CHAPTER X.

CLOSING SCENES OF THE REBELLION-SURRENDER OF JOHNSTON'S ARMY-ALL THE REBELS LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS-THE LAST TRICK OF THE

"CONFEDERACY "-GENERAL

SHERMAN.

N the 14th of April, 1865, General Sherman,

ON

by flag of truce, received a communication from Joseph E. Johnston, asking a temporary armistice for arranging terms for the surrender of the rebel army under him. Sherman answered at once that he was empowered to arrange terms, and notified him that the same conditions accorded Lee would be given to him. Sherman then wrote to General Grant, telling him what he had done; also that he had invited Governor Vance to return to Raleigh, and that the leading politicians whom he met were not backward in stating that the war was over, and nothing was left to the Southern people but to return to their allegiance to the Government. Not until late on the 16th did General Johnston make a reply; but the delay, not as had been erroneously suspected, was from no fault on his part. At noon on the next day the two generals met, and then Sherman discovered, for the first time, that he had overlooked the real point in Johnston's proposition for the suspension of hostilities, that the "civil

authorities of the two countries" might have an opportunity to negotiate for peace. It was natural enough that General Sherman should have overlooked such a piece of childish folly at that moment, or such an unreasonable trick on the part of a soldier, after all that had happened about the recognition of the "Southern Confederacy." Could any sane man have reasoned himself into the conclusion that, when the very life had been crushed out of the Rebellion, and its military power destroyed, the United States Government would go to negotiating for peace with the "Confederacy," as such, a thing it never had recognized in the darkest hour of the national cause? Nobody knew better than General Johnston the utter preposterousness of the purpose he had put forward. The air of insincerity attached to this matter must detract from the character of the man whom John William Draper, certainly one of the fairest and ablest writers on the war, boldly pronounces the first soldier of the Rebellion.

When General Johnston informed Sherman, at their meeting on the 17th, that this thing was in his mind, and even in the words he wrote asking the armistice, Sherman frankly told him that the Government did not recognize such a power or country as the "Southern Confederacy," and that he could not receive or transmit to Washington anything claiming to come from such "Confederacy." That day was spent in discussing the terms of surrender, without reaching a conclusion.

Soon after they met Sherman showed Johnston

the dispatch he had received announcing the assassination of President Lincoln. While Johnston read it, the sweat dropped from his face, and he declared the event to be the greatest possible calamity to the South. On the following day the conference was resumed. In the meantime, however, Johnston had brought John C. Breckinridge and Mr. Reagan to his camp. These were two of Mr. Davis's "constitutional advisers," as he called them. Reagan wrote out a paper containing the terms of surrender which Johnston believed he would be able to agree upon, in the main, with General Sherman, and the next day Mr. Breckinridge was improperly admitted to the conference, and undertook to make an argument to Sherman in support of the paper which had been drawn up by Mr. Reagan.

During this day General Sherman told Breckinridge that there was a strong feeling in the North against Southern politicians of his class, and the sooner they got out of the country the better. And Breckinridge told him they were preparing to act on that understanding of the case. General Sherman, no doubt, earnestly felt that it would be the easiest way of disposing of these bad fellows, and the best thing for the Government, if they could be so fortunate as to escape out of the country.

In an interview with Jefferson Davis and most of his "constitutional advisers," General Johnston had firmly expressed it as his opinion that it would be the greatest of human crimes for them to attempt to continue the war; "for, having neither money

nor credit, nor arms but those in the hands of our soldiers, nor ammunition but that in their cartridgeboxes, nor shops for repairing arms or fixing ammunition, the effect of our keeping the field would be, not to harm the enemy, but to complete the devastation of our country and ruin of its people. I, therefore, urged that the President should exercise at once the only function of government still in his possession, and open negotiations for peace."

So says General Johnston in his "Narrative." In this opinion most of Mr. Davis's "constitutional advisers" concurred. And Davis even dictated the letter which Johnston cunningly sent to Sherman on the 14th, asking an armistice. In the face of this his own opinion and conduct, and other well-known facts, it was that General Johnston undertook to talk to Sherman about the "civil authorities of the two countries."

On the 18th, the following paper, written by General Sherman, but having the main features of the Reagan paper, was signed and started to Washington :

"MEMORANDUM, OR BASIS OF AGREEMENT, "MADE THIS 18TH DAY OF APRIL, A. D. 1865, NEAR DURHAM'S STATION, IN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, BY AND BETWEEN GENERAL JOSEPH E JOHNSTON, COMMANDING CONFEDERATE ARMY, AND MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, COMMANDING ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, BOTH BEING PRESENT:

"1. The contending armies now in the field to maintain the status quo, until notice is given by the commanding general of any one to its opponent, and reasonable time, say forty-eight hours, allowed.

"2. The Confederate armies now in existence to be disbanded and conducted to their several State capitals,

therein to deposit their arms and public property in the State arsenal, and each officer and man to execute and file an agreement to cease from acts of war, and to abide the action of both State and Federal authorities. The number of arms and munitions of war to be reported to the Chief of Ordnance at Washington City, subject to the future action of the Congress of the United States, and in the meantime to be used solely to maintain peace and order within the borders of the States respectively.

"3. The recognition by the Executive of the United States of the several State governments, on their officers and Legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States; and where conflicting State governments have resulted from the war, the legitimacy of all shall be submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States.

"4. The re-establishment of the Federal Courts in the several States, with powers as defined by the Constitution and laws of Congress.

"5. The people and inhabitants of all these States to be guaranteed, so far as the Executive can, their political rights and franchise, as well as their rights of person and property, as defined by the Constitution of the United States, and of the States respectively.

"6. The Executive authority of the Goverment of the United States not to disturb any of the people by reason of the late war, so long as they live in peace and quiet, and abstain from acts of armed hostility, and obey the laws in existence at the place of their residence.

"7. In general terms, the war to cease, a general amnesty, so far as the Executive of the United States can command, on the condition of the disbandment of the Confederate armies, distribution of arms, and the resumption of peaceable pursuits by the officers and men hitherto composing such armies. Not being fully empowered by our respective principals to fulfill these terms, we indi