The campaign culminated in the defeat of Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army at the Battle of Bentonville, and its unconditional surrender to Union forces on April 26, 1865.

Coming just two weeks after the defeat of Robert E. Lee's army at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, it signaled that the war was effectively over.

Sherman eventually pulled out from the campaign, leaving Gen. George H. Thomas to deal with Hood, while the main army returned to Atlanta.

[3] At this point, Sherman had 60,000 veteran troops under his command, which Union Army general-in-chief Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant wanted redeployed for use in Virginia.

After the war, Sherman remarked that while his March to the Sea had captured popular imagination, it had been child's play compared to the Carolinas Campaign.

As with his Georgia operations, Sherman marched his armies in multiple directions simultaneously, confusing the scattered Confederate defenders as to his first true objective, which was the state capital of Columbia, South Carolina.

The left wing was made of two corps, the XIV and XX, under Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum, which was later formally designated the Army of Georgia.

Reinforcements arrived regularly during his march north, and by April 1 he commanded 88,948 men after the Army of the Ohio under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield joined up at Goldsboro, NC.

The Army travelled light: a great deal of ammunition was carried, but minimal food, animal feed, or other supplies.

The Confederate division of Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws attempted to prevent the crossing of the Salkehatchie River by the right wing of Sherman's army.

Sherman's forces then destroyed virtually anything of military value in Columbia, including railroad depots, warehouses, arsenals, and machine shops.

On the evening of February 17, the Fort Sumter garrison and all remaining Confederate forces in the Charleston area evacuated north to avoid being cut off by Sherman's advancing army.

[20] More than a month after seizing Fort Fisher, on February 22 Union troops captured the important port of Wilmington, North Carolina, after a small battle.

On March 7, Cox's advance was stopped by divisions under Gen. Braxton Bragg's command at Southwest Creek south of Kinston, North Carolina.

[23] As Sherman's army advanced into North Carolina, Maj. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's Cavalry Division screened its left flank.

Early on March 10, Hampton's Confederate cavalry surprised the Federals in their camps, driving them back in confusion and capturing wagons and artillery.

At dawn, March 16, the Federals advanced on a division front, driving back skirmishers, but they were stopped by the main Confederate line and a counterattack.

Late afternoon, the Union XIV Corps began to arrive on the field but was unable to deploy before dark because of the swampy ground.

[26] While Slocum's advance was stalled at Averasborough by Hardee's troops, the right wing of Sherman's army under Howard marched toward Goldsboro.

In the afternoon, Maj. Gen. Joseph Mower led his Union division along a narrow trace that carried it across Mill Creek into Johnston's rear.

When Joseph E. Johnston met with Jefferson Davis in Greensboro on April 12–13, he told the Confederate president: Our people are tired of the war, feel themselves whipped, and will not fight.

... My small force is melting away like snow before the sun.On April 18, three days after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Johnston signed an armistice with Sherman at Bennett Place, a farmhouse near Durham Station.

The confusion on this issue lasted until April 26, when Johnston agreed to purely military terms and formally surrendered his army and all Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.