Aug 12-13: The Cradle of The Civil War 3

The vague idea I’d had that I’d like to be able to stroll through the Civil War heartland at my leisure and visit every place that took my fancy, is well and truly dispelled and this realisation has meant that I have to keep moving. Another major factor is the weather. The rain has followed me from Savannah, and ‘outside’ locations are not fun in pouring rain. The reason for having headed across to Fayetteville was as a launching place to visit the Battle of Bentonville location as part of a run-up to getting further north to Newport News.

The above battle was high on my mental list of priorities because the Confederate loss and surrender there in March 1865 presaged the overall Southern (Army of Northern Virginia) surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant a few weeks later. Later, I intend to drive from Newport News to Richmond and from there (hopefully) to be able to visit the site of the surrender in the town of Appomattox (I presume it’s grown to become a town by now).

I had walked up to the Holiday Inn in Fayetteville (the mother of all army towns) as a member without reservation. They said, yes, you’ve got the last Standard Room. I said, “wow, you’re fully booked?” The receptionist said, “Yes, the local military keep us booked. Military personnel usually choose to stay here rather than in barracks on base. The local military usually have us booked out.” Being the argumentative bastard that I am, I pleaded, “why don’t they stay on base? The response from the receptionist was, “Them baa-acks at Bragg not nice.” 😂😂

An interesting note about Fort Bragg: The base was initially established as Camp Bragg in 1918 as an artillery training ground because it had suitable terrain, adequate water, rail facilities, and a climate suitable for year-round training. It was originally named after Braxton Bragg, a former U.S. Army artillery commander and West Point graduate who later became a well-known Confederate general during the American Civil War. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense renamed the installation "Fort Liberty" due to controversy surrounding memorials to Confederate generals. In February 2025, the army changed the name of the installation back to "Fort Bragg", but now in honor of World War II paratrooper Roland L. Bragg.

The next day, I drove from Fayetteville to Newton Grove in heavy rain and from there to the Bentonville battleground. They have a nicely appointed Visitor Centre at the site, so I launched my trusty brolly, and splashed across to it from the Jeep. That was certainly worth the effort and the $20 donation I left with them. I watched their 15-min video (excellent distillation of the start and end of the war), inspected their museum display (also excellent), and decided that driving around the area, which now—of course—looks different to when the combat occurred here, was not worth it in the rain.

I wanted to get into the city of Newport News prior to dusk, so, as the heavy rain continued, I departed for the famous I-95. When I could see around me in clear weather, I enjoyed observing the household architectural differences to those in Australia and NZ. So many neat homes sitting on manicured lawns, without fence or hedge enclosures and often minimal gardens. I was also impressed by the sheer number of churches; I think predominantly Baptist. They’re EVERYWHERE… and most are modern-looking buildings and look as if they’re built to accommodate large congregations. Is this what the ‘bible-belt’ we hear of looks like?

The rain came and went as I drove north to Emporia, but the GPS estimate of my arrival time just after 6:00 pm was accurate as I emerged suddenly—with some surprise—from the surrounding verdant roadside foliage onto the 4.6-mile Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge and Tunnel. Why Ms GPS brought me in this way and not via US-17 and the James River Bridge (since I was headed for a destination near the town centre), I do not know and will have to interrogate her later. But I was almost ‘there’, and it was with a sense of relief that I looked down at the water of Hampton Roads, surging ocean-bound on an ebb tide with about the same rate of flow as my hometown Clutha River.

How did Newport News get its strange name? Wikipedia states that the original area near the mouth of the James River was first referred to as Newportes Newes as early as 1621. The source of the name Newport News is not known with certainty, though it is the oldest English city name in the Americas. Several versions are recorded, and it is the subject of popular local speculation.

I have been asked to make contact with a local museum curator, and—having established in Savannah a newfound respect for such creative professionals—I do so. The lady is rushed off her feet with her work and the challenges of getting a daughter off to college (‘university’, to us), but she makes time for us to meet over a drink at a craft brewery not too far from my hotel. We have a wonderful chat. She’s curious as to how and why I’m in Newport News and I’m curious about everything to do with her 😁. She is also unashamedly (and emotionally) fearful about what the USA is becoming under President Trump. She's the first American I've had a meaningful conversation with where we've openly addressed this question. Today Trump has sent troops into Washington D.C. and has plans to extend this activity to other cities. I think a lot of Americans must be holding their breath.

Tomorrow, I’ll give the Mariner’s Museum a serious once-over. Newport News has a lot of Civil War history, and—my curator friend informs me—even more Revolutionary War history. The city sits on the Virginia Peninsula (sometimes called the Lower Peninsula because it’s the southernmost of three major peninsulas in southeastern Virginia), bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads, and Chesapeake Bay. Just look at the placenames; Yorktown… Williamsburg. Once again, I’m going to have to ‘skim through’ here if I’m to manage the next five days.Les mer