Goldsboro during Sherman's Occupation, March and April 1865: Citizen Accounts from the Outskirts and City

This exhibit discusses Goldsboro and it's occupation by General Sherman and his 100,000 plus troops during the weeks of March and April of 1865. It outlines the goals of Sherman while he was in Goldsboro. More importantly it discusses the treatment of the citizens inside the city of Goldsboro, and how it differed from the treatment of citizens on the outskirts of Goldsboro. General Schofield set up a security perimeter around Goldsboro shortly before Sherman arrived to prevent pillaging of the city by the infamous "bummers" of Sherman's army. The exhibit outlines detailed accounts from individuals within the city of Goldsboro, as well as the citizens on the outskirts of Goldsboro. These accounts help add to the historiography of the Carolinas Campaign, which argues that Sherman destroyed morale in the South. This exhibit seeks to show while that that may have occurred in some places in Goldsboro, there was still a will to fight a resist the Union there. The focus will be specifically in Goldsboro, and how Sherman treated the city differently than any other city he occupied. The sources in the exhibit are first hand accounts from citizens, soldiers of the Union army, and a response from General Sherman himself.