The Second Battle of Bentonville

Last Sunday, my new cousin-in-law took us to the Bentonville, North Carolina to visit the battleground where 80,000 soldiers over the course of three days fought one of the last major battles of the American Civil War. We went because my husband, amateur military historian, was making one of his rare appearances in town, and my large Southern family wanted to show him a good time. But if you are not an amateur military historian with a large southern family, why would you want to visit the site of an important but somewhat forgotten Civil War battle in the middle of nowhere?

Well, one reason is to get there before the developers. At the simplest level, if we don’t want our American heritage turned into a CVS pharmacy, we need to visit our monuments and show some solidarity. A sleepy, undisturbed place like the hamlet of Bentonville, population 1,768, close to Interstate 95 and within striking distance of one of the fastest growing urban areas in the country, will be hard pressed to stay undisturbed and rural much longer. Even though worthy groups such as the Bentonville Battlefield Historical Association work hard to protect the site, the ability of rapacious developers, who have been buying up open land throughout the South like the second coming of Sherman, put all our heritage sites at risk. Go now before this “hallowed ground” finds itself next to a WalMart.

But the preservation argument is not the only reason to visit Bentonville. For foreign visitors, or any visitor, trying to understand American history and get under the skin of the American psyche, there is nothing more instructive than a tour of a Civil War monument which noted novelist and poet, Robert Penn Warren, described as the greatest single event in the creation of the American imagination.

At Bentonville, the business of creating America through the blood, guts and glory of this epic conflict begins to comes to life in a small but very well done Visitors Center. Be sure to watch the short audio/visual map exhibit which provides an outstanding orientation and explanation of what happened at Bentonville in relation to what you can still see today.

Visitors also have the opportunity to tour the Harper House, built in the 1850s, which played a key role in the battle, serving as a Union field hospital. The tour was expertly conducted by a fine southern gentleman of the old school who was well versed in his subject and the southern art of storytelling. The ground floor recreates the gruesome field hospital conditions and one can easily imagine amputated limbs being thrown out the window by overworked surgeons. While Union doctors sawed off arms and legs on the ground floor, the Harper family lived upstairs and it is interesting to see how ordinary people carried on their everyday lives in the middle of all that carnage. You can also visit the detached kitchen and slave quarters of the property and learn about ante-bellum life in eastern North Carolina which was light years away from the plantation lifestyle made famous in “Gone with the Wind”.

After our tour of the house and outbuildings, we walked over to the monuments to fallen soldiers and then took the battlefield driving tour having been discouraged about walking through the woods at this time of year due to the ticks and chiggers. How’s that for authenticity? Once we got back into our comfortable, air conditioned 21st century car, I lost that “step back in time” feeling but I enjoyed driving around looking at the open farm land while the military historians contemplated the 29 information plaques along the route.

In the remarkable documentary on the Civil War by Ken Burns, the historian Shelby Foote makes the point that as an outcome of the conflict, Americans stopped saying “the United States are” and began saying “the United States is”. There are plenty of places across the southeast of the United States where you can learn about the price that was paid on both sides for a verb to go from plural to singular, but I think Bentonville is a particularly fine example, with its untouched landscape and low key but thoughtful approach to history to contemplate what America has gained and what, without continued vigilance, can still be lost.

Bentonville Battlefield
5466 Harper House Road
Four Oaks, NC 27524
Phone: 910 594 0789
Fax: 910 594 0070
http://www.bentonvillebattlefield@nchistoricsites.org/
Bentonville@ncmail.net

Hours:

April – October – 9 to 5pm Monday through Saturday, Sunday 1-5pm
November – March 10 to 4pm Tuesday through Saturday, Sunday 1-4pm

Admission is Free

Photo courtesy of the Bentonville Battlefield Historical Society website

Go to America - Eat in a Shack

No, this is not a Michael Moore movie about poverty in the land of plenty but Europeans, listen-up, no matter how counter-intuitive it may seem, some of the finest dining in America can be found in shacks. Sometimes, there isn’t even a shack, just some old tables by the side of the road and most of these roads, as Michael and Jane Stern, authors of Road Food, point out, are “near the ocean, the lake or river – in other words, near the home of what they serve”. A good fish shack in America is a “finger lickin”, “sleeves-up” “flip-flop” kind of place which can reconfirm ones faith in American food and the joys of America’s peerless informality.

