BATTLE
OF BENTONVILLE (North Carolina), March 19-21, 1865.
From the records of the National Park Service:
John and Amy Harper were a
middle class farm couple who resided near the village of Bentonville prior to
and during the Civil War. John's family originated in Virginia, where his
great-uncle, Robert Harper, established a ferry and mill that eventually
developed into the community known as Harpers Ferry. In addition to serving as
a clerk in the county court system, John Harper also farmed approximately 100
of his 825 acres of land, primarily growing corn, peas, beans, and sweet
potatoes. An unspecified portion of Harper's forest land was utilized in the
production of turpentine, which was distilled from the rosin of pine trees. The
family was active in the local Disciples of Christ Church, and so donated some
of their land for the site of the Mill Creek Christian Church. Sometime between
1855 and 1859, John Harper constructed a new, two-story frame home for his
growing family of nine children.
 |
| Harper House built in 1859 near Four Oaks, NC |
The Harpers had little time to enjoy their new home
before the dark clouds of civil war disrupted the family's peaceful existence.
Although eldest son John, Jr., an ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ
Church, remained near his family during the Civil War, their second-oldest son
enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 at age 16. Martin was wounded in the
Battle of South Mountain, Maryland, in September 1862, but remained in the army
until the end of the war.
In the spring of 1865, the suffering of war literally
came to the Harpers' front door. On March 19, 1865, the Battle of Bentonville
erupted barely one mile east of their home. As the battle developed,
Confederate attacks overran large portions of Union lines, and forced Union
field hospitals to seek safer locations. Surgeons of the Union's Fourteenth
Army Corps arrived at the Harper House and commandeered the structure for use
as a field hospital. Its location met the standards of the Letterman Plan, for
it was located in what was considered a safe distanceone milefrom the front
lines.
John and Amy, along with the six children still living
at home, were forced to take refuge in the upstairs rooms of the house while
surgeons employed the downstairs rooms as makeshift operating theaters. "A
dozen surgeons and their attendants in their shirt sleeves stood at rude
benches," wrote one Union commander, "cutting off arms and legs and
throwing them out of the windows where they lay scattered on the grass. The
legs of the infantrymen could be distinguished from those of the cavalry by the
size of their calves, as the march of 1,000 miles had increased the size of one
and diminished the size of the other."¹ There were at this time no
antibiotics to stop infections, and so the only way to prevent gangrene from
killing patients was to amputate shattered arms and legs. But despite the
screams, the piles of severed limbs, and the smell, the Harper family refused
to leave their home.
When the battle was over, the Union surgeons removed
their wounded from the home, but left behind in the Harpers' care 45 wounded
Confederate soldiers. These men were given the best the family could provide.
John Jr. later recalled that his parents had acted as "nurses, surgeons,
commissaries, chaplains and undertakers. My mother fed them, washed their
wounds, pointed them to the Saviour, closed their eyes when all was over, and
helped to bury their uncoffined bodies as tenderly as she could." John Jr.
joined his parents at the Harper House, helping them comfort the wounded and
dying of both armies. Evidence suggests that 26 of the wounded Confederates
were eventually removed from the house by Confederate surgeons, but 19 men
succumbed to their wounds and were buried by the family.
After Sherman's army continued its march to Goldsboro,
Confederate cavalry units returned to the Bentonville area to picket the roads
in the vicinity. Scouts from one of these regiments, the First Kentucky, were
the first to discover that wounded Confederate soldiers had been left in the
home of John and Amy Harper. One week after the battle, the letter below was
directed to Confederate General Johnston's headquarters calling attention to
the plight of the wounded at Harper House.
Headquarters,
1st Ky. Cav.
Near
Bentonville, Mar. 27, 1865
Lt.
