Bennett Place, where (some would say) the Civil War ended, opens a window this weekend on the era that followed: Reconstruction.

"A lot of people don't have a clue what Reconstruction was all about," said John Guss, manager of the state historic site in western Durham.

For the occasion, Guss said, he and others will be talking about the experience of Union occupation troops and Southern civilians after the war was over.

"Many Union soldiers stayed around for months and years," said Guss, himself a re-enactor who has had small parts in several Civil War movies.

Besides being ready to go home, some of those troops were frustrated they had to stay in the South when their brothers-in-arms got to march in the grand victory parade in Washington, D.C.

Besides a soldiers' camp, Guss plans to have civilian re-enactors at the Bennett homeplace to talk about the family farm and what Reconstruction meant to them.

"Trying to figure out how to survive," Guss said.

In 1865, James and Nancy Bennett owned a farm on the road between Durham's Station and Hillsborough. Union Gen. William T. Sherman and Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston used the house on three occasions for talks that led to the largest Confederate surrender of the war.

For some time into Reconstruction, Guss said, the Bennetts were "probably still mesmerized having had the two supreme generals coming to their home."

Interpreting Reconstruction is something brand-new for Bennett Place, and Guss said this weekend "is looking like a pretty small event."

He had the idea of having a large contingent of Union troops encamped, but that didn't work out, he said.

One problem, he said, is that it's hard to get people to play Yankees.