Eric J. Wittenberg - The Battle of Monroes Crossroads: And the Civil Wars Final Campaign

History descended on the two-room wooden home of James and Nancy Bennett near Durham Station, North Carolina, on April 17, 1865. Eight days earlier, Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered the tattered remnants of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. General Joseph E. Johnston, who commanded most of the remaining Confederate forces in North Carolina, realized that once the possibility of a link-up with Lees army was gone, there was no hope for his vastly outnumbered force. Johnston, however wanted to make peace rather than just surrender his army. Major General William T. Sherman, Johnstons formidable adversary, also wanted to make peace in the hope of avoiding further bloodshed.

Johnston proposed a meeting between the two army commanders, and they selected James Bennetts place, approximately halfway between the positions held by the two foes. Thus, as one of Shermans staff officers noted, two great men came together in the heart of North Carolina, intent, with true nobility of soul and in the highest interest of humanity, upon putting a stop to the needless sacrifice of life.

The two generals entered the little Bennett house and began negotiating the terms, not just of the surrender of Johnstons army but of the end of the war and the restoration of the Union. Great things would happen in the small, plain parlor of the Bennett home, events of far-reaching consequence that remain largely unappreciated even today.

Each commander arrived with his staff and a cavalry escort. Lieutenant General Wade Hampton of South Carolina, Johnstons chief of cavalry, and Brevet Major General Judson Kilpatrick, Shermans cavalry chieftain, accompanied their respective commanders to the meeting at the Bennett house. Hampton and Kilpatrick were both transfers from the Virginia theater of operations, where they tangled a number of times during the first two years of the war. Although it is difficult to imagine more dissimilar personalities than these two men, they were familiar adversaries.

The horse soldiers mingled as they shook hands, shared war stories, and traded souvenirs. Colonel J. Fred Waring, commander of the Jeff Davis Legion Cavalry of Mississippi, engaged Major Llewellyn G. Estes, Kilpatricks assistant adjutant general, in conversation. To his great surprise, Waring discovered Major Estes was a pleasant, civil gentleman. I was treated civilly by all the officers I met. We recalled our fights in Virginia. Estes agreed, adding that it seemed like meeting old friends. Waring found Estess warmth a bit unsettling. Queer expression for a man who is ready to cut my throat when we next meet on the field, he observed. But he is a good fellow, if he is an enemy.

While waiting for Generals Johnston and Sherman to conclude their meeting, Hampton and his son, Lieutenant Wade Hampton, Jr., lounged on a carpenters bench outside the Bennett house. The elder Hampton wore his best uniform topped by a black felt hat adorned with gold braid and well shined cavalry boots. He left his sword behind that day in favor of a switchperhaps to send a message that he could still thrash any Yankee who crossed his path. The sight of his men and officers chitchatting with the enemy angered the aloof Hampton, who attitude that day was described as cold and bold beyond arrogance.