Bennett Place State Historic Site

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Bennett Place State Historic Site
National Register of Historic Places
Bennett Place State Historic Site (2008) with a reconstructed farm and Unity Monument in the background

Bennett Place State Historic Site (2008) with a reconstructed farm and Unity Monument in the background

Bennett Place State Historic Site, North Carolina
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Durham , Durham County , North Carolina
Coordinates 36 ° 1 '45.2 "  N , 78 ° 58' 25.4"  W Coordinates: 36 ° 1 '45.2 "  N , 78 ° 58' 25.4"  W.
Built 1789
NRHP number 70000452
The NRHP added February 26, 1970

The Bennett Place State Historic Site , also known as Bennett Farm , is a historically significant site in Durham in Durham County , North Carolina . On April 26, 1865, the largest surrender of Confederate forces during the American Civil War took place here, on which Generals William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston agreed.

Building description

The Bennett Place State Historic Site is 1.6 acres and has state park status . It consists of a small farm that includes three buildings with a cladding construction and a gable roof : a residential house, a kitchen and a smokehouse . Its layout and shape are typical of the farms that stood in the Piedmont of North Carolina in the mid-19th century . Cookware from the early 19th century is on display in the kitchen building, while furniture based on the original furnishings from 1865 is on display in the house. Contemporary drawings of the surrender negotiations were used for this purpose.

history

The Bennett Place State Historic Site has been inhabited since 1789. The exact location of the first house in which Thomas Couch, Sr. lived, is not certain. After several changes of ownership, the shoemaker, blacksmith and farmer James Bennett finally became the owner of the property in 1846. When the Civil War drew to a close in 1865, Bennett and his family lived in what is now Bennett Place State Historic Site.

After the Confederate defeat in the Battle of Bentonville and the surrender of General Robert Edward Lee with 40,000 men at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, Southern recognized General Johnston, who commanded 89,000 men in North and South Carolina , Georgia and Florida , the hopelessness of his situation and prepared to surrender against the will of President Jefferson Davis . In mid-April there was the commander of the Northern States , General Sherman, in Raleigh , while Johnston in Hillsborough was. Johnston and Sherman agreed to conduct the surrender negotiations on the Hillsborough to Durham road. On the morning of April 17th, the generals and their companions met. When Sherman asked for the talks to be held in a confidential location, Johnston suggested Bennett Farm, which he had passed recently. The surrender negotiations then took place in Bennett's house until an "agreement basis" was found on the evening of April 18. Since changes to the surrender conditions were required at the political level, a new meeting took place on April 26th, at which the now tightened surrender conditions were signed. This marked the Confederate’s largest surrender in the American Civil War.

The farmhouse burned down in 1921 and was later reconstructed using the building materials originally used. In 1923, the Unity Monument was erected to commemorate the surrender of the Confederate States Army and the end of the Civil War. Although the scale of the event is comparable to the surrender of Robert Edward Lee , this historic site is overshadowed by Appomattox Court House , which has been declared a National Historical Park .

On February 26, 1970, Bennett Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places .

literature

  • Eric J. Wittenberg: We Ride a Whirlwind: Sherman and Johnston at Bennett Place . Fox Run Publishing, Burlington 2017, ISBN 978-1-945602-02-3 .
  • Philip Gerard: The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 2019, ISBN 978-1-4696-4957-3 , Chapter 43: The Great Surrender .

Web links

Commons : Bennett Place State Historic Site  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Eric J. Wittenberg, We Ride a Whirlwind: Sherman and Johnston at Bennett Place . P. Ii.
  2. ↑ John B. Wells III .: Bennett Place State Historic Site: Nomination Form . In: National Register of Historic Places database . National Park Service , March 12, 1971, accessed March 2, 2018 (English, 496 kB), p. 2.
  3. ↑ John B. Wells III .: Bennett Place State Historic Site: Nomination Form . In: National Register of Historic Places database . National Park Service , March 12, 1971, accessed March 2, 2018 (English, 496 kB), p. 3.
  4. ↑ John B. Wells III .: Bennett Place State Historic Site: Nomination Form . In: National Register of Historic Places database . National Park Service , March 12, 1971, accessed March 2, 2018 (English, 496 kB), p. 3.
  5. ↑ Robert M. Dunkerly: To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and the Surrenders of the Confederacy . Savas Beatie, El Dorado Hills 2015, ISBN 978-1-61121-252-5 , pp. 137, 138 .
  6. ↑ John B. Wells III .: Bennett Place State Historic Site: Nomination Form . In: National Register of Historic Places database . National Park Service , March 12, 1971, accessed March 2, 2018 (English, 496 kB), p. 2.
  7. ^ Eric J. Wittenberg, We Ride a Whirlwind: Sherman and Johnston at Bennett Place . P. Ii.
  8. ^ Bennett Place State Historic Site on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed March 2, 2018.