THE WAR DRAWS TO A CLOSE.
A. D. 1865.
1. With the fall of Fort Fisher the fate of Wilmington was
sealed. With the Federal troops in such a position the port was
most effectually closed. The last connection of the beleaguered
Confederacy with the outer world was thus broken, and North
Carolina, with beating heart, listened to the approaching
footsteps of countless invaders. General Lee, who had been made
General-in-Chief of all the Southern armies, selected General
Joseph E. Johnston to command in North Carolina.
2. General Bragg's forces having retired from Wilmington, met the
corps of Major-General Schofield in an ineffectual engagement at
Kinston on March 8th, and retired upon Goldsboro. This
command, with the troops lately in Charleston and Savannah, the
remnant of the Army of Tennessee and Hampton's Division from
Virginia, soon made an army of twenty-five thousand men, under
the command of General Johnston.
3. Against him were coming, from South Carolina, the great army
under General W. T. Sherman; from Wilmington, the corps of
General Terry, and from Kinston, the army of General Schofield.
In addition to these overwhelming forces, another column was
approaching from the west, under General Stoneman.
4. As this great array gathered toward Raleigh as a common focus,
the first conflict was between the division commanded by General
Hardee and the army of General Sherman at the hamlet of
Averasboro. After a stubborn fight, Hardee withdrew, and, having
joined General Johnston, the latter collected fifteen thousand
men at Bentonsville, in Johnston county, on March 19th, and
awaited Sherman's approach.
5. General Sherman, on that day, made six successive attacks upon
Johnston's left, composed of Hoke's and Cheatham's divisions and
the late garrisons on the Cape Fear. The Federal assaults were
all repelled, and, at the order for our troops to advance, three
lines of the enemy's field works were carried and several
batteries captured. This success, however, was not bloodlessly
effected.
6. General Sherman withdrew to Goldsboro to meet Schofield and
Terry, and Johnston halted near Smithfield to await developments.
With such a force it seemed impossible that he would be able to
meet the combined strength of the three, armies assembling at
Goldsboro, but the result at Bentonsville had greatly elated his
troops, and they resolutely awaited General Sherman's return to
the shock of arms.
7. After so much bloodshed the end of hostilities, however, was
near at hand. General Sheridan, with heavy cavalry
reinforcements, having assailed the right flank of General Lee's
defences at Petersburg, after hard fighting, succeeded in winning
a decisive battle at Five Forks on the 28th of March. The loss,
of the six thousand Confederates made prisoners on that day was
fatal to longer hold on the thinly-manned lines around the city
that had been so long and nobly defended.
8. On the morning of the 2nd of April, in the general assault,
General Lee's lines were pierced in three places, General A. P.
Hill was slain, and, at nightfall the doomed Army of Northern
Virginia began its famous retreat. After incredible hardships,
having fought their way to Appomattox Court House, the small
remnant of the heroes who had for four years so dauntlessly held
their ground against all comers, were enveloped in the masses of
pursuing hosts, and, on April 9th, at the command of their
beloved leader, they there laid down their arms.
9. General Lee was never greater or more loved or more reverenced
thanin the hour of his fall. He had not taken part in the
struggle to gratify ambition or for love of war; but in the
conscientious discharge of sacred duty. Into that struggle North
Carolina had sent more than a hundred and fifty thousand of her
sons, and to them all he was ever the ideal of the soldier, the
gentleman and the Christian. At his command they laid down their
arms, returned to their homes and in time renewed their
allegiance to the United States.
QUESTIONS.
1. What was the effect of the fall of Fort Fisher?
2. What occurred at Kinston? What was the size of General
Johnston's army?
3. What great forces were marching against Johnston?
4. Where was the first conflict between these armies? When was
the battle of Bentonsville fought? Point out Averasboro on the
map. Bentonsville.
5. Can you tell something of the fight at Bentonsville? What was
done by the Federal and Confederate commanders after this battle?
6. What occurred at Petersburg?
7. How did the battle result?
8. What took place at Appomattox?
9. What is said of the great General Lee?