Okla-homey
3/19/2007, 06:21 AM
Mar 19, 1865: Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina
142 years ago today, Confederate General Joseph Johnston makes a desperate attempt to stop Union General William T. Sherman's drive through the Carolinas in the war's last days, but Johnston's motley army cannot stop the advance of Sherman's mighty army.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/13926/2002505359759917013_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002505359759917013)
Joe Johnston
Following his famous March to the Sea in late 1864, Sherman paused for a month at Savannah, Georgia. He then turned north into the Carolinas, destroying all that lay in his path in an effort to destroy Carolinian war material and its means of production and hasten the end of the war.
To this point, the Carolina's had largely avoided inland Federal operations. Charleston had held out until February 1865, thus much remained in the Carolina's to helped sustain Confederate forces -- until "Uncle Billy" and his blue-clad "Army of Freedom" burned it, ate it or confiscated it. Freeing slaves along his route of march meant there would be no spring planting since the people who did the planting on the big farms and plantations were slaves. Since the South couldn't fight on without chow, this too helped the US war effort.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/13926/2002539068957468747_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002539068957468747)
Bill Sherman. President Lincoln signed a paper that legally freed slaves in the South. Bill Sherman enforced that law and freed hundreds of thousands of human beings held captive and in abject misery by their slave masters in Georgia, South and North Carolina.
Sherman is often pilloried by Confederate apologists for making the war tougher on civilians than it had to be. That sort of criticism simply isn't warranted, particularly since by the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of "total war" had reared its ugly head and internationally, it had become the norm.
"Total War," a concept first practiced by Napolean, means that legitimate military operations include destroying not only the enemy's deployed military, but also his material ability to wage war, including the vitally important civilian support for the war itself.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/11697/2001994117470309274_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001994117470309274)
Sherman left Savannah with 60,000 men divided into two wings. He captured Columbia, South Carolina, in February and continued towards Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he planned to meet up with another army coming from the coast. Sherman intended to march to Petersburg, Virginia, where he would join General Ulysses S. Grant and crush the army of Robert E. Lee, the largest remaining Confederate force.
Sherman assumed 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 this day in 1865. The Confederates initially surprised the Federals, driving 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 Federal assault.
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.
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/12268/2004081678397601766_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004081678397601766)
The Harper House. It still stands on the battlefield, administered by the NC State park authority. The house was used as a field hospital during and after the battle.
The Union lost 194 men killed, 1,112 wounded, and 221 missing, while the Confederates lost 240 killed, 1,700 wounded, and 1,500 missing. About Sherman, Johnston wrote to Lee that, "I can do no more than annoy him." A month later, Johnston surrendered his army to Sherman.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/10802/2002501907929135416_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002501907929135416)
If you would like to read more about the "last stand" in the Carolina's, this is about the best book out there on the Battle of Bentonville
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/10701/2002511601374914905_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002511601374914905)
142 years ago today, Confederate General Joseph Johnston makes a desperate attempt to stop Union General William T. Sherman's drive through the Carolinas in the war's last days, but Johnston's motley army cannot stop the advance of Sherman's mighty army.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/13926/2002505359759917013_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002505359759917013)
Joe Johnston
Following his famous March to the Sea in late 1864, Sherman paused for a month at Savannah, Georgia. He then turned north into the Carolinas, destroying all that lay in his path in an effort to destroy Carolinian war material and its means of production and hasten the end of the war.
To this point, the Carolina's had largely avoided inland Federal operations. Charleston had held out until February 1865, thus much remained in the Carolina's to helped sustain Confederate forces -- until "Uncle Billy" and his blue-clad "Army of Freedom" burned it, ate it or confiscated it. Freeing slaves along his route of march meant there would be no spring planting since the people who did the planting on the big farms and plantations were slaves. Since the South couldn't fight on without chow, this too helped the US war effort.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/13926/2002539068957468747_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002539068957468747)
Bill Sherman. President Lincoln signed a paper that legally freed slaves in the South. Bill Sherman enforced that law and freed hundreds of thousands of human beings held captive and in abject misery by their slave masters in Georgia, South and North Carolina.
Sherman is often pilloried by Confederate apologists for making the war tougher on civilians than it had to be. That sort of criticism simply isn't warranted, particularly since by the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of "total war" had reared its ugly head and internationally, it had become the norm.
"Total War," a concept first practiced by Napolean, means that legitimate military operations include destroying not only the enemy's deployed military, but also his material ability to wage war, including the vitally important civilian support for the war itself.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/11697/2001994117470309274_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001994117470309274)
Sherman left Savannah with 60,000 men divided into two wings. He captured Columbia, South Carolina, in February and continued towards Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he planned to meet up with another army coming from the coast. Sherman intended to march to Petersburg, Virginia, where he would join General Ulysses S. Grant and crush the army of Robert E. Lee, the largest remaining Confederate force.
Sherman assumed 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 this day in 1865. The Confederates initially surprised the Federals, driving 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 Federal assault.
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.
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/12268/2004081678397601766_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004081678397601766)
The Harper House. It still stands on the battlefield, administered by the NC State park authority. The house was used as a field hospital during and after the battle.
The Union lost 194 men killed, 1,112 wounded, and 221 missing, while the Confederates lost 240 killed, 1,700 wounded, and 1,500 missing. About Sherman, Johnston wrote to Lee that, "I can do no more than annoy him." A month later, Johnston surrendered his army to Sherman.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/10802/2002501907929135416_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002501907929135416)
If you would like to read more about the "last stand" in the Carolina's, this is about the best book out there on the Battle of Bentonville
http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/10701/2002511601374914905_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002511601374914905)