I just wanted to follow up on my request of you on March 7–about the more-or-less exact spot where Willie Hardee was fatally wounded.

In my novel, the 80-year-old grandfather, Dr. Claude Woodall, of the narrator-protagonist, Lockhart Elledge, drives Lockhart to the Bentonville Battlefield on May 9, 1970, when there were virtually no markers other than the main marker near the old Confederate Cemetery.

The two of them drive from the Visitor Center via Harper House Road to what is now known as Bentonville Road. They turn left onto that road, pass the site of the Union Headquarters and the Union line on March 20, 1865.

They come to a marker (not existing in 1970) indicating Hardee’s charge against Mower, who had broken the Confederate line at that point.

They then arrive, still on Scout Road, at a marker (not existing in 1970) indicating Mower’s break of the Confederate line. It lies a few yards down Scout Road. (The actual Hardee counterattack began not far south of General Johnston’s headquarters–and is now indicated by a marker.)

Apparently, after Hardee assumed command of Terry’s Texas Rangers, Hardee seems to have gathered Confederate forces then immediately available and marched from their original point near Johnston’s HQ a few hundred yards down Bentonville Road and charged Mower’s forces. Willie was given permission by Old Reliable to join the Texas Rangers only two hours before Mower’s attack.

The protagonist and his grandfather, continuing down Scout Road, cross its intersection with Westbrook Lowgrounds Road, which used to be the stream (or ‘branch”) which Wade Hampton refers to in his account of the battle on March 21 (from BATTLES AND LEADERS OF THE CIVIL WAR, volume 4.)

A few yards further down Scout Road is a marker (not yet constructed in 1970) indicating the Union line as it existed on March 21.

Your blog entry indicates:

So was the Union skirmishers’ main line the Union Line as it existed on March 21? Or was it the line that existed on March 20? Or was it the Union HQ?

Later, your blog entry continues: (Caps mine.)

So is the picture of the field you referred to along one or the other side of Scout Road, about halfway between Westbrook Lowgrounds Road and the Union Line as it existed on March 21? Or is the field located elsewhere? (In other words was Willie fatally wounded in the field BEFORE the March 21 Union line? Or was he wounded in a field before the Union line as it existed on March 20? Or was he wounded in a field somewhere else?)

Here is part of my previous comment:

<Mark Moore’s maps can be accessed at http://www.markandersonmoore.com/maps.

<If you scroll down to the section on the Battle of Bentonville, you’ll PDF versions of Mower’s Charge and Hardee’s counterattack. You’ll also see a link to the Bentonville Battlefield Historic Site, where you can retrieve its Driving Tour Markers in PDF–which file contains a map as well as a page describing what happened at each marker. The Battle of Bentonville site can be accessed at the URLhttp://www.nchistoricsites.org/bentonvi/bentonvi.htm.

Once again, any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

All the best,

Lee

I know this comment/question is five years late, but since I am writing a novel in which the story of Wilie Hardee’s wounding and death play a major role, I would like to find out if you know the more or less exact location where Willie was fatally wounded. On this blog entry, you have a photo of the field where Willie was wounded. But do you know where the field lies on the battlefield? After looking over Mark Moore’s maps of Mower’s charge, Hardee’s counterattack, and Hardee’s charge, as well as the map and various battlefield markers in the brochure I downloaded from the Bentonville Historic Site’s Web site, I’m still not certain exactly where Willie was wounded. In your post, you mentioned that Willie was wounded in front of the Federal line as it existed on March 21. So would that field be on the the left or the right of the present-day Scout Road not far from its intersection with Westbridge Lowground Road? Mark Moore’s maps can be accessed at http://www.markandersonmoore.com/maps. If you scroll down to the section on the Battle of Bentonville, you’ll PDF versions of Mower’s Charge and Hardee’s counterattack. You’ll also see a link to the Bentonville Battlefield Historic Site, where you can retrieve its Driving Tour Markers in PDF–which file contains a map as well as a page describing what happened at each marker. The Battle of Bentonville site can be accessed at the URLhttp://www.nchistoricsites.org/bentonvi/bentonvi.htm. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated! All the best, Lee

Harry

My great great grandfather was the color bearer for the 42nd Georgia and was part of the Army of Tennessee. Johnston surrendered to Sherman about a mile from where I lived and my wife spent part if her childhood in Johnston’s last HQ.