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 against Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. In North Carolina, scattered Confederate forces consolidated, and after Sherman defeated Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's attack at Bentonville, he was reinforced at Goldsboro late in March. Hoping to deflect Sherman from Goldsboro, Johnston had attacked Sherman's separated Left Wing here on March 19, 1865, before Sherman brought up the Right Wing in support; Johnston then withdrew to Smithfield on March 21, and Sherman's army marched to Goldsboro. On this road, elements of Union Gen. Alfred H. Terry's X Corps later marched from Goldsboro to Smithfield as Sherman's army left Goldsboro on April 10, 1865, rested, reequipped, and divided into Left and Right Wings. Terry's corps passed through Bentonville and bivouacked a few miles beyond the village on April 11, finding the village destitute and many houses still sheltering wounded Confederates, and rebuilt Mill Creek Bridge, destroyed on March 22, by mid-afternoon. At that time Sherman commanded 88,948 officers and men, nearly four times the size of Johnston's army; as the Union army neared Smithfield, light skirmishing broke out near Moccasin Creek, and the advancing Federals destroyed several homes and businesses along their line of march. Johnston surrendered on April 26, essentially ending the Civil War.