Prelude to Bentonville: The Battle of Wyse Fork

An aerial view of the 86+ acre tract at the Wyse Fork, NC battleground.

American Battlefield Trust

Recipient: North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

Amount: $257,605.00
Acres: 86.36

Following the Union army’s capture of vital Confederate supply depots in Atlanta, Georgia and Wilmington, North Carolina, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant ordered his forces to consolidate and move north towards Virginia in the spring of 1865. By combining three separate Union armies, Grant intended to bring overwhelming numbers against the last organized pockets of Confederate resistance and end the war.

At Wyse Fork, located near modern day Kinston, North Carolina, Confederate troops under the command of General Braxton Bragg attempted to prevent a Union corps under Major General John Schofield from reaching Goldsboro, and joining-up with the bulk of Union troops marching with Major General William Sherman’s Grand Army of the West. From March 7 – 10, the Confederates attacked but could not break the Union line. Gaining no advantage and facing the stark reality of Union reinforcements arriving to support Schofield, Bragg withdrew his troops.

Nine days after the Battle of Wyse Fork, Braggs Confederates would take part in the Battle of Bentonville, the last major engagement of the Civil War. Beaten by the weight of Union numbers – just as Grant intended – the Confederates withdrew from Bentonville and would surrender less than a month later at Bennet Place.

Awarded to the North Carolina Department of Natural & Cultural Resources (DNCR), a 2023 Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program will help support DNCR’s efforts to maintain the rural character of the Wyse Fork Battlefield. By placing a perpetual conservation easement on 86+ acres of woods and wetlands, DNCR – and their preservation partners, the American Battlefield Trust – will protect the landscape from development, while also planning for future public access and interpretive waysides at the site.

Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program empower preservation partners nationwide to acquire and preserve threatened Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War battlefields. In addition, the program administers three other grant opportunities: Preservation Planning Grants, which are open to all sites of armed conflict on American soil, and the newly authorized Battlefield Restoration and Battlefield Interpretation Grants. This financial assistance generates community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.