Introduction

The Battle of Averasboro, spelled Averasborough at the time, resulted from a deliberate, well-planned, and well-executed Confederate tactical military maneuver in force--the first since the beginning of Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's march north. The action was designed to delay and to damage Sherman's progress, and it did both under the able and experienced leadership of Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee. On March 16-17, 1865, three miles south of the town, the Union juggernaut battered Confederate forces. More than thirty thousand Federals battled six thousand Confederates on a narrow strip of land between Black River and the Cape Fear River. Of equal and ongoing significance, the Battle of Averasboro and its aftermath highlight the resolve, the compassion, and the resilience of the Southerners involved–both military and civilian. Many would say that Hardee successfully checked and delayed the Union forces and allowed time for Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to organize his forces to fight at Bentonville, but to Sherman, the delaying action at Averasboro was of little consequence, perhaps similar to a modern-day speedbump and nothing more.

Averasboro became home to Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War as a recruiting station. During this time, the Battle of Averasboro took place only four miles from town. This battle marked the Confederate Army’s first deliberate resistance against the march of Federal forces. Maj. Gen. Sherman led this march, and went gunning down Georgia and the Carolinas. In the end, the Confederacy lost 800 soldiers and withdrew from the battle. However, Lt. Gen. Hardee did succeed in the Confederacy’s motive to delay Sherman’s advancement. During this time, Averasboro’s male population dropped due to heavy recruitment into the Confederate Army. Over half of the young men lost their lives in this battle. The only time the town caught a break occurred when Sherman bypassed the town after the battle of Averasboro. Had he not bypassed the town, his soldiers would have burned it down. Janie Smith, an 18 year old who had her house used as a Confederate hospital, writes to a friend describing the aftermath of the battle: “The scene beggars description, the blood lay in puddles in the grove, the groans of the dying and the complaints of those undergoing amputation was horrible, the painful impression has seared my very heart. I can never forget it.”

During the Reconstruction Era, many residents migrated out of the town. A murder involving the Ku Klux Klan spurred the migration. The victim was David McDuffie, and informant for the government who had obtained a list of the members of the clan after infiltrating the Averasboro chapter. After his murder, citizens fled before U.S. marshals arrived. River transport declined as a result of little to no demand of naval stores. In 1885, the construction of a short cut for a rail line from Wilson to Fayetteville began, and it later became part of the Atlantic Coastline Railroad. This Railroad bypassed Averasboro by four miles and instead passed through the town of Lucknow (present-day Dunn). With this final blow, the remnant of its inhabitants moved to Dunn. The use of the Averasboro post office officially discontinued on December 14, 1903, and the mail service was transferred to the Dunn post office.

As the third largest town on the Cape Fear River, to becoming non-existent on maps, Averasboro is remembered merely in the history books. Today, physically only an abandoned post office and an ancient cemetery remain of the port town. What if it had become the capital of North Carolina, or what if its locks and dams had been repaired? We may never get those answers, but we do know that this town of only 600 people evolved into the present-day town of Dunn, North Carolina: Population 10,173.

Background

To study any given battle of the Civil War, it is important to understand how and why it evolved. Battles rarely just happened. Whether part of an expedition, operation, or campaign, battles generally belonged to a grand strategy of an army. Averasboro was no exception.

(Right) Photo of the Plantation home of John Smith. The Smith House was used as a Confederate hospital during the Battle of Averasboro on March 16, 1865.

Chronology

On April 10, 1865, Sherman resumed his Carolinas Campaign. As the Federals advanced toward Raleigh, Johnston’s newly renamed Army of Tennessee fell back and eventually halted around Greensboro. Meanwhile, the Union and Confederate commanders received word of Lee’s surrender on April 9, convincing Johnston that further resistance was futile. On April 13, the Federals occupied Raleigh, and four days later, Sherman and Johnston began surrender negotiations at the Bennett Place near Durham. After President Andrew Johnson’s rejection of Sherman’s preliminary agreement, the two commanders met on April 26 and agreed to terms virtually identical to those Lee had received from Grant at Appomattox Court House. The resulting surrender was the largest of the war, embracing almost 90,000 Confederate troops in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.

