During the Carolinas Campaign, as Gen. William T. Sherman marched north from Fayetteville, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston positioned his army near Smithville, uncertain whether Sherman’s destination was Raleigh or Goldsboro. On March 15, 1865, the head of Sherman’s Left Wing struck Confederate Gen. William J. Hardee’s skirmishers guarding the road just south of Averasboro, and after several bloody attacks and counterattacks, Hardee withdrew during the night of March 16 while Sherman turned toward Goldsboro. After the delay at Averasboro, Sherman marched most of the Left Wing past this point en route to Goldsboro, sent some troops in pursuit to maintain the appearance of moving toward Raleigh, carried 500 Union wounded in his wagons, and moved part of his force across the flooded Black River one mile west of here. Early on the morning of March 19, 1865, Sherman and his staff left the Left Wing to join Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s Right Wing between Bentonville and Goldsboro. Meanwhile, Hardee’s command withdrew through Averasboro and east of the Black River into Johnston County, reassembled on elevated ground about fifteen miles from Averasboro, and then marched east to join Johnston and the main Confederate body near Bentonville. Hardee left more than 600 wounded men in the care of physicians and civilians at plantation houses on the Averasboro battlefield and in the town, and later wounded Confederates from both Averasboro and Bentonville traveled by rail from Smithfield to a Thomasville hospital. The town of Averasboro stood on the Cape Fear River three miles north of the battlefield and five miles west of here, with a post office, stage stop, sawmill, ferry, and as many as 700 inhabitants depending on river commerce; the Fayetteville to Raleigh Stage Road passed directly through it, and the town was abandoned by the early 1900s in favor of sites closer to the railroad.