Slavery and Four Years of War Part 62

Grant ordered a general a.s.sault to be made at 6 A.M. of the 3d.

Thus far, since the general movement commenced, Lee had lost about 12,000 prisoners and about 50 guns. The killed and wounded were not proportionately great. Lee had been forced to withdraw Longstreet from north of Richmond, leaving his lines there very slimly defended.( 7) General Weitzel had been left with a division north of the James to threaten Richmond. Lee, early on the 2d, realized the critical situation, and at 10.30 of that memorable Sabbath morning wired Mr. Breckinridge, Secretary of War, at Richmond:

"I see no prospect of doing more than holding our position here until night. I am not certain I can do that. If I can I shall withdraw to-night north of the Appomattox, and, if possible, it will be better to withdraw the whole line to-night from James River.

I advise that all preparations be made for leaving Richmond to- night. I will advise you later according to circ.u.mstances."

This was handed to Mr. Davis while at church. He arose quietly and retired, but the portent of the message was soon known and caused great consternation among the inhabitants of the Confederate Capital. For almost four years Richmond had been the defiant centre of the rebellion. Now it was to be abandoned on less than twelve hours' notice.

Jefferson Davis wired Lee:

"The Secretary of War has shown me your dispatch. To move to-night will cause the loss of many valuables, both for the want of time to pack and of transportation. Arrangements are progressing, and unless you otherwise advise the start will be made."

Lee responded:

"I think it absolutely necessary that we should abandon our position to-night. I have given all the necessary orders on the subject to the troops, and the operation, though difficult, I hope will be performed successfully. I have directed General Stevens to send an officer to your Excellency to explain the routes to you by which the troops will be moved to Amelia Court-House, and furnish you with a guide and any a.s.sistance you may require for yourself."( 8)

Richmond and Petersburg were evacuated the night of April 2d. The troops in and around the two cities commenced to retire at 8 P.M., and were directed to concentrate at Amelia Court-House, about sixty miles distant, where Lee had ordered supplies for his army to be collected. Ewell withdrew the troops north of Richmond and the marines from the James. There was insufficient transportation for the archives and other valuables of the several departments of the Confederacy, to say nothing of other public and private property.

Army supplies had to be destroyed or abandoned. A panic seized the city, and in burning some public stores it took fire in two places, and but for the arrival, about 8 A.M. of the 3d, of Union troops from Weitzel's command, it would have burned down. Petersburg suffered little in the evacuation. Its mayor and council surrendered it about 4 A.M. of the 3d. The besieging army, so long striving for its possession, was not permitted to enter it.

President Lincoln was at City Point when the movement of Grant's army commenced, and remained until Richmond and Petersburg fell.

Grant, on the 2d, in antic.i.p.ation of further success, suggested that the President visit him at the front next day. Mr. Lincoln accordingly met Grant in Petersburg the morning of its surrender and held an interview with him of an hour and a half. Secretary Stanton, learning that the President contemplated going to the front, wired from Washington on the morning of the 3d, protesting against his exposing "the nation to the consequence of any disaster to himself in the pursuit of a dangerous enemy like the rebel army."

The President answered from City Point at 5 P.M.:

"Yours received. Thanks for your caution, but I have already been to Petersburg. Staid with Grant an hour and a half and returned here. It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I will go there to-morrow. I will take care of myself."( 9)

Mr. Lincoln made his entry into Richmond on the 4th (on foot from a boat), almost without personal protection, and excited the highest interest of the people, especially of the slaves, who looked upon and adored him as their savior. There were no bounds to their rejoicing. He, while there, in consultation with Judge J. A.

Campbell and other former Confederate leaders, talked of plans of reconstruction, and went so far as to sanction the calling of the Confederate Legislature of Virginia together with a view to its withdrawing the Virginia troops from the army.(10)

He was in a generous mood, willing to concede much to secure a speedy restoration of the Union.

Mr. Campbell reports the President's position thus:

"His indispensable conditions are the restoration of the authority of the United States and the disbanding of the troops, and no receding on his part from his position on the slavery question as defined in his message in December and other official doc.u.ments.

All other questions to be settled on terms of sincere liberality.

He says that to any State that will promptly accept these terms he will relinquish confiscation, except where third persons have acquired adverse interests."(11)

Abraham Lincoln returned from Richmond to Washington filled to overflowing with hope, joy, and thoughts of generous treatment of his rebellious countrymen. He, too, was soon to become a sacrifice in atonement for his nation's sins. He fell, at the apex of human glory, by the hands of a disloyal a.s.sa.s.sin, April 14, 1865.(12) The great and the humble friends of freedom, not only of his own country but of the world, wept. He had been permitted, however, to look through the opening portals of peace upon a restored Union with universal freedom, under one flag.

( 1) See map, and _Battles and Leaders of the War_, vol. iv., p.

538.

( 2) One enterprising Confederate managed to escape to our lines with a wagon and six mules from a party gathering wood. His outfit was valued at $1200.

( 3) Grant's _Memoirs_, vol. ii., p. 460.

( 4) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., pp. 145-7.

( 5) General Wright, speaking of this position in his report of the storming of the fortifications at Petersburg, says:

"It should here be remarked that, but for the success of the 25th ultimo, in which was carried the intrenched line of the enemy, though at a cost in men which at the time seemed hardly to have warranted the movement, the attack of the 2d inst. on the enemy's main lines could not have been successful. The position thus gained was an indispensable one to the operations on the main lines, by affording a place for the a.s.sembling of a.s.saulting columns within striking distance of the enemy's main intrenchments." _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 903.

