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"APRIL 9, 1865. "GENERAL-Your note of yesterday is received. I have no authority to treat on the subject of peace. The meeting proposed for 10 A. M. to-day could lead to no good. I will state, however, General, that I am equally anxious for peace with yourself, and the whole North entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the South laying down their arms, they will hasten that most desirable event, save thousands of human lives and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. Seriously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life, I subscribe myself, U. S. GRANT, Lt.-General.

&c.,

"General R. E. LEE."

Sheridan was with his cavalry near the Court House, when the Army of Virginia made its last charge. By his order, his troopers, who were in line of battle, dismounted, gave ground gradually, while showing a steady front, so as to allow our weary infantry time to form and take position. This effected, the horsemen moved swiftly to the right and mounted, revealing lines of solid infantry in battle array, before whose wall of gleaming bayonets the astonished enemy recoiled in blank despair, as Sheridan and his troopers, passing briskly around the Rebel left, prepared to charge the confused, reeling masses. A white flag was now waved by the enemy before Gen. Custer, who held our cavalry advance, with the information that they had concluded to surrender. Riding over to Appomattox C. H., Sheridan was met by Gen. Gordon, who requested a suspension of hostilities, with the assurance that negotiations were then pending between Gens. Grant and Lee for a capitulation.

Gen. Grant, before reaching Sheridan's headquarters, had received the following additional note:

"APRIL 9, 1865. "GENERAL-I received your note of this

morning on the picket-line, whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference to the surrender of this army. I now ask an interview in accordance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday for that purpose.

"R. E. LEE, General. "Lt.-General U. S. GRANT." The two commanders met imme

diately at the dwelling of Mr. W. McLean, near the Court House. The interview was brief: the business in hand frankly discussed, as became soldiers. Three commissioners on either side were appointed; but the day's work was done by the chiefs, and its result summed up in these concluding letters:

"APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, Va., "April 9, 1865. "GENERAL-In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th instant,

I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate; one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and pubturned over to the officers appointed by me lic property to be parked and stacked, and to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside. U. S. GRANT, Lt.-General.

"General R. E. LEE.”

"HEADQ'RS ARMY OF NORTHERN Va., 46 April 9, 1865. "GENERAL-I received your letter of this date, containing the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.

"R. E. LEE, General. "Lt.-General U. S. GRANT."

DISPERSION OF THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA.

The parting of Lee with his devoted followers was a sad one. Of the proud army which, dating its victories from Bull Run, had driven McClellan from before Richmond, and withstood his best effort at Antietam, and shattered Burnside's host at Fredericksburg, and worsted Hooker at Chancellorsville, and fought Meade so stoutly, though unsuccessfully, before Gettysburg, and baffled Grant's bounteous resources and desperate efforts in the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, on the North Anna, at Cold Harbor, and before Petersburg and Richmond, a mere wreck remained. It is said that 27,000 were included in Lee's capitulation; but, of these, not more than 10,000 had been able to carry their arms thus far on their hopeless and almost foodless flight. Barely 19 miles from Lynchburg when surrendered, the physical possibility of forcing their way thither, even at the cost of half their number, no longer remained. And, if they were all safely there, what then? The resources of the Confederacy were utterly exhausted. Of the 150,000 men whose names were borne on its muster-rolls a few weeks ago, at least one-third were already disabled or prisoners, and the residue could neither be clad nor fed-not to dream of their being fitly armed or paid; while the resources of the loyal States were scarcely touched, their ranks nearly or quite as full as ever, and their supplies of ordnance, small arms, munitions, &c., more ample than in any previous April. Of the million or so borne on our muster-rolls, probably

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not less than half were then in active service, with half so many more able to take the field at short notice. The Rebellion had failed and gone down; but the Rebel Army of Virginia and its commander had not failed. Fighting sternly against the Inevitable— against the irrepressible tendencies, the generous aspirations of the agethey had been proved unable to succeed where success would have been a calamity to their children, to their country, and the human race. And, when the transient agony of defeat had been endured and had passed, they all experienced a sense of relief, as they crowded around their departing chief, who, with streaming eyes, grasped and pressed their outstretched hands, at length finding words to say, "Men, we have fought through the War together. I have done the best that I could for you." There were few dry eyes among those who witnessed the scene; and our soldiers hastened to divide their rations with their late enemies, now fellow-countrymen, to stay their hunger until provisions from our trains could be drawn for them. Then, while most of our army returned to Burkesville, and thence, a few days later, to Petersburg and Richmond, the work of paroling went on, under the guardianship of Griffin's and Gibbon's infantry, with McKenzie's cavalry; and, so fast as paroled, the Confederates took their way severally to their respective homes: many of them supplied with transportation, as well as food, by the Government they had fought so long and so bravely to subvert and destroy.