The Shark Shack, on Atlantic Beach in North Carolina is just such a place. It’s both a “Drive-In” restaurant (where you can experience the unique American phenomenon of eating meals in your car) and a place where you can park your surf board, sit at picnic tables and eat “the catch of the day” either in the form of a sandwich or a platter. There are clams strips, grouper (a local fish) bites, fish tacos and a shrimp burger. For non-fish eaters, there are hot dogs, hamburgers, steak sandwiches and lots of chicken.

We ate lunch there last week and everything was delicious, plentiful, inexpensive and served by a blond, long-legged friendly college student with perfect teeth.When we asked if we could have our fish grilled, not fried, the charming student with perfect teeth said of course we could. The fact that our grouper sandwiches were fresh, succulent and only cost $6.69 blew this cynical pseudo-European away. Surprisingly, the Shark Shack has a liquor license and a pitcher of beer will only set you back $7. At night, there is live music and if you’re not hungry, signs invite you to bring your own chair, sit outside, watch the stars, have a drink and enjoy the music.

Shark Shack Revisited

Sadly, we also ate there this Saturday and had a completely different experience. Our waitress was also young and cute but so stupid it was ridiculous. Everything we ordered was messed up and the food wasn't as good as before. How can one place be so good and so bad? I blame it on the weekend (the bad experience) versus mid-week (the great experience). McDonalds may be consistently awful but alas, not all authentic places are also consistent.

The Shark Shack
Fort Macon Road and South Durham Street
Atlantic Beach, North Carolina
(next to the Beach Tavern)
Tel: 252 726-3313

Soul City, North Carolina

I hate Sky TV. I hate everything about it from the sales people, to the installers, to the ugly satellite dishes and cabling to the lousy programming. I am the only member of my family who feels this way. Today, after ten happy months of Sky-free living, as a concession to our youngest son for getting a job, Sky was reinstalled.

It was a really, really bad day until I read my email and found this wonderful post from Sandy, the first in a series called NoCrowds America that will talk about places where visitors to the United States can go to see and understand the America you will never, ever see on Sky TV. As Sandy puts it, check it out!

On this sacred American holiday, I present NoCrowds America with its inaugural post--a place neither Californian, nor charming in the least and not at all visually uplifting. In fact, it's not even there! But I can think of no-place more American than Soul City, North Carolina.

In the mid-1970s I wanted to find the real America and--once found--save it from itself. From my British mother, I came to appreciate the nineteenth century New Town movement, visionary Utopian plans offering working and middle-class Britons alternatives to the explosive, fetid maelstrom of London--neither exclusively urban, sub-urban nor pastoral--but free-standing communities, each an economically viable place to work, live, play. Flipping through a copy of Architectural Record one lazy day, I chanced upon an article, "A Plan for Planned American Communities". As in Jerry Maguire's famous "You had me on Hello", its opening captured my imagination: "...For in a world in which there is too little idealism, far too little concern for land planning and land use, and almost no effective social planning, new towns offer new hope. Both for the poor and for the growing body of middle-income families who search for a fresh option in their way of living."

Flipping through the pages, I came across a map highlighting each of the thirty-or-so federally-assisted and private U.S. New Towns currently under development. With a naiveté and bravado which only happily resides in the heart and mind of a callow youth of 17, I closed my eyes, made a wish and stuck a finger on my future--the place where I would make my mark on the world.

Soul City, North Carolina.

I continued to read: "Soul City's a unique new town: it is 'freestanding' in a completely undeveloped area; it is experimental in its aims, and is the only New Town with a federal HUD (Housing and Urban Development) loan sponsored by a black-owned development company." The brainstorm of Floyd W. McKissick, a moderate-cum-militant Black civil rights activist, Soul City was envisioned to house 50,000 people in multiple 'villages' by the year 2000. It was planned to be self-contained, so its residents could also work, receive health care, get schooling, recreate and worship in town. Commonly misunderstood as Afro-centric in focus, McKissick actually envisioned Soul City as a community where all races could live in harmony. Lawsuits and investigations into the use of funds by the developer, Soul City Company, resulted in foreclosure in 1979. By 1980, all that remained were 35 housing units, a healthcare clinic, a tennis court, and a pool. About 150 people were employed in the city. Perhaps a less electrifying "Big New Hope" might have been a safer name for McKissick's forlorn love-child.

