Averasboro Battlefield & Museum
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"Preserving the Past for the Future"
In March 1865, the Battle of Averasboro (also called Averysborough, Smith's Mill and Black River) was the first deliberate, tactical resistance to the infamous march of Federal forces through Georgia and the Carolinas. The battle was fought on the plantation lands of the John Smith family four miles south of the Cape Fear River town of Averasboro.
Today the cannons are silent. The battle-scarred plantation lands are quiet.
But the memory remains of those both military and civilian who suffered and died during the Battle of Averasboro. Their valor and sacrifice deserves to be perpetually honored.
The ABCI Mission and Accomplishments
- Averasboro Battlefield Commission, Inc. (ABCI) is governed by a Board of Directors and is a non-profit tax-exempt 501(c)3 corporation. ABCI was formed in 1994 and incorporated in 1995 to lead in the preservation, presentation, and promotion of the Averasboro Battlefield, Smithville Plantation, and related history. Since that time, in addition to conducting tours and promoting the site, the Commission has accomplished the following:
- Restoring and upgrading the Chicora Civil War Cemetery by the authentic reconstruction of the period on-site cabin, replacement of missing gravestones, and acquisition and construction of a parking lot.
- Financing and buying a house and land near the cemetery for us to use as a visitors' center and museum open on a daily basis.
- Sponsoring and coordinating annual living history and battle reenactment events.
- Acquiring, with grant assistance and donations, a 24-acre tract on the Confederate First Defensive Line for preservation and interpretive display.
- Obtaining National Register Historic District status at battlefield.
- Producing a National Park Service funded Comprehensive Battlefield Preservation and Management Plan.
- Obtaining Transportation Enhancement funding to acquire, restore and refit a nineteenth century plantation house on the battlefield for use as a transportation museum.
- Initiating and continuing historic byway and wayside development with heritage tourism emphasis, specifically, as related to the North Carolina Civil War Trails Program.
- Obtaining, in cooperation with the Civil War Preservation Trust, preservation easements on over 250 acres of land in the core battle area.
- Obtaining through state purchase a 126 acre wooded river-front tract for battle interpretation and nature trails.
- Installing monuments to soldiers killed during the Battle of Averasboro.
- Installing and continuing production of an extensive battlefield diorama project.
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