History of the 85th Illinois Regiment
Illinois Volunteer Infantry
by
Henry J. Aten


CHAPTER XXIII
page 285-299

March, 1865

CAMPAIGN OF THE CAROLINAS

     Fayetteville is situated on the right bank of the Cape Fear river and at the head of navigation. It is one hun­dred and thirty miles from the sea, and ninety-five miles from Wilmington. In addition to the arms and ammu­nition captured with the arsenal, there were cotton mills and iron foundries engaged in manufacturing supplies for the Confederate army. On Sunday, the day follow­ing our occupation of the city, a steamer arrived from Wilmington with the news that General Terry had cap­tured that place, and that a force under General Schofield was moving from New Berne to join General Sher­man at Goldsboro. Other steamers and gunboats ar­rived during our stay, which served to put us in touch with the United States once more.
     While at Fayetteville, General Sherman caused the total destruction of the arsenal and the extensive machinery which had been removed to that place from the old United States armory at Harpers Ferry, and since used in the manufacture and repair of arms for the Confederate government. The iron foundries and cot­ton mills were also effectually destroyed, but little or no damage was done to private property. While marching through South Carolina, the troops seemed to feel that upon them devolved the duty of punishing the inhabi­tants for their life-long hostility to the Federal Union, and they plundered and destroyed practically without let or hindrance. But from the moment of entering North Carolina, the indiscriminate destruction of private property ceased, the demeanor of the whole army changed, and the men willingly yielded to the custom­ary restraints of discipline.
     Up to this time Sherman had been successful in inter­posing his army between the widely scattered forces of the enemy. But the garrison at Augusta, reinforced by fragments of Hood's army under General Cheatham, had been given ample time to join the rebel force being organized in the vicinity of Raleigh. Hardee had also retreated in that direction and General Bragg was fall­ing back across our front, with an army of uncertain numbers, before the advance of Generals Terry and Schofield. These forces, when once united under a leader so skillful as General Joseph E. Johnston, would constitute an army strong enough in numbers to justify extreme caution in the last stage of the campaign. In order, therefore, to be prepared for anv emergency, two divisions of each corps were stripped of their trains, ex­cept the wagons necessary to carry an ample supply of ammunition, and the trains, guarded by the remaining divisions were sent on the most direct route to Goldsboro. This gave to each wing four unencumbered divi­sions ready for instant battle.
     The trains of the Fourteenth corps were placed in charge of General Baird, commanding the Third divi­sion, and the Eighty-fifth was detailed as train guard, to accompany his command. The entire army moved on the 15th except the train guard, which was delayed in taking up the pontoons until the next morning. The cavalry in advance of the left wing soon encountered more than the usual opposition, and before night on the first day out had to call up the infantry supports. By noon on the 16th, Hardee was found with cavalry, infantry and artillery in position, and strongly entrenched near Averysboro. His position covered the roa.d to Goldsboro, and it was necessary to drive him from this road in order to secure it, as well as to maintain the threat against Raleigh. In the stubborn action which ensued that afternoon Rhett's brigade of South Carolina troops was unceremoniously overthrown, his battery of three pieces of artillery and most of his men captured. During the night Hardee retreated toward Raleigh, and the next day the left wing turned toward Goldsboro, in­tending to make a rapid march direct to that point, with­out paying further attention to the enemy, who still men­aced the left flank. In the battle of Averysboro, our wounded numbered four hundred and seventy-seven, a very serious loss, when it is remembered that every man had to be carried in the ambulance train.
     Believing that the feint against Raleigh had led Har­dee to make his stubborn fight at Averysboro for the purpose of gaining time for General Johnston to con­centrate his forces in front of the state capital, General Sherman directed the entire army to march as rapidly as possible to Goldsboro. After burying the dead at Averysboro, the left wing marched on a single road in that direction, while the right wing and trains moved on the same place, but on roads some distance south and east. No opposition was encountered on the 17th, and after marching eight miles over horrible roads, the Four­teenth corps camped two miles east of Mingo creek.
     Saturday, the 18th, the Second division had the advance of the corps, and the foragers under command of Major J. T. Holmes, of the Fifty-second Ohio, drove the enemy to Bushy swamp, where he was found in position from which he opened with artillery. The division was quickly deployed and drove the enemy from his position, and went into camp at four o'clock in the afternoon by the direct order of General Sherman. During the day mounted men were almost constantly seen near the line of march, sometimes in groups at the openings in the woods, at other times single horsemen watching the troops on the road; all passing toward the head of the column, or working their way through the woods to gain by close view the number of our men. In the evening reconnoitering parties were sent out who found nothing but cavalry videttes, who fled beyond Mill creek, burning the bridge behind them.