Col. Anderson,
Assistant
Adjutant-Gen.:
COLONEL:
My scout sent (in charge of Sergeant Ellis of this regiment) to the battlefield
near Bentonville has returned. He reports finding none of the wounded of the
enemy left. There are 45 wounded of our army at the house of Mr. Harper
(exclusive of those left at Bentonville). They are in a suffering condition for
the want of proper supplies, and there is no surgeon to attend them. Mr. Harper
and family are doing all their limited means will allow for the sufferers.
Their wounds have been dressed and six or eight amputations performed
skillfully by the surgeons of the enemy. There were no supplies left either
with the wounded or in the country. There are no marks left by which the loss
of the enemy can be estimated. Citizens report that they employed all their
ambulances and 200 wagons constantly and actively, from Sunday afternoon until
Tuesday night, removing their dead and wounded.
J.W.
Griffith,
Lt.
Col., Commanding Outpost
##
THE BITTER END
More on the Battle of Bentonville
March 19-21, 1865
By the Civil War Trust
The
Battle of Bentonville
March 19-21, 1865
Following his March to the Sea,
Union Major General William T. Sherman drove northward into the Carolinas,
splitting his force into two parts. Major General Henry W. Slocum commanded the
left wing, while Major General Oliver O. Howard commanded the right. The plan
was to march through the Carolinas, destroying railroads and disrupting supply
lines, before joining Ulysses S. Grant’s army near Richmond. On March 19th, as
the respective wings approached Goldsboro, North Carolina, Slocum’s wing
encountered the entrenched Confederates of Joseph E. Johnston, who had
concentrated at Bentonville with the hope of slowing the Union advance.
Convinced that he faced only a small Confederate cavalry
force, Slocum launched a probing attack, which was quickly driven back. In the
late afternoon, the Confederate trap was sprung, and a division of rebel
infantry under Major General Robert Hoke attacked, driving back Slocum’s men
and overrunning the Union XIV Corps field hospital. However, James D. Morgan’s
Union division held out against the onslaught, and eventually Union
reinforcements arrived to support the counterattack. The Confederates reached
their high water mark at the Morris Farm, where Union forces formed a defensive
line. After several Confederate attacks failed to dislodge the Union defenders,
the weary rebels pulled back to their original lines. Nightfall brought the
first day’s fighting to a close in a tactical draw.
The next day, the right wing of the Union Army arrived
to reinforce Slocum, which put the Confederates at a huge numerical
disadvantage. Sherman expected Johnston to retreat and was inclined to let him
do so. However, while Johnston did begin evacuating his wounded, he refused to
give up his tenuous position, guarding his only route of escape across Mill
Creek. His only hope for success in the face of such an overwhelming numerical
disadvantage was to entice Sherman into attacking his entrenched position,
something Sherman was unlikely to do. A few sporadic skirmishes occurred
throughout the day on March 20th, but no major action ensued.
On the 21st, Johnston remained in position and the
previous day’s skirmishing resumed. Under a heavy rainfall, Union Major General
Joseph A. Mower led a “little reconnaissance” toward the Mill Creek Bridge.
When Mower discovered the weakness of the Confederate left flank, that little
reconnaissance became a full-scale attack against the small force holding the
bridge. A Confederate counterattack, combined with Sherman’s order for Mower to
withdraw, ended the advance, allowing Johnston’s army to retain control of
their only means of supply and retreat. Had the Federals managed to gain
control of this bridge, they might have had the chance to end the campaign
earlier or even capture Johnston’s army entirely.
Instead, the Confederates pulled back across the bridge
on the night of the 21st, effectively ending the battle. Union forces pursued
them at first light but were halted by a severe skirmish at Hannah’s Creek.
After regrouping at Goldsboro, Sherman pursued Johnston’s army toward
Raleigh. On April 18, Johnston signed an
armistice with Sherman at the Bennett House, and on April 26, formally
surrendered his army.
##
HAUNTED HOUSE?
The
National Park Service does not enter into discussion about paranormal activity
at any of its historic sites, but that doesn’t stop the general public via the
Internet to discuss ghosts at the Harper House and claim that the house is one
of the most haunted sites in the South.
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