 CHAPTER 34 OF A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jude Cader A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln by Jan G. Nicolay Chapter 34 Blair Chase Chief Justice Speed Succeeds Bates McCullough Succeeds Fasenden Resignation of Mr. Usher Lincoln's offer of $400 million The Second Inaugural Lincoln's Literary Rank His Last Speech The principal concession in the Baltimore platform made by the friends of the administration to their opponents, the radicals, was the resolution which called for harmony in the cabinet. The president at first took no notice, either publicly or privately, of this resolution, which was in effect a recommendation that he dismiss those members of his council who were stigmatized as conservatives. And the first cabinet change which actually took place after the adjournment of the convention filled the radical body of his supporters with this may, since they had looked upon Mr. Chase as their special representative in government. The publication of the Wade Davis Manifesto still further increased their restlessness and brought upon Mr. Lincoln a powerful pressure from every quarter to satisfy radical demands by dismissing Montgomery Blair, his postmaster general. Mr. Blair had been one of the founders of the Republican Party and in the very forefront of opposition to slavery extension, but had gradually attracted to himself the hostility of all the radical Republicans in the country. The immediate cause of this estrangement was the bitter quarrel that developed between his family and General Fremont in Missouri, a quarrel in which the Blair's were undoubtedly right in the beginning, but which broadened and extended until it landed them finally in the Democratic Party. The president considered the dispute one of form rather than substance and having a deep regard not only for the postmaster general, but for his brother, General Frank Blair, and for his distinguished father, was most reluctant to take action against him. Even in the bosom of government, however, a strong hostility to Mr. Blair manifested itself. As long as Chase remained in the cabinet, there was a smoldering hostility between them and his attitude toward Seward and Stanton was one of increasing enmity. General Halleck incensed at some caustic remarks Blair was reported to have made about the defenders of the Capitol after early's raid, during which the family estate near Washington had suffered. Sent an angry note to the War Department, wishing to know if such wholesale denouncement had the president's sanction, adding that either the names of the officers accused should be stricken from the rolls or the slanderer dismissed from the cabinet. Mr. Stanton sent the letter to the president without comment. This was too much and the secretary received an answer on the very same day written in Mr. Lincoln's most masterful manner. Whether the remarks were really made, I do not know. Nor do I suppose such knowledge is necessary to a correct response. If they were made, I do not approve them. And yet, under the circumstances, I would not dismiss a member of the cabinet, therefore. I do not consider what may have been hastily said in a moment of vexation at so severe a loss is sufficient ground for so grave a step. I propose continuing to be myself the judge as to when a member of the cabinet shall be dismissed. Not content with this, the president, when the cabinet came together, read them this impressive little lecture. I must myself be the judge how long to retain in and when to remove any of you from his position. It would greatly pain me to discover any of you endeavoring to procure another's removal or in any way to prejudice him before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong to me and, much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that on this subject no remark be made nor question asked by any of you, here or elsewhere, now or hereafter. This is one of the most remarkable speeches ever made by a president. The tone of authority is unmistakable. Washington was never more dignified. Jackson was never more peremptory. The feeling against Mr. Blair and the pressure upon the president for his removal increased throughout the summer. All through the period of gloom and discouragement, he refused to act even when he believed the verdict of the country likely to go against him and was assured on every side that such a concession to the radical spirit might be greatly to his advantage. But after the turn had come and the prospective triumph of the Union cause became evident, he felt that he ought no longer to retain in his cabinet a member who, whatever his personal merits, had lost the confidence of the great body of Republicans. And on September 9 wrote a kindly note requesting his resignation. Mr. Blair accepted his dismissal in a manner to be expected from his manly and generous character, not pretending to be pleased, but assuming that the president had good reason for his action. And on turning over his office to his successor, ex-governor William Denison of Ohio, he went at once to Maryland and entered into the campaign, working heartily for Mr. Lincoln's reelection. After the death of Judge Taney in October, Mr. Blair for a while indulged the hope that he might be appointed Chief Justice, a position for which his natural abilities and legal acquirements eminently fitted him. But Mr. Chase was chosen to the bitter disappointment of Mr. Blair's family, though even this did not shake their steadfast loyalty to the Union cause or their personal friendship for the president. Immediately after his second inauguration, Mr. Lincoln offered Montgomery Blair his choice of the Spanish or Austrian mission and offer which he, peremptorily, though respectfully declined. The appointment of Mr. Chase as Chief Justice had probably been decided on in Mr. Lincoln's own mind from the first, though he gave no public intimation of his decision before sending the nomination to the Senate on December 6. Mr. Chase's partisans claimed that the president had already virtually promised him the place. His opponents countered upon the ex-secretary's attitude of criticism to work against his appointment. But Mr. Lincoln sternly checked all presentations of this personal argument, nor were the prayers of those who urged him to overlook the harsh and indecorous things Mr. Chase had said of him at all necessary. To one who spoke in this latter strain, the president replied, Oh, as to that I care nothing. Of Mr. Chase's ability and of his soundness on the general issues of the war, there is, of course, no question. I have only one doubt about his appointment. He is a man of unbounded ambition and has been working all his life to become president. That he never can be. And I fear that if I make him Chief Justice he will simply become more restless and uneasy and neglect the place in his strife and intrigue to make himself president. If I were sure that he would go on the bench and give up his aspirations and do nothing but make himself a great judge, I would not hesitate a moment. He wrote out Mr. Chase's nomination with his own hand and sent it to the Senate the day after Congress came together. It was confirmed at once without reference to a committee and Mr. Chase, on learning of his new dignity, sent the president a cordial note thanking him for the manner of his appointment and adding, I prize your confidence and goodwill more than any nomination to office. But Mr. Lincoln's fears were better founded than his hopes. Though Mr. Chase took his place on the bench with a conscientious desire to do his whole duty in his great office, he could not dismiss the political affairs of the country from his mind and still considered himself called upon to counteract the mischievous tendencies of the president toward conciliation and hasty reconstruction. The reorganization of the cabinet went on by gradual disintegration and any brusque or even voluntary action on the part of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Bates, the attorney general, growing weary of the labors of his official position, resigned toward the end of November. Mr. Lincoln, on whom the claim of localities always had great weight, unable to decide upon another Missourian fitted for the place, offered it to Joseph Holt of Kentucky, who declined and then to James Speed, also a Kentuckian of high professional and social standing, the brother of his early friend Joshua F. Speed. Soon after the opening of the new year, Mr. Fassenden, having been again elected to the Senate from Maine, resigned his office as secretary of the Treasury, the place thus vacated instantly, excited a