Columbia, the political capital of the foremost secession State, fell on February 17, and the next day Charleston, the commercial and social capital, was captured. Sherman then pressed on toward North Carolina. Kilpatrick reported on February 22 that Wade Hampton's cavalry had murdered some of his men, and left their bodies by the wayside with labels on them threatening a like fate to all foragers. Sherman promptly ordered him to retaliate upon the rebels, and to Hampton he wrote as follows:
"General—It is officially reported to me that our foraging parties are murdered after being captured, and labelled, 'Death to All Foragers.' One instance is that of a lieutenant and seven men near Chester, and another of twenty, near a ravine eight rods from the main road, and three miles from Easterville. I have ordered a similar number of prisoners in our hands to be disposed of in like manner. I hold about one thousand prisoners, captured in various ways, and can stand it as long as you, but I hardly think these murders are committed with your knowledge, and would suggest that you give notice to your people at large that every life taken by them simply results in the death of one of your Confederates."
Chesterfield was captured on March 2 and Cheraw on March 3. On the 8th Sherman crossed the line into North Carolina, and now the weather became as fair as it had formerly been foul. The troops entered Fayetteville in high spirits on March 11 and remained there several days. The army now numbered 65,000 fighting men, with 25,000 non-combatants, chiefly negro women and children, 40,000 horses and cattle, and 3,000 wagons. On March 15, a stormy day, Slocum was at Averysboro, and encountered the enemy, infantry and artillery, in force, soon driving all before him. Near Bentonville, on the 18th, there was another battle, with the same result, both wings, Slocum and Howard, being engaged. Johnston was now in command of the rebel armies ahead of Sherman and had gathered together all available troops from all directions for a last struggle. Sherman occupied Goldsboro on March 21, and effected a junction with Terry and Scofield, who had after Hood's defeat been brought hither, and thus had not less than 100,000 men between Goldsboro and Bentonville. This concluded the hostile part of the march through the Carolinas. In reviewing the campaign, Sherman said:
"I cannot, even with any degree of precision, recapitulate the vast amount of injury done the enemy, or the quantity of guns and materials of war captured and destroyed. In general terms, we have traversed the country from Savannah to Goldsboro, with an average breadth of forty miles, consuming all the forage, cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry, cured meats, corn-meal, etc. The public enemy, instead of drawing supplies from that region to feed his armies, will be compelled to send provisions from other quarters to feed the inhabitants. A map herewith, prepared by my chief engineer, Colonel Poe, with the routes of the four corps and cavalry, will show at a glance the country traversed. Of course the abandonment to us by the enemy"
Colonel Poe, the chief engineer of the army, said in his report of the march:
"It involved an immense amount of bridging of every kind known in active campaigning, and some four hundred miles of corduroying. The latter was a very simple affair, where there were plenty of fence rails, but, in their absence, involved the severest labor. It was found that a fence on each side of the road furnished enough rails for corduroying it so as to make it passable. I estimate the amount of corduroying at fully one hundred miles for each army corps. This is a moderate estimate, and would make for the four corps some four hundred miles of corduroying. The cavalry did very little of this kind of work, as their trains moved with the infantry columns.
"The right wing built fifteen pontoon bridges, having an aggregate length of 3,720 feet; the left wing built about 4,000 feet, being a total of one and one-half miles. There were no measurements of the amount of trestle bridge built, but it was not so great."
CAMP OF THE SECOND MASSACHUSETTS, CITY HALL SQUARE, ATLANTA