Ooo! I Almost Forgot - Averasboro Battlefield

The Saturday before leaving Granpa wanted to go to the Averasboro, North Carolina battlefield.  This was part of the Shiloh Campaign and happened at the climax of the Civil War.

We are talking a LOT of troops gathered here, but notice how many are Union blue and how many are not Confederate red !!  The details of this battle were really cool.  It may have been the easiest one for me to follow, especially after we started driving around following the signs, etc.  The video at the Visitor's Center helped immensely, too.

One might think that it all started a few miles south of Averasboro by accident, like a lot of Civil War battles, on both sides of the old Plank Road (like the one pictured here).  Actually, the Confederates had a plan - a very "deliberate, well-planned" tactical military maneuver.  And with the super-able leadership of General William J. Hardee, a former commandant of West Point, they pulled it off with typical Confederate resolve and resilience!  Even so, it has become one of the war's historically underestimated and under recognized Confederate military actions.  Maybe it was because there weren't thousands and thousands of casualties.  (Union casualties totaled 682 and Confederate losses at about 500.)

It all started on the Smith plantation four miles south of the town. The plan's sole purpose was to delay, and to do as much damage as possible to, Union General Sherman's outfit, per Confederate General Johnston's orders.  And it worked even though the Union outnumbered the Rebels 10-to-1.

(Read more about plank roads in my next post.)

Early in the Civil War, North Carolina's action was up and down the Outer Banks and in coastal rivers. It's the stuff novels and movies were made from:  naval battles, blockade running, spies and counter-spying.  Later, as battles boiled up in the western mountains of North Carolina, along the Blue Ridge, the Yankees and Rebels were completely focused on destroying just each other - the rest of the war could wage on without them.  However, once Sherman caused Johnston to surrender to him in April, 1865, Sherman and his men sprinted toward the seacoast while leaving as much civilian destruction as possible behind.  Good things and bad things are said about Sherman, but his focus was reuniting the North and the South, and he was willing to do all things and allow all things in order to accomplish that.

Now, don't let me confuse you.  Sherman had already accomplished his infamous "March to the Sea" that was so feared in "Gone With the Wind."



This North Carolina campaign was different. Sherman could smell Confederate defeat and Union victory and wanted to mop things up and be done with war.  North Carolina was the rebel's logistical lifeline - and that had to be severed once and for all.





Possibly a lot of the wounded that ended up in the infirmary were the result of canister fire.  Don't let me confuse you here, either.  Though this may bring to mind the word, "grapeshot," it's not.  Grapeshot came first and was used in cannons for naval warfare.  Canisters were like grapeshot but adapted to be shot from field pieces and were more effective on a battlefield than grapeshot.  The shots were surrounded by sawdust and encased in cans.  When the canister was fired the shell exploded sending the balls flying like pellets fired from a shotgun - only they were huge.

Once past Averasboro it was a straight shot north through Bentonville into Virginia and up to the Confederate capital of Richmond.  That is where Sherman would (and did) hook up with Grant and truly end the Confederacy once and for all.