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Colonel John H. Nethercutt, who had superseded Colonel Armistead.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.”