Bennett Place
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Bennett Place State Historic Site
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| Location | 4409 Bennett Memorial Rd., Durham, North Carolina |
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| Coordinates | 36°1′45″N 78°58′32″W / 36.02917°N 78.97556°WCoordinates: 36°1′45″N 78°58′32″W / 36.02917°N 78.97556°W |
| Area | 30.5 acres (12.3 ha) |
| Built | 1789 |
| NRHP Reference # | 70000452 |
| Added to NRHP | February 26, 1970 |
Bennett Place, sometimes known as Bennett Farm, in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, was the site of the largest surrender of Confederate soldiers ending the American Civil War, on April 26, 1865.
After Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea, he turned north through the Carolinas for the Carolinas Campaign. Confederate President Jefferson Davis met General Joseph E. Johnston in Greensboro, North Carolina, while Sherman had stopped in Raleigh.
Though Davis wished to continue the war, Johnston sent a courier to the Union troops encamped at Morrisville, with a message to General Sherman, offering a meeting between the lines to discuss a truce. Johnston, whose army was still an active fighting force encamped in Greensboro, realized it could not continue the war now that Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9. Johnston, escorted by a detachment of about 60 troopers of the 5th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, traveled east along the Hillsborough Road toward Durham Station. Sherman was riding west to meet him, with an escort of 200 men from the 9th and 13th Pennsylvania, 8th Indiana and 2nd Kentucky Cavalry. The farm of James and Nancy Bennett was the closest and most convenient place for privacy. The first day's discussion (April 17) was intensified by the telegram Sherman handed to Johnston, informing of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. They met the following day, April 18, and signed terms of surrender. However, on April 24, Grant arrived and informed Sherman that the terms had been rejected by the presidential cabinet in Washington because they exceeded the terms that Grant had given Lee and included civil matters. The opposing generals met again on April 26, 1865, and with the assistance of Gen. John M. Schofield agreed to new terms omitting the controversial sections. The agreement disbanded all active Confederate forces in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, totaling 89,270 soldiers, the largest group to surrender during the war.
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