XXXV.

DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN-PEACE.

JOHNSTON-DAVIS-TAYLOR-KIRBY SMITH.

1

several U. S. Senators, &c. He was now waited on by several leading Confederates, who, seeing that their cause was hopelessly lost, were naturally anxious to make the best terms possible; and to whom, in a spirit of kindness and magnanimity that had never been shaken, he lent a favorable ear. In deference to a suggestion by some of their number, he wrote the following:

}

"It has been intimated to me that the gen

and take measures to withdraw the Vir

PRESIDENT LINCOLN had gone | days later-this time attended by Mrs. down to the front in anticipation of Lincoln, by Vice-President Johnson, Grant's final movement against Lee's right south of Petersburg, and was thenceforward in constant communication with the Lieutenant-General commanding in the field, while Lee made his assault on our lines, Sheridan crossed the James, moving from our farthest right to our extreme left, and Grant impelled the advance of that left with such memorable results. He was mainly at City Point, receiving reports from Grant and telegraphing their substance to the War Department for dissemination over the country till the day after Richmond fell; when he accompanied Admiral Porter in a gunboat up to Rockett's, a mile below the city, and thence was rowed up to the wharf, and walked thence, attended by Admiral Porter and by a few sailors armed with carbines, to Gen. Weitzel's headquarters, in the house so recently and suddenly abandoned by Jefferson Davis. Recognized and stared at by all, his hearty greetings, aside from those of our soldiers, were all but confined to the Blacks, who crowded in thousands to welcome and bless their emancipator; so that it became necessary to summon a military force to clear a way for him through the streets. After holding a hasty levee, the President took a rapid drive through the principal streets, and, at 63 P. M., left on his return to City Point; whence he repeated his visit to Richmond two capture respectively; the other, de

1 March 24.

"HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, CITY POINT, April 6, 1865. "Major-Gen. WEITZEL, Richmond, Va.: tlemen who have acted as the Legislature of Virginia, in support of the Rebellion, may now desire to assemble at Richmond ginia troops and other support from resistance to the General Government. If they attempt it, give them permission and protection, until, if at all, they attempt some action hostile to the United States; in which case, you will notify them, giving them reasonable time to leave, and at the end of which time arrest any who remain. Allow Judge Campbell to see this, but do not make A. LINCOLN." it public. Yours, etc.,

The President returned, on the day of Lee's surrender, to Washington; whence he dispatched' to Gen. Weitzel a recall of the permission above given-the object contemplated by it having been otherwise fully attained. He had, the day before, issued two Proclamations: one of them closing, till further orders, in accordance with law, certain ports in the Rebel States whereof the blockade had been raised by their

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PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S LAST DAYS.

manding henceforth for our National vessels in foreign ports, on penalty of retaliation, those privileges and immunities which had hitherto been denied them on the plea of according equal belligerent rights to the Republic and its internal foes. He made, next evening, to a vast crowd assembled before the Executive Mansion expressly to hear it, an address on Reconstruction, whereof it is only pertinent here to say that while carefully remitting to Congress all questions connected with the representation of the revolted States in either House, and avowing his desire that a qualified Right of Suffrage be accorded to the Blacks of those States-he evinced an utter absence of resentment or bitterness toward the late Rebels, and an anxious wish that the Confederate States should be restored to all the functions of self-government and equal power in the Union at the earliest day consistent with the National integrity, tranquillity, and safety.

On the following day, an order issued from the War Department, previously approved by Gen. Grant, which appeared throughout the land in the journals of next morning,' putting a stop to all drafting and recruiting for our armies, with the purchase of arms, munitions, provisions, &c.; and it was announced that the number of our general and staff officers would be reduced, and all military restrictions on trade and commerce removed forthwith.

