"The Capture of Col. Rhett and His Fabulous Boots" Topic

"As Sherman expected an attack to come on his left, he threw Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry out ahead of the Left Wing as they marched on the road to Averasborough, a small burg on the road to Raleigh. About six miles before reaching this town, Kilpatrick's men encountered the Confederates.

Kilpatrick's Second Brigade, helmed by General Smith Atikins, took the lead, stumbling upon the enemy in the later afternoon. Upon crossing Black Creek, Atkins dismounted a Michigan regiment and advanced them as skirmishers so they might suss out the Rebel line before them. What they found was a similarly long skirmish line of what seemed like Southern infantry, but was mostly made up of the 1st South Carolina Heavy Artillery, fresh from Charleston. When some of these former garrison troops were captured, they revealed that Joe Johnston's entire army, here under the command of William Hardee, was entrenched on their front.

Sherman related that he "encountered pretty stubborn resistance by Hardee's infantry, artillery, and cavalry, and the ground favored our enemy ; for the deep river, Cape Fear, was on his right, and North River on his left, forcing us to attack him square in front. I proposed to drive Hardee well beyond Averysboro', and then to turn to the right by Bentonsville for Goldsboro."

Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

"…He [Rhett] said he was a brigade commander, and that his brigade that day was Hardee's rear-guard; that his command was composed mostly of the recent garrisons of the batteries of Charleston Harbor, and had little experience in woodcraft; that he was giving ground to us as fast as Hardee's army to his rear moved back, and during this operation he was with a single aide in the woods, and was captured by two men of Kilpatrick's skirmish-line that was following up his retrograde movement."

Those Southern officers sure do run their mouths when captured, don't they? I bet they talk faster than the interrogator can take it all down!

by the sounds of it Rhett was vastly more impressed with himself than most of his superiors?