1855-1879

County weathers storm of war

A certain Union officer had a particular aim in mind as he set his sights on Fayetteville in March 1865: "I will destroy the arsenal utterly."

Sherman

Those were the words of Gen. William T. Sherman as his 60,000-man army moved in.

"Since I cannot leave a guard to hold it," Sherman wrote to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in a March 12 letter from Fayetteville, "I therefore shall burn it, blow it up with gunpowder and then with rams knock down its walls."

The story of the arsenal's destruction has been well documented: Sherman proved to be a man of his word.

What's probably not as widely known is what else happened during that climactic week in March.

There was also "Kilpatrick's shirttail skedaddle," the nickname given to a skirmish on present-day Fort Bragg, at Monroe's Crossroads. The cavalry of Confederate Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton overran the sleeping headquarters camp of Union Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, who supposedly escaped in his nightclothes.

Downtown Fayetteville also was the site of a skirmish, as Hampton and his men surprised a cavalry patrol, killing 11 Union soldiers and capturing a dozen on March 11.

In addition to the arsenal's destruction, Fayetteville residents witnessed Hampton's burning of the Clarendon Bridge as his troops escaped across the Cape Fear River. The bloody battle at Averasboro along the Cumberland-Harnett line followed on March 15-16, leading up to Bentonville in Johnston County as one of the last big clashes of the Civil War.

In Cumberland County, Sherman's troops also destroyed foundries and cotton factories and the offices of The Fayetteville Observer.

Residents loyal to the Confederacy were left devastated. But not everyone mourned the Union army's arrival.

"They told us we were all free," Sarah Louise Augustus, who was a slave child at the time, recalled years later. "The Negroes began visiting each other in the cabins and became so excited they began to shout and pray."

Local officials sought to provide food and other necessities for those in need.

On March 22, Town Clerk A.W. Campbell recorded a letter from Fayetteville Mayor Archibald McClean to the chairman of the county court. The letter said in part: "The Town and County have alike suffered by the savage and ruthless destruction and devastation inflicted by the enemy; and the situation calls for prompt and immediate relief."

A sketch depicts Gen. William T. Sherman's troops advancing through downtown Fayetteville.