Hearing news of a possible surrender by Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Union General William T. Sherman hastened his troops to North Carolina. The Union had taken Richmond and Petersburg, two strongholds for the Confederacy; Sherman added Raleigh to that list as his troops entered the state. Both confederate and union forces in the area, fighting in small skirmishes over the state capital and surrounding land, learned of Lee’s surrender days after it occurred.
Upon hearing the news, Generals Sherman and Johnston met at a nearby farmhouse, owned by the Bennett family in Orange County, to discuss their situation. The two reached a surrender agreement on April 16, 1865, 17 days after Lee in Appomattox. Their compromise ended the Civil War for almost 90,000 soldiers and the states of North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.