Soul City was carved out of 5,000 acres on played-out tobacco fields of the Saterwhite Plantation, in Warren County, North Carolina. When I arrived in 1974, Soul City was full of great expectation, ten double-wide trailers and no discernible human population. A nearby little hamlet of Manson, off U.S. Route 158, contained a small filling station and grocery store, ramshackle, picturesque First Baptist Church and a retread tire repair shop. Most striking--now as then--are the beautiful red clay dirt which line the roadsides, a hazy blue sky only occasionally interrupted by short, monsoon-like rain deluges and a stillness and beatitude which suggests Southerners only lost the War of Northern Aggression to return the land back to its mostly fallow, uncultivated state.

Perhaps in the mind of European readers lurks a persistent distrust of Americans and things uniquely American, best expressed in the question "Why in the world go to Soul City, North Carolina", an Oz-like, mythical city of hope and racial equality which actually doesn't exist? Why visit a place where the only civilizing influence is a Perdue Chicken Hatchery and an International Paper plant?

To see Soul City in its naked, barren state, to drive its miles of paved roads which lead to nowhere, primarily used as places to dump old couches and appliances, to see its sole remaining edifice, a twenty foot high "Soul City North Carolina" sign, still carefully tended, is to see at first hand the pure love, blind trust, foolish pride which define the quintessential American mind and experience. Too often, we Americans are accused of acting exclusively out of malevolent intentions and ambitions. We see this played out daily in the streets of Baghdad, our corporate icons carelessly strewn across the world, in our disregard for other common global environmental concerns. But to see Soul City is to understand that, to an American, to want to do something is almost as important as its ill-conceived execution and final outcome. The American experiment's still alive and well, whether it be transplanted to the gleaming canyons of Michael Bloomberg's post-9-1-1 Manhattan, the ubiquity and gemütlich character of our neatly laid-out suburbs in any American metropolis, or to the backroads of this once-rural, now red-neck satellite-city development.

Check it out!

Photo courtesy of www.roadsideamerica.com which is a useful site for anyone searching for "off the beaten track" America

Celebrating America's Independence at Sulgrave Manor

How far away is this place? Why are they celebrating America’s Independence Day? Will I have any fun? These things were on Eloise’s mind as we headed towards Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of George Washington in England which was holding an Independence Day celebration last weekend. As it turned out, we had a wonderful time at this Tudor manor house in rural Northhamptonshire, about 1 ½ hours north of London by car.

Sulgrave Manor, bought by Lawrence Washington from Henry VIII was lived in by four generations of the Washington family from 1539 to 1657. In 1911, as the UK and US were looking for initiatives to celebrate 100 years of peaceful relations, a committee was formed which included President Theodore Roosevelt, Lord Rothschild, Arthur Conan Doyle and Earl Grey, who decided to purchase the house as part of the celebrations to be held in trust for the peoples of the United States and the United Kingdom.

And I’m glad they did because visiting Sulgrave Manor today is a real treat. In part, because this small museum and garden seems to try harder and care more about your experience than many historic sites and in part because the staff and curators seem to understand better than most the connection between entertainment and education. We learned many things about the Tudors, George Washington and Anglo-American relations and had a great time doing it.

The house tour, which Eloise was not looking forward to, was conducted by such an engaging guide that we were instantly hooked. The house, which is relatively small, delivers three centuries of English history in fascinating child sized bites. There were lots of children’s activities and games including Eloise’s favourite, “Beat the Rat” and a small yet excellent exhibition of the life and times of George Washington that would give Mount Vernon a run for its money. For anyone interested in textiles, Sulgrave has a great collection and gardeners will enjoy the lovely grounds which include herbaceous borders, a knot and herb garden, an orchard and topiary.

Because it was their Fourth of July celebration, there were special activities which included getting up close and personal with an American Bald Eagle, Appalachian music and dancers, a Hog Roast and a terrific small circus but even without these attractions, Sulgrave Manor would have been lots of fun.

