BENTONVILLE.
As soon as General Hardee, 19 March, our corps commander, reached Bentonville with his troops, he moved by the left flank, Hoke’s (our) division leading, to the ground previously selected by General Hampton. It was the eastern edge of an old plantation, extending a mile and a half to the west, and lying principally on the north side of the road and surrounded east, south and north by a dense thicket of black-jacks. There was but one road through it. Hoke’s Division formed with its line at right angles to the road on the eastern edge of the plantation and its left extending some four hundred yards into the thicket on the south. The Junior Reserves constituted the right of Hoke’s Division and supported a battery of Starr’s Battalion of artillery commanded by Captain Geo. B. Atkins, of Fayetteville. The brigade of Juniors were led by Colonel John H. Nethercutt, who had superseded Colonel Armistead. This gallant officer was Colonel of the Sixty-sixth North Carolina Regiment—a plain, blunt man, but every inch a soldier. The Third Regiment threw out a skirmish line which was commanded by Captain Bristol and hurriedly constructed a rail fence breastworks. Here under a fire of artillery we suffered many casualties. The troops belonging to the Army of Tennessee were formed on the right of the artillery. A wooden farm house in front of the Third Regiment for some time afforded cover for a number of sharpshooters, who did excellent practice on our line, until Captain Atkins, with a few well-directed shells, caused them to pour out like rats from a sinking ship.
The enemy soon thereafter charged Hoke’s Division, but after a sharp contest at short range was handsomely repulsed.
On the morning of the 20th it was reported that the Federal right wing had crossed over to unite with the left wing which had been driven back, and was coming up rapidly upon the left of Hoke’s Division. That officer was directed to change front to the left. By this movement, his line was formed parallel to and fronting the road. Here light entrenchments were soon made out of dead trees and such material as could be moved with our bayonets. From noon to sunset Sherman’s army thus united made repeated attacks upon Hoke’s Division of six thousand men and boys, but were uniformly driven back. The skirmish line of our brigade was commanded by Major Walter Clark, of the Seventieth Regiment (First Juniors), on the 20th and 21st. On the 21st the skirmishing was heavy, and the extreme of the Federal right, extending beyond our left flank made our position extremely hazardous in view of the fact that the bridge over the creek in our rear was our only chance of retreat. The Seventeenth Army Corps of the enemy late in the afternoon broke through our line considerably to the left, but by superhuman effort, its leading division was driven back along the route by which it had advanced.
That night the Confederate Army re-crossed the creek by the bridge near Bentonville and were halted beyond the town two miles north from the creek. The Federals made repeated attempts to force the passage of the bridge, but failed in all. At noon the march was resumed and the troops encamped near Smithfield. Sherman proceeded on his way to Goldsboro to form a junction with Schofield, without further molestation. The Confederate losses in the battle of Bentonville were 2,343, while that of the Federals was nearly double. (For many of the foregoing facts, see Johnston’s Narrative, pages 381 and 393, from which liberal extracts have been made.)
The Confederates never fought with more spirit, and the Federals with less, than in the battle of Bentonville. General D. H. Hill remarked upon this and said: “It may be that even a Yankee’s conscience has been disturbed by the scenes of burning, rapine, pillage and murder so recently passed through.”
General Hampton said of this last great battle of the Civil War, that in his opinion it was one of the most extraordinary: “The infantry forces of General Johnston amounted to about 14,100 men, and they were composed of three separate commands which had never acted together. These were Hardee’s troops, brought from Savannah and Charleston; Stewart’s from the Army of Tennessee; and Hoke’s Division of veterans, many of whom had served in the campaigns of Virginia. Bragg, by reason of his rank, was in command of this latter force, but it was really Hoke’s Division, and the latter directed the fighting. These troops, concentrated recently for the first time, were stationed at and near Smithfield, eighteen miles from the field, where the battle was fought, and it was from there that General Johnston moved them to strike a veteran army numbering about 60,000 men. This latter army had marched from Atlanta to Savannah without meeting any force to dispute its passage, and from the latter city to Bentonville unobstructed save by the useless and costly affair at Averasboro, where Hardee made a gallant stand, though at a heavy loss. No bolder movement was conceived during the war than this of General Johnston when he threw his handful of men on the overwhelming force in front of him, and when he confronted and baffled this force, holding a weak line for three days against nearly five times his number. For the last two days of this fight he only held his position to secure the removal of his wounded, and when he had accomplished that he withdrew leisurely, moving in his first march only about four miles.”
The Junior Reserves lost quite a number of officers and boys in this battle. Their conduct was creditable to the last degree. General Hoke, their attached and beloved commander, thus writes concerning them: “The question of the courage of the Junior Reserves was well established by themselves in the battle below Kinston, and at the battle of Bentonville. At Bentonville you will remember, they held a very important part of the battlefield in opposition to Sherman’s old and tried soldiers, and repulsed every charge that was made upon them with very meagre and rapidly thrown up breastworks. Their conduct in camp, on the march, and on the battlefield was everything that could be expected of them, and I am free to say, was equal to that of the old soldiers who had passed through four years of war. On the return through Raleigh where many passed by their homes, scarcely one of them left their ranks to bid farewell to their friends, though they knew not where they were going nor what dangers they would encounter.”