     Sunday morning, the 19th, gave promise of a beauti­ful day. For almost the first time in weeks the sun was shining, and, in that southern latitude, it was the recur­ring season of foliage and flowers, and fruit trees were in full bloom around the infrequent farm houses. But the morning, so clear and calm, like many a Sunday in the army, was destined to be a day of deadly conflict.
     For several days General Sherman had been march­ing with the left wing, and his headquarters had been with the Fourteenth corps. But he was so confident that his threat against Raleigh had forced General Johnston to concentrate his forces for battle at that place, that he started to ride over to the right wing, as soon as the ad­vance began on Sunday morning. The dense timber through which he rode shut out the sound of battle, and he did not learn of the struggle in which the left wing was engaged until overtaken by a courier that night.
     The foragers found the enemy within five hundred yards of camp that morning, and soon these renowned warriors, who usually made short work of dispersing a line of rebel cavalry, became discouraged, and sullenly fell back behind our skirmishers. One brigade after an­other was brought up and deployed, until the whole of the First division was in line of battle, yet everywhere it found the enemy strong, and his resistance as determined as it was unexpected. In front of the left of the line was a swamp of a depth then unknown, while on the right front the ground was covered with a thick growth of black­jack and pine trees. General Slocum, commanding the left wing, was present with the advance, and under his orders General Carlin advanced his line to ascertain the enemy's intention and develop his position. After a sharp fight, a line of the enemy's infantry was routed, when sud­denly the whole line dashed against a line of earthworks, manned with infantry and abundantly supplied with artil­lery. From this line the enemy opened such a destruc­tive fire that our whole line was repulsed with heavy loss.
     By this time, the Second division arrived, and the First and Second brigades were placed on the right, with the Third brigade massed in reserve. No sooner had these dispositions been made than the entire line was assailed with the utmost impetuosity, and at once the engagement became general. The advancing lines of the eager enemy far outreached the left of General Car-lin's line, and the first division, already much weakened by the stubborn work of the morning, began to retire, the men fighting desperately as they retreated slowly. This was the critical period of the battle. The Twen­tieth corps was hurrying to the front, but yet too far in the rear to render any assistance in the present crisis. The First and Second brigades were holding their own, which made the Third brigade available for the desper­ate task of turning back the victorious foe on the left.
     The Third brigade was standing in columns of regi­ments faced to the front, and when the left began to give way, our corps commander, General Davis, ordered Gen­eral Fearing to swing the brigade to the left and to charge the enemy in flank. The scene was dramatic; the general's orders were given with confidence and en­ergy, and officers and men were alike inspired by the en­thusiasm of their commander, and they struck the enemy a stunning blow. In a moment the brigade was in the vortex of battle and engaged in a fierce and deadly con­flict. As it advanced its right became exposed, but for­tunately Cogswell's brigade of the Twentieth corps, ar­rived after marching the whole of the previous night and moved in on Fearing's right. The men of these two brigades - Fearing's and Cogswell's - seemed to feel that upon them devolved the desperate honor of stem­ming the tide of defeat and turning it into victory, and after a fierce and bloody contest, the enemy gave way and fell back in confusion. So resistless had been tfie unexpected attack of these two brigades, that the enemy's whole line gave up the ground it had gained, and the battle ceased along the entire front.
     But none doubted that the enemy would return to the assault, and the entire line rapidly threw up a line of defenses. General Morgan, with the two brigades on the right, had not only held his ground, but had also punished the enemy severely. Carlin's troops, veterans all of them, were easily rallied on a new line, with their left sharply refused, and artillery was brought up and placed in position on commanding ground.  While engaged in building rude works during the lull in battle, the men expressed a lively satisfaction at the prospect of fighting behind field-works - a thing that had rarely fallen to their lot, and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy the prospect. Ammunition was brought up, and piled in convenient places along the line, and every prepara­tion made for the most stubborn defense.