wide and spirited competition of recommendations. The president wished to appoint Governor Morgan of New York, who declined and the choice finally fell upon Hugh McCullough of Indiana, who had made a favorable record as comptroller of the currency. Thus only two of Mr. Lincoln's original cabinet, Mr. Seward and Mr. Wells, were in office at the date of his second inauguration and still another change was in contemplation. Mr. Usher of Indiana, who had for some time discharged the duties of Secretary of the Interior, desiring, as he said, to relieve the president from any possible embarrassment which might arise from the fact that two of his cabinet were from the same state, sent in his resignation, which Mr. Lincoln endorsed to take effect May 15, 1865. The tragic events of the future were mercifully hidden. Mr. Lincoln, looking forward to four years more of personal leadership, was planning yet another generous offer to shorten the period of conflict. His talk with the commissioners at Hampton Roads had probably revealed to him the undercurrent of their hopelessness and anxiety. And he had told them that personally he would be in favor of the government paying a liberal indemnity for the loss of slave property on absolute cessation of the war and the voluntary abolition of slavery by the southern states. This was indeed going to the extreme of magnanimity, but Mr. Lincoln remembered that the rebels, nonwithstanding all their offenses and errors, were yet American citizens, members of the same nation, brothers of the same blood. He remembered, too, that the object of the war, equally with peace and freedom, was the maintenance of one government and the perpetuation of one union. Not only must hostilities cease, but dissension, suspicion, and entragement be eradicated. Filled with such thoughts and purposes, he spent the day after his return from Hampton Roads in considering and perfecting a new proposal designed as a peace offering to the states in rebellion. On the evening of February 5, 1865, he called his cabinet together and read to them the draft of a joint resolution and proclamation embodying this idea, offering the southern states $400 million, or a sum equal to the cost of the war for 200 days, a condition that hostilities cease by the 1st of April, 1865. To be paid in 6% government bonds, pro-rata on their slave populations as shown by the census of 1860. One half on April 1, the other half only upon condition that the 13th Amendment be ratified by a requisite number of states before July 1, 1865. It turned out that he was more humane and liberal than his constitutional advisors. The endorsement in his own handwriting on the manuscript draft records the result of his appeal and suggestion. February 5, 1865. Today these papers, which explain themselves, were drawn up and submitted to the cabinet and unanimously disapproved by them. A. Lincoln. With the words, you are all opposed to me, sadly uttered, the President folded up the paper and ceased the discussion. The formal inauguration of Mr. Lincoln for his second presidential term took place at the appointed time, March 4, 1865. There is little variation in the simple but impressive pageantry with which the official ceremony is celebrated. The principal novelty commented upon by the newspapers was the share which the hitherto enslaved race had for the first time in this public and political drama. Civic associations of Negro citizens joined in the procession and a battalion of Negro soldiers formed part of the military escort. The weather was sufficiently favorable to allow the ceremonies to take place on the eastern portico of the capital in view of a vast throng of spectators. The central act of the occasion was President Lincoln's second inaugural address, which enriched the political literature of the Union with another masterpiece and deserves to be quoted in full. He said, Fellow countrymen, at this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest, which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself. And it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war, while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and prayed to the same God, and each invoked his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in ringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. But let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come. But woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both north and south this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came. Shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Funtly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the last shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. The address being concluded, Chief Justice Chase administered the oath of office, and listeners who heard Abraham Lincoln for the second time repeat, I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, went from the impressive scene to their several homes with thankfulness and with confidence that the destiny of the country and the liberty of the citizen were in safe keeping. The fiery trial through which he had hitherto walked and him possessed of the capacity, the courage, and the will to keep the promise of his oath. Among the many criticisms passed by writers and thinkers upon the second inaugural, none will so interest the reader as that of Mr. Lincoln himself written about ten days after its delivery in the following letter to a friend. Dear Mr. Weed, everyone likes a compliment, thank you for yours on my little notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect the letter to wear as well, perhaps better than anything I have produced. But I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God running the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it. Nothing would have more amazed Mr. Lincoln than to hear himself called a man of letters, but this age has produced few greater writers. Emerson ranks him with ASAP. He is well as a model for the imitation of princes. It is true that in his writings the range of subjects is not great. He was chiefly concerned with the political problems of the time and the moral considerations involved in them. But the range of treatment is remarkably wide, running from the wit, the gay humor, the florid eloquence of his stump speeches, to the marvelous sententiousness and brevity at Gettysburg, and the sustained and lofty grandeur of his second inaugural, while many of his phrases have already passed into the daily speech of mankind. A careful student of Mr. Lincoln's character will find this inaugural address instinct with another meaning, which very naturally the president's own comment did not touch. The eternal law of compensation, which it declares and applies to the sin and fall of American slavery. In addiction, rivaling the fire and dignity of the old Hebrew prophecies, may without violent inference be interpreted to foreshadow an intention to renew at a fitting moment the brotherly goodwill gift to the South, which has already been treated of. Such an inference finds strong corroboration in the sentences which close the last public address on Tuesday evening, April 11, a considerable assemblage of citizens of Washington gathered at the executive mansion to celebrate the victory of Grant over Lee. The rather long and careful speech which Mr. Lincoln made on that occasion was, however, less about the past than the future. It discussed the subject of reconstruction as illustrated in the case of Louisiana, showing also how that issue was related to the questions of emancipation, the condition of the freedmen, the welfare of the South, and the ratification of the constitutional amendment. So new and unprecedented is the whole case, he concluded, that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper. Can anyone doubt that this new announcement which was taking shape and combined, would again have embraced and combined justice to the blacks and generosity to the whites of the South with union and liberty for the whole country? End of Chapter 34 A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln by John G. Nicolay Chapter 35 Description of Confederate Currency Rigor of Conscription Disatisfaction with the Confederate Government Lee General-in-Chief J. E. Johnston reappointed to oppose Sherman's March Value of slave property gone in Richmond Davis' recommendation was that the government should be able to approve Sherman. Davis' recommendation of emancipation Benjamin's last dispatch to Slidell Condition of the Army when Lee took command Lee attempts negotiations with Grant Lincoln's directions Lee and Davis agree upon line of retreat Assault