Surrender Anniversary in the Carolinas

Bennett Place State Historic Site
Durham, North Carolina

149 years ago today (April 26, 1865), Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. The surrender was carried out at what is now Benton Place State Historic Site in Durham, North Carolina.

Johnston's surrender was the largest of the War Between the States (or Civil War) and came after his army waged one last brutal fight at the Battle of Bentonville. The Confederate attacks came close to wiping out one wing of Sherman's larger army. The tide of the battle turned when Sherman rushed reinforcements to the field and Johnston called off the attacks and withdrew.

Road by which Johnston approached Bennett Place

By early April 1865, he had moved his army into positions at Hillsborough about 35 miles northwest of the state capital of Raleigh. The Union army took Raleigh and moved into positions there. Johnston and Sherman faced each other from the two cities when news arrived of the surrender of General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of North Virginia at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Johnston now found himself in a critical position. With Sherman's much larger army just 35 miles away in Raleigh, he knew that if he continued to fight he could expect Union General Ulysses S. Grant to push down from the north. His small army would be swallowed up.

Restored farm and monument at Bennett Place.

His situation became even more stressful when President Jefferson Davis, fleeing south after the fall of Richmond, ordered the veteran general to continue the fight. Davis, in fact, told Johnston that if he could not defeat the armies arrayed against him, he should break up his own force and turn his men into guerrillas who would continue the war for years if need be.

Rather than launch a guerrilla war that would flood the South with blood, Johnston decided to meet with General Sherman. He sent a letter through the lines, Sherman responded, and the two generals met near Durham, about half-way between their armies. They decided to find a house where they could sit down and talk, but the first home-owner they approached refused to let Sherman set foot in his house. They moved on to the Bennett Place, home of James and Nancy Bennett, who consented to allow the generals to meet in their home.

Table at which the surrender document was prepared

On the next day, April 18, 1864, Johnston agreed to surrender the Army of Tennessee. Sherman offered him extremely liberal terms. When the proposed surrender terms reached Washington, D.C., however, Union officials said no. The North was then outraged over the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and Sherman's humane terms were refused by his superiors. He accordingly notified Johnston that he would have no choice but to continue the fight in 48 hours.

Johnston knew that he had no hope of defeating Sherman, so on April 26, 1865, he surrendered the Confederate Army of Tennessee and all Confederate forces east of Alabama on the harsh terms demanded by the politicians in Washington.

To learn more about the surrender at Bennett Place, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bennettplace.

Duke Homestead State Historic Site - Durham, North Carolina

Duke Homestead

In the years after the Civil War, the cotton crops that grew across the Carolinas were replaced in many locations by a new cash crop: tobacco.

Much of the reason for this was the inventiveness of a man named Washington Duke. Coming home from the Confederate army in 1865, he returned to his farm almost broke but with a determination to succeed that would lead to the building of one of the largest companies in the world.

Washington Duke

Duke discovered that Union soldiers, who passed through North Carolina during Sherman's Carolinas Campaign, loved the bright tobacco grown in the region. He planted more and came up with the then groundbreaking idea of packaging it cured, shredded and ready to smoke. His first crop sold like hotcakes and the next year, 1866, he and his children produced 15,000 pounds of smoking tobacco.

Over the next several decades, the Duke family grew to become barons of the tobacco industry. The new city of Durham, which was only a station on the railroad in 1865, became the centerpiece of the massive Carolina tobacco business, with warehouses, a market, manufacturing centers and more.

Tobacco Leaves in the Barn

Washington Duke and his heirs contributed massive amounts of the money they earned from their tobacco sales to improving the lives of the Southern people. The money built schools, hospitals and other public facilities. Today's Duke University stands as a shining example of their philanthropy.

The modern tobacco industry and the Duke family fortune began, however, on a small farm in North Carolina. The complex today is a state historic site, where visitors can learn about the tobacco industry, Washington Duke and even the development of modern marketing techniques.

To learn more about the Duke Homestead, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dukehomestead.

Bennett Place State Historic Site - Durham, North Carolina

Bennett Place

The largest troop surrender of the Civil War took place on April 18, 1865... and again on April 26, 1865... at the Bennett Place in Durham, Noarth Carolina.

Now a state historic site, Bennett Place was where Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman.

In 1865, the Bennett Place was the family farm of James and Nancy Bennett, who lived on the road from Raleigh to Hillsborough near what was then known as Durham Station. Like most Southern farmers, the Bennetts did not own slaves, but worked their land with their own hands. They supported the Confederacy and, in fact, lost three sons to the war. Two died in service and the fate of a third is unknown.

1865 Sketch of the Surrender

On April 17, 1865, Johnston and Sherman met at the Bennett Place to discuss possible terms of a truce. The Confederate commander had heard of the surrender of General Robert E. Lee and was considering whether to continue the fight or seek honorable terms.

Sherman offered terms so generous that on April 18, 1865, Johnston agreed to the largest troop surrender of the war. His command included some 89,270 soldiers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, along with thousands of pieces of artillery and large stocks of military supplies.

Reconstructed Bennett House

Officials in Washington, however, rejected the terms offered by Sherman. Lincoln had just been assassinated and they felt Sherman had been overly generous with his still-undefeated foe. Many felt the South should be severely punished for her role in the war and some went so far as to accuse Sherman of being a traitor to the Union cause for offering Johnston terms that complied with Lincoln's belief in a peace with "malice toward none, with charity toward all."

The two generals, both now personally and professionally humiliated, were forced to meet again. With little other option now left to him, Johnston surrendered - again - on April 26, 1865.

Bennett Place State Historic Site does an outstanding job of interpreting the events that took place there in April of 1865. The house and kitchen, central to the surrender events, have been reconstructed on their original sites and rail fences line the historic road along which Johnston and Sherman approached the surrender site. The museum is very nice, with exhibits both on the surrender itself and North Carolina's role in the war.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bennettplace.