After Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, fell to the Union, in early 1865, Jefferson Davis belatedly handed over the supreme command or the army to General Lee. This could not stop the Union armies pressing on through North Carolina, capturing Fayetteville, Bentonville, Goldsboro and Raleigh by mid-April. Exhausted by the Union siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee’s forces made a last attempt at resistance, attacking and capturing Fort Stedman on March 25. A rapid counterattack reversed the victory, however, and on the night of April 2nd the Confederate army…