Sherman March 19, 1865 - The Battle of Bentonville

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Upon the completion of his March to the Sea, and the subsequent capture of Savannah, Georgia, General William T. Sherman paused and rested his army there for a month. General Grant was stymied by Lee at Petersburg, therefore Grant desired to have Sherman's men ferried from Savannah to Virginia so they could join forces and deliver a one - two punch against Lee and defeat the largest Confederate force remaining. Sherman had another idea - an overland strike into the heart of the Confederacy with 60,000 men. Grant replied: "Your confidence in being able to march up and join this army pleases me . . . The effect of such a campaign will be to disorganize the South, and prevent the organization of new armies from their broken fragments . . . Make your preparations . . . without delay. Break up the railroads in South and North Carolina, and join the armies operating against Richmond as soon as you can."
Sherman then headed North, his army consisting of 60,000 men divided into two wings, as he had done in Georgia. Sherman captured Columbia, S.C. on Feb.22. When coupled with the fall of Fort Fisher and Wilmington, N.C. ( by a separate amphibious operation ) the last major Rebel seaport, the Confederacy was seemingly dealt an irreversible blow. Sherman's troops were unstoppable to the outnumbered, and under supplied troops commanded by P.G.T. Beauregard. Lee, by this point, had lost all confidence in Beauregard and requested that Joe Johnston be placed in command. Davis, who had removed Johnston from command earlier, reluctantly agreed. Sherman had figured that Rebel forces in the Carolinas were too widely dispersed to offer any significant resistance, but Johnston assembled 17,000 troops and attacked one of Sherman’s wings at Bentonville on March 19. At first, the Rebels surprised the Yankees and drove them back before a Union counterattack halted the advance and darkness halted the fighting. The next day, Johnston established a strong defensive position and hoped for a Yankee assault. But more Union troops arrived and gave Sherman a nearly three to one advantage over Johnston. When a Union force threatened to cut off the Rebel’s only line of retreat on March 21, Johnston withdrew his army northward.
The Union lost 194 men killed, 1,112 wounded, and 221 missing, while the Confederates lost some 240 killed, 1,700 wounded, and 1,500 missing. About Sherman, Johnston wrote to Lee that, “I can do no more than annoy him.” After departing from Savannah, Sherman's legions had covered 425 miles of hostile territory. Joe Johnston marveled that "there had been no such army in existence since the days of Julius Caesar." Sherman himself viewed the storied March to the Sea as mere "child's play" compared to his Campaign of the Carolinas.

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