7
Bentonville, Johnston County, N.C.
March 20-21, 1865
From March 20th to the 21st, 1865, the 9th Michigan Cavalry Regiment was noted as being in Bentonville, Johnston County (Turner 3-4). Depending on the route taken, the distance between Bentonville and the regiment’s last noted movement in Averasboro is 24+ miles (Google Maps).
In Bentonville, the Battle of Bentonville was raging, having begun on March 19th (Johnson 269). Due to the battle’s vicinity to the surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9th, both sides’ resources and manpower were exhausted. The battle engaged 60,000 Union forces and 21,000 Confederate forces, resulting in 1,527 Union casualties and 2,606 Confederate casualties (Johnston County, NC | Mar 19 - 21, 1865).
After the battle, the Confederate forces retreated towards Smithfield while Union forces moved towards Goldsboro (Johnston County, NC | Mar 19 - 21, 1865).
The Battle of Bentonville was the last large-scale battle of the Civil War.
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Map illustrating the Battle of Bentonville, N.C. [1865] Photograph. Retrieved from the State Archive of North Carolina.
Battle of Bentonville. [1865] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.
A Rebel Assault at the Battle of Bentonville. [Between 1850-2000] Photograph. Retrieved from the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Waud, W. Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, March 19 - Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps Engaged. [1865] Print. Retrieved from the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Waud, W. Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, March 20 - Fifteenth Corps Engaged on the Right. [1865] Print. Retrieved from the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
View of Bentonville, N.C., The Morning After the Battle - Great Quantities of Bosin Fired by the Rebels. [1865] Print. Retrieved from the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
References
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Google Maps, Google, www.google.com/maps/.
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Johnson, Clint. Touring the Carolinas: Civil War Sites, Second Edition. John F. Blair
Publisher, 2011, https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/catalog/UNCb9021784.
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“Johnston County, NC | Mar 19 - 21, 1865.” American Battlefield Trust, History, 2022, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/bentonville.
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Plante, Trevor K. “Ending the Bloodshed: The Last Surrenders of the Civil War.”
Prologue Magazine, vol. 47, no. 1, John F. Blair Publisher, 2015,
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2015/spring/cw-surrenders.html.
Turner, Assistant Adjutant General, Col.George H., editor. “Ninth Cavalry.” Record of
Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War (1861-1865), vol. 39, Senate and
House of Representatives of the Michigan Legislature,
https://michiganology.org/uncategorized/IO_e7cddf59-87fb-4fd7-bf14-