Last Stand in the Carolinas: The Battle of Bentonville

The Battle of Bentonville, in which Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederates launched a massive assault against one wing of Gen. William T. Sherman's Federal army, was the military climax of the long overlooked but critical Carolinas Campaign. It was also the Southern Confederacy's final hurrah. Never again would the once-vaunted Army of Tennessee deploy and deliver a grand charge against the enemy. Never again would the major rivals of the Western Theater of the war, William T. Sherman and Joe Johnston, lock themselves in combat. The war that had dragged on year after bloody year drew to a close for these armies just thirty-six days after Bentonville, when Johnston surrendered his men at the Bennett farm house on April 26, 1865.Mark L. Bradley has written the definitive account of not only the Battle of Bentonville, but Sherman's entire Carolinas Campaign. With a flair for storytelling, Bradley weaves a compelling and thorough the Tar Heel State. His penetrating biographical sketches of the principle commanders on both sides introduce the readers to the fascinating cast of characters who found themselves deeply involved in one of the war's final dramas.Ultimately, however, this book is about the fighting at Bentonville. In sweeping detail, Bradley examines the intensive combat of March 19-21, 1865. Readers will find themselves carried along with the wind-whipped flags on the Army of Tennessee's final charge; in the muddy, hastily-dug trenches full of fighting and dying Union soldiers attempting to stem the tide of the bitter Southern attacks; and around both Union and Confederates campfires for a personal look at the war from the perspective of the men in the ranks.