Voices of Averasboro

Analysis

Sherman’s army group entered Fayetteville on March 11 and remained there for four days. While most of the men rested, the 1st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics demolished the Confederate arsenal there on orders from the commanding general. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, meanwhile, plotted the final leg of his 450-mile march to Goldsboro. As usual, the plan included a feint—this time due north toward Raleigh with Kilpatrick’s cavalry and four divisions of Slocum’s wing in light marching order. The remaining two divisions would escort all nonessential wagons in the rear of Howard’s wing. Maj. Gen. Henry Slocum would advance up the Plank Road to within four miles of Averasboro, North Carolina, and then head east on the Goldsboro Road via Bentonville, North Carolina. In the meantime, Kilpatrick’s cavalry and one infantry division would continue feinting on Raleigh before veering off toward Goldsboro. Of Slocum’s march toward Bentonville, Sherman wrote, “I do think it is Johnston’s only chance to meet this army before an easy junction with Schofield can be effected.” While Sherman’s army group rested at Fayetteville, Hardee’s corps halted at Smithville, North Carolina (not to be confused with Smithfield), about five miles south of Averasboro. Since evacuating Charleston in mid-February, Hardee had lost one-half of his 13,000 troops to straggling, desertion, and Governor Magrath’s militia recalls. The general decided that he had better fight or perhaps face the final disintegration of his demoralized command. He also hoped to buy time for the concentration of Johnston’s army. Lt. Gen. William Hardee deployed his corps in three lines, placing the relatively inexperienced soldiers of Taliaferro’s division on the first two lines and entrusting the third and main line to the more seasoned troops of McLaws’ division. Sherman’s army group resumed the advance on March 15, with Kilpatrick’s cavalry preceding Slocum’s wing up the Plank Road. About midafternoon, Maj. Gen. Hugh J. Kilpatrick’s lead regiment collided with Confederates from Hardee’s command, and the two sides skirmished for several hours. While working their way through no-man’s-land, three Union cavalry scouts captured one of Taliaferro’s brigade commanders, Col. Alfred M. Rhett, who was riding between the lines with just one staff officer. Before being turned over to the provost marshal, Rhett spent the evening with some old acquaintances—namely Generals Sherman, Slocum, and Davis, who had been stationed at Charleston, Rhett’s hometown, before the war. At nightfall, the fighting ceased, and the two sides frantically dug fieldworks in preparation for a battle the next day. “Hardee is ahead of me and shows fight,” Sherman wrote early on March 16. “I will go at him in the morning with four divisions and push him as far as Averasborough before turning toward Bentonville and [Goldsboro].”

The Battle of Averasboro began at dawn on March 16, amid a steady rain that fell for most of the day. Throughout the morning, Kilpatrick’s cavalry and the Federal XX Corps probed Hardee’s first line for weaknesses. About noon, Sherman directed Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum to send a brigade around the Confederate right flank. Slocum chose Col. Henry Case’s XX Corps brigade, whose surprise flank attack routed the Confederates of Rhett’s brigade manning the first line. “I was never so pleased in my life as I was to see the rebs get up and try to get out of the way,” wrote an Illinois soldier who participated in the assault. Soon afterward, the Federals drove back the second line held by Brig. Gen. Stephen Elliott’s brigade. As Brig. Gen. James D. Morgan’s division of the Union XIV Corps attacked on the left in an effort to outflank Hardee’s third line, two small divisions of Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry arrived just in time to plug the gap. With Hardee’s line now extending from the Cape Fear River on his right to the swamps bordering the Black River on the left, Sherman decided to postpone making a general assault until the next morning. At nightfall, however, Hardee began to evacuate his position. When Federal skirmishers advanced at dawn on March 17, they discovered that the Confederates had withdrawn. Hardee’s delaying action at Averasboro had succeeded in checking Sherman’s movement for one day, buying Johnston invaluable time to concentrate his forces. In doing so, Hardee also had given his green troops their first taste of field combat and boosted their sagging morale. For his part, Sherman had driven Hardee toward Smithfield, thereby opening the road to Goldsboro. The Confederates suffered at least 500 casualties, most of them coming from Rhett’s brigade, while the Federal losses amounted to 682. Of that number, 533 were wounded and had to be transported with the column, hence Sherman’s decision to press Hardee on March 16 rather than risk a full-scale assault because he knew that each additional wounded man would further slow his progress.

Notes

Depending on the source, casualty figures for Averasboro vary from 977 to 1,547. The range in casualties is due largely because of inaccurate missing in action figures from Confederate forces. Generals Slocum and Kilpatrick reported their casualties for the fighting at Averasboro at 682 killed, wounded, captured, or missing. Of the casualties 533 were wounded. Official Records XLVII, Pt. I, Ser. I, 66.

• Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies indicates 682 Union casualties, with 95 killed, 533 wounded, and 54 missing. Hardee stated his losses between 400 and 500.
• Averasboro Battlefield Commission places estimated total casualties at 977.
• North Carolina Office of Archives and History states estimated total losses of 1,182.
• The History Channel (A&E Networks) shows estimated total casualties at 1,540, with Union casualties approximately 675, with 95 killed, 530 wounded, and 50 missing. Confederate losses were estimated at 865.
• National Park Service (NPS) suggests estimated total losses of 1,419.
• Contemporary sources estimate total Confederate losses of 865.