Carried Into War
A Soldier's Life
Realities of War
The Home Front
Facing the Grim Reaper
Breaking the Blockade
The Last Campaigns
An Uncertain Future
Acknowledgments
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The Gilbratar of the South
Stoneman's Raid
Sherman's Invasion of North Carolina
Confederate Surrender
The invasion of North Carolina by General William T. Sherman's Union army in March 1865 caused panic throughout the state. Sherman's troops had gained a reputation for the widespread destruction of property in Georgia and South Carolina, and North Carolinians feared the same fate. The Confederate army fought several battles in the state but failed to stop Sherman.
The Battle of Bentonville
[T]he whole skirmish line kept up an almost continuous firing as they expected our army to leave.
—Major Walter M. Clark, First Regiment North Carolina Junior Reserves (Seventieth Regiment North Carolina Troops), on the Battle of Bentonville, March 19-21, 1865
Walter Clark, along with other seventeen- and eighteen-year-old boys, served in the army and helped resist General Sherman's invasion of North Carolina. These young soldiers fought in several battles, the largest one at Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865. General Joseph E. Johnston's small Confederate force surprised part of Sherman's army and initially gained some success. But after two more days of hard fighting, Johnston withdrew his troops toward Raleigh, the state capital. The Battle of Bentonville showed that the Confederacy could still put up a fight, but that it lacked the resources to win.
William A. B. Branch
Private William A. B. Branch, the only son of Brigadier General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch, was a former student of the University of North Carolina and the Virginia Military Institute. After his father died in battle, William Branch enlisted late in the war, at the age of seventeen or eighteen. He served as a courier during the North Carolina campaign in 1865 and surrendered with the army at Greensboro in May.
John Burgwyn MacRae
John Burgwyn MacRae enlisted in Martin County in July 1863 and was initially a member of Second Company B (Starr's Light Battery), Thirty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops (Second Regiment North Carolina Artillery). In November 1863 his unit was redesignated Company B, Thirteenth Battalion North Carolina Light Artillery. MacRae saw action in North Carolina near Greenville, at Wyse Fork near Kinston, and in the Battle of Bentonville. He was paroled in Greensboro on April 29, 1865, after the surrender.
George Washington Finley Harper
George Washington Finley Harper of Caldwell County enlisted at the age of twenty-seven in May 1862. In 1863 he was promoted to captain of Company H, Fifty-eighth Regiment North Carolina Troops, Army of Tennessee. He participated in all the major battles in the west until wounded at Recasa, Georgia, in May 1864. After returning to duty, he fought at Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865.
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