No Such Army Since The Days Of Julius Caesar Shermans Carolinas Campaign From Fayetteville To Averasboro March 1865 Mark A Smith Wade Sokolosky by Mark A. Smith; Wade Sokolosky 9781611212877, 1611212871, 2016038946 instant download after payment.

William Tecumseh Sherman’s Carolinas campaign has long been overshadowed by the events in Virginia, even as the Confederates themselves recognized it as the crucial, war-winning blow, and pitted a luminous array of their best generals—Johnston, Hardee, Hampton, A.P. Stewart, D.H. Hill, and others—against it. In this work, career military officers Mark A. Smith and Wade Sokolosky rectify the oversight with “No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar”, a careful and impartial examination of Sherman’s advance up the seaboard.

After his largely unopposed “March to the Sea,” in March 1865 Sherman struck off again north, aiming to unite with Grant and crush Lee between them. But the Confederacy in the Carolinas was not finished yet, and while Sherman rampaged through South Carolina they gathered forces to resist him in its northern neighbor.

In North Carolina the Rebels conceded their vast arsenal at Fayetteville, which the Federals destroyed, but under William J. Hardee prepared to receive Sherman’s host in the narrow corridor between the Black and Cape Fear rivers at Averasboro. With a number of untried units (former coastal battalions) plus a scattering of veterans in Lafayette McLaws’ division, and Joe Wheeler’s cavalry, Hardee created a defense-in-depth, reminiscent of four-score years earlier at the battle of Cowpens.

At Averasboro, Sherman’s spearhead was stopped cold in a two-day battle, which in these pages is described in intimate detail. 

This work uncovers a long-overlooked clash in the Civil War, which had consequences beyond the sacrifices of the men