March 22, 1864---"You will then have no country to love."

MARCH 22, 1864:    

Several citizens of Fayetteville write of Sherman’s seizure of their city. From their diaries and letters it is possible to get some hint of the extent of the destruction visited upon them by Sherman’s men.

From The Diary of A Confederate Woman (reprinted in part):

Sherman has gone and terrible has been the storm that has swept over us with his coming and going. They deliberately shot two of our citizens ---murdered them in cold blood --- one of them a Mr. Murphy, a wounded soldier, Confederate States Army. They hung up three others and one lady, merely letting them down just in time to save life, in order to make them tell where their valuables were concealed; and they whipped-stripped and cowhided-several good and well known citizens . . . There was no place, no chamber, trunk, drawer, desk, garret, closet or cellar that was private to their unholy eyes. Their rude hands spared nothing but our lives . . . At our house they killed every chicken, goose, turkey, cow, calf and every living thing, even to our pet dog. They carried off our wagons, carriage and horses, and broke up our buggy, wheelbarrow, garden implements, axes, hatchets, hammers, saws &c., and burned the fences. Our smokehouse and pantry, that a few days ago were well stored with bacon, lard, flour, dried fruit, meal, pickles, preserves, etc., now contain nothing whatever except a few pounds of meal and flour and five pounds of bacon. They took from old men, women and children alike, every garment of wearing apparel save what we had on, not even sparing the napkins of infants! Blankets, sheets, quilts, &c. . . . they tore to pieces before our eyes . . . [O]ne of these barbarians had to add insult to injury by asking me “what you (I) would live upon now?” I replied, “Upon patriotism; I will exist upon the love of my country as long as life will last, and then I will die as firm in that love as the everlasting hills.”

 “Oh,” says he, “but we shall soon subjugate the rebellion, and you will then have no country to love.” . . . And he turned and left me with a fiendish chuckle.

From The Hillsborough Recorder (reprinted in part):

FAMINE AT FAYETTEVILLE

We are in great distress. The Yankees arrived on Sunday morning, and have nearly destroyed both town and country . . . Many, very many families have not a mouthful to eat. We have meal and meat to last us two weeks, by taking two meals a day. Our house and many others burned, and everything destroyed. Even the negroes have been robbed and abused . . . Do spread the news of our destitution and urge the people to bring us something to eat. If relief does not come soon many must starve to death . . . All the factories, the arsenal and the . . .  [town] square . . . have been burned. Every store and house in town and country have been robbed. 

The Richmond Daily Dispatch reassures its readers:

Whilst Sherman advances northward, the sea closes behind him, and lifts up its unfettered hands on high. He leaves not even a trace of his conquering keel over the vast expanse he has crossed. The subjugation of such a territory as that of the Confederacy is simply an impossibility, if the people are true to themselves. Borne down in one place, we will rise in another, and let him discover that he has a war on his hands which will last as long as his most passionate desires for bloodshed can demand. We cannot yield life, honor, property, freedom, all that makes us men, without struggling till every hand is paralyzed and every heart grows cold in death.

While the Daily Dispatch inspires, and while the citizens of Fayetteville mourn the loss of their city, the Union army enters Goldsboro. Colonel George Nichols U.S.A. writes:

The army has entered Goldsboro’. Its march has been delayed seventy hours by Johnston’s operations, but the interruption has not materially interfered with [us] . . .  Our army will at once be . . . refit[ted] for the next campaign; not only to be reclothed, but to gain . . . repose . . . Mind, as well as body, requires rest after the fatigues of rapid campaign[ing] . . . These ragged, bareheaded, shoeless, brave, jolly fellows of Sherman’s legions . . .  Yet, with all the hardships of the campaign, the surgeons’ returns show the wonderfully healthy condition of the army. Only two per cent of sick are in hospital . . . The great majority of the soldiers are strong, healthy, cheerful, confident. The mental strain, however, is visible . . . With a few days of quiet for animals and men . . . we will soon be ready to strike another blow for our nationality.

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.