Booknotes: Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site

New Arrival:

• Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site by Colby Lipscomb and Derrick Brown (Arcadia Pub, 2024).

Like many other Civil War parks, Bentonville Battlefield SHS had modest beginnings, but thanks to decades of public-private expansion and preservation advocacy it now boasts 2,000 acres of saved ground, fully a third of the historical battleground. For readers interested in the history of the Bentonville campaign and battle, there are no two sources superior to Mark Bradley's The Battle Of Bentonville: Last Stand In The Carolinas (1996) and Mark Moore's matchless map study accompaniment Moore's Historical Guide To The Battle Of Bentonville (1997). But if you are interested in the history of the ground upon which the battle was fought and the state historic site created to preserve it for future generations you now have a fine resource in Colby Lipscomb and Derrick Brown's Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site.

From the description: Over the years following the battle, "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."

Lipscomb and Brown "have decades of experience at the battlefield as visitors and, currently, as staff members," and they've utilized their extensive body of knowledge and contacts in the service of compiling a grand collection of "photographs from several North Carolina state agencies, historical societies, and descendants of veterans and community members." Their book "tells the visual history of the battlefield as a site of memory." Image subjects include maps, commemorative events, individual and group photographs across time, aerial views of the landscape, contemporary illustrations, material culture, buildings, monuments, and graves.

Part of Arcadia's Images of America series, the story of the battlefield is revealed through a sequence of captioned photos organized into seven themed chapters. The first chapter introduces the campaign and battle itself. That is followed by a series of images of the Bentonville community before and after the battle. The memorials and monuments that dot the ground are the focus of the third chapter. The volume's lengthy chapter four follows the history of the Harper House, which supported a farming family before the battle and served as a hospital during it. If a single photograph representative of the battlefield is needed, the restored front of the house is often chosen for it. Chapter Five traces the establishment of the historic site, construction of a visitor center and museum, and early exhibits and interpretation. The many programs and events associated with the battlefield and its commemoration, including staff rides from Fort Bragg, are documented in the next chapter. The visitor center was remodeled in 1999, and the final chapter discusses plans for the future that include an entirely new visitor center.