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530 Shermans return. The Shenandoah Valley. [i864-s collecting an army near Raleigh, North Carolina, made up of the retreating Confederate garrisons, several slender divisions of cavalry which had followed along the left flank of his army, and some scattered fragments of the army of Hood, which Thomas had routed at Nashville. Sherman estimated that they might perhaps number about 40,000, and, knowing his antagonist's ability, advanced toward Goldsborough with greater caution. In reality Johnston had only gathered a force of about 25,000, but with 14,000 of these he courageously attacked the flank of Slocum's wing at Averysborough and Bentonville, on March 16 and 19, bringing on sharp battles in which the Federals lost about 2100 men, and the Confederates about 2900. The Confederates were compelled to retreat ; Sherman resumed his march on the 22nd, and on the 23rd rode into Goldsborough, effecting a complete junction with the army of Schofield, which had arrived two days before, thus raising the total Federal force to 90,000 men. The third giant stride of Sherman's army was finished; the entire Southern system of communications was broken up; the Confederate arsenal, depots, and military factories were in ruins; four months' supplies, on which Lee's army was depen- dent, were consumed or destroyed ; and the whole Southern Confederacy proved to be a mere shell, destined in a few weeks to sudden and complete collapse. (5) THE FALL OF RICHMOND. Throughout the whole war, the Shenandoah Valley, or, as it is also called, the Valley of Virginia, exercised, from the nature of its topographical situation, an important influence upon the military campaigns in Virginia. From the southern end of the valley the James river runs by a winding easterly course to Richmond and Hampton Roads ; while the headwaters of the James interlock with those of the Shenandoah river, which, running in a north-easterly direction, falls into the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, and gives the valley its name. The single mountain line of the Blue Ridge affords the valley a continuous eastern wall, and makes it a covered highway leading from the rear of Richmond to the rear of Washington. The valley has a fine turnpike running its entire length ; and the well-kept farms that border it yield abundant harvests. It followed therefore that, because of the protection, the road, and the supplies, every campaign or movement of the contending armies east of the Blue Ridge necessitated some auxiliary or detached operation in the Shenandoah Valley. Accordingly, when Grant set out on his march from the Wilderness to Richmond, he directed that a co-operating force, coming from the Kanawha and Shenandoah Valleys, should move against Staunton and Lynchburg. But so early as the middle of May, 1864, Confederate