on Fort Stedman Five Forks Evacuation of Petersburg Surrender of Richmond Pursuit of Lee Surrender of Lee Burning of Richmond Lincoln in Richmond From the hour of Mr. Lincoln's re-election the Confederate cause was doomed. The cheering of the troops which greeted the news from the north was heard within the lines at Richmond and at Petersburg and although the leaders maintained their attitude of defiance the impression rapidly gained ground among the people that the end was not far off. The stimulus of hope being gone they began to feel the pinch of increasing want. Their currency had become almost worthless. In October a dollar in gold was worth $35 in Confederate money. With the opening of the new year the price rose to $60 and despite the efforts of the Confederate Treasury which would occasionally rush into the market and beat down the price of gold 10 or 20 percent a day the currency gradually depreciated until a hundred for one was offered and not taken. It was natural for the citizens of Richmond to think that monstrous prices were being extorted for food, clothing, and supplies when in fact they were paying no more than was reasonable. $25,000 for a barrel of flour was enough to strike a householder with terror but $10 is not a famine price. High prices however even if paid in dry leaves are a hardship when dry leaves are not plentiful and there was scarcity even of Confederate money in the south. At every advance of Grant's lines a new alarm was manifested in Richmond the first proof of which was always a fresh rigor in enforcing the conscription laws and the arbitrary orders of the frightened authorities. After the capture of Fort Harrison north of the James squads of guards were sent into the streets with directions to arrest every able-bodied man they met. It is said that the medical boards were ordered to exempt no one capable of bearing arms for ten days. Human nature will not endure such a strain as this and desertion grew too common as disaster increased the Confederate government steadily lost ground in the confidence and respect of the southern people. Mr. Davis and his counselors were doing their best but they no longer got any credit for it. From every part of the Confederacy came complaints of what was done demands for what was impossible to do. Some of the states were in a condition near to counter-revolution. A slow paralysis was benumbing the limbs of the insurrection and even at the heart its vitality was plainly declining. The Confederate Congress which had hitherto been the mere register of the President's will now turned upon him. On January 19 it passed a resolution making Lee general-in-chief of the Army. This Mr. Davis might have borne with patience although it was intended as a notification that his meddling with military affairs must come to an end. But far worse was the bitter necessity put upon him as a sequel to this act of reappointing General Joseph E. Johnston to the command of the Army which was to resist Sherman's victorious march to the north. Mr. Seddon, rebel secretary of war thinking his honor impugned by a vote of the Virginia delegation in Congress, was blind. Warnings of serious demoralization came daily from the Army and disaffection was so rife in official circles in Richmond that it was not thought politic to call public attention to it by measures of repression. It is curious and instructive to note how the act of emancipation had by this time virtually enforced itself in Richmond. The value of slave property was gone. It is true that a slave was still occasionally sold at a price less than one-tenth of what he would have brought before the war but Servants could be hired of their nominal owners for almost nothing merely enough to keep up a show of vassalage. In effect anyone could hire a negro for his keeping which was all that anybody in Richmond black or white got for his work. Even Mr. Davis had at least become docile to the stern teaching in his message of November he had recommended the employment of forty thousand slaves in the Army not as soldiers it is true save in the last extremity with emancipation to come. On December 27 Mr. Benjamin wrote his last important instruction to John Sledel the Confederate Commissioner in Europe it is nothing less than a cry of despair complaining bitterly of the attitude of foreign nations while the South is fighting the battles of England and France against the North he asks quote are they determined never to recognize the Southern Confederacy until the United States is sent to such action on their part end of quote and with a frantic offer to submit to any terms which Europe might impose as the price of recognition and a scarcely veiled threat of making peace with the North Europe should act speedily the Confederate Department of State closed its four years of fruitless activity Lee assumed command of all the Confederate armies on February 9 his situation was one of unprecedented gloom the day before he had reported that his troops who had been in line of battle for two days at Hatcher's Run exposed to the bad winter weather had been without meat for three days a prodigious effort was made and the danger of starvation for the moment averted but no permanent improvement resulted the armies of the Union were closing in from every point of the compass Grant was every day pushing his formidable left wing nearer the only roads by which Lee could escape Thomas was threatening the Confederate communications from Tennessee Sheridan was writing for the last time up the Shenandoah Valley to abolish early while from the south the redoubtable columns of Sherman were moving northward with a steady pace and irresistible progress of a tragic fate a singular and significant attempt at negotiation was made at this time by General Lee he was so strong in the confidence of the people of the south and the government at Richmond was so rapidly becoming discredited that he could doubtless have obtained the popular support and compelled the assent of the executive to any measures he thought proper for the attainment of peace from this it was easy for him and for others to come to the holy erroneous conclusion that General Grant held a similar relation to the government and people of the United States General Lee seized upon the pretext of a conversation reported to him by General Longstreet as having been held with General E. O. C. Ord under an ordinary flag of truce for the exchange of prisoners to address a letter to Grant sanctioned by Mr. Davis saying he had been informed that General Ord had said General Grant would not decline an interview with a view quote to a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties by means of a military convention end of quote provided Lee had authority to act he therefore proposed to meet General Grant with the hope that it may be found practicable to submit the subjects of controversy to a convention of the kind mentioned professing himself authorized to do whatever the result of the proposed interview may render necessary Grant at once telegraphed these overtures to Washington Stanton received the despatch at the capital where the president was, according to his custom passing the last night of the session of Congress for the convenience of signing bills the secretary handed the telegram to Mr. Lincoln who read it in silence he asked no advice or suggestion from anyone about him but taking up a pen wrote with his usual slowness a decision, a despatch in Stanton's name which he showed to Seward and then handed to Stanton to be signed and sent the language is that of an experienced ruler perfectly sure of himself end of his duty quote the president directs me to say that he wishes you to have no conference with General Lee unless it be for capitulation whether or purely military matter he instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss or confer upon any political questions such questions the president holds in his own hands and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions meanwhile you are to press to the utmost your military advantages Grant answered Lee no authority to accede to his proposition and explained that General Ord's language must have been misunderstood this closed to the Confederate authorities the last avenue of hope of any compromise by which the alternative of utter defeat or unconditional surrender might be avoided early in March General Lee visited Richmond for conference with Mr. Davis on the measures to be adopted in the crisis which he had never sympathized with the slight Congress had intended to put upon Mr. Davis when it gave him supreme military authority and continued to the end to