[678] 21st, the 17th corps penetrated the thin line of cavalry which formed the Confederate left, and almost reached a bridge in rear of the centre, over which lay the only road left to Johnston. It was easily driven back by the reserve.
Before daybreak on the 22d Gen. Johnston moved towards Smithfield, leaving a few wounded who were too much injured to bear removal. His loss in the three days was two hundred and twenty-four killed, one thousand four hundred and ninety-nine wounded, and more than three hundred prisoners. That of the enemy must have been much greater, as the Confederates had the advantage in the fighting, and generally fought under cover. More than eight hundred prisoners were reported.
The junction of Sherman's and Schofield's forces was effected at Goldsboroa the next day. It made an army of more than one hundred thousand men within one hundred and fifty miles of the lines in Virginia. No sooner had Sherman disposed his army in camp about Goldsboroa than he hastened to City Point, where he had a conference with Gen. Grant, at which President Lincoln was present, and where was settled the final plan of combination against Richmond; it being intended that Sherman should move to the line of the Roanoke and thence on the Richmond and Danville road, or directly to the front of Petersburg. But this plan was never carried into operation; Grant saw reason to anticipate it; and the fate of Richmond was decided without any participation of Sherman in the catastrophe.
