In March of 1865, the 55th Ohio was involved in the battles of Averaborough and Bentonville in North Carolina against Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston. From the 3rd of March to the 12th, the 55th Ohio and its brigade marched steadily towards Fayetteville, North Carolina. On the 14th, Cogswell's brigade (3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 20th Corps) deployed as skirmishers and advanced, pushing the enemy's cavalry across South River, the 55th losing two men wounded.On the 16th of March, during the battle of Averasborough, the 20th Corps, moving north towards Smithfield, ran into Taliaferro's rebel division defending a ridge across the 20th Corps' path. The corps commander, Brevet Major-General Alpheaus Williams, deployed Ward's 3rd Brigade to assualt the enemy line. Cogswell's brigade was in the division's front line with all six regiments deployed. Reported Cogswell: "pursuant to an order from Brevet Majot-General Williams, commanding corps . . . I advanced both my skirmish and main line and occupied a slight line of breastworks of the enemy's, he [the enemy], at the same time retiring from my front. In advance of here a continual and sharp skirmish fire was kept . . . after several hours of good fighting for skirmishers, the enemy left another and stronger line of works and fell back a mile through and beyond the swamp to his main line of earth-works, the skirmishers pushing him all the while, his killed and wounded falling into our hands. The brigade moved rapidly in line after its skirmishers, passed the dense and deep swamp and rectified its alignment and sheltered itself under the crest of a hill, the skirmish line 75 yards in front and the enemy's works 50 yards in front of it."
Cogswell's skirmishers (apparently from the 33rd Massachusetts Infantry) failed three times to carry the enemy works. After receiving an order to advance, Cogswell "pressed my line of battle beyond the skirmishers and advanced with the intention of taking the breastworks by assualt, as this was the only way, in my opinion, to drive the enemy. When the order 'Forward to the breastworks' had been given and the brigade had advanced a few yards and was receiving the full fire of the enemy's line, I was informed by one of my staff officers . . . that the First Brigade (on the left) had halted and I was breaking my connection . . . I at once halted, though under a fire which would have injured me less had I kept on, the left of the brigade being fully exposed with no shelter and at the closest range of the enemy's muskets." Soon the order came from General Ward, commanding the 3rd Division, to retire to a less exposed position. Per Cogswell, this "was done in good order, taking up different lines in retiring until we reached the position from which we had first advanced . . . works were thrown up a short distance in advance of this, which three regiments of the brigade occupied and held that night, the 136th New York Volunteers, 55th Ohio Volunteers, and 20th Connecticut Volunteers."
Total Union losses that day were 678, to 865 for the rebels. Cogswell reported his brigade's losses as 19 killed, 94 wounded. The 55th Ohio appears to have lost 5 killed / mortally wounded and at least 31 others wounded. The Confederates, under General William J. Hardee (author of "Hardee's Tactics"), withdrew during the night toward Smithfield, North Carolina. On the 17th of March, the 3rd Division moved four and a half miles to Averasborough and camped there.
(In next month's issue: the battle of Bentonville)Sources:
Trials And Triumphs: The Record Of The Fifty-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry
by Captain Hartwell Osborne And Others, A.C. McClurg & Co., 1904All Brave And True: A History Of The Marches And Battles Of The 55th Ohio (Veteran) Volunteer Infantry Regiment by Dan Munson, March 1987, (2nd Edition)