How splendid and great they were in their modest, patient, earnest love of country! How strong they were in their young manhood, and pure they were in their faith, and constant they were to their principles! How they bore suffering and hardship, and how their lives were ready at the call of duty! What magnificent courage, what unsullied patriotism! Suffering they bore, duty they performed, and death they faced and met, all for love of the dear old home land; all this for the glory and honor of North Carolina. As they were faithful unto thee, guard thou their names and fame, grand old mother of us all. If thy sons in the coming times shall learn the lesson of the heroism their lives inspired and their deeds declared, then not one drop of blood was shed in vain.
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How reduced the Confederate army was by this time is shown by a statement in Gen. D. H. Hill's report.
He commanded that day Lee's corps, and states that his whole corps numbered 2,687 men!
Sherman was unwilling to attack after the repulse at Bentonville, but quietly waited for his other corps to join him, knowing that Johnston must retreat, as his numbers would never again enable him to join a pitched battle.
General Johnston, after retreating as far as Durham, realized that further resistance was useless and surrendered his army.
What Judge Roulhac, of the Forty-ninth regiment, says of his comrades applies to all the youth who in 1861 marched to obey the call of their State:
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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