John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[356] could do, they were forced to yield, though not till Lee's surrender made Johnston's inevitable. Even then they bore themselves with such confident assurance as enabled them to hoodwink Sherman and to secure their own terms of capitulation from that enterprising but credulous leader.¹

After standing on the defensive in front of Petersburg for ten solid months, Grant began his own forward movement, late in March, 1865, with an overwhelming superiority of force. Sheridan's victorious army had rejoined Meade south of the James. Schofield's corps from the West had been directed towards the heart of North Carolina. Fort Fisher had fallen. Thomas had annihilated Hood. Sherman was marching northward, leaving a wide swath of ruin and desolation behind him. Canby was now sure of Mobile, while Wilson with his cavalrymen was marching through the heart of the Confederacy, destroying its last arsenals, armories, factories, and depots, and breaking up its last line of transportation. The end was at hand! The final and greatest of all Grant's turning movements had been well started. The battles of Dinwiddie Court-House and Five Forks crowned it with success. Lee's right flank had been finally turned, his line of intrenchments had been broken, and Petersburg and Richmond had been abandoned. Davis and his cabinet were in flight, and the debacle had begun. Even Lincoln had gone to the front, with the hope of being in at the death.

At this juncture the impatient Stanton asked his assistant to “go down at once,” for the special purpose of reporting the condition of affairs and gathering up the Confederate archives. On the morning of April 3d it was known that Richmond had fallen, but details were lacking, and Dana set out for the James River as soon as a steamer