The battle of Bentonville, the only major Civil War battle fought
in North Carolina, was the Confederacy's last attempt to stop the
devastating march of William Tecumseh Sherman's army north through
the Carolinas. Despite their numerical disadvantage, General Joseph
E. Johnston's Confederate forces successfully ambushed one wing of
Sherman's army on March 19, 1865 but were soon repulsed. For the
Confederates, it was a heroic but futile effort to delay the
inevitable: within a month, both Richmond and Raleigh had fallen,
and Lee had surrendered.