treat his president as commander in chief of the forces there is direct contradiction between Mr. Davis and General Lee as to how Davis received this statement of the necessities of the situation Mr. Davis says he suggested immediate withdrawal from Richmond but that Lee said his horses were too weak for the roads in their present condition and that he must wait General Lee on the other hand is quoted as saying that he wished to retire behind the Stoughton River from which point he might have indefinitely protracted the war but that the president overruled him both agreed however that sooner or later Richmond must be abandoned and that the next move should be to the Westonville but before he turned his back forever upon the lines he had so stoutly defended Lee resolved to dash once more at the toils by which he was surrounded he placed half his army under the command of General John B. Gordon with orders to break through the Union lines at Fort Steadman and take possession of the high ground behind them a month earlier Grant had ordered General Park to be prepared to meet an assault on his center and to have his commanders ready to bring all their resources to bear on the point in danger adding quote with proper alacrity in this respect I would have no objection to seeing the enemy get through end of quote this characteristic phrase throws the strongest light both on Grant's temperament and his business at which he had arrived under such generalship an army's lines are a trap into which entrance is suicide the assault was made with great spirit at half past four on the morning of March 25 its initial success was due to a singular cause the spot chosen was a favorite point for deserters to pass into the Union lines which they had of late in large numbers when Gordon's skirmishes therefore came stealing through the darkness they were mistaken for an unusually large party of deserters and they overpowered several picket posts without firing a shot the storming party, following it once took the trenches with a rush and in a few minutes had possession of the main line on the right of the fort and next of the fort itself it was hard in the semi-darkness to distinguish friends from foes and for a time General Park was unable to make headway but with the growing light his troops advanced from every direction to mend the breach and making short work of the Confederate detachments recaptured the fort opening a crossfire of artillery so withering that few of the Confederates could get back to their own lines they instantly damaged the Confederate suffered Humphries and Wright on the Union left rightly assuming that Park could take care of himself instantly searched the lines in their front to see if they had been essentially weakened to support Gordon's attack they found they had not but in gaining this knowledge captured the enemy's entrenched picket lines in front of them which being held in the struggle of the next week Grant's chief anxiety for some time had been lest Lee should abandon his lines but though burning to attack he was delayed by the same bad roads which kept Lee in Richmond and by another cause he did not wish to move until Sheridan had completed the work assigned him in the Shenandoah Valley and joined either Sherman or the Army at Petersburg on March 24 however at the very moment Gordon was making his plans for next day's sortie Grant issued his order for the great movement to the left which was to finish the war he intended to begin on the 29th but Lee's departure dash of the 25th convinced him that not a moment was to be lost Sheridan reached City Point on the 26th Sherman came up from North Carolina for a brief visit next day the president was also there and an interesting meeting took place between these famous brothers in arms and Mr. Lincoln after which Sherman went back to Goldsboro and Grant began pushing his army to the left with even more than his usual iron energy it was a great army the result of all the power and wisdom of the government and the devotion of the people all the intelligence and teachableness of the soldiers themselves and all the ability which a mighty war had developed in the officers and command of all was Grant the most extraordinary military temperament this country has ever seen the numbers of the respective armies in this last grapple have been the occasion of endless controversy as nearly as can be ascertained the grand total of all arms on the Union side was 124,700 on the Confederate side 57,000 Grant's plan as announced in his instructions of March 24 was at first to dispatch Sheridan to destroy the south side and Danville railroads at the same time moving a heavy force to the left to ensure the success of this raid and then to turn Lee's position but his purpose developed from hour to hour and before he had been away from his winter headquarters one day he gave up this comparatively narrow scheme and adopted the far bolder plan which he carried out to his immortal honor he ordered Sheridan not to go after the railroads but to push for the enemy's right rear writing him I now feel like ending the matter we will act all together an army here until it is seen what can be done with the enemy end of quote on the 30th Sheridan advanced to five forks where he found a heavy force of the enemy Lee justly alarmed by Grant's movements had dispatched a sufficient detachment to hold that important crossroads and taken personal command of the remainder on White Oak Ridge a heavy rainstorm beginning on the night of the 29th and continuing more than 24 hours greatly impeded the march of the troops on the 31st Warren working his way toward the White Oak Road was attacked by Lee and driven back on the main line but rallied and in the afternoon drove the enemy again into his works Sheridan opposed by Pickett with a large force of infantry and cavalry was also forced back fighting obstinately as far as Dinwiddie Courthouse from which point he hopefully reported his situation to Grant at dark Grant, more disturbed than Sheridan himself reigned orders and suggestions all night to affect a concentration at daylight on that portion of the enemy in front of Sheridan but Pickett, fighting himself out of position silently withdrew during the night and resumed his strongly entrenched post at Five Forks here Sheridan followed him on April 1 and repeated the successful tactics of his Shenandoah Valley exploits so brilliantly that Lee's right was entirely shattered this battle of Five Forks should have ended the war Lee's right was routed his line had been stretched westward until it broke there was no longer any hope of saving Richmond or even of possibly delaying its fall but Lee apparently thought that even the gain of a day was of value to the Richmond government and what was left of his army of northern Virginia was still so perfect in discipline that it answered with unabated spirit every demand made upon it Grant, who feared Lee might get away from Petersburg and overwhelm Sheridan on the White Oak Road, directed that an assault be made all along the road at four o'clock in the morning of the second his officers responded with enthusiasm and Lee far from dreaming of attacking anyone after the stunning blow he had received the day before made what hasty preparations he could to resist them it is painful to record the hard fighting which followed Wright in his assault in front of Fortes Fisher and Walsh lost eleven hundred men of murderous conflict that made them his own and other commands fared scarcely better Union and Confederate troops alike displaying a gallantry distressing to contemplate when one reflects that the war being already decided all this heroic blood was shed in vain the Confederates from the Appomattox to the Weldon Road fell slowly back to their inner line of works and Lee watching the formidable advance before which his weakened troops gave way sent a message to Richmond announcing his purpose of concentrating on the Danville Road and made preparations for the evacuation which was now the own resort left him some Confederate writers express surprise that General Grant did not attack and destroys Lee army on April 2 but this is a view after the fact easy to express the troops on the Union left had been on foot for eighteen hours had fought an important battle marched and counter-marched many miles and were now confronted by Longstreet's fresh core behind formidable works while the attitude of the force under Gordon on the south side of the town was such as to require the close attention of Park. Grant anticipating an early retirement of Lee from his citadel wisely resolved the waste and bloodshed of an immediate