North Carolina trail traces Civil War history

A new Civil War historical marker was unveiled June 21 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

• Civil War Trails

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RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- Libba Evans knows all about how the Civil War continues to fascinate people around the world.

"I was in Europe one time and somebody asked me where I was from, and I said the South, and they said 'Oh, you lost, too,"' said Evans, the state's cultural resources secretary. "People's views are shaded by losing or winning. It's part of American history."

Evans hopes that history will draw tourists -- from die-hard Civil War buffs to the merely curious -- to points around the state, each identified by a roadside marker. It's part of the Civil War Trails program, a mission in three states -- Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland -- to mark 700 historic points from the Civil War.

"The Civil War is perennially fascinating to people," said Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the state Office of Archives and History. "If you slap Civil War on anything, then people will show up. It's the event in American history that everyone relates to one way or the other."

And so, by the end of the year, state officials plan to have more than 150 roadside markers in place across North Carolina, forming a trail across the state. They later plan to add 100 more to complete the program.

The latest is near the Old Capitol in downtown Raleigh. The red-and-blue sign described the history of the state and the capital's involvement in the war, with the information printed on a cream-colored background framed in brown metal, full of the kind of detail that stirs Civil War fans.

"Our mission is to make visiting Civil War sites a user-friendly experience for people of all backgrounds," said Mitch Bowman, executive director of Virginia Civil War Trails. "We like to tell them in very plain English what happened where they're standing.

"Those who understand the minutiae appreciate it. Those who don't, aren't turned off by it. They don't have to understand what a battery is as opposed to a regiment to know the emotion of what happened where they are."

According to the marker in Raleigh, Gov. John Ellis told President Lincoln in April 1861 that no North Carolina troops would be provided to fight what Lincoln called "a rebellion." The next month, the state seceded from the Union.

Four years later, emissaries of Gov. Zebulon Vance, whose portrait is on the new marker, surrendered Raleigh to Union Gen. William T. Sherman. Federal troops entered the city the next day, when it's believed one soldier stole North Carolina's 1789 copy of the Bill of Rights.

After the surrender, a U.S. Army lieutenant sent what's described as an "extraordinary message" with signal rockets: "Peace on Earth Good Will to Men."

Sherman's army left in early May and the state Legislature repealed the secession ordinance in October 1865.

Raleigh is among the larger cities where markers will be located. Smaller towns can also take advantage of the trails and the tourists who will follow, Bowman said.

"We provide structure for those small, out-of-the-way communities to tell their story to an interested worldwide audience," Bowman said.

And those stories could lead to some extra cash. Cultural tourists stay on vacation longer, and spend $102 on average per person per day, compared to $59 a day for regular tourists, according to state figures.

The markers and trail should help travelers better appreciate what soldiers and citizens endured, Bowman said. He said his long-term plan is to help tourists use the sites to determine what their ancestors did during the war. A database would contain the time and date that a regiment occupied one of the sites, and tourists would be able to track a great-great grandfather's movements.

"You don't have to know much about the Civil War to be intrigued about a place where one of your forefathers stood and fought and suffered and triumphed," Bowman said. "The more remote the site, the closer they'll feel to their ancestors."