Part 41 (1/2)

8. What occurred on December 25th, 1864?

9. Describe the attack on Fort Fisher.

10. What was the conclusion of the attack?

11 How did the state receive the news of this Federal failure?

What forces were removed from Fort Fisher?

12. Describe the preparations for renewal of attack on January 12th.

13. Give an account of the engagement. What was the sad result?

CHAPTER LXII.

THE WAR DRAWS TO A CLOSE.

A. D. 1865.

1. With the fall of Fort Fisher the fate of Wilmington was sealed. With the Federal troops in such a position the port was most effectually closed. The last connection of the beleaguered Confederacy with the outer world was thus broken, and North Carolina, with beating heart, listened to the approaching footsteps of countless invaders. General Lee, who had been made General-in-Chief of all the Southern armies, selected General Joseph E. Johnston to command in North Carolina.

2. General Bragg's forces having retired from Wilmington, met the corps of Major-General Schofield in an ineffectual engagement at Kinston on March 8th, and retired upon Goldsboro. This command, with the troops lately in Charleston and Savannah, the remnant of the Army of Tennessee and Hampton's Division from Virginia, soon made an army of twenty-five thousand men, under the command of General Johnston.

3. Against him were coming, from South Carolina, the great army under General W. T. Sherman; from Wilmington, the corps of General Terry, and from Kinston, the army of General Schofield.

In addition to these overwhelming forces, another column was approaching from the west, under General Stoneman.

4. As this great array gathered toward Raleigh as a common focus, the first conflict was between the division commanded by General Hardee and the army of General Sherman at the hamlet of Averasboro. After a stubborn fight, Hardee withdrew, and, having joined General Johnston, the latter collected fifteen thousand men at Bentonsville, in Johnston county, on March 19th, and awaited Sherman's approach.

5. General Sherman, on that day, made six successive attacks upon Johnston's left, composed of Hoke's and Cheatham's divisions and the late garrisons on the Cape Fear. The Federal a.s.saults were all repelled, and, at the order for our troops to advance, three lines of the enemy's field works were carried and several batteries captured. This success, however, was not bloodlessly effected.

6. General Sherman withdrew to Goldsboro to meet Schofield and Terry, and Johnston halted near Smithfield to await developments.

With such a force it seemed impossible that he would be able to meet the combined strength of the three, armies a.s.sembling at Goldsboro, but the result at Bentonsville had greatly elated his troops, and they resolutely awaited General Sherman's return to the shock of arms.

7. After so much bloodshed the end of hostilities, however, was near at hand. General Sheridan, with heavy cavalry reinforcements, having a.s.sailed the right flank of General Lee's defences at Petersburg, after hard fighting, succeeded in winning a decisive battle at Five Forks on the 28th of March. The loss, of the six thousand Confederates made prisoners on that day was fatal to longer hold on the thinly-manned lines around the city that had been so long and n.o.bly defended.

8. On the morning of the 2nd of April, in the general a.s.sault, General Lee's lines were pierced in three places, General A. P.

Hill was slain, and, at nightfall the doomed Army of Northern Virginia began its famous retreat. After incredible hards.h.i.+ps, having fought their way to Appomattox Court House, the small remnant of the heroes who had for four years so dauntlessly held their ground against all comers, were enveloped in the ma.s.ses of pursuing hosts, and, on April 9th, at the command of their beloved leader, they there laid down their arms.

9. General Lee was never greater or more loved or more reverenced thanin the hour of his fall. He had not taken part in the struggle to gratify ambition or for love of war; but in the conscientious discharge of sacred duty. Into that struggle North Carolina had sent more than a hundred and fifty thousand of her sons, and to them all he was ever the ideal of the soldier, the gentleman and the Christian. At his command they laid down their arms, returned to their homes and in time renewed their allegiance to the United States.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the effect of the fall of Fort Fisher?

2. What occurred at Kinston? What was the size of General Johnston's army?

3. What great forces were marching against Johnston?