ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 57 fall back to unite with Johnston s forces in an at tempt to crush Sherman and force Grant to pur sue Lee to a point that would compel the Army of the Potomac to maintain a long line of communica tions with its base, as there would be nothing left in Virginia to subsist on after Lee had traversed it. Sleepless vigilance was enjoined on all com manders, with orders to report promptly any move ment looking to a retreat. Sherman captured Columbia on February 17, and destroyed large arsenals, railroad establishments, and forty-three cannon. The enemy was compelled to evacuate Charleston. On March 3, Sherman struck Cheraw, and seized a large quantity of material of war, in cluding 25 guns and 3,600 barrels of powder. At Fayetteville, on the llth, he captured the finely equipped arsenal and twenty guns. On the 16th he struck the enemy at Averysboro, and after a stubborn fight drove him from his position, losing 554 men. The Confederates reported their loss at 500. On the 19th Johnston s army attacked a por tion of Sherman s forces at Bentonville, and made six heavy assaults, which were all successfully met, and on the night of the 21st the enemy fell back. The National loss was 191 killed and 1,455 wounded and missing; that of the Confederates was reported at 223 killed, 1,467 wounded, 653 missing, but Sherman reports his captures of prisoners at 1,621. On the 23d Sherman reached Goldsboro,
