MOUND BATTERY, NEAR FORT FISHER.
New recruits arrived from time to time, and were instructed in their duties, and, with the exception of one short expedition to guard wagon-trains, the regiment remained near Wilmington until the 15th.
March 12, General Sherman, who had arrived at Fayetteville, sent despatches to General Schofield, directing him to march at once to Goldsboro, and to order General Terry to do the same. Accordingly, on the 15th they broke camp, and started to join Sherman. That night, before they lay down, they had marched twenty-five miles. The following day the march was resumed, and, although the roads were very heavy, they moved rapidly, and day after day continued on, with no special accident, or incident, until the 21st, when signs of Sherman's bummers began to appear, and in the afternoon there was heavy cannonading on our left.
At this time, and for some time previous, our troops had subsisted largely by foraging. Sugar and coffee were almost forgotten luxuries.
On the 23d, the 17th corps of Sherman's army passed near our troops, and the motley procession which accompanied them showed how successful they had become as foragers. Goldsboro had been taken by General Schofield's troops on the 21st, and Johnston had massed his army at Smithfield. General Sherman had now a large force under his command, and, with several good safe bases of supplies, and uninterrupted communication with the coast, was prepared to perform his part in these final struggles of the rebellion. His march from Savannah had resulted in the loss to the Confederates of all the fortified points along the coast, with the immense quantities of supplies and materials of war which they contained. A tract of fifty miles in width, along his whole route, had been stripped of all kinds of provisions, and the richest portion of the South had been devastated. The great system of internal communication and supply, which had afforded them such great advantages in the movements of their armies, was either destroyed or fatally disarranged.
By this time General Grant was ready for that final movement against Lee which resulted in the surrender of his army. This movement commenced on the 29th, and, after repeated attempts upon the enemy's right, a general assault, along the whole line, on April 2, resulted in complete success, and on the morning of the 3d it was discovered that Lee's army had fled, and on that day our troops, under General Weitzel, occupied Richmond. The principal part of Grant's army passed on after Lee. Sheridan, with his whole force of cavalry, by rapid marches, finally succeeded, on the 9th, in intercepting Lee's retreat, and, by a vigorous attack, held him in check until the arrival of several corps of infantry made escape impossible; and on that day Lee, and what remained of his army, fell into our hands. The principal army now remaining to the Confederates was that commanded by Johnston.
General Sherman, while these operations were going on, was resting at Goldsboro; but on the 11th orders came from General Grant to move against Johnston. As late as March 28, new recruits were received from the North, nearly a hundred and fifty being assigned to our regiment; and when, on the 11th, General Sherman broke camp and started for Johnston, it was with an army invigorated, strengthened, and refreshed, and stimulated to unbounded enthusiasm by the success of the Army of Virginia. April 6, general orders had been promulgated to all the troops at their evening parades, stating that Petersburg and Richmond had been taken, and that Lee was retreating.