Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 2

Sherman gave this summary: “Wide discrepancies exist in these figures. For instance, Slocum accounts for 338 prisoners captured, and Howard for 1,287, making 1,625 in all to Johnston's 653, a difference of 872. I have always accorded to Johnston due credit for boldness in his attack on our exposed flank at Bentonville, but I think that he understated his strength, and doubt at the time whether he gave accurate returns from his miscellaneous army, collected from Hood, Bragg, Hardee, Lee, and Hampton. With this knowledge now possessed of his small force, of course I committed an error in not overwhelming Johnston's army on March 21, 1865.”

Hardee is presented as particularly gallant in all of the later charges of the battle of Bentonville, at one time leading his men in person straight over one of Slocum's barricades. When Hardee was commandant of cadets at West Point, I was one of the officers associated with him and was very intimate with his family. He had but one son, and in my spare moments, at the request of his father, who was always my personal friend, I tutored him while at West Point. Willie was scarcely sixteen when he joined a regiment of Texas cavalry only a few hours before the battle of Bentonville commenced. He was among the foremost and during one of the charges was struck and