"Done at Appomattox Court-house, Virginia, this 9th day of April, 1865." An equivalent obligation was also given by officers for the subdivisions under their command. To retain their influence in the councils of the nation, the politicians of the South had plunged a continent into agony; more than half a million of men had been sacrificed to their lust of power, many thousands of millions of dollars had been wasted. Of the men who perpetrated this great crime, not one was present in the little parlor at Appomattox Court-house. and his army. General Lee rejoined his army to bid it farewell. AdThe parting of Lee dressing his troops, he said: "Men! we have fought through this war together. I have done the best I could for you." From the Rapidan to Appomattox Court-house he had indeed made a grand defense; he had shed over Virginia a mournful glory. In the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, at the Anna, at Cold Harbor, during the siege of Richmond, and again in the final retreat, he had struggled against preponderating power. For a whole year he had tried to stay the hand of Fate. No one can read his gallant acts without lamenting that they had not been in the cause of human freedom and national unity, the ideas and purposes of the present age. On the 12th of April, 1865, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia marched by divisions to Army of Northern an appointed place near Appomattox Courthouse. The troops stacked their arms and deposited their accoutrements. Not more than 8000 had muskets in their hands, but there were paroled 27,805 men; 30 cannon and 350 wagons were yielded-all that were left. The surrender of the Virginia. The War Department at Washington issued the following order on receiving the news of the surrender: "War Department, Washington, D. C., April 9th-10 o'clock P.M. "Ordered, That a salute of two hundred guns be fired at the headquarters of every army and department, and at every post and arsenal in the United States, and at the Military Academy at West Point, on the day of the receipt of this order, in commemoration of the surrender of General R. E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Grant and the army under his command-report of the receipt and execution of this order to be made to the Adjutant General, Washington. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.” When General Grant assumed command of the armies Review of Grant's of the United States (March 17th, 1864), he campaign. saw distinctly that the strength of the Confederacy lay, not in the phantom government at Richmond, nor in the enthusiasm of the insurgent people, but in the army that was operating in Georgia, and in that in Virginia. He committed the overthrow of the former to Sherman, and we have narrated how that general accomplished his task. With the destruction of the latter he charged himself. His advance toward Richmond was marked not only by the signal ability with which he subsisted and manoeuvred his great army, but also by the undaunted resolution with which he kept his chief object-the annihila tion of the opposing force-in view. Obliged to be the assailant in every encounter, to attack Lee's veteran troops in positions they had previously selected and fortified, to operate in a country with which he was not familiar, but which his enemy had carefully surveyed and thoroughly knew, it was not possible but that his losses should be very great. Unappalled by the battles in the Wilderness, he assaulted his antagonist at Spottsylvania; thwarted there, he repeated the attempt at the North Anna; thwart ed there again, with inflexible determination he delivered an assault at Cold Harbor. "I will fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," he wrote to the Secretary of War. Unable to bring Lee to a decisive battle north of Richmond, he without hesitation crossed the James River and uncovered Washington. The highest military authorities, some of whom had distinguished themselves by the accuracy of their conceptions of the plan of the war, thought that in doing this he had made a mistake; but, with the inspiration of military genius, Grant trusted to himself. Disappointed by the inefficiency of his subordinates in the seizure of Petersburg, with unfaltering resolution he laid siege to that place. With an unrelaxing grasp he held it fast in one hand, with the other he defended Washington from Early's sortie. Even when he seemed to be inactive in his lines, the system he was pursuing was operating against the Confederates with frightful effect. Their ar mies were steadily wasting away. Exhaustion and debility were fast coming on. With truth he said, "They have now in their ranks their last reserves. A man lost to them can never be replaced. They have robbed the cradle and the grave to obtain their present force. They are losing at least one regiment a day. With this drain upon them, the end is not far off, if we be but true to ourselves." When spring returned it was plain to all eyes that the days of the Confederacy were numbered. It only remained for Grant to set the time. At a given signal, his army, in one tremendous assault from the Appomattox to Hatcher's Run, burst through the lines of Petersburg, and, in a pursuit of unparalleled ener gy, compelled his antagonist to surrender. Thus was attained the object for which, during more than a year, he had struggled day and night. His losses in the campaign from the Rapidan to Appomattox Courthouse, in killed, wounded, and missing, were one hundred thousand men (99,772)-a fearful price, yet not a price too great for the perpetuity of the Republic. In the bloodstained thickets of the Wilderness, in the awful repulse at Cold Harbor, in the weary siege of Petersburg-a summer and a winter-in the final triumph, he was equally calm. Undaunted in peril, in success he was unmoved. He steadfastly kept in mind the duty to which he had been assigned, nor did he relax his exertions until he had accomplished it. Inexorable in warfare, he was generous to the defeated, and in the hour of completed victory imposed on his overthrown antagonist no humiliation. His correspondence with Lee in relation to the surren der will be read every where with admiration. It exhibits no mark of vainglory, no tone of triumph. The conqueror, whose pathway had been soaked in blood, pleads with the vanquished, in the name of their common humanity, to end the conflict without the loss of another life. CHAPTER XCII. THE SURRENDER OF JOHNSTON. A consultation took place at City Point between the President of the United States and certain officers of the army and navy. Shortly afterward, in interviews held between Generals Sherman and Johnston, terms were suggested for the surrender of all the Confederate armies. They were referred by the former to the government. The government refused to accede to them. General Grant repaired to Sherman's head-quarters. In another interview between Sherman and Johnston, acceptable terms for the surrender of Johnston's army were agreed upon. The Secretary of War caused to be published in newspapers statements to General Sherman's disadvantage, and the subordinates of that officer were directed to disregard his orders. An examination of the controversy which ensued sustains that general, both as respects his opinions and his acts. General Johnston surrendered his army, and that event was soon followed by the surrender of all the other Confederate armies. The consultation at FOUR persons met in the upper saloon of the steamer "River Queen," at City Point, on the 27th of March, 1865. They were: the President, General Grant, General Sherman, and Admiral Porter. No one else was present. Lincoln looked care-worn and anxious, as though he had fled from the annoyances and importunities of the politi cians at Washington, to seek for mental rest in the army of Grant. His countenance brightened, however, when the conversation turned on the promising aspect of military affairs. The interview lasted about an hour and a half. The President was evidently persuaded that the military movements about to ensue would be successful, and was desir ous that the capitulation of the Confederates should be accepted on the most favorable conditions, and as soon as possible. His heart was full of tenderness. "As long as the reb The intentions els lay down their arms, I don't care how it is done." "Stop this bloodshed; stop this of Lincoln. |