North Carolina Memorial at Averasboro Battlefield, Chicora Cemetery, Dunn
This monument is a three-piece granite monument on top of a granite base. The middle portion of the marker extends about three times as high as the two flanking pieces—that are of equal dimensions—and comes to a swooping point. The front of the monument pictures a soldier going into combat beside the inscription. Above the inscription the North Carolina State Flag and the Confederate Battle Flag are crossed.
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Front, Middle: IN MEMORY OF THE / NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS / THAT SO VALIANTLY / RESISTED THE ADVANCE / OF A SUPERIOR / FEDERAL ARMY AT THE / BATTLE OF AVERASBORO / MARCH 15-16, 1865 / FIFTIETH NORTH CAROLINA REGIMENT / SEVENTY SEVENTH NORTH CAROLINA REGIMENT / TENTH BATTALION NORTH CAROLINA / HEAVY ARTILLERY
Front, Left: LOCAL UNITS ENGAGED HERE / 50TH N.C. REGIMENT / CO. H HARNETT COUNTY / CO. C JOHNSTON COUNTY / CO. D JOHNSTON COUNTY / 10TH N.C. BATTALION / CO. B HARNETT COUNTY
Front, Right: FIRST AT BETHEL / FARTHEST TO THE FRONT AT / GETTYSBURG AND CHICKAMAUGA / LAST AT APPOMATTOX
Back: ERECTED BY THE / COUNTY OF HARNETT / CHICORA CHAPTER, UNITED / DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY / AVERASBORO BATTLEGROUND / CENTENNIAL COMMISSION / 1968
The Averasboro Battlefield Commision, Inc. and Boy Scout Troop 745, Salem United Methodist Church, Eastover, North Carolina
August 18, 1968
35.263720 , -78.673030
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"Memory of N. C. Troops at the Battle of Averasboro - 1865," Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museum, SIRIS, sirismm.si.edu, (accessed October 27, 2014) Link
"North Carolina Monument, Averasboro Battlefield," Waymarking.com, June 21, 2006, (accessed June 15, 2014) Link
Harnett County News (Lillington, NC), Thursday, March 18, 1965
Harnett County News (Lillington, NC), Thursday, March 25, 1965
Averasboro Battlefield & Museum website. Averasboro Battlefield Commission, Inc., http://www.averasboro.com/Home.aspx, (accessed September 21, 2015) Link
Faulkner, Ronnie W. 2006. "Battle of Averasboro," NCPedia.org, (accessed September 21, 2015) Link
“Averasboro Monument Dedicated,” The Daily Times-News (Burlington, NC), August 19, 1968
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Granite
County of Harnett, Chicora Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Averasboro Battleground Centennial Commission
Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr. the featured speaker posed this question: “What inspired these men to fight so bravely, always against great odd and often times into death?” Ervin asserted that fighting to maintain slavery “does not suffice to answer the question. Most of them,” he said,” did not own or expect to own a single slave. Indeed, few of them had any material stake whatsoever in the victory of the Confederacy.” In answering his question, he quoted Dr. Randolph McKin, a Gettysburg veteran whose words are engraved on the Confederate Dead monument at Arlington National Cemetery: “Not for fame or reward, not for place or rank, not lured by ambition or goaded by necessity, but in simple devotion to duty as they understood it…”
The Battle of Averasboro was the first battle where Confederate forces attempted to deter Sherman’s advance through the State of North Carolina. The battle was fought from March 19 through March 21, 1865. This was the last major battle before the Battle of Bentonville.
The memorial stands in Chicora Civil War Cemetery at the Averasboro Battlefield site (NC Highway 82, also known as Burnett Road). The monument is close to the Confederate Dead Marker, Confederate Memorial, South Carolina Memorial and McLaws Division Marker. The Union Soldiers Memorial is also in the walking distance. The entire area, along with nearby plantation houses, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Averasboro Battlefield & Museum site is located nearby, on the other side of NC Highway 82.
The landscape is primarily agricultural, with sloping hills, streams and wide vistas. The marker sits on the grass behind the iron fence.
Civil War reenactments take place as commemorations of the Battle of Averasboro. In the 1965 centennial reenactments used reactivated Confederate units like the Second North Carolina regiment to stage parts of the battle. The participants and their families dressed in period specific attire and camped the night before the reenactment of the battle.
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