     It was about five o'clock when the long line of the enemy emerged from the pine woods beyond the fields. It was a magnificent spectacle; every company present­ing a parade front; every foot keeping time, while not a skulker left that splendid line. It was a sight that even veteran soldiers seldom see. But when the enemy came within short range, he met a deadly fire which checked; then drove him back. Again and again, he rallied and surged forward; but he could not pass a certain point. Each assault was more hopeless than the one preceding, and finally the rebel line rolled back into the woods, leav­ing his killed and wounded piled thick upon the bloody field.
     In the desperate conflict following the charge of the Third brigade, General Fearing was severely wounded, and, from loss of blood, was compelled to leave the field. When retiring, he left the brigade in command of Lieu­tenant Colonel Langley, of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Illinois. This was the second time this gal­lant and meritorious officer had been called to assume command of the brigade in the indescribable turmoil of battle, and well and faithfully did he perform his duty. General Fearing was the fourth commander to fall while leading the Third brigade in action within less than a year.
     Along the line of the First and Second brigades the fighting was no less severe. The First brigade, after repulsing the first attack, leaped over their works, pur­sued the retreating rebels into their own works, and cap­tured the colors of the Fortieth North Carolina regi­ment. Then followed an incident rarely found in the annals of war. A column of the enemy had passed through the interval between the left of the First and Second brigades and the right of Cogswell and Fearing. Then swinging to the left, this column assailed the line of Mitchell and Vandever from the rear. But the men quickly passed over to the reverse side of their works, and after a sharp and bloody struggle, repulsed this rear attack. As the enemy began to retreat our men again leaped their works and charged to the rear; captured the colors of the Fifty-fourth Virginia; took a large number of prisoners, and dispersed the intruding force.
     The struggle was unequal throughout the day, and at times it seemed the enemy would overwhelm our small force, by sheer force of numbers. In the last engage­ment every man was placed in the firing line - even the headquarters guard and the small detachment guarding the ammunition train filled a gap in the extended line. No further reinforcements could be hoped for that day, and there was nothing left but for the men to fight it out. But when night came, the enemy had been decisively re­pulsed at all points, and the weary troops lay down to rest upon their arms, ready to renew the contest at a moment's warning, and well assured that Sherman and the right wing would be with them by daylight the next morning.
     With the repulse of his last assault, General Johnston's declared purpose of destroying Sherman's army, by crushing one corps after another in its isolation, failed. On the 19th he outnumbered our available force at least three to one, but by daylight on the morning of the 20th, the forces were equalized by the arrival of Gen­eral Hazen's division of the right wing, and four brig­ades called up from the wagon-train guard. And before night General Sherman with his whole army was closing down on the enemy's entrenched lines. There was some sharp skirmishing on the 21st, as the enemy's line was developed, but that night General Johnston quit a position no longer tenable, and retreated to Smithfield. In this instance, as in all others during the war, this skill­ful Confederate commander made a safe retreat, leaving nothing behind except his unburied dead and the wounded in his field hospitals.
    The Union losses in the battle of Bentonville fell largely on the Fourteenth corps, and were mostly in­curred in the fighting of the first day. The aggregate loss to the left wing was 1247, of which the Twentieth corps lost 314, and the Fourteenth corps 933, the Second division bearing more than one-half of the last men­tioned loss. As usual, the rebel commander made no report of his losses, but we buried 267 of his dead, and captured 1,625 prisoners.
    The official reports all speak in the highest praise of the conduct of our officers and men. General Davis especially requested the promotion of Brigadier General Morgan,*
*Rebellion Records, Serial No. 98, page 437.
which request was heartily endorsed by Gen­eral Sherman, and within a few days after the battle of Bentonville the commander of the Second division received the brevet rank of major general. General Fearing was unstinted in his commendation of the men of the Third brigade, giving them great credit for their accu­rate aim and low firing.* *
