Thomas Green at the Battle of Bentonville

One hundred fifty years ago today, March 20, the left wing of General William T. Sherman’s army was in the midst of a three-day confrontation with General Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate forces at the Battle of Bentonville in North Carolina. This was their last major conflict before Johnston’s surrender to Sherman at Durham Station.

In the late afternoon of the previous day, Johnston had mounted a determined attack against the Union forces. The 13th Michigan Infantry, on the left flank of the Union’s front lines, had sustained significant losses in the resulting setback. Private Thomas M. Green of Company C was one of those casualties.

Thomas Green would not be admitted to Foster General Hospital at New Bern until April 5, more than two weeks later. He would be transferred from there to to De Camp General Hospital on David’s Island in New York Harbor on April 16. He would not be on duty with his regiment when Johnston surrendered the largest body of Confederate forces at the end of the war.

What would Thomas Green have been feeling and thinking as the confrontation at Bentonville continued and he lay wounded? He was presumably being treated near the field of battle for the gunshot wound that had removed him from action. We don’t have any letters or journals that might offer insight into his experience that day.