March 21, 1865---The Battle of Bentonville (Day Three):

MARCH 21, 1865:     

 The Battle of Bentonville       (Day Three):         

Most of the day passes with Sherman and Johnston eyeing each other, daring one another to make the first move. Skirmishing continues, becoming heavy at times, but there is no major movement of troops until Sherman orders General Joseph A. Mower forward to smash through the Confederate line. Mower does so with relative ease, and is on his way to Mill Creek, preparing to flank Johnston completely, when Sherman unaccountably calls him back. Sherman later admits he erred; in hindsight, Mower’s flanking of Johnston probably would have resulted in the encirclement of the entire Army of Tennessee, leading to Johnston’s likely surrender.

The Battle of Bentonville is the last tactical offensive ever mounted by the Joe Johnston’s army. It is also an expensive loss for Johnston’s army. The Confederates suffer a total of nearly 2,600 casualties --- over 10% of Johnston’s entire remaining force: 239 killed, 1,694 wounded, and 673 missing. Among the dead is General William Hardee C.S.A.’s 16 year old son Willie, who had begged to be allowed to fight in the battle over his father’s strong objections.

The Union army loses 194 killed, 1,112 wounded, and 221 missing, for a total of 1,527 casualties.

Following his victory at Bentonville, Sherman does not pursue Johnston; instead, he refits at Goldsboro and moves on toward Raleigh.

March 20, 1865---The Battle of Bentonville (Day Two)

MARCH 20, 1865:    

The Battle of Bentonville       (Day Two):

The sun rises on a very different battlefield at Bentonville. Overnight, a massive part of Sherman’s right wing (the Army of the Tennessee) has arrived to bolster the Army of Georgia. Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A.’s forces are outnumbered at better than three-to-one.

Realizing that he is badly overmatched, Johnston has spent the night realigning his troops into an easily-defensible “U” shape, with the open end pointing north, toward Mill Creek, and away from the Union lines. Sherman realistically expects Johnston to retreat; however, Johnston is making arrangements for his wounded. He is hoping too to lure Sherman into an ill-considered attack, much as had happened at Kennesaw Mountain back in June. Light skirmishing covers the entire field of battle all day, but nothing develops into a major exchange.

 

The Harper family's home was used as a Union field hospital after the battle. When the armies withdrew, 45 wounded Confederates were left behind in the Harpers' care, a not uncommon occurrence during the Civil War. Formal field hospitals were not the norm until World War I

March 19, 1865---The Battle of Bentonville (Day One)

MARCH 19, 1865:     

The Battle of Bentonville       (Day One):    

The United States’ Army of Georgia moves inexorably toward Goldsboro, North Carolina. Bloodied in the Battle of Averasboro, the Army of Georgia is about to meet its greatest challenge. General Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A. is going to go for broke in an attempt to stall the Union advance. He throws his full 22,000-man force against Sherman’s left wing. 

The Union is lulled into a false sense of security when Johnston’s units take up a blocking position south of the Neuse River. Having the river at his back limits Joe Johnston’s maneuverability, or so Sherman believes. 

Thinking that they have encountered only an advance guard, the endless blue line halts and emplaces, by and large using natural features in the landscape as defensive positions rather than formally entrenching and building breastworks. Clearly, they expect to be on their way rapidly. 

This expectation is crushed, and so is the Union’s defensive line, when a massed Confederate attack occurs around 3:00 P.M.. Quickly exploiting the weaknesses in the Union line, the Confederates manage to send them reeling back in confusion. As the Federals withdraw, additional Confederate forces on their flank open up a withering enfilade fire. Only the arrival of Union reserves prevents a rout. Under heavy close-range fire, the Union entrenches, succeeding in throwing back five furious Confederate charges. The weight of sheer numbers tells. As darkness falls, the two sides remain in place. 

 . . . It looked like a picture and at our distance was truly beautiful . . . But it was a painful sight to see how close their battle flags were together, regiments being scarcely larger than companies and a division not much larger than a regiment should be. 

--- Col. Charles W. Broadfoot, 1st North Carolina Junior Reserves.  

March 18, 1865---The House stood adjourned

MARCH 18, 1865:     

"The hour of 2 o'clock having arrived, / The Speaker announced that the House stood adjourned sine die." (7 J. Cong. C.S.A. 796 (Mar. 18, 1865). 

With those words, the Second Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns --- and the Confederate Congress adjourns forever. It is in fact the end of only the first session of its expected two year term, but the Confederacy collapses before Congress can reconvene. 

For an eminently political people, Southerners did not establish formal political parties. Parties were considered “anti-democratic” by their very nature. However, a de facto divide did develop, between “nationalists” (hardline secessionists aligned with Davis who dominated the First Congress) and “libertarians” (who dominated the Second Congress and who felt that even the Confederate central government was too strong). The shift in power between these two groups in the election of 1863 may be one of the lesser-known but more impactful reasons for the failure of the C.S.A.

March 17, 1865---He Who Would Fight To Be A Slave Deserves To Be A Slave

MARCH 17, 1865:     

President Lincoln addresses an Indiana Regiment at the National Hotel in Washington D.C.. His brief speech reads in part:

It will be but a very few words that I shall undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois; and now I am here, where it is my business to care equally for the good people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana regiment . . .   

There are but few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have not said or written something . . . But there is one --- the recent attempt of our erring brethren . . . to employ the negro to fight for them . . . The great question . . .  [is] whether the negro . . . will fight for them. I do not know . . . They ought to know better than me. 

I have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the negroes ought to be slaves; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery, it will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for that, ought to be a slave . . . While I have often said that all men ought to be free, yet would I allow . . . persons to be slaves who want to be . . . I do know [a slave] cannot fight and stay at home and make bread too. And . . .  one is about as important as the other . . . 

I am rather in favor of having them . . .  as soldiers . . . I wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. But they cannot fight and work both. We  . . . now see the bottom of the enemy's resources . . . I am glad to see the end so near at hand . . . 

This is one of the President’s first public appearances since the Inauguration, and Lincoln is so worn out afterward that he changes his evening plans. He is supposed to attend a charity performance of the play Still Waters Run Deep to be given at Campbell Military Hospital on the outskirts of Washington City. Instead, he returns to the White House and goes to bed. 

What Lincoln does not know is that he has unwittingly foiled John Wilkes Booth’s plot to kidnap him.

Booth happens to be staying at the National Hotel. Lincoln appears there whilst Booth and his cronies are traveling out to Campbell Hospital. The group is intent on intercepting the President’s carriage, seizing the man bodily, and taking him to Jefferson Davis bound and gagged. When Lincoln does not appear, the group disperses in disappointment and disgust. Booth goes back to the National Hotel only to discover to his outrage that he has missed his quarry by scant minutes. He retires to his rooms fuming, to brood on the injustices of his life.