Battle of Bentonville: The Fight for North Carolina at the end of the US Civil War
The Battle of Bentonville (19-21 March 1865) was among the last major battles of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Having cut swathes of destruction first through Georgia, then through South Carolina, Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman next invaded North Carolina, with the goal of pushing up into Virginia to join forces with Ulysses S. Grant's army outside Richmond. The Confederates hastily stitched together an army to oppose him, which was placed under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston. This campaign culminated at Bentonville, where the rebel army was defeated and forced to retreat. A little over a month later, Johnston would surrender to Sherman at Bennett Place.
Background: 'To Fight Longer Is Madness'
On the night of 15 November 1864, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, went up in flames. By morning, a full third of the city lay in smoldering ruins as 62,000 Union soldiers marched out of Atlanta and into the heart of Georgia, to begin what would become known as Sherman's March to the Sea. Led by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union army advanced in two columns, pillaging the Georgian countryside while simultaneously destroying factories, ripping up railroads, and liberating thousands of slaves. Since the main Confederate army in the region, the Army of Tennessee, was off conducting a desperate invasion of its namesake state – which would culminate in the army's destruction at the Battle of Nashville – the Confederates could offer little resistance as Sherman's troops tore through Georgia, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. On 21 December, the coastal city of Savannah fell to the Union troops, and Sherman sent off a triumphant telegram to US President Abraham Lincoln: "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition" (quoted in Foote, 712).
But although he had accomplished his objective, Sherman was not yet finished. Indeed, his gaze turned northward to the troublesome state of South Carolina. The first state to have seceded from the Union in December 1860, South Carolina was blamed by Sherman and his men for having started the war, a debt they were eager to pay with interest. "The truth is," Sherman reported to his superiors in Washington, "the whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble at her fate" (quoted in McPherson, 826). So, on 1 February 1865, Sherman marched out of Savannah with 60,000 men up into the vulnerable underbelly of the Palmetto State. Like they had done in Georgia, his men conducted a campaign of scorched earth, but this time, they were much more thorough in their destruction. "In Georgia, few houses were burned," wrote one Union officer. "Here, few escaped". Indeed, this campaign of fire and fury climaxed on 17 February, when the state capital of Columbia was captured and subsequently burned. While Sherman did not intentionally burn Columbia, his officers did not do much to restrain their men from pillaging and burning. By the next morning, two-thirds of Columbia had been destroyed.
Sherman's rapid march through first Georgia and now South Carolina both terrorized and disheartened the Confederate population. "All is gloom, despondency, and inactivity," wrote one South Carolinian after the fall of the state capital. "Our army is demoralized, and the people panic stricken…to fight longer seems to be madness" (quoted in McPherson, 827). Continuing to fight against such overwhelming odds may well have been madness, but Confederate President Jefferson Davis was determined to fight, nonetheless. As the iron vices of Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant clamped down on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Davis tasked General Joseph E. Johnston with scraping together an army with which to defend the Carolinas. Throughout the course of the war, Davis and Johnston had rarely seen eye to eye – indeed, the president had fired Johnston from an important command as recently as July – but every other Confederate general with the needed level of experience and esteem was either preoccupied, incapacitated, or dead. So, on 22 February 1865, Johnston officially took command of all Confederate forces in the Carolinas. Most of these soldiers were the survivors of the disastrous incursion into Tennessee, while others were garrison troops pulled from Charleston. In all, Johnston had around 20,000 men to oppose Sherman's 60,000.
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⇒ Battle of Bentonville: The Fight for North Carolina at the end of the US Civil War