Fort Branch was an earthen fort located on the Roanoke river, about 60 miles from the mouth. Confederate troops set up on a bluff 70 feet above a bend in the river, providing an excellent vantage from which to either survey or attack encroaching Union forces. The Fort Branch Battlefield Commission has overseen a restoration of the fort, and arranged for the display of artifacts such as period cannon dredged from the riverbed (where they were pushed when the Confederates abandoned the fort). Civil War Battle reenactments take place once a year.