forced
him to retire. On the 19th and 20th of March, occurred the series of
engagements, about Mill Creek and the Bentonville and Smithfield
cross-roads, which culminated in the attack upon the Enemy, of the 21st
of March, and his evacuation, that night, of his entire line of works,
and retreat upon Smithfield. This was known as the Battle of
Bentonville, and was the last battle fought between the rival Forces
under Sherman and Johnston. The Armies of Sherman, now swollen by
having formed a junction with the troops under Schofield and Terry,
which had come from Newbern and Wilmington, went into camp at Goldsboro,
North Carolina, to await the rebuilding of the railroads from those two
points on the coast, and the arrival of badly needed clothing,
provision, and other supplies, after which the march would be resumed to
Burksville, Virginia. By the 25th of March, the railroad from Newbern
was in running order, and General Sherman, leaving General Schofield in
command of his eighty thousand troops, went to Newbern and Morehead
City, and thence by steamer to City Point, for a personal interview with
General Grant. On the same day, Lee made a desperate but useless
assault, with twenty thousand (of his seventy thousand) men upon Fort
Stedman--a portion of Grant's works in front of Petersburg. On the
27th, President Lincoln reached City Point, on the James River, in the
steamer "Ocean Queen." Sherman reached City Point the same day, and,
after meeting the General-in-Chief, Grant took him on board the "Ocean
Queen" to see the President. Together they explained to Mr. Lincoln the
Military situation, during the "hour or more" they were with him. Of
this interview with Mr. Lincoln, General Sherman afterwards wrote:
"General Grant and I explained to him that my next move from Goldsboro
would bring my Army, increased to eighty thousand men by Schofield's and
Terry's reinforcements, in close communication with General Grant's
Army, then investing Lee in Richmond, and that unless Lee could effect
his escape, and make junction with Johnston in North Carolina, he would
soon be shut up in Richmond with no possibility of supplies, and would
have to surrender. Mr. Lincoln was extremely interested in this view of
the case, and when we explained that Lee's only chance was to escape,
join Johnston, and, being then between me in North Carolina, and Grant
in Virginia, could choose which to fight. Mr. Lincoln seemed unusually
impressed