No Hope for the Johnnies: Battery C at Bentonville

Sherman Hendrick of Battery C, 1st Ohio Light Artillery had fought as part of the Army of the Cumberland since its inception. But at Bentonville, North Carolina in March 1865, he saw something he had rarely seen on a battlefield: the 14th Corps running away from a fight.

          “Soon after our arrival, we heard a great uproar towards the front and saw pack mules, baggage wagons, and part of a battery coming back in great disorder,” he recalled. “Our advancing brigades had been flanked by an overwhelming force and came back in awful confusion. The command was given, “Right wheel into battery!” At 3:15 p.m., we were in good shape for callers. We were no sooner in position than the 14th Corps brigade came running through our line, one captain crying out, “Lee’s whole army is after us! Run for your lives, boys, run!” The 14th Corps boys were not in the habit of running away from a fight, so we knew that there must be something ahead worth running for. But we were there first and meant to hold our ground.”

          Hendrick’s battery, attached to the 20th Army Corps, would hold their ground for the rest of the battle, its last major engagement of the Civil War. Corporal Hendrick’s description of Bentonville first appeared in the June 30, 1892, edition of the National Tribune.

 

Private John D. Thompson, Battery C, 1st Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery 

          On Sunday March 19, 1865, we marched at 7:30 a.m. on the Bentonville road from the direction of Averysboro. At 10 a.m., we heard artillery ahead where the 14th Corps was fighting the enemy under General Joseph Johnston. The enemy was slowly driven back until they reached entrenchments near Bentonville.

          We reached this point at 2:40 p.m. and went into park in an open field near a house and peach orchard. We had seen the peach trees in bloom all morning, it being regular spring warm and the roads muddy. As we came to a halt, the lines were extended to the left by the 20th Corps to which Battery C was now attached, forming on the left of the 14th Corps. All the time there was hard skirmishing in front nearly a mile ahead of us. Two brigades, one of the 14th and one of 20th Corps, were advancing upon the Rebel work to try their position.

          Soon after our arrival, we heard a great uproar towards the front and saw pack mules, baggage wagons, and part of a battery coming back in great disorder. Our advancing brigades had been flanked by an overwhelming force and came back in awful confusion. The command was given, “Right wheel into battery!” At 3:15 p.m., we were in good shape for callers. We were no sooner in position than the 14th Corps brigade came running through our line, one captain crying out, “Lee’s whole army is after us! Run for your lives, boys, run!” The 14th Corps boys were not in the habit of running away from a fight, so we knew that there must be something ahead worth running for. But we were there first and meant to hold our ground. General [James S.] Robinson formed his brigade to support our battery, the only one on the field, and then began the work of rallying the fleeing troops. The flag bearer of the 82nd Ohio halted to the left of our battery and rallied his comrades by waving the colors and calling, “Where is the 82nd Ohio?”

          All this had taken place in 15 minutes and we had redoubts started three rails high in front of our pieces when the Rebels came out of the woods in the front and on the left of us about 500 yards away. As they emerged from the woods, our skirmishers heard their officers say, “Boys, go for that battery,” and they started. But about this time was our put in and we sent them a volley of case shot cut just right to burst among them. We kept this up as fast as we could load and fire and they soon fell back to the cover of the woods.

Corporal Sherman Hendrick
Battery C, 1st O.V.L.A.

          As soon as they did this, troops were advanced to the edge of the woods on our right and left, leaving our front for us to take care of while we strengthened our works. In the meantime, Battery I, 1st New York Light Artillery, had arrived and taken position, ready to assist in repelling the second charge. Before the third charge, another battery was in position belonging to the 14th Corps. The Rebels charged seven times before dark but as we were reinforced all the time, they did not get out of the woods after the first charge.

          During the second charge, Corporal. D.A. Reed of Battery C was severely wounded and died three days afterwards and was buried on the way to Goldsboro. Battery M, 1st New York Light Artillery arrived about 5 p.m. making four batteries in position, ready for business at the same old stand. There was now no hope for the Johnnies; our lines were too strong and they retired to their works.

          Battery C fired 271 rounds, mostly case shot. The first charge was repulsed wholly by case shot, showing that to be a powerful weapon when properly used. The 20th Corps arrived not a minute too soon as the 14th Corps was being roughly handled by Johnston’s whole army. Battery C had the honor of saving the day by repulsing that first charge. Not that we did any better than would any of the other batteries, but we were there and they were not. The infantry, as always, did their duty. But I was watching the enemy and the work of the artillery that day and had a large open field to do it in so I can say but little for the work of the infantry.

          As the enemy was charging us, it was preeminently an artillery battle and proved the efficacy of case shot for treating that kind of disease. It certainly did good execution as was proved by the line of dead left in the open field from the first charge and from the fact that the enemy could not be coaxed or driven out of the woods to meet those shrieking, bursting shells a second time. They would form back in the woods and come up to the opening all right, but there they would break and rush back out of reach, then form and advance to break and fall back again.

          This is Bentonville as I saw it.

 Source:

“Bentonville, N.C.: The Part Taken by Battery C, 1st Ohio L.A. in one of Sherman’s last fights,” Corporal Sherman Hendrick, Battery C, 1st Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery, National Tribune, June 30, 1892, pg. 3

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