assault on the inner lines of Petersburg. He ordered Sheridan to get upon Lee's line of retreat, sent Humphries to strengthen him, then directing a general bombardment for five o'clock next morning and an assault at six gave himself and his soldiers a little of the rest they had so richly earned and so seriously needed. He had telegraphed during the weekend, who was still at city point, the news as it developed from hour to hour. Prisoners he regarded as so much net gain. He was weary of slaughter and wanted the war ended with as little bloodshed as possible, and it was with delight that he summed up on Sunday afternoon, quote, the whole captures since the army started out gunning will not amount to less than twelve thousand men and end of quote. Lee bent all his energies to saving his army and leading it out of its untenable position on the James to a point from which he could affect a junction with Johnston in North Carolina. The place selected for this purpose was Birkville, at the crossing of the Southside and Danville roads, fifty miles southwest of Richmond, when a short distance would bring him to Danville where the army would lead. Even yet he was able to cradle himself in the illusion that it was only a campaign that had failed and that he might continue the war indefinitely in another field. At nightfall all his preparations were completed and dismounting at the mouth of the road leading to Amelia Courthouse, the first point of rendezvous, where he had directed supplies to be sent, he watched his troops file noiselessly by in the three o'clock the town was abandoned. At half past four it was formally surrendered. Meade, reporting the news to Grant, received orders to march his army immediately up the Appomattox and, dividing Lee's intentions, Grant also sent word to Sheridan to push with all speed to the Danville road. Thus flight and pursuit began almost at the same moment. The swift footed army of Virginia was racing for its life and Grant inspired with more than his habitual tenacity and energy not only pressed his enemy in the rear but hung upon his flank and strained every nerve to get in his front. He did not even allow himself the pleasure of entering Richmond, which surrendered to Whitesville early on the morning of the third. All that day Lee pushed forward toward a little fighting except among the cavalry. A terrible disappointment awaited Lee on his arrival at Amelia Courthouse on the fourth. He had ordered supplies to be forwarded there but his half-starved troops found no food awaiting them and nearly twenty-four hours were lost in collecting subsistence for men and horses. When he started again on the night of the fifth the whole pursuing force was south and Danville was in Grant's possession. The way to Danville was barred. The supply of provisions to the south cut off. He was compelled to change his route to the west and started for Lynchburg which he was destined never to reach. It had been the intention to attack Lee at Amelia Courthouse on the morning of April 6 but learning of his turn to the west, Mead who was immediately in his army about and followed. A running fight ensued for fourteen miles, the enemy with remarkable quickness and dexterity halting and partly entrenching themselves from time to time and the national forces driving them out of every position. The Union cavalry meanwhile harassing the moving left flank of the Confederates and working havoc on the trains. They also caused a grievous loss to history by burning Lee's headquarters baggage with all its wealth of returns and reports. At Sailors Creek, a rivulet running north into the Appomattox, Ewell's corps was brought to bay and important fighting occurred. The days lost to Lee there and elsewhere amounting to eight thousand in all with several of his generals among the prisoners. This day's work was of incalculable value to the national arms. Sheridan's unerring eye appreciated the full importance of it, his hasty report ending with the words quote, if the thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender." Grant sent the despatch to President Lincoln who instantly replied, let the thing be pressed. In fact, after nightfall of the sixth, Lee's army could only flutter like a wounded bird with one wing shattered. There was no longer any possibility of escape. But Lee found it hard to relinquish the illusion of years and as soon as night came down he again began his weary march westward. A slight success on the next day once more raised his hopes, but his optimism was not shared by his subordinates and a number of his principal officers, selecting General Pendleton as their spokesman made known to him on the seventh their belief that further advance was useless and advised surrender. Lee told them that they had yet too many men to think of laying down their arms but an answer to a courteous summons from Grant sent that same day inquired what terms he would be willing to offer. Without waiting for a reply he again put his men in motion and during all of the eighth the chase and pursuit continued through a part of Virginia green with spring and until again unvisited by hostile armies. Sheridan, by unheard of exertions, at last accomplished the important task of placing himself squarely on Lee's line of retreat. About sunset of the eighth his advance captured Appamatic Station and four trains of provisions. Shortly after a reconnaissance revealed the fact that Lee's entire army was coming up the road. Though he had nothing but Sheridan resolved to hold the inestimable advantage he had gained and sent a request to Grant to hurry up the required infantry support saying that if it reached him that night they, quote, might perhaps finish the job in the morning. End of quote. He ended with singular pressions referring to the negotiations which had been opened. Quote I do not think Lee means to surrender until compelled to do so. End of quote. This was strictly true. When Grant replied to Lee's question about terms saying that the only condition he insisted upon was that the officers and men surrendered should be disqualified from taking up arms again until properly exchanged, Lee disclaimed any intention to surrender his army, but proposed to meet Grant to discuss the restoration of peace. It appears from his own report that even on the night of the 8th he had no intention of giving up the fight. He expected to find only cavalry before him next morning and thought his remnant of infantry could break through while he himself was amusing Grant with platonic discussions in the rear. But on arriving at Therondavu he had suggested he received Grant's courteous but decided refusal to enter into a political negotiation and also a formidable force of infantry barred the way and covered the adjacent hills and valley. The marching of the Confederate army was over for ever, and Lee, suddenly brought to a sense of his real situation, sent orders to cease hostilities and wrote another note to Grant, asking an interview for the purpose of surrendering his army. The meeting took place at the house of Wilmer McClain in the edge of the village in the Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Lee met Grant at the threshold and ushered him into a small and barely furnished parlor where were soon assembled the leading officers of the national army. General Lee was accompanied only by his secretary, Colonel Charles Marshall. A short conversation led up to a request from Lee for the terms on which the surrender of his army would be received. Grant briefly stated them and then wrote them out. Men and officers were to be paroled and the arms, artillery, and public property turned over to the officer appointed to receive them. This, he added, will not embrace the sidearms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes not to be disturbed by authority so long as they observe their parole and the laws in force where they may reside. General Grant says in his memoirs that up to the moment when he put pen to paper he had not thought of a word that he should write. The terms he had verbally proposed were soon put in writing and there he might have stopped. But as he wrote a feeling of sympathy for his gallant antagonist came over him and he added the extremely liberal terms with which his letter closed. The sight of Lee's fine sword suggested the paragraph allowing officers to retain their sidearms and he ended with a phrase he evidently had not thought of and for which he had no authority which practically pardoned and amnestied every man in Lee's army, a thing he had refused to consider the day before and which had been expressly forbidden him in the President's