 |
|||
|
February - April 1865 |
|||
|
Forces |
Losses |
|
|
|
Union |
n/a |
n/a |
|
|
Confederacy |
n/a |
n/a |
|
|
Total |
n/a |
n/a |
|
|
Battle Location: North And South Carolina |
|||
|
Winner: Union |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
| Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman | Maj. Gen. Joseph Eggleston Johnston |
| Union Commander | Confederate Commander |
| Undeterred by miserable weather and nearly impassable terrain, William Tecumseh Sherman's grueling and ruthless winter 1865 advance through South and North Carolina was a far greater logistical triumph-and an even more destructive enterprise--than his notorious "March to the Sea." Shortly before Christmas, the Union force arrived in Savannah, Georgia, after completing its devastating trek through the state. Sherman was then ordered to turn north and bring his troops up to Virginia, where he would join Ulysses S. Grant to wipe out Robert E. Lee's forces and finish the war. Slicing through the Carolinas, a region left largely unscathed by the conflict, the Northerners would cut the Confederate army off from the Southern heartland and ravage anything in their path that the enemy could use to continue fighting. Due to the worst winter rains in two decades and other problems, the campaign did not commence until February 1.
Once underway, however, Sherman's 60,000 man army could not be stopped. With little military opposition to offer, the Confederates assumed that the elements would scuttle or at least bog down the Union troops' advance. The swampy tidewater region that Sherman's army traversed was arduous terrain in even the best conditions, with dozens of rivers and tributaries fraught with alligators and snakes. The rains so flooded the area that Sherman's advance patrols often had to scout by canoe. But the Union army included experienced backwoodsmen and thousands of veterans who had become accustomed to difficult marches in their years of Civil War combat. From the thick forests around them, they fashioned miles of log pathways called "corduroy roads" along the swamped route, built bridges and causeways, and, when necessary, waded up to their shoulders through the icy streams. Nursing hatred toward South Carolina-the birthplace of the secession movement-the Federal troops took special delight in their invasion of the state, and as they reached populated areas many engaged in indiscriminate looting and burning of civilian property, worse than their pillaging in Georgia. Sherman cut through the center ofthe state toward the capital of Columbia. Left weakly defended, she town was occupied on February 17, and, within a day, almost completely destroyed by fire. Southerners claimed Sherman's drunken soldiers purposely set the blaze, but the Union general claimed that retreating Confederate forces tried to burn bales of cotton and other supplies in their hasty departure. As Columbia smoldered, Union troops proceeded to Charleston-the home of Fort Sumter-which was ransacked but left standing. Four days later, on February 22, Federal forces under John Schofield captured Wilmington, North Carolina, the South's last open Atlantic seaport. The same day, deciding that the Union army had to be confronted, Robert E. Lee returned Joseph E. Johnston to command. Having faced Sherman before during the Atlanta campaign, the Confederate general did what he could to prepare for another showdown, gathering a force of 20,000 with help from stalwart cavalryman Wade Hampton, whom Lee had sent down from Virginia. But Johnston was certain little could stop the Union army, the likes of which, he said, the world had not "seen since the days of Julius Caesar." Entering North Carolin on March 7, Sherman's troops curtailed their plundering but continued to move north,occupying Fayetteville on March 11. Five days later, Johnston was ready to challenge them, fighting a vigorous delaying action at Averasboro, then sending his whole force to attack the Union left wing under Major General Henry W. Slocum near Bentonville on the nineteenth. By the third day of what would be one of the final Civil War battles in the East, the entire Federal army, outnum-bering the Confederates three-to-one, poisedfor assault, and Johnston was forced to withdraw. Having covered an extraordinary 425 miles in 50 drys, Sherman's men arrived in Goldsboro on March 23, joining with John Schofleld's forces and bringing the total number of Union troops marching north-ward to over 80,000. By the time the Federals reached Raleigh on April 13, Johnston had received word that Robert E. Lee had surrendered, and though Jefferson Davis ordered him to continue fighting, he knew it was pointless. The next day, Johnston called for a truce,and an armistice agreement was signed on April 18. After some squabbling among the Union high command over Sherman's authority to choose the terms, Johnston formally surrendered on April 26, essentially ending, aside for some lingering resistance in the West, the Civil War. My Source: The Civil War Society - Civil War Battles |
|
|
