Bennett Place State Historic Site

Once the home of James and Nancy Bennitt (or Bennett), this 189 acre Piedmont North Carolina farm became the location of the largest surrender of Confederate soldiers in the American Civil War. Over the course of three days (April 17, 18, and 26, 1865) General William Tecumseh Sherman and General Joseph Eggleston Johnston deliberated the terms of surrender and peace, which helped reunite this country. In the final resolution, on April 26, 1865, 89, 270 Confederate soldiers who were still actively fighting in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina were officially surrendered. Three more primary surrenders followed in Citronelle, Alabama with the surrender of Lt. General Richard Taylor's army on May 4, 1865, in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 26, 1865 with the capitulation of General Kirby Smith's Army of the Trans Mississippi, and finally on June 23, 1865, American Indians (Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, and Osage) under the command of Brigadier General Stand Watie surrendered the last major army in the field at Doaksville, Oklahoma. Additionally, small bands of Confederate soldiers returning home turned over their weapons and furled their flags. The American Civil War was over.