On March 19-21, 1865, nearly 80,000 soldiers clashed near the small hamlet of Bentonville, North Carolina, in a bitter battle that would prove to be the largest ever fought in the state and one of the last major battles of the Civil War.

Over the following decades, residents, descendants, and historians preserved the Bentonville story through monuments, markers, tours, and more. A hundred years after the battle, representatives of the state of North Carolina dedicated a permanent museum and created Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site. Over the following years, North Carolina Historic Sites, with the American Battlefield Trust, has preserved and interpreted the battlefield at Bentonville--with over 2,000 acres preserved as of 2023. Today, the site continues to tell the multitude of Bentonville stories, including the battle, its aftermath, and the community that surrounds it.

Collecting photographs from several North Carolina state agencies, historical societies, and descendants of veterans and community members, this book tells the visual history of the battlefield as a site of memory. Several works exist to tell the history of the battle, but this is the first history of the battlefield itself. Authors Colby Lipscomb and Derrick Brown have decades of experience at the battlefield as visitors and, currently, as staff members.