'Gone forever:' Highway project could destroy Civil War battleground in NC

Historians in eastern North Carolina are fighting to stop the state from expanding a highway over the site of a Civil War battleground.

A proposed bypass project of US Highway 70 is expected to ease traffic in Kinston, North Carolina.

The development would use up 55 acres of land, including parts of the Wyse Fork Battleground. The site is part of the National Register of Historic Places.

In March 1865, towards the end of the Civil War, nearly 5,000 Confederate troops fought to drive thousands of Union soldiers back to the sea in the Battle of Wyse Fork. The Union army defeated the Confederates during the battle and the Civil War ended one month later.

Historians, such as Save Wyse Fork Battlefield Commission Chairman Dennis Harper, believe those planning the bypass do not know the history of the battle, one of the last major battles of the Civil War.

“I don’t know that they all realize the special place that this is with the history that it has,” Harper said. “And once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.”

WRAL News contacted the North Carolina Department of Transportation for a response to historians’ concerns. The DOT said they considered building the interchange at two other sites outside the battlefield.

The other routes, the DOT explained, would make the building costs increase and would have less impact on traffic in the area.

“It’s one of those things where there just wasn’t a good alternative to that location,” said Heather Lane, a development engineer on the project. “We did look at those two options.”

DOT said they’ve been studying the project's impacts on historic sites since 2020. In their response to historians’ concerns, NCDOT said it’s working to shrink the project’s economic footprint.

NCDOT sent WRAL News copies of letters of support from commissioners boards of both Lenoir County and Jones County. In the letters, the boards say the interchange needs to be developed on the site.

Harper believes the development could hurt tourism traffic to the battlefield, which he believes will boom as the United States approaches its 250th birthday.

“Once you build the interchange in here, you see them all over America, things blow up and it obliterates the battlefield,” Harper said.

The bypass has not been finalized and NCDOT said they will continue holding public meetings and studying the bypass’ environmental impact in 2024.