As March began, Major-General William T. Sherman’s two Federal armies continued their northward march. The Federals laid waste to most everything in their path, making sure that South Carolina, the first state to secede, felt their fury. They were hampered by bad roads and rough wire grass, but they corduroyed the roads as they moved and still averaged about 10 miles per day.
Once the armies invaded North Carolina, Sherman planned to feint toward Charlotte while targeting Fayetteville. From there, he would join forces with Major-General John Schofield’s Army of North Carolina, which was securing a supply line from the Atlantic to Goldsboro. An article in the Raleigh North Carolina Standard warned readers that the Federals were coming: “We hope for the best, but we confess that Sherman will not be routed, or even checked… Goldsborough, Fayetteville, and even Raleigh are in danger. We fear that what has been will be; in other words, that the enemy will overrun this country.”
Elements of the Federal Army of the Tennessee, which comprised Sherman’s right (east) wing, were approaching Cheraw, the last town out of South Carolina. This town had become a sanctuary for those who had fled from Charleston. The Confederate troops in the area mainly consisted of the evacuated Charleston garrison, commanded by Lieutenant-General William Hardee. Hardee held a council of war on the night of March 2 and decided to abandon Cheraw.
Major-General Oliver O. Howard, commanding the Army of the Tennessee, notified Sherman that troops from his Seventeenth Corps had begun entering Cheraw that same day. More troops followed on the 3rd, including Sherman himself, who later wrote:
“Cheraw was found to be full of stores which had been sent up from Charleston prior to its evacuation, and which could not be removed. I was satisfied from inquirers, that General Hardee had with him only the Charleston garrison, that the enemy had not divined our movements, and that consequently they were still scattered from Charlotte around to Florence, then behind us. Having thus secured the passage of the Pedee, I felt no uneasiness about the future, because there remained no further great impediment between us and the Cape Fear River, which I felt assured was by that time in possession of our friends (i.e., Schofield).”
Confederate cavalry held off Federal advance units long enough for Hardee’s troops to burn the bridge spanning the Pee Dee River, which was too deep to ford. Sherman used the time it would take to build a new bridge to concentrate his troops at Cheraw. Sherman was shocked to learn that a New York newspaper left at Hardee’s headquarters correctly reported that Sherman would be heading to Goldsboro.
Sherman reported that many of the Charleston refugees at Cheraw had brought their possessions with them, including luxury items that the Federals quickly seized. Sherman added, “There was an immense amount of stores in Cheraw, which were used or destroyed; among them twenty-four guns, two thousand muskets, and thirty-six hundred barrels of gunpowder. By the carelessness of a soldier, an immense pile of this powder was exploded, which shook the town badly, and killed and maimed several of our men.”
An investigation was conducted as to the cause of the deadly blast, and according to the official report:
“The explosion was caused by ignition of a large quantity of rebel ammunition which had been found in the town of Cheraw and hauled out and thrown into a deep ravine lying between the town and the pontoon bridge… After diligent inquiry I am unable to ascertain the names of the men who set fire to the powder, but I have no doubt they were ignorant, as I was myself, that any explosive material was in the ravine.”
Another explosion occurred behind Sherman’s armies in South Carolina. Rear-Admiral John A.B. Dahlgren, commanding the Federal South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, left Charleston aboard his flagship Harvest Moon to inspect the recently captured Fort White at Georgetown. During the trip, the flagship struck a torpedo. One man was killed, but Dahlgren escaped. He later reported, “Suddenly, without warning, came a crashing sound, a heavy shock, the partition between the cabin and wardroom was shattered and driven in toward me, while all loose articles in the cabin flew in different directions… A torpedo had been struck by the poor old Harvest Moon, and she was sinking.” The ship went down in five minutes.
Back at Cheraw, Sherman learned that “my special antagonist,” General Joseph E. Johnston, had assumed command of all Confederate forces in the region. Sherman knew that Johnston “would not be misled by feints and false reports, and somehow compel me to exercise more caution than I had hitherto done.” Sherman guessed that Johnston’s priority would be to unite these scattered commands and then make a stand against him somewhere in North Carolina. As such, Sherman sought to hurry and join forces with Schofield before Johnston could stop him.
At Johnston’s request, he was given command of all Confederates within the Department of North Carolina, currently under General Braxton Bragg. Johnston transferred his headquarters from Charlotte to Fayetteville on the 4th, “considering the latter as a better point to obtain quick intelligence of the enemy’s movements, and to direct those of the Confederate troops.” Johnston’s command now consisted of:
- The Department of North Carolina, which included Major-General Robert F. Hoke’s veteran infantry division, various local regiments, and the state’s junior reserves
- Hardee’s corps, which included artillery and infantry units from the Charleston garrison, as well as Major-General Lafayette McLaws’s infantry division
- Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton’s cavalry corps and a cavalry division under Major-General Matthew C. Butler
- Remnants of the shattered Army of Tennessee under Lieutenant-General Alexander P. Stewart
By March 6, Federals had built a pontoon bridge and were starting to cross the Pee Dee. They moved in four columns, with Howard’s Fifteenth and Seventeenth corps on the right (east), and Major-General Henry W. Slocum’s Fourteenth and Twentieth corps of his Army of Georgia on the left (west). Brigadier-General H. Judson Kilpatrick’s cavalry division screened the advance and guarded the supply trains. The plan was for Howard to advance on Fayetteville from the south while Slocum advanced on the town from the west.
By the 8th, Sherman’s armies had crossed into North Carolina. Sherman set up headquarters at Laurel Hill, 30 miles from Fayetteville. He sent word to the Federals at Wilmington that he should reach Goldsboro by the 20th. Sherman assigned Slocum the honor of entering Fayetteville first because Howard’s wing had been the first to enter Columbia. Heavy rains turned roads to muddy swamps, but like their previous marches, the Federals were not noticeably slowed.
Hardee’s tired Confederates reached the outskirts of Fayetteville on the 9th. The town newspaper notified local farmers that “the army of Hardee is in want of food. It is the army to which we have to look for protection and safety.” “Galvanized Yankees,” or Federals choosing to become Confederate troops to avoid the horrid prison camps, worked to repair roads to facilitate Confederate movement.
By the next day, the Federals were within seven miles of Fayetteville and Hardee knew he would need to retreat again. Johnston directed Hardee to leave his artillery within supporting distance “to impede the enemy, with Hampton’s help.” Hardee’s Confederates began crossing the Cape Fear River that night, with Hampton’s cavalry serving as rear guard. Their next stop would be Averasboro, on the Fayetteville-Raleigh road.
Johnston and Hardee decided to make a stand at Averasboro. They guessed that Sherman would only be sending one of his wings into that town, which would not be so numerically overwhelming to Hardee’s small force. This would also give Johnston time to concentrate all his forces in North Carolina. The Federals would reach Fayetteville the next day.
Bibliography
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- Kennedy, Frances H. (ed.), The Civil War Battlefield Guide. James M. McPherson, The Conservation Fund, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- Longacre, Edward G. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- Pollard, Edward A., Southern History of the War (facsimile of the 1866 edition). New York: Fairfax Press, 1990.
- Sherman, William T., Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, Vol. I. New York: D. Appleton and Co. (Kindle Edition), 1889.
- Smith, Mark A., “No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar”: Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign from Fayetteville to Averasboro, March 1865. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, Kindle Edition 2017 (Originally published by Ironclad Publishing, 2006).
- Woodworth, Steven E., Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition, 2005.