Brunswick Civil War Roundtable

BRUNSWICK CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE

THE BATTLE OF BENTONVILLEOr THE LAST GRAND CHARGE OF THE CONFEDERACY

SPEAKER : Mark Bradley

Mark has been supporting us since our humble beginnings three years ago. He is known as one of the most distinguished minds on the Battle of Bentonville. Read his books on the subject and you may well agree. Mark always garners our greatest respect with oceans of applause and loud shouts of HUZZAH. Bentonville is the final southern HUZZAH.

Lee makes one last attempt to cobble together an “Army of the South,” predominantly to be manned by soldiers from Tennessee, these “Tennessee” troops have but one objective –stop Sherman and prevent him from linking with Grant for an all out attack on Petersburg and Richmond. There will not be another Civil War Battle of this significance.

The Battle of Bentonville will start March 19, 1865, near Goldsboro, and rage on for two more days. Poor intelligence and outright fear slows both sides. The weather and the terrain play a part. The man everyone finds easy to hate, Braxton Bragg, pulls another “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” stunt that helps bring the first day of battle to a stalemate. The second dayJoe Johnston uses the same “good idea” concept that worked in the past.--just draw Sherman into an attack and in the words of Charlie Brown, “We’ll whomp ‘em all yet!!!!!!!” (Can’t you see Lucy give Charlie “The look?”) Bradleyisms like this make Mark’s talk downright enjoyable.Day three ends in a complete rout and ends any chance of a Confederate victory.

Three weeks after the Battle of Bentonville, Lee surrenders at Appomattox. President Jeff Davis objects loudly but Joe Johnston sets a surrender meeting for April 17th with Sherman. Unfortunately, five days after the Appomattox Treaty, Lincoln was shot. This DOES complicate any attitude of leniency. Lincoln wanted a view of “malice for none: with charity for all.”

Mere words can’t replace Mark Bradley’s well placed and timely quotes from various soldiers. Ya just had to be there to understand why The Battle of Monroe Crossroads was the “Shirt tail Skedaddle.” Without the rest of the story you can’t understand the meaning behind a Union Soldier stating that “Those Rebels just don’t drive worth a Damn!” The total destruction of Carlin’s Division prompts a tearful observation from a soldier: “It just seems more than any man could bear.”

This “Freedom War” culminates in the Treaty being signed on April 26th at the Bennett Place –a simple farmhouse near Durham, North Carolina. The War cost over 660,000 lives, wiped out almost a complete generation in the South and ended ignominiously in that humble tobacco farmhouse that few people have ever visited. It was to be the largest troop surrender of the Civil War with slightly “North” (pun intended) of 90,000 southern troops. Mark ends by observing: to this day Americans ask was there no better way?

Submitted by Dan Fink