698 NortH Carotina Troops, 1861~’65.

for his knowledge of the line and the knowledge of others
who were with us, we would evidently have been captured.
However, by taking the swamps and by-paths we avoided
meeting any considerable armed force of the foe, and late in
the night made our way back to Kinston, to which place the
army had retired,

BENTONVILLE,

On the next day we took up our march for Goldsboro and
to Bentonville, crossing the Neuse river near Smithfield.
Here we joined General Stewart’s Corps in the Army of the
West, and took part in the memorable three days’ fight at
Bentonville, 19-21 March, 1865, the last well organized and
well fought battle of the war in North Carolina.

This fight commenced 19 March near the little village of
Bentonville. Kirkland’s Brigade was well to the front, with
its right resting upon a road that ran along the edge of a
field, in which was situated a large white house, that was
occupied by the sharpshooters of the enemy. The line was
rather a crooked one, the Sixty-sixth Regiment being the
farthest to the front, at the point of a bow. Here a very
severe attack was made upon us in which we lost a number of
men, among others the gallant Council Wooten, a young man
from near Kinston, who was killed suddenly while bravely
and defiantly waving the colors of the regiment in front of
the enemy. The sharpshooters of General Sherman’s army
located in the trees, gdt in their best work, and many a gal-
lant soldier fell during the 19th and 20th from well directed
shots of these sharpshooters. On the 20th it became neces-
sary for Kirkland’s Brigade to straighten its line and while
in the act of so doing, a very severe attack was made by a
Pennsylvania division. The men of Kirkland’s Brigade
were engaged in rolling together logs and making such de-
fences as they could when the attack was made upon us. The
men were ordered to lie down behind such obstructions as
they could find, and to await the order to fire until the ad-
vance came very near to them. When the enemy got within,
say 100 yards, the order was given to fire; the men immedi-
ately raised upon their knees and fired a volley full in front

Stxty-SixtH REGIMENT. 699

of the advancing foe. Their ranks were mowed down like
wheat before the scythe, and the attack was repulsed with
great loss to the attacking division. Just at this moment an
order was given by the commanding officer, Major Davis, to
the writer, who was standing near him, to take the picket line
to the front, the commanding officer of the picket line having
been killed. When the line went forward, the whole front
was covered with the dead and dying, and showed the effect
of troops obeying the commands of their officers, to shoot low
and wait until the enemy was near upon them.

Just at this time, it is said, that General Joseph E. John-
ston paid a very high compliment to the troops of Hoke’s
Division, and Kirkland’s Brigade in particular. General
Johnston was lying somewhere in the rear, resting after his
arduous labors of the three days, when some aide, riding
rapidly up, said: “General, they are attacking Kirkland’s
Brigade.” The General quietly rolled over on his pallet and
said: “Let them attack. I know of no brigade in the South-
ern Army I would sooner they would attack.”

During the three days’ fight at Bentonville, Major Davis
was commanding the regiment, Colonel Nethercutt having
been assigned to the command of the brigade of Junior Re-
serves, which took so gallant a part in that fight.

On the 21st, General Sherman’s army having been
only slightly impeded in its march toward Goldsboro, made
a flank movement in the rear of General Johnston’s army,
which necessitated its falling back during the night across
the creek near which the little town of Bentonville was lo-
cated. After we crossed the creek the enemy appeared in
quite a force on the opposite side of a creek and some little
skirmishing took place, but no actual harm was done.

They shortly vanished from our front, and our army
quietly retired through Smithfield to a camp on the line of
the railroad, near where Selma now is, and that was the last
armed force that we saw in our front during the war.

THE LAST RETREAT.

We remained at this camp some few days, and on 10 April
wearily took up our line of march from there, through Ra-