Today, being July 4th, I have been thinking about the special relationship between the UK and the US and how it was reflected in Eloise, our own little Anglo-American initiative. Sometimes it seems that there is a conspiracy to get her to choose sides. “So what are you, English or American?” “I’m both” she always replies. Thinking back on Sulgrave Manor, the one place that belongs equally to both sovereign nations with the flag of each country flying in the grounds, I can think of no better place for Eloise, or anyone who has a foot firmly planted in both countries, to celebrate America’s Independence Day.

Transportation

Sulgrave Manor is not the easiest place to get to without a car and while I don’t recommend organised tours very often, it might be most convenient for visitors without cars to join the Evan Evans one day sightseeing tour (May to September) which includes nearby Churchill’s Blenheim Palace and Sulgrave. For committed independent travellers, there is the option of daily train service from London Marylebone to Banbury where one can then catch a taxi which costs approximately £13

Sulgrave Manor
Sulgrave near Banbury
Oxon
OX17 2SD
Tel: 01295 760205
Fax: 01295 768056
http://www.sulgravemanor.org.uk/

Open weekends April 1 to October 29 from 12:00 to 4:00pm last entry
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday May 1 to October 31 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Adult £6.25
Children £3

Our Favorite/Favourite America

My friend Sandy has been after me to write about America. He’s worried that

“to a German or Austrian, spoon-fed by daily clips of Paris Hilton breaking down in court and George Bush strutting over tumbleweeds on his Texas Ranchette, the real, untrammeled substance of America isn't properly conveyed.”

Who can argue with that?

He goes on to say that the moment is ripe to launch NoCrowds America as Europeans look to cash in on the greatest travel bargain of the century. With the pound rising yesterday to its highest level against the dollar in 26 years, it’s hard to argue with that either.

Not one to leave things to chance, Sandy also provides a little business plan as to how I can get this going. He suggests that with

“your plethora of close American family and friends scattered across these fruited plains, I propose you send out a call to send in stories of their favorite places...Brian Cullman's favourite music venue; any of the O'Grady's favorite anythings (!); Godmother Christine's favourite NY hairdresser; Hugh Jr.'s favorite hardware store (Brewer's Marine in Mamaroneck); Mac's favorite Route 46 New Jersey authentic Greek diner; can't remember their names but it starts with a B, (he means Rich and Suzie Bissell’s) best Philadelphia cheesesteak place; Vic Ogburn's favorite gun shop and shooting range; Sandy's favorite Southern courthouse (Bay Minette, Alabama, where I got married on the sleigh!); John and Janice's favorite Chicago fruit markets; Jay Maloney's favorite Colorado Springs coffee shop; Carla's favorite Orange County beaches--Emerald (Warren Buffet's former private hangout) and Victoria (Bette Midler's) Coves in Laguna Beach; Leland and Allison's favorite Berkeley cheese shop; etc. etc. Out of the hundreds of replies received will emerge a crazy-quilt of uniquely American "uncrowded" destinations”

It’s hard to argue with that either. But Sandy knows me well, pointing out that

"We've a famous history of you soliciting my ideas, my humbly submitting them, then your not acting on them, but this one's a winner. "

Sandy, you’re right. Consider NoCrowds America officially launched. I’ll figure out the technical bits later.

And to all my American family, friends and most importantly, current readers of NoCrowds, please send in your favourite American places and experiences. Don’t worry that the places you talk about will be overrun with crowds. The NoCrowds readership is still too exclusive for that, and, anyway, according to Sandy,

"it's every American's patriotic, bound duty to entice hoards of Europeans to come over here to recycle their Euros into dollars before we spend 'em and send 'em to the Chinese, so they can buy T-bills, thereby keeping U.S. interest rates low and allowing us to not default on our subprime real estate loans! "

Even if you are not interested in saving the subprime loan market, and I would understand if you are not, please send me a description of your favourite America so that we can take on the purveyors of mass pre-packaged tourism, one authentic experience at a time.

Photo taken in Jones Lunch Room, Clayton, North Carolina. My favourite place to eat an American hot dog. What's yours?

