Geocache is not at the posted coordinates. You must have personally completed the associated Adventure Lab series to obtain the coordinate hints and to get credit for this bonus mystery cache.
This cache is only available and accessible Tuesday thru Saturday, 11 am-3 pm. The museum grounds are closed on Sundays and Mondays. Do not enter the museum grounds if the gate at the front driveway is closed. You will be tresspassing and the permission we were granted to place the geocache may be jeopardized. Security cameras monitor all activity on-site.
Completing all five stops on the Averasboro Battlefield Adventure Lab will provide the hints necessary to decrypt these encoded final coordinates:
N 35° WZ.TYC W 78° EA.DUX
The Historical Significance of this Location
Averasboro is known as the first organized resistance against Gen. William Sherman's march through the Carolinas with his army of 65-70,000 troops. Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston was amassing an army around Bentonville to drive back Sherman. He ordered Gen. William Hardee of Georgia to make a stand at Averasboro to hold Sherman's left wing for at least one day's march to prepare his defensive forces at Bentonville.
Leaders at the Battle of Averasboro: Union Gen. William T. Sherman and Confederate Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee
Hardee and his 6,000 men crossed the Cape Fear River shortly before Sherman entered Fayetteville and took position near Averasboro. Sherman's main army turned east toward Goldsboro, but his 14th and 20th Corps under General Henry Slocum headed to Averasboro and Bentonville. During the afternoon of March 15th, there was heavy skirmishes along the first line of Confederate defensive breatworks, roughly a mile south of this location. Then in the evening the Confederate forces beat back a Union attack, but were stalled when three batteries of Union artillery began firing upon the Confederate lines, driving then back into their defensive breatworks.
The next morning, March 16th, Sherman himself was on the field and the Union forces hit hard. The Federals excelled at artillery, but their infantry was always pushed back by the Rebels, who were outnumbered about five to one. At 11:00 am two newly-arrived Union brigades engaged the Confederates in front, while the brigade of Col. Henry Case assaulted the Confederate right flank. This attack forced the Confederates to withdraw into their second line of works. In the afternoon, the Federals completely flanked Hardee's position on the left and 217 men were lost. But again and again Federal assaults were repelled by Hardee's troops. "The Rebels showed more pluck than we have seen in them since Atlanta," a Union major wrote.
Since leaving Charleston, Hardee's troops had constantly been after him to let them stop and fight the Yankees in the open. These men had been cooped up in Charleston forts, witnessing the fire of long-range Federal guns, and they wanted a chance to face the enemy head to head, wrote Malcolm Fowler in a historic account of the battle.
With much superior numbers, both in fighting troops and artillery, the Union forces soon advanced and established a strong line immediately in front of the Confederate third line. From this new position they pressed the Confederates all afternoon and part of the evening, but were unable to break the line. At 8:00 pm, Lt. Gen. William Hardee, commanding Confederate forces at Averasboro, having accomplished his objectives, began withdrawing his corps along the Smithfield road. Wheeler’s cavalry was left behind to cover the retreat. By 4:00 am, on March 17th, all Confederate units had been withdrawn leaving the Union forces in control.
In the two-day fight at Averasboro, Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee's Corps conducted a brilliantly planned and well-executed defense in depth that held Sherman's juggernaut in check for two full days. Having accomplished his objective, Hardee then broke off and disengaged. This delay permitted General Joseph E. Johnston to concentrate his forces in preparation for what became the Battle of Bentonville.
This location, in front of the museum, from the driveway across current Hwy 82 eastward, was the actual Confederate Third Line of defense during the Battle of Averasboro.
Notes of Gratitude
When you visit the Averasboro Battlefield Museum, please express your appreciation to the staff of volunteers who work at the museum and who help provide visitors with graphically historical accounts of the Civil War battles leading up to Averasboro and beyond. Also let them know you apprciate their support of our geocaching hobby, which we hope brings more visitors to this little known battlefield.
We also want to acknowledge our thanks to Tatortott for her creating and maintaining the North Carolina Civil War Geocaching Trail, which included about 150 geocaches hidden to guide explorers interested in learning more about the effect of the Civil War across the state of North Carolina. They inspired us to create the Adventure Lab series here, as well as this bonus mystery cache. Although the geocache created here in 2015 was archived in 2020 after about 150 visits, we feel honored to be able to recycle the same CWGT geocache container used for the cache that was located here.
References For Further Study
- Battle of Averasboro, as extracted from various publications.
- "Where Blue and Gray Clashed," The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), 2 Dec 2001, page 114
- American Battlefield Trust, Harnett County and Cumberland County, NC | Mar 16, 1865 (Brief chronology of battle narrative) and Averasboro | Mar 16, 1865 (Excellent battlefield map)
- Battle of Averasborough map from The Record of the Fifty-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry (1904)