whatever kind, and the prepare the two large magazines for explosion. The immense machine-shops, foundries, timber sheds, &c., were soon reduced to a heap of rubbish, and at a concentrated signal fire was applied to these heaps, and to all wooden buildings and piles of lumber; also to the powder trains leading to the magazines. A couple of hours sufficed to reduce to ashes everything that would burn, and the high wind prevailing at the time scattered these ashes, as that only a few piles of broken bricks remained of that repossessed arsenal. Much of the machinery here destroyed had been brought at the beginning of the war from the old arsenal at Harper's Ferry.

On the 13th pontoon bridges were thrown over the Cape Fear River as follows: That of the Left Wing just below the ruins of the road bridge (it having been burned by the enemy), and that of the Right Wing about three miles below, and the army commenced crossing. On the 15th the bridges were taken up and the Left Wing, together with the cavalry, moved out on the Raleigh road. The supply trains of the cavalry and of the Left Wing, under escort of one division from the Fourteenth Corps and one from the Twentieth, after going some seven or eight miles, turned to the eastward, taking the main Goldsborough road, whither they were ordered. The cavalry and the other four divisions continued on the Raleigh road until the enemy was encountered at Taylor's Hole Creek. Early next morning the enemy, consisting of Rhett's brigade of South Carolina Heavy Artillery, was attacked and quickly dislodged from his intrenchments. Our troops pressed on in pursuit and soon encountered the enemy in considerable force intrenched at the cross-roads south of Averasborough, his lines extending from Cape Fear River to Black River. At this point the peninsula between the two rivers is narrowest. By the time proper dispositions were made to attack it was dark, and before daylight next morning, March 17, the enemy was gone, but was closely followed as far as Averasborough by one division of the Twentieth Corps. A map* illustrating the operations at this point was forwarded to the Bureau of Engineers with my letter dated August 14, 1865.

The pursuit to Averasborough developed the fact that the enemy had retreated in the direction of Smithfield, and our march was resumed along the main road hence to Goldsborough. On the morning of the 19th the Right Wing was within two miles of the Left. The enemy having kept at a safe distance from us, and destroyed all bridges leading to the northward in advance of the head of our column, it was inferred that he did not intend to offer any serious opposition to our march. The Right Wing was ordered to move from Lee's Store direct to Goldsborough, and the Left Wing aimed to reach the same point via Cox's Bridge. When near Bentonville the enemy moving down the Smithfield road suddenly attacked the Left Wing and gained a temporary advantage over its leading division, but the other three divisions, the cavalry, and the Michigan Engineers getting into position repulsed every subsequent attack of the enemy, all of which were of a very desperate character, as the rebel commander well knew that daylight of next morning would bring with it the entire Right Wing; and such was the case-that part of the army marching nearly all night and advancing via the same road that the Left Wing was on, but from the opposite direction, reached the enemy's rear, not having been stopped a moment by the opposition of the enemy. The rebel line was, of course, at once doubled back and a junction was made between the

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*See Plate CXXXIII, Map 1 of the Atlans.

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