This article is part of our latest special report on Museums, which focuses on the intersection of art and politics.

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Standing on the remnants of earthworks erected by Confederate forces in the waning months of the Civil War, the historian Chris Fonvielle pointed to a sandy trace snaking through a stand of pine trees — the last remnant of the Federal Point Road that once ran about 20 miles south, toward the mouth of the Cape Fear River.

Here on the afternoon of Feb. 20, 1865, the flags, muskets and blue forage caps of the Fifth Regiment of the United States Colored Troops would have appeared in the distance.

“They came marching up this road,” Mr. Fonvielle said.

And they will again — albeit in a representational work of art.