...r the road that ran eastwardly toward Bentonsville, he found Hardee intrenched, with a force, of all arms, estimated at twenty thousand men, on a narrow, swampy neck of land between the Cape Fear and South rivers. Hardee's object was to hold Sherman there, while Johnston should concentrate his forces at Raleigh, Smithfield or Goldsboroa. It was necessary to dislodge him to prevent that consummation...