On today's date in 1865, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston officially surrendered1 his armies to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman at Bennett Place, on the road from Hillsborough to Durham Station in North Carolina. It was the the largest surrender of the War Between the States.2 Among his forces encamped all around Confederate headquarters at Greensboro3 was the Army of Tennessee, in which my Great Grandfather Nathan Richardson Oakes served throughout the war.
That valiant army served bravely at Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold Gap, Dalton, Resaca, Pickett's Mill, Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Ezra Church, Jonesboro, Franklin, Nashville, Bentonville, and saw the war to its conclusion at Greensboro.
By May 2nd, and with no formal ceremony to conclude the surrender, the Confederate soldiers will be issued their paroles from Greensboro and sent home.
1 Instead of using the term "surrender," Johnston asserted that the peace agreement was a "military convention... to terminate hostilities." Rather than being received as prisoners of war as in a formal surrender, Johnston felt his men should be permitted to stack their arms, receive their paroles, and march home, which, in fact, they did.
1 Instead of using the term "surrender," Johnston asserted that the peace agreement was a "military convention... to terminate hostilities." Rather than being received as prisoners of war as in a formal surrender, Johnston felt his men should be permitted to stack their arms, receive their paroles, and march home, which, in fact, they did.
2 Johnston surrendered the Division of the West under himself, the forces under Gen. Braxton Bragg, the Department of North Carolina under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, and the Department of Tennessee and Georgia under Lt. Gen. William Hardee, all of which generals had at one time or another commanded the Army of Tennessee. Other Confederate units will surrender in the weeks ahead. The last battle of the war, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, east of Brownsville, Texas, will be fought May 12-13, 1865. On June 23, in Doakesville, Oklahoma, Brig. Gen. Stand Watie, a Cherokee, will be the last Confederate field general to surrender.
3 The camps of the Confederate army were spread over a wide area, with troops at High Point, New Salem, Jamestown, Salisbury, Trinity College, Bush Hill, and Greensboro.
Sources: Last Stand in the Carolinas, Mark L. Bradley; Narrative of Military Operations During the Civil War, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston; The Chattanoogan.com; Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, Vol. 2, Jacob Cox; The Confederate Surrender at Greensboro, Robert M. Dunkerly; Mary Ellen Oakes’s Confederate Veteran Pension Application
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