The operations near Kinston, sometimes called the battle of Kinston, but usually the battle of South West Creek, were upon the whole a Confederate success, and when the disparity in numbers between the contending forces is considered, were very creditable to the Confederates. General Bragg in general orders thanked the troops for their heroism and valor and complimented them upon their achievements.
The arrival of Sherman in Fayetteville and the approach of the troops from Wilmington to form a junction with Sherman at Goldsboro, made it necessary for us to withdraw to prevent being cut off and in order to form a junction with General Johnston’s Army, which was moving in the direction of Smithfield. On 15 March Colonel John H. Nethercutt, of the Sixty-sixth North Carolina, was placed in command of our brigade which was permanently assigned to Hoke’s Division.
A MILITARY EXECUTION.
Arriving at Smithfield 16 March, we remained two days and there witnessed one of the saddest spectacles of the war—a military execution. The regiment constituted a part of the military pageant which attended the shooting to death of G. W. Ore, a private of Company B, Twenty-seventh Georgia Regiment, who had been tried and condemned for mutiny by a court-martial. The poor fellow was first marched around, to the solemn music of the Dead March, in front of the regiments which were drawn up in an open square, facing inwards, he was then made to kneel, and was tied to a stake on the open side of the hollow square. A detail of twelve men drawn up at ten paces from him performed the painful duty of carrying out the sentence of the court. At this late stage of the war, when the struggle was perfectly desperate and all hope of success had fled, the execution seemed to us to be little less than murder.
BENTONVILLE
AVERASBORO, N.C.,
fought March 16th, 1865.
On 18 March we marched again, not to the West, but to the South. We knew that Sherman was approaching from that direction, and we surmised that there was serious work before us. General Joseph E. Johnston, who rode for a short distance on that day at the head of the Third Junior Reserves, said as much to its commander. Sherman was moving from Fayetteville in the direction of Goldsboro in two parallel columns, about a day’s march apart. General Johnston had determined to take advantage of the fact that Sherman’s left wing was thus separated from the right, and to strike a bold blow on the exposed flank at Bentonville in Johnston County.