London's Best Fish and Chips

Almost everyone who visits London wants to eat “real” fish and chips. NoCrowds fully supports this desire. To hell with endangered fish stocks and cardiovascular disease. When Jeff and I are in the mood for “the real deal”, we, like many Londoners, head for Fryer’s Delight in Holborn, not far from the British Museum.

Fryer’s Delight looks like a 1950s film set. The Formica, linoleum and unflattering lighting are divine. You can smell the place a mile away. Everything is deep fat fried in hearty smelling beef tallow. Everything is greasy. Yummm. In addition to traditional fish and chips, there are pies, sausages, pasties and just about anything you can think of that is politically incorrect and unhealthy. The prices are so cheap they make you laugh. A big piece of cod with chips is less than a tall skinny latte at Starbucks. During the day, the place is filled with office workers and at night a succession of London cabs pull up for take-away.

Fish and chips have been a staple of London’s working classes since Victorian times. In the days when “working” meant hard, physical labour, people valued calories and Fryer’s Delight has made no concessions to modern times or tastes. If you like your experiences authentic and your food heavy and greasy, you’ll have lots of fun at Fryer’s Delight.

n.b. Fryer’s Delight closes for the month of August (we like their attitude).

Fryer’s Delight
19 Theobald Road
WC1X 8SL
Tel: 020 7405 4114
Tube stop: Holborn
Open Mon-Sat 12noon-10pm, takeway until 11pm

Harry Potter and the Garden of Secrets

It’s not often that NoCrowds get a chance to ride the Harry Potter tidal wave. Put “Harry Potter Tours” into Google and you will find over 10,000 entries, everything from Harry Potter’s South of England Tour to the Harry Potter Tour to London for the Release of Book Seven. What an industry! But not one of those tours mentioned the fact that you can visit a screaming mandrake plant, yes, the one featured in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in a 17th century walled garden in the centre of London.

Founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries for the study of medicinal plants, the Chelsea Physic Garden is London’s oldest botanic garden and one of the best kept secrets in town. Historians, crime writers, gardeners, doctors, film buffs and newt catching kids will all love this four acre site between Royal Hospital Road and the River Thames, not far off the Kings Road

From the weird mandrake plant that actually resembles an ugly screaming baby to deadly nightshade (or “belladonna” because Venetian ladies would use it to dilate their pupils) to the Pacific yew tree used to make the cancer treatment “Taxol”, every plant has a tale to tell. There’s the story of the cotton plants sent from the Garden to the new colony of Georgia in America and the tea plants which were smuggled out of China by the Scottish botanist, Robert Fortune to start up India’s tea business.

On a recent visit with a “twenty something” visiting American, we chose to go on one of the Garden’s guided tours which is included in the price of a ticket. It was led by David, a gentleman straight out of central casting, who somehow managed to educate and entertain an eclectic group of visiting lady gardeners, new age herbalists and us. His descriptions of some of the effects of plant poisons were particularly vivid. When we finished our tour, my young friend remarked, “I loved it. My Grandmother would REALLY have loved it.

If you are travelling with young children, this garden is a wonderful haven in a built-up part of the city where children can run around, go pond dipping for bugs and newts and get something nice to eat at the café. In a Charles Adams moment, I really enjoyed the numerous posted warnings about the hazards posed by the poisonous plants, the bees and the ponds which none of the happy children nor their parents seemed to notice.

All in all, I can think of no better break from the upmarket, but not very interesting, shops of the Kings Road (it’s the same stuff you can get at the upmarket outlets at home) then an hour spent in the Chelsea Physics Garden. It is amazing how many things in our medicine cabinet have a link to this bucolic and historic place and you will be further amazed by the role plants play in our heritage and our lives. If you are looking for a place to eat after your visit, head for Foxtrot Oscar next door. Everyone who has ever eaten there, except me, seems to have been seated next to Prince William and they make a great burger.

Chelsea Physic Gardens
Swan Walk
London SW£ 4HS
Tel: 020 7352 5646
enquiries@chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

Closest Tube station: Sloane Square

The Garden is open April – October
Wednesdays, 12pm-dusk or 9pm whichever is earlier
Thursdays and Fridays, 12-5pm
Sundays, Bank Holidays and Good Friday, 12-6pm
Admission Charges
£7.00 for adults and senior citizens£4.00 for students*, unemployed people* and children (5-15 years old)*