By the time Wilson’s force took
Macon, Georgia, on April 20, the
war was effectively over. Although
less decisive than the confrontation
between Grant and Lee in Virginia,
the Carolina and Alabama campaigns
had between them put several
more nails in the coffin of the
Confederate cause.cavalry commander, James H. Wilson,
led a mounted troop of 13,000 men
south from Tennessee into northern
Alabama. There, he was confronted by
Confederate cavalry under General
Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The youthful Wilson managed the
capture of northern Alabama brilliantly.
He outmaneuvered and outnumbered
Forrest and destroyed the Confederate
munitions complex at
Selma. Wilson then moved
east to capture the state
capital of Montgomery
before heading into
southern Georgia.THE CAROLINAS AND ALABAMAexpected to rendezvous with 20,000
additional Federal troops under
General John M. Schofield, marching
from the Confederate port of
Wilmington, recently captured
after the Battle of Fort Fisher.
Confederate strategy
General Sherman had split his troops
into two columns, and Johnston’s
only realistic hope lay in attacking
the splintered Union forces. The
Confederates attempted to delay one
of the two columns outside the village
of Averasboro before launching a fully
fledged attack on the Federal left wing
at Bentonville, barely a day’s march
south of Goldsboro.
The initial Confederate successes
were soon countered by the arrival of
Union reinforcements, and Sherman
was able to rendezvous successfully
with Schofield on March 23.
The Alabama campaign
Meanwhile, Union leaders had devised
a two-pronged strategy to carry the war
into Alabama. One force under General
E. R. S. Canby was sent to invade the
state from the south through lower
Mobile Bay, which had been occupied
by Union forces after a naval battle the
previous August. Canby succeeded in
taking the city of Mobile itself in April
- In the meantime, a 27-year-old
Entering Charleston
As the 55th Massachusetts Colored Regiment entered
the city on February 21, they sang “John Brown’s Body.”
The line “John Brown died that the slave might be free”
caused rejoicing among former slaves.AFTER
The success of Federal forces in the
Carolinas and Alabama effectively
thwarted Confederate hopes of a second
line of defense if Richmond fell.THE TIGHTENING NOOSE
The setbacks in the South increased the
pressure on Robert E. Lee’s army
defending Petersburg, which increasingly
came to be seen as the last point of
resistance to a Union victory. The Union
advance in the Carolinas had cut Lee off
from the sea, leaving him increasingly
reliant on a handful of westbound roads
and railroad lines for all his supplies.EBBING HOPES
News of Union incursions also had a
devastating effect on the morale of
Confederate soldiers. Many came from areas
affected by the fighting, leading to an upsurge
in desertions among men desperate to return
home to check on their families’ fate.JOHNSTON’S SURRENDER
Confederate general Joseph Johnston
finally surrendered to William T. Sherman
on April 26 324–25 ❯❯, 17 days after General
Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court
House 316–17 ❯❯. The Battle of Palmito
Ranch, Texas, on May 19, was the war’s
last battle.