotherman, Co. D, 45 Tenn Reg’t / J.H. Edwards, Co. B, 26 Tenn Reg’t / Capt. R.P.H Heacock, Co. A, 30 Ala Reg’t / Capt. J.A. Latham, 40 Ala Reg’t / Lieut J.W. Layermer, 42 Ala Reg’t / Lieut Edmund Pettus, Ala / J.M. Moon, S.C. / Charles T. Quigley, Co. B. 2 S.C. Reg’t Art / John M. Leathe, 1 S.C. Reg’t Art /

Harley Nance, Co. K, 1 N.C. Batl’n / W.E. Read, Co. D, 13 N.C. Batl’n / Allen Wooten, 10 N.C. Batl’n / James F. Chambers, Co. B, 40 N.C. Reg’t / H.J. Taylor, Co. H, 40 N.C.reg’t / L.B. Flack, Co. G, 50 N.C. Reg’t / T.J. Hampton, Co. K, 50 N.C. Reg’t / J.A. Thomas, Co. B, 40 N.C. Reg’t / Lt. Col. Edward Mallett, 61 N.C. Reg’t /

Custodian

North Carolina Historic Sites

Dedication Date

March 20, 1895

Decade

1890s

Geographic Coordinates

35.302300 , -78.320100

Supporting Sources

"In Honor of the Gray," The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), March 22, 1895, 1-4 Link

"North Carolina Civil War Monuments," North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, (accessed January 23, 2012) Link

"The Bentonsville Monument," The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), March 21, 1895 Link

Confederate Veteran 2 (1894), 335 Link

Confederate Veteran 3 (1895), 231 Link

Coughlin, Bill. "Confederate Dead Monument," The Historical Marker Database, (accessed February 18, 2011) Link

Crow, Amy Beth. "Confederate Memory and the Making of the Solid South in North Carolina: the Goldsboro Rifles' Bentonville Monument, 1894-1895," Masters' Thesis, (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2002)

Public Site

Yes

Materials & Techniques

Granite

Sponsors

Goldsboro Rifles, Bentonville Monumental Committee

Monument Dedication and Unveiling

Rev. J.J. Harper gave a prayer at the dedication. General (and former Governor of South Carolina) Wade Hampton attended the unveiling, accompanied by 13 young ladies in military dress (one for each Confederate State).

Death Space

Yes

Approval Process

T.H. Bain was in charge of the procuring the monument.