Location: US 29A (Summit Avenue) in Greensboro
County: Guilford
Original Date Cast: 1950
During the winter and early spring of 1864-1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman’s army wreaked destruction on Georgia and South Carolina. On March 8, his men entered North Carolina. Concerned with the ability to feed and supply his 60,000 men, Sherman divided his army into two wings: the left, commanded by Major General Henry Slocum and the right commanded by Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard. Both wings advanced in the direction of Goldsboro, as Confederate forces from across the region were cobbled together in an attempt to delay their progress.
On March 19-21, at Bentonville, Sherman’s army lost 304 killed in action, 1,112 wounded, and 221 missing. The Confederates lost 239 killed, 1,694 wounded, and 673 missing. While many of the wounded were treated immediately at the numerous field hospitals established by both Federal and Confederate forces, some Southern soldiers were sent west to Greensboro. Many of these men were attended to at temporary Confederate hospitals established at the First Presbyterian Church and Edgeworth Female Seminary. The congregation of the church had offered their services and their facility to the Confederacy as early as April 1862, but it had not been used as a hospital until the latter half of March 1865.
Locals recorded their shock at the number of wounded. A local woman who was present recorded that those who died of their wounds “were laid in a semi-circle around the pulpit in their last long sleep.” The exact number of those who died at the church remains unknown. A monument to them is located at Green Hill Cemetery. After the Federal occupation of Greensboro, the field hospital was converted back into the church once more.
References:
J. W. Simpson, History of the First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro, 1824-1945 (1945)
Mark L. Bradley, Last Stand in the Carolinas: The Battle of Bentonville (1996)
Mark A. Moore, Moore’s Historical Guide to the Battle of Bentonville (1997)
John G. Barrett, Sherman’s March Through the Carolinas (1956)
Wilson Angley, Jerry L. Cross, and Michael Hill, Sherman’s March through North Carolina: A Chronology (1995)
Bentonville Battleground website: https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/bentonville-battlefield