The Bridge of Defiance

We did a thing. 

With the same enthusiasm of the Highland Scots who charged the bridge at Moores Creek, The Liberty Trail team, with The Parks Channel, charged forth into a new(ish) frontier in historical storytelling—using AI to bring a Revolutionary battle to life. 

I bet you’ve got questions. So did I. But that’s just the thing. We were curious about how this technology could be an additional tool in our toolkit to help visitors explore a historic battlefield in new and impactful ways. The American Battlefield Trust has embraced technologies like virtual and augmented realities. We’ve used technology to “restore” historic structures and landscapes, and even put folks in the midst of the action at Lexington and Concord. Experimenting with AI was a logical next step. 

So we turned our curious enthusiasm to the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge--the most important Revolutionary War battle you’ve probably never heard of. And let me answer one thing right now, that you might be asking—why not just use reenactors and film a traditional documentary? Because we wanted to do more than recreate the battle. We wanted to bring the landscape to life. 

Visiting the National Battlefield Park in Curie, North Carolina is a stirring thing—much of the environment reflects the swampy marshland of 1776, but like other battlefields 20^th-century monuments and modern amenities dot the landscape. The bridge itself is, of course, modern. And who wouldn’t want to see what a swath of Highland Scots looked (and sounded) like charging a slick, dismantled bridge with broadswords and swagger? We wanted to see if we could use AI to recreate not just the short battle, but the whole of the landscape itself, in the hopes that it would bring more visibility to this pivotal moment in North Carolina history as visitors explore the battle on The Liberty Trail during America’s Semiquincentennial. 

With our partners at The Parks Channel, colleagues at the National Parks Service, and subject matter experts, we meticulously researched the who, what, and wear of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge. We let the primary sources drive the script and the art direction. Just any good historical documentary would. 

As you can imagine, we learned a lot. We learned that working with AI isn’t like working with actors on set. AI really likes to make everyone look like a pirate. And AI doesn’t care that you’re showing it exactly what a Rev War-era flintlock looks like. It’s going to do what it wants to do anyway. 

Did AI get all the details right? Nope. Did it make some pretty wild assumptions about the 18^th century that we couldn’t really fix? Yep. And was this (at times) super frustrating? Absolutely. But it was also incredibly rewarding. We got to work with this alien tech to bring visitors, students, and a curious public a whole new way of learning about the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge. 

We debuted The Bridge of Defiance on February 27, 2026, the 250^th anniversary of the battle, as part of the First in Freedom Festival (to rave reviews, I might add). And now, we’re sharing it with you. So have a look at our first foray into AI. My only ask: be curious. We’re all storytellers here, and the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge is a story that needs to be told.