The Carolinas Campaign began on February 1, 1865, when Union Gen. William T. Sherman led his army north from Savannah, Georgia, after the March to the Sea, intending to join Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia to crush Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. In North Carolina, where scattered Confederate forces consolidated in the Confederacy's logistical lifeline, Sherman defeated Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's last-ditch attack at Bentonville. Hoping to deflect Sherman from Goldsboro, Johnston attacked Sherman's Left Wing here on March 19, 1865, after finding it separated from the Right Wing several miles southeast, but as the fighting intensified Sherman led the Right Wing here in support. Vastly outnumbered, Johnston withdrew to Smithfield on March 21, and Sherman's army marched to Goldsboro. The William Hastings house, built about 1854, served as headquarters for Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Gen. Braxton Bragg in mid-March 1865. Johnston chose to concentrate his army at Smithfield because it lay midway between Goldsboro and Raleigh and because the North Carolina Railroad still served it. Here he organized the Army of the South for a desperate strike against Sherman's much larger army from Hardee's Corps, Hoke's Division, the Army of Tennessee contingent, and Hampton's cavalry. Johnston's army numbered 20,000 by March 17 against Sherman's 60,000, and Hardee's delaying action at Averasboro on March 15-16 bought Johnston precious time. On March 18, Johnston sent a dispatch to Lee in Virginia informing him of his plans against Sherman, then departed for Bentonville. After the Battle of Bentonville, Johnston reestablished his headquarters in Smithfield on March 25. Between then and April 10, while his army regrouped and rested there, he continued to send dispatches to Lee in Virginia. On April 9, as Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Johnston ordered his men to march to Raleigh, and the next day the beleaguered Confederate army left Smithfield. After Sherman was reinforced at Goldsboro late in March, Johnston saw the futility of further resistance and surrendered on April 26, essentially ending the Civil War.