Editing Orange County, North Carolina (section)

===19th century===
The Reverend Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.burwellschool.org/overview|title=The Burwell School|website=www.burwellschool.org|language=en|access-date=March 17, 2018}}</ref> founded and ran a school for girls called the [[Burwell School]] from 1837 to 1857 in their home on Churton Street in Hillsborough. Families of planters paid to have their daughters educated here.

When the Civil War began, Hillsborough was reluctant to support secession. However, many citizens went off to fight for the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. During the war, [[Governor of North Carolina|North Carolina Governor]] [[David Lowry Swain]] persuaded [[President of the Confederate States of America|Confederate President]] [[Jefferson Davis]] to exempt some UNC students from the draft, so the university was among the few in the Confederacy that managed to stay open.<ref>Snider, William D. (1992), p. 67.</ref> But, Chapel Hill lost more population during the war than any other village in the South. When student numbers did not recover rapidly enough, the university closed for a period during [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], from December 1, 1870, to September 6, 1875.<ref>{{cite book|last=Battle|first=Kemp P.|title=History of the University of North Carolina: From 1868–1912|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AdshAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Edwards & Broughton Printing Company|location=Raleigh, NC|year=1912|pages=39, 41, 88}}</ref>

In March 1865, [[Confederate States Army|Confederate General]] [[Joseph E. Johnston]] wintered just outside Hillsborough at the Dickson home. This house now serves as the Hillsborough Welcome Center in downtown (the house was moved from its original site in the early 1980s due to commercial development). The main portion of the Confederate Army of Tennessee was encamped between Hillsborough and [[Greensboro, North Carolina|Greensboro]].

While camped in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]] after his [[Sherman's March to the Sea|March to the Sea]],  [[Union Army|Union]] General [[William T. Sherman]] offered an armistice to Johnston, who agreed to meet to discuss terms of surrender. Johnston, traveling east from Hillsborough, and Sherman, traveling west from Raleigh along the Hillsborough-Raleigh Road, met roughly half-way near present-day Durham (then Durham Station) at the home of James and Nancy Bennett. Their farmhouse is now known as the [[Bennett Place]]. The two generals met on April 17, 18 and 26, 1865, negotiating terms of Johnston's surrender. Johnston surrendered 89,270 Southern troops who were active in North Carolina, [[South Carolina]], Georgia, and [[Florida]]. This was the largest surrender of troops during the war, and effectively ended the Civil War.<ref name="chahillnews"/>