order of March 3. Yet so great was the joy over the crowning victory and so deep the gratitude of the government and people to grant in his heroic army that his terms were accepted as he wrote them and his exercise of the executive prerogative of pardon entirely overlooked. It must be noticed here, however, that a few days later it led the greatest of Grant's generals into a serious error. Lee must have read the memorandum with as much surprise as gratification. He suggested and gained another important concession that those of the cavalry and artillery who owned their own horses should be allowed to take them home to put in their crops and wrote a brief reply accepting the terms. He then remarked that his army was in a starving condition and asked Grant to provide them with subsistence and forage to which he at once assented, inquiring for how many men his horses would be wanted. Lee answered, about 25,000 and orders were given to issue them. The number turned out to be even greater. The paroles assigned amounting to 28,231. If we add to this the captures made during the proceeding week and the thousands who deserted the failing cause at every by-road leading to their homes, we see how considerable an army Lee commanded when Grant started the retreating. With these brief and simple formalities one of the most momentous transactions of modern times was concluded. The Union gunners prepared to fire a national salute but Grant forbade any rejoicing over a fallen enemy who he hoped would be an enemy no longer. The next day he rode to the Confederate lines to make a visit of farewell to General Lee. They parted with courteous good wishes and Grant without pausing to look at the city he had taken or the enormous system of works which had so long held him at bay hurried away to Washington intent only upon putting an end to the waste and burden of war. A very carnival of fire and destruction had attended the flight of the Confederate authorities from Richmond. On Sunday night April 2 Jefferson Davis with his cabinet and their more important papers hurriedly left the doomed city on one of the crowded and overloaded railroad trains. The legislature of Virginia and the governor of the state departed in a canal boat toward Lynchburg and every available vehicle was pressed into service by the frantic inhabitants all anxious to get away before their capital was desecrated by the presence of Yankee invaders. By the time the military left early next morning the conflagration was already under way. The rebel congress had passed a law ordering government tobacco and other public property to be burned. General Ewell the military commander asserts that he took the responsibility of disobeying the law and that they were not fired by his orders. However that may be flames broke out in various parts of the city while a miscellaneous mob inflamed by excitement and by the alcohol which had run freely in the gutters the night before rushed from store to store smashing in the doors and indulging all the wantonness of pillage and greed. Public spirit was paralyzed and the whole fabric of society seemed crumbling to pieces when the convicts from the penitentiary a shouting, leaping crowd of party-colored demons overcoming their guard and drunk with liberty appeared upon the streets adding their final dramatic horror to the pandemonium. It is quite probable that the very magnitude and rapidity of the disaster served in a measure to mitigate its evil results. The burning of seven hundred buildings comprising the entire business portion of Richmond warehouses, manufactories, mills, depots and stores all within the brief space of a day was a visitation so sudden, so unexpected, so stupefying as to overall and terrorize even wrongdoers and made the harvest of plunder so abundant as to serve to scatter the mob and satisfy its capacity to quick-repletion. Before a new hunger could arise assistance was at hand. General Weitzel, to whom the city was surrendered, taking up his headquarters in the house lately occupied by Jefferson Davis promptly set about the work of relief organizing efficient resistance to the fire which up to this time seemed scarcely to have been attempted, issuing rations to the poor who had been relentlessly exposed to starvation by the action of the rebel Congress and restoring order and personal authority. That a regiment of black soldiers assisted in this noble work must have seemed to the white inhabitants of Richmond the final drop in their cup of misery. Into the capital thus stricken and laid waste came President Lincoln on the morning of April 4. Never in the history of the world did the head of a mighty nation and the conqueror of a great rebellion enter the captured chief city of the insurgents in such humbleness and simplicity. He had gone two weeks before to City Point for a visit to General Grant and to his son, Captain Robert Lincoln who was serving on Grant's staff. Making his home on the steamer which brought him and enjoying what was probably the most satisfactory relaxation in which he had been able to indulge during his whole presidential service he had visited the various camps of the great army in company with the general, cheered everywhere by the loving greetings of the soldiers. He had met Sherman when that commander hurried up fresh from his victorious march and after Grant started on his final pursuit of Lee the President still lingered and it was at City Point that he received the news of the fall of Richmond. Between the receipt of this news and the following afternoon but before any information of the great fire had reached them a visit was arranged for the President and Rear Admiral Porter. Ample precautions were taken at the start. The President went in his own steamer the River Queen with her escort the Bat and a tug used at City Point in landing from the steamer. Admiral Porter went in his flagship the Malvern and a transport carried a small cavalry escort and ambulances for the party but the obstructions in the river soon made it impossible to proceed in this fashion. One unforeseen accident after another rendered it necessary to leave behind even the smaller boats until finally the party went on in Admiral Porter's barge rode by twelve sailors and without escort of any kind. In this manner the President made his advent into Richmond landing near Libby Prison. As the party stepped ashore they found a guide among the contraband who quickly crowded the streets for the possible coming of the President had been circulated through the city. Ten of the sailors armed with carbines were formed as a guard six in front and four in rear and between them the President Admiral Porter and the three officers who accompanied them walked the long distance perhaps a mile and a half to the center of the town. The imagination can easily fill up the picture of a gradually increasing crowd principally of Negroes following the little group of Marines and officers with the tall form of the President in its center and having learned that it was indeed Mr. Lincoln giving expression to joy and gratitude in the picturesque emotional ejaculations of the colored race. It is easy also to imagine the sharp anxiety of those who had the President's safety in charge during this tiresome and even foolhardy march through a city still in flames whose white inhabitants were sullenly resentful at best and whose grief and anger might at any moment culminate against the man they looked upon as the incarnation of their misfortunes. But no accident befell him. Reaching General Weitzel's headquarters, Mr. Lincoln rested in the mansion Jefferson Davis had occupied as President of the Confederacy and after a day of sight-sing returned to his steamer and to Washington to be stricken down by an assassin's bullet literally in the house of his friends. End of Chapter 35 Recording by John Leader Bloomington, Illinois Chapter 36 of A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln This is a LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln by John G. Nicolay Chapter 36 Lincoln's interviews with Campbell withdraws authority for meeting of Virginia legislature conference of Davis and Johnston at Greensboro. Johnston asks for an armistice meeting of Sherman and Johnston their agreement rejected at Washington surrender of Johnston surrender of other Confederate forces end of the Rebel Navy capture of Jefferson Davis surrender of E. Kirby Smith number of Confederates surrendered and exchanged reduction of Federal Army to a peace footing Grand Review of the Army While in Richmond Mr. Lincoln had two interviews with John A. Campbell Rebel Secretary of War who had not accompanied