Major-General William T. Sherman’s Federal armies had begun entering North Carolina on March 8, sweeping in from South Carolina in two wings of two columns each:
- Major-General Henry W. Slocum’s Army of Georgia, consisting of the Fourteenth and Twentieth corps, held the left (west).
- Major-General Oliver O. Howard’s Army of the Tennessee, consisting of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth corps, held the right (east).
Sherman planned to feint toward Charlotte while actually targeting Fayetteville, the largest town in his path through North Carolina thus far. It housed 3,000 residents and an arsenal that North Carolinians had seized from the Federal government after the state seceded. The arsenal contained rifle-making machinery that Confederates had transferred from Harpers Ferry in 1861.
Securing Fayetteville would enable Sherman to open a supply line on the Cape Fear River. The Federals were slowed by rain and sandy roads that needed corduroying, as well as sporadic Confederate resistance, but they eventually closed in on their target. Only a small cavalry force led by Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton guarded Fayetteville. The rest of the Confederate forces in North Carolina remained dispersed while their new commander, General Joseph E. Johnston, tried to unite them. Sherman wrote, “Up to this period I had perfectly succeeded in interposing my superior army between the scattered parts of my enemy.”
On the morning of the 11th, Slocum reported to Sherman: “The advance of the Fourteenth Army Corps last night reached Buckhead Creek, where they met the enemy in some force. (Absalom) Baird’s division is now moving from this point. The Twentieth Corps is several miles in rear. I shall soon learn whether they intend to defend the place and shall be in there at 9 a.m. if they do not.”
Sherman had arranged for Slocum’s Fourteenth Corps to get the honor of entering Fayetteville first, either because Howard’s army had captured Columbia or because Howard’s army had destroyed Columbia and Sherman did not want Fayetteville to suffer the same fate. But advanced troops of Howard’s Seventeenth Corps were either unaware of the agreement or ignored it, as they arrived first and began surrounding Fayetteville.
A Federal scouting party of 67 cavalrymen under Captain William R. Duncan rode into town. The party encountered Hampton’s horsemen and nearly captured Hampton himself, but a Confederate detachment arrived and drove the Federals off. The Confederates killed 11 and took 12 prisoners, including Duncan.
Major-General Lafayette McLaws, commanding Confederate infantry near Fayetteville, received sensational reports that Hampton had driven off a much larger Federal force, but he was unimpressed: “Report says he killed two with his own hand, but the chivalry have fallen so deep into the pit of ‘want of chivalry’ that they are constantly inventing Munchausen as to the prowess of those from that state, of defaming others in order that thereby they appear elevated by the contrast.”
If the clash could be called a Confederate victory, it was a short-lived one. The rest of the Seventeenth Corps came up and forced Hampton to abandon Fayetteville. The Confederates scored one last moral victory by burning the Clarendon Bridge before the Federals could stop them. Mayor Archibald McLean formally surrendered the city to one of Howard’s staffers, but when troops of Slocum’s Fourteenth Corps finally came up, he quickly handed official control of the city over to them.
Sherman sent messengers to contact Major-General Alfred H. Terry’s Federal Tenth Corps at Wilmington, 75 miles down the Cape Fear River. Terry’s corps was part of Major-General John Schofield’s Army of North Carolina, all under Sherman’s military division. Terry responded by sending a naval squadron under Lieutenant-Commander George W. Young upriver to open communications between Sherman and Washington. Scouts reported the waterway to be “very narrow and torturous, with a strong current… the Chickamauga is sunk across the stream at Indian Wells, with a chain just below. Her two guns are on a bluff on the western bank of the river.”
Meanwhile, Sherman entered Fayetteville around noon:
“I took up my quarters at the old United States Arsenal, which was in fine order, and had been much enlarged by the Confederate authorities, who never dreamed that an invading army would reach it from the west… During the 11th the whole army closed down upon Fayetteville, and immediate preparations were made to lay two pontoon bridges, one near the burned bridge, and another about four miles lower down.”
Residents quickly descended upon Sherman’s headquarters to declare their loyalty to the Union and plead for protection.
Sherman intended to continue northeast to Goldsboro, where he would join with Schofield’s forces coming from Wilmington (Terry’s Tenth Corps) and Kinston (Major-General Jacob D. Cox’s Twenty-third Corps). From there, the united command would advance in two wings to confront Johnston’s Confederates spread out between Goldsboro and Raleigh.
