Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Battle of Durham Station (2nd nomination)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Can't sleep, clown will eat me 09:03, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Battle of Durham Station

Evidence indicates that this Battle did not exist:

What is the source for claiming this was a battle? (I just noticed the failed request for deletion, so am late to the party.) Durham Station was the location of Johnston's surrender on April 26, 1865, but I was not aware hostilities were involved that day; an armistice was signed April 18. (See Bennett Place and Carolinas Campaign.) I checked with

• Phisterer, Frederick, Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States, Castle Books, 1883, ISBN 0-7858-1585-6.

which has a big list of 2,261 battles and skirmishes and it is not mentioned. The travel site http://www.civilwar-va.com/northcarolina/CarolinasCampaign.html is pretty comprehensive and it doesn't mention it either. Hal Jespersen 00:26, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

• Strong Delete - as nom --Ineffable3000 05:41, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete per nom. TJ Spyke 06:12, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete per my reasoning in the first AfD. I had a go trying to find more about this, but I couldn't, as it simply doesn't seem to exist. No Civil War book in my posession mentions it. The Durham Chamber of Commerce has a history page which mentions the Bennett Place surrender but says nothing about any battle there. The only reference anywhere to this "battle" is a handful of "This Day in History" websites, which give the same date as the Bennett Place surrender, so it's pretty clear they're confusing the conference/surrender for a battle. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 10:21, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• According to this, this and this there was a battle by this name on 1865-04-26, although they say nothing at all about it. According to this, Henry Mattern was wounded at this battle. Uncle G 10:33, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Note that 1865-04-26 is also the date of the surrender at Bennett Place, which is why I believe the websites have gotten the surrender cofused with a battle. The surrender was a major event indeed: it pretty much ended the whole war (though there were some minor events afterward) and if a battle had taken place on the same date in the same town (!!!) there would be much written about it. There isn't. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 12:25, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete. (Someone copied my Talk page text above, but I might as well vote formally.) Unless someone can come up with a reference that describes an actual battle (vs. one of those day-in-history websites that merely lists it), this page should be deleted. Since I wrote the original text, I also searched through the Official Records and find no hostilities mentioned on April 26. Hal Jespersen 16:20, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

• Strong Delete. If this kind of article is kept, it will open up all sorts of weird articles which lack of any significance. Some local conflict is definetly not encyclopedia material. AQu01rius (User | Talk | Websites)  20:01, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• Comment See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Battle of Durham Station. T REX_speak 16:58, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• Comment - I suspect the theory that this was just a surrender, and not a battle, is correct, but I would suggest contacting an expert in the field who can verify this. Also, the website here that Uncle G quoted mentions two people wounded in this battle, so maybe there was a skirmish before the formal surrender? Those reports of wounded men need to be explained before we can say for sure that there was no battle at all. Carcharoth 18:08, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete The two soldiers who were wounded had no military record and no official report was filed for them. That is probably why they aren't mentioned in any books. If only two people died/were injured then I don't think it was much of a battle and therefore isn't notable even if it did exist. T REX_speak 20:14, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete per arguments above. Carcharoth 20:20, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete per OR and Boatner who writes: "By 13 Apr., however, he (Johnston) realized that the situation was hopeless, and the next day requested an armistice. Without renewal of hostilities, he surrendered on 26 Apr. '65." (CW Dictionary, article Carolinas Campaign, pg 127.) True, Bennett House near Durham Station was the site of surrender, but no hostilities appear in the standard sources. If someone got injured, it was likely an "administrative" injury, hard feelings occuring during the stand down. BusterD 01:06, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete per nom. Arbusto 06:32, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
• Delete Pedia-I ^{Project Jesus} 15:06, April 9, 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.