the other fleeing officials preferring instead to submit to Federal authority Mr. Campbell had been one of the commissioners at the Hampton Roads conference and Mr. Lincoln now gave him a written memorandum repeating in substance the terms he had then offered the Confederates. On Campbell's suggestion that the Virginia legislature, if allowed to come together would at once repeal its ordinance of secession and withdraw all Virginia troops from the field he also gave permission for its members to assemble for that purpose. But this, being distorted into authority to sit in judgment on the political consequences of the war was soon withdrawn. Jefferson Davis and his cabinet proceeded to Danville where two days after his arrival the Rebel President made still another effort to fire the southern heart announcing, we have now entered upon a new phase of the struggle. Relieved from the necessity of guarding particular points our army will be free to move from point to point to strike the enemy in detail far from his base let us but will it and we are free. and declaring in Sonora's periods his purpose never to abandon one foot of ground to the invader. The ink was hardly dry on the document when news came of the surrender of Lee's army and that the Federal cavalry was pushing southward west of Danville. So the Confederate government again hastily packed its archives and moved to Greensboro North Carolina where its headquarters were prudently kept on the train at the depot. Here Mr. Davis sent for Generals Johnston and Beauregard and a conference took place between them and the members of the fleeing government. A conference not unmixed with embarrassment since Mr. Davis still willed the success of the Confederacy too strongly to see the true hopelessness of the situation. While the Generals and most of his cabinet were agreed that their cause was lost the Council of War over General Johnston returned to his army to begin negotiations with Sherman and on the following day, April 14th Davis and his party left Greensboro to continue their journey southward. Sherman had returned to Goldsboro from his visit to City Point and set himself at once to the reorganization of his army and the replenishment of his stores. He still thought there was a hard campaign with desperate fighting ahead of him. Even on April 6th when he received news of the fall of Richmond and the flight of Lee and the Confederate government he was unable to understand the full extent of the national triumph. He admired Grant so far as a man might, short of idolatry, yet the long habit of respect for Lee led him to think he would somehow get away and join Johnston in his front with at least a portion of the army of Northern Virginia. He had already begun his march upon Johnston when he learned Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Definitely relieved from apprehension of a junction of the two Confederate armies he now had no fear except of a flight and dispersal of Johnston's forces into guerilla bands. If they ran away he felt he could not catch them. The country was too open. They could scatter and meet again and so continue a partisan warfare indefinitely. He could not be expected to know that his resolute enemy was sick to the heart of war and that the desire for more fighting survived only in a group of fugitive politicians flying through the pine forest of the Carolinas from a danger which did not exist. Entering Raleigh on the morning of the thirteenth he turned his heads of column southwest hoping to cut off Johnston's southward march but made no great haste thinking Johnston's cavalry superior to his own Herod and to join him before he pushed the Confederates to extremities. While here, however, he received a communication from General Johnston dated the thirteenth proposing an armistice to enable the national and Confederate governments to negotiate on equal terms. It had been dictated by Jefferson Davis during the conference at Greensboro written down by S.R. Mallory and merely signed by Johnston and was inadmissible and even offensive in its terms. But Sherman, anxious for peace and himself incapable of discourtesy to a brave enemy, took no notice of its language and answered so cordially that the Confederates were probably encouraged to ask for better conditions of surrender than they had expected to receive. The two great antagonists met on April seventeenth when Sherman offered Johnston the same terms that had been received and also communicated the news he had that morning received of the murder of Mr. Lincoln. The Confederate General expressed his unfamed sorrow at this calamity, which smote the south, he said, as deeply as the north, and in this mood of sympathy the discussion began. Johnston asserted that he would not be justified in such a capitulation as Sherman proposed, but suggested that together they might arrange the two-minute peace. This idea pleased Sherman, to whom the prospect of ending the war without shedding another drop of blood was so tempting that he did not sufficiently consider the limits of his authority in the matter. It can be said, moreover, in extinuation of his course, that President Lincoln's despatch to grant on March third, which expressly forbade Grant to decide, discuss, or to confer upon any political question, had never been communicated to Sherman, while the very liberality of Grant's terms led him to believe that he was acting in accordance with the views of the administration. But the wisdom of Lincoln's pre-emptory order was completely vindicated. With the best intentions in the world, Sherman, beginning very properly by offering his antagonist the same terms accordedly, ended after two days' negotiation by making a treaty of peace with the Confederate States, including a preliminary armistice, the disbandment of the Confederate armies, recognition by the United States executive of the several state governments, re-establishment of the federal courts, and a general amnesty. Not being fully empowered by our respective principles to fulfill these terms, the agreement truthfully concluded, we individually and officially pledge ourselves to promptly obtain the necessary authority. The rebel president with unnecessary formality required a report from General Breckenridge, his secretary of war, on the desirability of ratifying this most favorable convention. Scarcely had he given it his endorsement when news came that it had been disapproved at Washington, and that Sherman had been directed to continue his military operations, and their apathetic government once more took up its southward flight. The moment General Grant read the agreement, he saw it was entirely inadmissible. The new president called his cabinet together, and Mr. Lincoln's instructions of March 3rd to Grant were repeated to Sherman, somewhat tardily it must be confessed, as his rule of action. All this was a matter of course, and General Sherman could not properly, and perhaps could not, have objected to it. But the calm spirit of Lincoln was now absent from the councils of the government. And it was not in Andrew Johnson and Mr. Stanton to pass over a mistake like this, even in the case of one of the most illustrious captains of the age. They ordered Grant to proceed at once to Sherman's headquarters, and to direct operations against the enemy. And what was worse, Mr. Stanton printed in the newspapers the instructions of the government for disapproving the agreement in terms of sharpest censure of General Sherman. This, when it came to his notice some weeks later, filled him with hot indignation, and coupled with some orders, Halleck, who had been made commander of the armies of Potomac and the James, issued to Meade to disregard Sherman's truce and push forward against Johnson, roused him to open defiance and made him declare in a report to Grant that he would have maintained his truce at any cost of life. Halleck's order, however, had been nullified by Johnson's surrender, and Grant, suggesting that this outburst was uncalled for, offered Sherman the opportunity to correct the statement. This he refused, insisting that his record stand as written, although avowing his readiness to obey all future orders of Grant and the President. So far as Johnston was concerned, the war was indeed over. He was unable to hold his men together. Eight thousand of them left their camps and went home in the week of the truce, many riding away on the artillery horses and train mules. On notice of federal disapproval of his negotiations with Sherman, he disregarded Jefferson Davis's instructions to disband the infantry and try to escape cavalry and light guns, and answered Sherman's