That day was the fourth anniversary of the surrender of Fort Sumter to the Rebels by Maj. Anderson; and a large number of loyal citizens, who rejoiced the more heartily in the 4 * April 12.

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downfall of the Rebellion because it involved the overthrow of Slavery, had gone down to Port Royal and Charleston to raise, with fitting observances, over the ruins of the historic fortress, the identical flag which had waved over it during its first bombardment, and which had been thoughtfully preserved for this purpose. The whole country was aglow with loyal rejoicings and congratulations; and the President, after attending a meeting of his Cabinet to receive a personal report from Gen. Grant, just arrived from Appomattox, listening to the story of Lee's surrender from his son, Capt. Robert Lincoln, who, being on Grant's staff, had been an eye-witness of the scene, and giving audience to several public men-among them John P. Hale, just appointed Minister to Madrid, and Speaker Colfax, who was taking leave for an overland journey to California and Oregon-concluded to seek relaxation from his many and weighty cares by spending the evening at Ford's Theater, where Gen. Grant and he had been publicly announced as probable visitors that night, while the former had been compelled by inexorable duties to disappoint the expectation thus excited. At 8 P. M., the President and his wife, with two others, rode to the theater, and were ushered into the private box previously secured by him; where, at 10 P. M., while all were intent on the play, an actor of Baltimore birth-John Wilkes Booth by name, son of the more eminent English-born tragedian, Junius Brutus Booth-availing himself of that freedom of the house usually accorded at theaters to actors, entered at the April 14.

front door, stood for a few moments, of whom, Maj. H. R. Rathbone-the after presenting a card to the Presi- only man there beside the President dent's messenger, in the passage-way-turning his eyes, saw, through the behind the dress circle, surveying the sulphurous smoke, a stranger standspectacle before him; then entered ing behind him, whom he instantly the vestibule of the President's pri- clutched; but Booth, tearing away vate box, shut the door behind him, from his grasp, and dropping his pisfastened it from the inside by placing tol, made a pass at him with the daga short plank (previously provided) ger, inflicting a serious wound on his against it, with its foot against the left arm. Rushing now to the front opposite wall, and then, holding a of the box, theatrically flourishing his pistol and a dagger in either hand, weapon, and exclaiming 'Sic semper stepped through the inner door into tyrannis! Booth put his hand on the the box just behind the President, railing in front of the box, and leaped who was leaning forward with his over, alighting on a corner of the eyes fixed on the stage, and fired his stage; but, catching with one of pistol, while holding it close to the back his spurred heels in the American of the President's head, piercing his flag draped across the front of the skull behind the left ear, and lodging box, he fell; spraining his ankle so the ball, after traversing the brain, just as to cripple his flight and afford a behind the right eye. Mr. Lincoln's clue to the detectives who were soon head fell slightly forward, his eyes on his trail. Recovering immediclosed, but he uttered no word or ately from his fall, he faced the aucry; and, though life was not extinct dience, brandished his dagger, exfor nine hours thereafter, he gave, claimed "The South is avenged!” thenceforth to his death in a neigh- and ran across the stage to and out boring house, at 7:22 next morn- of the back door, which he shut, ing, no sign of intelligence; and it and, mounting his horse-which a is probable that he never on earth half-witted, stage-struck youth was knew that he had been shot, or was there holding for him-rode off and conscious even of suffering, much less across the Anacosta bridge out of of malice and murder. Hating and Washington; seeking refuge in the wishing ill to none, he had never adjacent region of southern Marycomprehended the hell of demoniac land; whose Whites, being intensely passion which seethed and surged pro-Slavery, were mainly Rebel symaround him, and which the utter pathizers, and were therefore counted collapse of the Rebellion had only on to conceal him and aid his escape. intensified; hence, he had ever treated lightly the anonymous threats which men placed as he was receive as matters of course, and had disregarded all entreaties that he should take precautions against assassination.

The report of Booth's pistol startled the house, but especially the President's companions in the box;

That President Lincoln was the victim of a conspiracy of partisans of the Rebellion is established by undeniable proof; not so the charge that the chiefs and master-spirits of the Confederacy were implicated in the crime. Booth himself was, so far as has been shown, the projector and animating soul of the monstrous

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