Besides, he was confronting all that he had had to confront in his previous march up to that point, reinforced by the garrisons along the road and by what remained of Hood's army.

Frantic appeals were made to the people to come in voluntarily and swell the ranks of our foe.

I presume, however, that Johnston did not have in all over 35,000 or 40,000 men.

The people had grown tired of the war, and desertions from the Confederate army were much more numerous than the voluntary accessions.
There was some fighting at Averysboro on the 16th between Johnston's troops and Sherman's, with some loss; and at Bentonville on the 19th and 21st of March, but Johnston withdrew from the contest before the morning of the 22d.

Sherman's loss in these last engagements in killed, wounded, and missing, was about sixteen hundred.