News From the Department
Bennett Place State Historic Site’s Traveling History Trunk Is “Ready For School”
For more information contact Jessica Dockery at 919-383-4345 or Mary Cook at 919-733-7862.
DURHAM (August 31, 2006)— This year, area elementary schools can make 19th-century history come alive for students by using a “traveling history trunk” available at Bennett Place State Historic Site in Durham. Created by the site’s staff, this trunk is designed to be a mobile, hands-on learning tool for kids in grades K-6. The themes of the trunk’s contents are 1860s life in rural North Carolina and the life of a Civil War soldier. Typical 19 th-century items that may be found inside include period clothing, a crop sample, vintage toys, reproductions of old letters, and equipment that a Civil War soldier would have used. The trunk will also feature a teacher’s manual highlighting a number of suggested class activities that mesh with the trunk’s contents. Teachers are encouraged to use their imagination to make their time working with the trunk a useful, educational and fun experience. The trunk may be reserved by calling 919-383-4345 or e-mailing Bennett@ncmail.net.
Once the home of typical yeoman farmers, the James Bennitt (or Bennett) family , Bennett Place became the site of the largest troop surrender of the Civil War. On April 26, 1865, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Union Gen. William T. Sherman met at the Bennett family farmhouse to negotiate a peaceful solution to America’s most tragic war. To save his troops from the tragedy of a prolonged war, Johnston actually disobeyed the orders of Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis to disband the infantry and escape with his mounted troops and instead, accepted Sherman’s stark surrender terms. The surrender of Johnston’s army ended the fighting in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, allowing nearly 90,000 battered and weary soldiers to return home.
Two more surrenders soon followed. These surrenders, together with Gen. Robert E. Lee's submission to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, effectively disbanded the Confederate forces. The Bennett Place surrender helped spare North Carolina the level of destruction experienced by neighboring southern states.
Bennett Place is located in West Durham, and can be reached by taking 15-501 North, the Durham Freeway (147), or I-85; follow the brown historic site signs. It is part of the division of N.C. Historic Sites within the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. For more information, visit www.ncculture.com. For further information on Bennett Place or the “traveling history trunk”, call 919-383-4345, e-mail bennett@ncmail.net or visit our website at http://www.nchistoricsites.org/bennett/bennett.htm.
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