Sherman instructed General. Howard to proceed with due caution until he should have made a strong connection on his left with General Slocum. This he soon accomplished, and, by four P. M. of the 20th, a complete and strong line of battle confronted the enemy in his intrenched position, and General Johnson, instead of catching Sherman's army in detail, as he had designed, was himself on the defensive, with Mill Creek in his rear, spanned by but a single bridge. Nevertheless, Sherman having no object to accomplish by a battle, unless at an advantage, continued to press steadily forward with skirmishers alone, using artillery freely on the wooded space held by the enemy, and feeling strongly the flanks of his position, which were as usual covered by the endless swamps of this region of country. He also ordered all empty wagons to be sent at once to Kinston for supplies, and all other impediments to be grouped near the Neuse, south of Goldsboro', holding the main army in close contact with the enemy, ready to fight him if he should venture outside of his parapets and obstructions.

Immediately upon the occupation of Kinston, General Schofield put a large force of troops to work upon the railway, in aid of the Construction Corps under Colonel W. W. Wright, rebuilt the wagon-bridge over the Neuse, and brought forward supplies, preparatory to a further advance.

Schofield moved from Kinston on the morning of the 20th, and entered Goldsboro' with but slight opposition on the evening of the 21st.

The portion of his command which had remained at Wilmington, under Major-General Terry, moved thence on the 15th of March, reached Faison's Depot on the 20th, and in compliance with the orders just cited, moved from that point to Cox's Bridge, and secured a crossing of the Neuse on the 22d.

Thus, the main army, under Sherman in person, being at Bentonville in the situation described, General Schofield occupying Goldsboro', and General Terry holding the Neuse River, ten miles above, the three armies were in actual connec

tion, holding both banks of the Neuse and having free communication with the sea, by the river and the double line of railway to Newbern and Wilmington, and the great object of the campaign was accomplished.

On the 21st of March, a steady rain prevailed, during which Mower's division of Blair's seventeenth corps, on the extreme right of the main army, worked well to the right around the enemy's flank, and nearly reached the bridge across Mill Creek, the only line of retreat open to the enemy. Of course, there was extreme danger that the enemy would turn on him all his reserve, and, it might be, let go his parapets to overwhelm Mower. Accordingly, Sherman at once ordered a general attack by the skirmish line from left to right. Quite a noisy battle ensued, during which General Mower was enabled to regain his connection with his own corps by moving to his left He had developed a weakness in the enemy's position of which advantage might have been taken; but that night the enemy retreated on Smithfield, leaving his pickets to be taken prisoners, with many dead unburied, and wounded in his field hospitals.

rear.

At daybreak of the 22d, pursuit was made two miles beyond Mill Creek, but checked by Sherman's order.

Slocum's left wing lost at Bentonville nine officers, and one hundred and forty-five men killed, fifty-one officers and eight hundred and sixteen men wounded, and three officers and two hundred and twenty-three men missing-taken prisoners by the enemy; total, twelve hundred and forty-seven.

Howard's right wing lost two officers and thirty-five men killed, twelve officers and two hundred and eighty-nine men wounded, and one officer and sixty men missing; total, three hundred and ninety-nine.

Kilpatrick's cavalry was held in reserve. His loss was trifling. The aggregate loss of the army at Bentonville was sixteen hundred and forty-six.

Two hundred and sixty-seven of the Confederates were buried on the field by the two wings, and sixteen hundred and twenty-five made prisoners.

Leaving General Howard with the right wing and Kilpatrick's cavalry at Bentonville during the 22d, to bury the dead and remove the wounded, on the following day all the armies moved to the camps assigned them about Goldsboro', there to receive the clothing and supplies of. which they stood in need. Sherman went in person on the 22d to Cox's Bridge to meet General Terry, and on the following day rode into Goldsboro', where he found General Schofield and his army. The left wing came in during the same day and next morning, and the right wing followed on the 24th, on which day the cavalry moved to Mount Olive Station and General Terry back to Faison's.

In the mean time the Railway Construction Corps, under the superintendence of the indefatigable Colonel Wright, had been actively at work repairing the railways leading to Wilmington and Newbern. As early as the 25th of March, only four days after the occupation of Goldsboro', the latter line was finished and the first train of cars came in, and the ample supplies provided at Morehead City, by the forethought of General Grant, began to come forward to the army.

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Sherman, in his official report of the campaign, thus sums its results :

"I cannot, even with any degree of precision, recapitulate the vast amount of injury done the enemy, or the quantity of guns and materials of war captured and destroyed. In general terms, we have traversed the country from Savannah to Goldsboro', with an average breadth of forty miles, consuming all the forage, cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry, cured meats, cornmeal, etc. The public enemy, instead of drawing supplies from that region to feed his armies, will be compelled to send provisions from other quarters to feed the inhabitants. A map herewith, prepared by my chief engineer, Colonel Poe, with the routes of the four corps and cavalry, will show at a glance the country traversed. Of course the abandonment to us by the enemy of the whole sea-coast from Savannah to Newbern, North Carolina, with its forts, dock-yards, gun