But before Sherman’s men continued their march, they stayed at Fayetteville long enough to destroy factories, tanneries, railroad machine shops, factories, warehouses, and supplies considered useful to the Confederate war effort. This included the arsenal. Sherman reported to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, “The arsenal is in fine order, and has been much enlarged. I cannot leave a detachment to hold it, therefore shall burn it, blow it up with gunpowder, and then with rams knock down its walls. I take it for granted the United States will never again trust North Carolina with an arsenal to appropriate at her leisure.”
Sherman informed Terry, “We are all well and have destroyed a vast amount of stores and done the enemy irreparable damage. I will destroy the arsenal utterly.” In addition to war-related property, the Federals destroyed several private residences and three newspaper buildings. A resident wrote that “there was no place, no chamber, trunk, drawer, desk, garret, closet, or cellar that was private to their unholy eyes. Their rude hands spared nothing but our lives…” A provost guard was finally assigned to stop the pillaging.
Meanwhile, Sherman instructed Terry:
“I want you to send me all the shoes, stockings, drawers, sugar, coffee, and flour you can spare; finish the loads with oats or corn. Have the boats escorted and them run at night at any risk… refugees, white and black… have clung to our skirts, impeded our movements, and consumed our food… I must rid my army of from 20,000 to 30,000 useless mouths, as many to go to Cape Fear as possible, and balance will go in vehicles, and captured horses via Clinton to Wilmington.”
On the Confederate side, Johnston continued his efforts to unite his scattered forces, but still did not know whether Sherman’s next move would be against Goldsboro or Raleigh. General Braxton Bragg, whose Confederates had just finished fighting Cox’s Federals at Kinston, was directed by Johnston to concentrate at Goldsboro while Hardee’s Confederates would hold Raleigh.
Johnston wrote Hardee that “it may be Sherman’s design to unite with that force and for that object to move toward Goldsborough instead of Raleigh.” Hardee was to “keep as near the river as you can without compromising yourself until Sherman’s course is developed… (Sherman) will either move toward Raleigh or Goldsborough… If he takes the first course, General Bragg’s troops will be brought to yours; if the second, yours to his.”
Many Federal soldiers in Fayetteville attended church services on Sunday the 12th. Suddenly, a tugboat whistle could be heard in the distance, which “sent a thrill of gladness through the army which knew well its meaning.” Sherman wrote that the sound “came nearer and nearer, and soon a shout, long and continuous, was raised down by the river, which spread farther and farther, and we all felt that it meant a messenger from home.” The tug delivered supplies and mail, giving the troops knowledge of the “outside world” for the first time since leaving Savannah over a month ago.
Meanwhile, destruction of the arsenal continued until the place was nothing more than rubble. A lady resident recalled “angry flames, leaping from the numerous piles of debris, roared and crackled, creating terrific heat; great billows of black smoke darkened the heavens.” Several men were killed or wounded in the effort. A staff officer wrote home, “This campaign has been harder in every respect than the last… this Army is a cheap thing for the Government; it boards itself. We haven’t had 5 days rations issued, since we started. Bumming has been reduced to a science.”
As the Federals continued their destruction, a small Confederate force fought a delaying action while retreating from the Fayetteville area. This gave Johnston more time to concentrate his main force at Smithfield, between Goldsboro and Raleigh, in hopes of preventing the junction of Sherman and Schofield. Johnston warned General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee that if this happened, “their march into Virginia cannot be prevented by me.”
The Federals began marching out of Fayetteville on the 13th, crossing the Cape Fear River on a new pontoon bridge with Howard’s army in the lead. Sherman knew that he might soon be facing a much larger force than he had since leaving Atlanta and therefore imparted the need for caution. Hampton’s Confederate horsemen observed the movement to determine whether the Federals would be targeting Goldsboro or Raleigh.
Sherman wrote to Federal General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, “I am across the Cape Fear River with nearly all my Army. I shall… draw out ten miles and begin my maneuvers for the possession of Goldsboro.” Brigadier-General H. Judson Kilpatrick’s Federal cavalry was to move north to deceive the Confederate into thinking Sherman would target Raleigh. Sherman told Grant, “Jos. Johnston may try to interpose between me here and Schofield about New Bern, but I think he will not try that.” Instead, Sherman predicted Johnston would try to unite his forces at Raleigh and make a stand there. Sherman was right.
Bibliography
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