General Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations During the Civil War

It was ascertained, on the 17th, that the troops with which Lieutenant-General Hardee was engaged the day before were not marching toward Raleigh; but no precise intelligence of the movements of the Federal forces was gathered during the day. General Hardee remained at Elevation to give his men the rest they needed much. At Smithfield, General Bragg had Hoke's excellent division of North Carolinians, four thousand seven hundred and seventy-five effective men; and Lieutenant-General Stewart thirty-nine hundred and fifty of the Army of Tennessee. The value of the latter was much increased by the comparatively great number of distinguished officers serving among them, who had long been the pride and ornaments of that army.

About daybreak, on the 18th, information came to me from General Hampton, that the Federal army was marching toward Goldsboroa: the right wing, on the direct road from Fayetteville, had crossed Black River; the left wing, on the road from Averysboroa, had not reached that stream, and was more than a day's march from the point in its route opposite to the hamlet of Bentonville, where the two roads, according to the map of North Carolina, were ten or twelve miles apart. The hamlet itself is about two miles from the road and to the north of it, and sixteen from Smithfield. According to the reports of our cavalry, the Federal right wing was about half a day's march in advance of the left; so that there