summons by inviting another conference, at which, on April 26th, he surrendered all the forces in his command on the same terms granted Lee at Appomattox. Sherman, supplying as did Grant, rations for the beaten army. Thirty-seven thousand men and officers were paroled in North Carolina, exclusive, of course, of the thousands who had slipped into the tension of hostilities. After Appomattox, the rebellion fell to pieces all at once. Lee surrendered less than one-sixth of the Confederates in arms on April 9th. The armies that still remained, though inconsiderable when compared with the mighty host under the national colors, were yet infinitely larger than any Washington ever commanded, and capable of strenuous resistance and of incalculable mischief. But the march of Sherman from Atlanta to the sea, and his northward progress through the Carolinas, had predisposed the great interior region to make an end of strife. A tendency which was greatly promoted by the masterly raid of General J. H. Wilson's cavalry through Alabama, and his defeat of forest at Selma. An officer of Taylor's staff came to Canby's headquarters on April 19th to make arrangements for the surrender of forces east of the Mississippi, not already paroled by Sherman and Wilson, embracing some forty-two thousand men. The terms were agreed upon and signed on May 4th at the village of Citronell in Alabama. At the same time in place the Confederate Commodore Farrand surrendered the rear Admiral Thatcher all the naval forces of the Confederacy in the neighborhood of Mobile, a dozen vessels and some officers. The Rebel Navy had practically ceased to exist some months before. The splendid fight in Mobile Bay on August 5th, 1864 between Farragut's fleet and the Rebel Ram, Tennessee with her three attendant gun-boats and Cushing's daring destruction of the powerful Albemarle in Albemarle's sound on October 27th marked its end in Confederate waters. The duel between the Cure Sarge and the Alabama of Cherbourg had already taken place. A few more encounters at or near foreign ports furnished occasion for personal bravery and subsequent lively diplomatic correspondence and Rebel vessels fitted out under the unduly lenient neutrality of France and England continued for a time to work havoc with American shipping in various parts of the world. But these two unions' successes and the final capture of Fort Fisher and of Wilmington early in 1865, which closed the Last Haven for daring blockade runners practically silenced the Confederate Navy. General E. Kirby Smith commanded all the insurgent forces west of the Mississippi. On him the desperate hopes of Mr. Davis and his flying cabinet were fixed. After the successive surrenders of Lee and Johnston had left them no prospect in the East. I imagine they could move westward gathering up stragglers as they fled and crossing the river joined Smith's forces and there continued the war. But after a time even this hope failed them. Their escort melted away. Members of the cabinet dropped off on various pretexts and Mr. Davis abandoning the attempt to reach the Mississippi River turned again toward the East in an effort to gain the Florida coast and escape the sailing vessel to Texas. The two expeditions sent in pursuit of him by General Wilson did not allow this consummation which the government at Washington might possibly have viewed with equanimity. His camp near Irwinville, Georgia was surrounded by Lieutenant Colonel Pritchard's command at dawn on May 10th and he was captured as he was about to mount horse with a few companions and ride for the coast leaving to follow more slowly. The tradition that he was captured in disguise having dawned female dress in a last desperate attempt to escape has only this foundation that Mrs. Davis threw a cloak over her husband's shoulders and a shawl over his head on the approach of the federal soldiers. He was taken to Fortress Monroe and there kept in confinement for about two years. Was arranged before the United States for the District of Virginia for the crime of treason and released on bail and was finally restored to all the duties and privileges of citizenship except the right to hold office by President Johnson's proclamation of amnesty of December 25th, 1868. General E. Kirby Smith on whom Davis's last hopes of success had centered kept up so threatening an attitude that Sherman was sent from Washington to bring him to reason. But he did not long hold his position of solitary defiance. One more needless skirmish took place near Brazos, Texas. And then Smith followed the example of Taylor and surrendered his entire force some eighteen thousand to General Kirby on May 26th. One hundred and seventy-five thousand men in all were surrendered by the different Confederate commanders and there were in addition to these about ninety thousand prisoners in national custody during the year. One-third of these were exchanged and two-thirds released. This was done as rapidly as possible by successive orders of the War Department beginning on May 9th and continuing through the summer. The first object of the government was to stop the waste of war. Recruiting ceased immediately after Lee's surrender or taken to reduce as promptly as possible the vast military establishment. Every chief of bureau was ordered on April 28th to proceed at once to the reduction of expenses in his department to a peace footing and this before Taylor or Smith had surrendered and while Jefferson Davis was still at large the army of a million men was brought down with incredible ease and celerity to one of twenty-five thousand. Before the great army melted away into the greater body of citizens the soldiers enjoyed one final triumph a march through the capital undisturbed by death or danger under the eyes of their highest commanders military and civilian and the representatives of the people whose nationality they had saved. Those who witnessed this solemn yet joyous pageant will never forget it and will pray that their children may never witness anything like it. For two days this formidable host marched the long stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue starting from the shadow of the dome of the capital and filling that wide thoroughfare to Georgetown with a serried mass moving with the easy yet rapid pace of veterans in cadence step. As a mere spectacle this march of the mightiest host the continent has ever seen gathered together as grand and imposing that it was not as a spectacle alone that it affected the beholder most deeply. It was not a mere holiday parade. It was an army of citizens on their way home after a long and terrible war. Their clothes were torn and pierced with bullets. Their banners had been torn with shot and shell and lashed in the winds of a thousand battles. The very drums and fives had caught out the troops with their arms and sounded the onset on historic fields. The whole country claimed these heroes as a part of themselves and now, done with fighting they were going joyously and peaceably to their homes to take up again the tasks they had willingly laid down in the hour of their country's peril. The world had many lessons to learn from this great conflict which liberated a subject people and changed the tactics in their care. But the greatest lesson it taught the nations of waiting Europe was the conservative power of democracy that a million men flushed with victory and with arms in their hands could be trusted to disband the moment the need for their services was over and take up again the sober labors of peace. Friends loaded these veterans with flowers as they swung down the avenue both men and officers were taken under the fragrant burden. There was laughter and applause. Grotesque figures were not absent as Sherman's legions passed with their bummers and their regimental pets. But with all the shouting and the laughter and the joy of this unprecedented ceremony there was one sad and dominant thought which could not be driven from the minds of those who saw it that of the men who were absent and who had nevertheless richly earned the right to be there. The soldiers in their shrunken companies were conscious of the ever-present memories of the brave comrades who had fallen by the way and in the whole army there was the passionate and unavailing regret for their wise, gentle, and powerful friend Abraham Lincoln gone for ever from the house by the avenue who had called the great host into being directed the course of the nation during the four years they had been fighting for the nation and for whom more than for any other this crowning, peaceful pageant would have been fraught with deep and happy meaning.