The Carolinas campaign (January 1 – April 26, 1865), also known as the Campaign of the Carolinas, was the final campaign conducted by the Union Army against the Confederate Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. On January 1 Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman advanced north from Savannah, Georgia, through the Carolinas, with the intention of linking up with Union forces in Virginia. The campaign culminated in the defeat of Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army at the Battle of Bentonville, and its unconditional surrender to Union forces on April 26, 1865. Coming just two weeks after the defeat of Robert E. Lee's army at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, it signaled that the war was effectively over.
Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman had taken a large force through Georgia in the 1864 Atlanta campaign, capturing the namesake city itself in September. The fall of 1864 was focused on countering Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood in the Franklin–Nashville campaign. Sherman eventually pulled out from the campaign, leaving Gen. George H. Thomas to deal with Hood, while the main army returned to Atlanta. Sherman then began his "March to the Sea", culminating in the December capture of Savannah.
At this point, Sherman had 60,000 veteran troops under his command, which Union Army general-in-chief Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant wanted redeployed for use in Virginia. Grant ordered Sherman to embark his army on ships to reinforce the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James in Virginia, where Grant was bogged down in the Siege of Petersburg against Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Sherman had bigger things in mind. He persuaded Grant that he should march north through the Carolinas instead, destroying everything of military value along the way, similar to his 'March to the Sea' through Georgia. Sherman was particularly interested in targeting South Carolina, as the first state to secede from the Union, for the effect it would have on Southern morale. Grant acceded, and Sherman received the go ahead on Christmas Eve. The rest of the year was spent in preparations.
Sherman intended for the bulk of his Army to move out in mid-January 1865, but maneuvering began on December 30, 1864.
Sherman's army commenced toward Columbia, South Carolina, in late January 1865.
After the war, Sherman remarked that while his March to the Sea had captured popular imagination, it had been child's play compared to the Carolinas Campaign.
Sherman's plan was to make a feint for Augusta, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, while instead truly aiming for Goldsboro, North Carolina. As with his Georgia operations, Sherman marched his armies in multiple directions simultaneously, confusing the scattered Confederate defenders as to his first true objective, which was the state capital of Columbia, South Carolina.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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