April, 1865. |
April 18. |
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he declared that he was fully empowered to arrange with Johnston any terms for the suspension of further hostilities, as between the armies they respectively commanded, and that he was willing to hold a conference.
He said he would limit the advance of his main column, the next day, to Morrisville, a little west of Raleigh, and the, cavalry to the University at Chapel Hill, with the expectation that Johnston would also maintain the position of his forces then held, until each had notice of a failure to agree.
He further said that, as a basis of action, he would undertake to abide by the terms and conditions made by Grant and Lee at Appomattox Court-House, and would obtain from the General-in-chief an order to suspend the movements of any troops, from the direction of Virginia; also that he would direct General Stoneman to “suspend any devastation or destruction contemplated by him.”
Sherman halted his army, but did not receive any communication from Johnston until the 16th,
when a message reached Kilpatrick, from Hampton, saying it was the desire of his chief to meet the Union commander at ten o'clock the next day, at Durham's Station, about half way between Raleigh and Hillsboroa.
They met there at twelve o'clock, when Johnston gave Sherman to understand that he regarded the Confederate “cause” as lost, and that further war on the part of the Confederate-troops was folly.
He admitted that Grant's terms conceded to Lee were magnanimous, and all that he could ask, but he wanted some general concessions, he said, concerning the safety of his followers, from harm from the outraged Government; and he insisted upon conditions of general pacification, involving political guarantees, which Sherman had no authority to agree to. They separated without agreeing, but at a second conference the next day,
Sherman consented to a Memorandum of agreement, as a basis for the consideration of the Government.
If it had been carried out, it would, in effect, have instantly restored to all persons who had been engaged in the rebellion, every right and privilege, political and social, which they had enjoyed before they rebelled, without any liability to punishment.
It proposed, practically, an utter forgetfulness of the events of the war, and made it a hideous farce, with the features of a
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