Short answers, pulled from the story.
Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina was the site of the largest Confederate surrender of the American Civil War. On the 26th of April, 1865, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered 89,270 soldiers to Union Major General William T. Sherman. Two separate negotiating sessions were required because the Union cabinet rejected the first set of terms.
United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton persuaded a unanimous Federal cabinet to reject the terms because they went beyond a purely military surrender. Johnston, joined by General John C. Breckinridge, had insisted on political concessions including the reestablishment of state governments and civil rights guarantees, which exceeded the authority Lincoln had given Grant.
The surrender at Bennett Place covered 89,270 Confederate soldiers serving in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. This made it the largest single surrender of the American Civil War, larger than the more famous surrender at Appomattox Court House.
James and Nancy Bennett were yeoman farmers who owned the farm and homestead in Durham, North Carolina that became the surrender site. The war cost the family two family members: their son Lorenzo, who served in the 27th North Carolina, and their son-in-law Robert Duke, who died in a Confederate Army hospital. James Bennett died in 1878 and the family moved to Durham.
Bennett Place was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The site was fully reclaimed and restored in 1960 and then turned over to the State of North Carolina as a state historic site, now managed by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
The William Vatavuk Scholarship is a yearly award for students planning to major in history in college, first given on the 15th of April, 2010. It honors the late William Vatavuk, who wrote Dawn of Peace, the first guidebook for the Bennett Place historic site.