The Battle of Bentonville took place from March 19th to the 21st in 1865. Major General William T Sherman led the Union army against the Confederate General Joseph E. Johnson. It was the last battle fought between the these two armies, and the largest battle in North Carolina history.

Washington Duke and his sons created a tobacco empire which originated here. From Tobacco farming, processing, and even mechanical cigarette production, Duke's sons created the American Tobacco company.

Charlotte Hawkins Brown founded the Alice Freeman Palmer Memorial Institute, commonly referred to as the Palmer Memorial Institute(PMI), as a mission school in 1902. Over the next fifty years as president, Dr. Brown built PMI into one of the preeminent schools for African Americans in the nation. The school closed in 1971 and the historic site opened in 1987.