**Rebellion Records, Serial No. 98, page 535.
     On the 22nd the whole army resumed the march to Goldsboro, where it arrived and went into camp on the following evening. Since leaving Savannah the left wing, of which the Eighty-fifth was a part, had marched five hundred miles, through a country noted for its broad rivers, bad roads and almost impassable swamps. The almost daily rains had swelled the streams, and the heavy wagon-trains churned the soft dirt into sloughs of bottomless mud. But in all that long march we found no mud deep enough, no hills steep enough, and no quicksands treacherous enough, to prevent the tak­ing of our trains wherever the column was ordered to move. It was not unusual to be compelled to corduroy four or five miles of road covered in a day's march, and in the construction of corduroy roads, the men soon be­came very proficient. Fortunately the material was usually found in abundance and near by. Pine saplings, eight to ten inches through the cut, split in two, and laid face down closely touching each other, made the best road, but smaller saplings, unsplit poles, and even fence rails were freely used. In some places the rising water would float the corduroy away, at other times it would disappear in the mud and quicksand under the heavy trains, when another course would be laid, and generally this had to be done in ceaseless, pitiless rain. But through it all the men were cheerful and ever ready for a joke. At the crossing of South river, we had more than the usual difficulty, and the men had to wade a long distance in water up to their waists. After much patient wading in this seemingly shoreless stream, one soldier was heard to remark to his comrade: "I guess Uncle Billy has struck this stream endwise."
     As we approached Goldsboro, General Sherman or­dered the wagons out of the road, and the columns to close up and pass in review before himself and Generals Schofield, Cox, and Terry. Wading streams, building corduroy roads and bridges, and lifting wagons out of the mire, had played havoc with the men's apparel. Shoes and hats had been worn out and lost, uniforms were torn and faded, and the whole army was in motley garb - bare feet, bare legs, torn coats, felt hats - in fact, almost every conceivable kind of headwear was to be seen, while many a valiant warrior went without shoes or hat. "The pride and pomp and circumstance of glorious war" had disappeared. But the bands played; the files closed up, and the ragged men began to step to music for the first time in months, as they marched with precise ranks and elastic tread, past their great leader. Some one of the officers in the distinguished group said: "See those poor fellows with bare legs!" To this Gen­eral Sherman replied: "Splendid legs! splendid legs! I would give both of mine for any one of them!"
     Goldsboro is situated on the railroad from New Berne to Raleigh, about midway between the two cities, and at the point where the railroad from Wilmington to Petersbtirgh crosses the first named road. Here we were reinforced by General Schofield with the Army of the Ohio, and the Tenth army corps under General Terry.  After assisting in the destruction of Hood's army at Nashville, the Twenty-third army corps had been transferred by river and rail to Washington, thence down the Potomac and by sea to New Berne. From New Berne, General Schofield's column had fought its way inland, arriving at Goldsboro one day ahead of our army, while General Terry, after capturing Fort Fisher by storm, had moved up the Neuse river and joined Sherman's army about the same time. With the troops from Tennessee came many officers and men belonging to our army, who had been in northern hospitals on account of wounds or disease, but, now recovered, were returning to duty. Among those returning was Lieu­tenant Musselman, who now resumed command of Com­pany G. He had been on leave of absence and returning was caught with others at Chattanooga, when communi­cations between the north and Sherman's army were sev­ered in November. Unable to rejoin the command, they reported to General Thomas, who assigned them to duty in Tennessee, where they remained in the discharge of various duties until relieved to join the army at Golds­boro.
     Two days after the arrival of Sherman's army, the railroad from New Berne to Goldsboro was repaired and the first train of cars came in, and the ample supplies provided at New Berne, by the foresight of General Grant, began to come forward to the army. This was to be a point for general refitting, for which but a brief stop was to be made. Clothing was brought up and issued, and every effort was put forth to equip the army, in the shortest possible time, for its last campaign.
     In the campaign from Savannah to Goldsboro, the Fourteenth corps destroyed 30 miles of railroad; captured 581 prisoners; 697 horses and 1,300 mules.  The corps lost in killed, wounded, and missing, 1,244 men.*
*Rebellion Records, Serial No. 98, pages 437, 438 and 439.
     The following deaths from disease occurred in the Eighty-fifth since the regiment moved south from Atlanta: Enoch Mustard, of Company B, died at Savannah, Ga., January 6th, 1865; Louis Ishmael, of Com­pany C. died at Annapolis, Md., December 15th, 1864. Captain Samuel Young, of Company D, died November 23rd, 1864, and William Boyd, of Company G, died at Lexington, Ky., February 12th, 1865.
     Daniel Koozer, of Company A, died of wounds at Goldsboro, on the 27th. He had been detached as a scout at division headquarters, and was wounded by guerrillas while in the discharge of his duty.


Chapter 22       Chapter 24

back to 85th Table of Contents

Copyright © 2006-2009 to Fulton County, IL host & all Contributors
All rights reserved