Bentonville

**Scenario briefing**

*Following his march to the sea, Major General William T. Sherman started his campaign of the Carolinas. The Federal commanding general, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, wanted Sherman to link up with his forces, now bogged down in the siege of Petersburg, where they are facing General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Sherman decided to conduct this movement by land instead of transporting his army via sea, as the latter would take too long, and in this manner, he could also cut Confederate supply lines in the process.*

*Facing Sherman was General Joseph E. Johnston, who had been relieved of command after the disastrous Atlanta campaign, but was again needed after General John Bell Hood's failed and even more disastrous invasion of Tennessee, in which the aggressive Hood practically destroyed his own Army of Tennessee, by constant and ill-advised attacks. Confederate general-in-chief Lee's orders to Johnston were to take command of Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida and to beat Sherman back. For this task Johnston had at hand the depleted Army of Tennessee, some cavalry under Major General Wade Hampton, and General Braxton Bragg's forces in Wilmington. Desertion and straggling in the Confederate units was high, and morale was questionable at best.*

*In Sherman's plan, two armies, his left and right wings, the Army of Georgia and the Army of the Tennessee, moved north from Savannah, Georgia. They marched divided, so as to scatter and confuse Confederate defenders. During the early spring of 1865 Sherman left a trail of destruction while marching through South Carolina, capturing the state capital Columbia. General Schofield's capture of Wilmington, North Carolina, in February opened a new front against the Confederates. But Schofield was stopped by the Confederate defenders before he could link up with Sherman at Goldsboro, North Carolina. This, in turn, opened a window of opportunity to Johnston, who was able to concentrate his forces against Sherman. This force, some 22,000 strong, a hodge-podge collection of veterans, militias and even artillery units organized into ad hoc infantry brigades, and only a few guns, was only one-third the size of what Sherman had in his armies. But Johnston had information that Sherman's wings were divided far apart and he decided to strike one of them before the other could reinforce.*

*On the Union side, no one is expecting Johnston to resist their advance in a major engagement, and so Johnston's attack comes as a surprise. But the Confederate maps had a critical error in them: Sherman's wings were in fact not nearly as far apart as the Confederates imagined. On March 19 Major General Henry W. Slocum's column is advancing along the Goldsboro Road, when Confederate line is sighted south of Bentonville. Believing this to be merely a cavalry screen and some supporting artillery, Slocum starts to deploy, but does not yet call for Major General Oliver O. Howard's Army of the Tennessee. The Confederate stand will be that of desperation, but a successful attack could allow Johnston to defeat Slocum's wing and to destroy its trains before the Union forces could be reunited.*

## Set-up

### Battlefield

For a more in depth look at the Bentonville battlefield, see its associated battlefield page.