( 6) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 954.

( 7) _Mana.s.sas to Appomattox_, pp. 603-5.

( 8) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part III., p. 1378.

( 9) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part III., p. 509.

(10) _Ibid_., pp. 612, 655-7, 724-5.

(11) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part III., p. 723.

(12) Abraham Lincoln, on the evening of March 14, 1865, attended Ford's Theatre in Washington in company with Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and Major Henry R. Rathbone (daughter and stepson of Senator Ira Harris of New York), and while in a private box (at 10 P.M.) was shot by John Wilkes Booth. The bullet entered his head on the left side, pa.s.sed through the brain, and lodged behind the left eye. He was carried to a house across the street, where he died (never being conscious after the shot) at twenty-two minutes after seven the morning of April 15, 1865. Secretary Stanton, standing by him as his life went out, more than prophetically said: "_Now he belongs to the ages_."

An attempt was made the same night to a.s.sa.s.sinate Secretary Wm. H.

Seward, which came near being successful. He was, also his son Frederick, terribly wounded and beaten.

CHAPTER XIII Battle of Sailor's Creek, April 6th--Capitulation of General Robert E. Lee's Army at Appomattox Court-House, April 9, 1865--Surrender of Other Confederate Armies, and End of the War of the Rebellion

Richmond and Petersburg having been evacuated, the Army of the Potomac, at early dawn, April 3, 1865, under orders, marched westward. Its sole objective now was the Confederate Army. Grant directed some corps of his army to pursue on the line of Lee's retreat, and others to march westward on roads farther to the south to strike other roads necessary for Lee to pursue in gaining North Carolina where he might form a junction with General Joe Johnston who was then trying to stem the advance of Sherman.

It was soon known that Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet had reached Danville, Virginia, and had proclaimed it the seat of the Confederate Government.

To reach Danville Lee bent all his energy.

The sagacious and energetic movements of the several corps of the Union army from the morning of April 3d to the surrender of Lee will stand as a lasting testimonial to Grant's military genius, ranking him with the great strategists of the world. Lee's officers were familiar with the roads; the inhabitants were their friends; his retreat was upon the shorter line, and he had a night's start.

Generals Meade, Sheridan, Ord, and the corps commanders also, won just fame for the successful handling of their several commands.

Meade kept his forces in hand and pushed them precipitously on the desired points. Sheridan was indomitable and remorseless in his pursuit with the cavalry. Grant accompanied the army, sometimes with one part of it and then with another, always knowing what was going on and the position of all the troops. His orders were implicitly obeyed. Rest or sleep was impossible for any length of time. Recent and continuing rains rendered the roads almost impa.s.sable for artillery trains. Teams were doubled and one half the artillery and wagons were left behind. Lee undertook to order supplies sent to Burkeville, where he expected to meet them.

Sheridan's cavalry captured, April 4th, a messenger with dispatches in his boots which he was conveying to Burkeville to be wired to Danville and Lynchburg, directing 300,000 rations to be forwarded to Burkeville. Sheridan, by scouts disguised as rebels, had the dispatches taken to Burkeville and sent, with the expectation he would capture the rations on their arrival. They did not reach Burkeville, but several train loads were sent forward from Lynchburg.

Sheridan's cavalry met them at Appomattox Station on the 8th, and received them in bulk, locomotives, trains, and all.( 1)

Late on the 5th, Lee leisurely moved his army from Amelia Court- House towards Burkeville. Sheridan's cavalry, with some infantry, had possession of Jetersville on a road Lee attempted to pursue.

Sheridan a.s.sailed Lee's advance furiously and drove it back, forcing him to form his army for battle. This occupied so much time that when it was ready to attack, night was approaching, and the Fifth and Sixth Corps were arrived or were arriving. Lee's escape to Danville by the way of Burkeville was no longer possible. The day was too far spent to fight a battle. Grant was still pushing his corps upon different roads to intercept Lee's retreat. Lee's prime mistake was in not concentrating his army, on the 4th, at Burkeville, the junction of the two railroads, instead of at Amelia Court-House.

It was supposed that a decisive battle would be fought at Jetersville, but Lee withdrew during the night.

General Lee claimed he lost one day at Amelia Court-House gathering subsistence, because his orders to collect them there in advance of his retreat had been disregarded.( 2)

Jefferson Davis reached Danville, Virginia, with members of his Cabinet, on the 3d of April, and, on the 5th, he issued a proclamation which he subsequently characterized thus:

"Viewed in the light of subsequent events, it may be fairly said it was over-sanguine." In it he used such expressions as:

"Let us but will it and we are free. I announce to you, fellow countrymen, that it is my purpose to maintain your cause with my whole heart and soul; that I will never consent to abandon to the enemy one foot of the soil of any of the States of the Confederacy; that Virginia--n.o.ble State, whose ancient renown has been eclipsed by her still more glorious recent history; whose bosom has been bared to receive the main shock of the war; whose sons and daughters have exhibited heroism so sublime as to render her ill.u.s.trious through all time to come--that Virginia with the help of the people, and by the blessings of Providence, shall be held and defended, and no peace ever made with the infamous invaders of her territory.

"If by the stress of numbers, we should be compelled to a temporary withdrawal from her limits or those of any other border State, we will return until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of making slaves of a free people."( 3)

In consequence of Hill's death, Lee divided his army into two wings, Ewell commanding one and Longstreet the other, his cavalry being under Fitzhugh Lee and his artillery under Pendleton.