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526]
Chapter 20: Peace conference at Hampton Roads.--the campaign against Richmond.
- Self
-- constituted Peace
-- seekers in Richmond, 526.
-- Peace conference in Hampton Roads, 527.
-- War
-- meeting in Richmond
-- Confederates expecting foreign aid, 528.
-- the employment of slaves in the military service, considered by the Conspirators, 529.
-- position of the belligerent forces, 530.
-- a Confederate naval raid on the James River, 531.
-- the Nationals begin a flanking movement from the Weldon road, 532.
-- operations on the Confederate right, 533.
-- stirring movements in the Shenandoah Valley, 534.
-- Richmond threatened by Sheridan
-- great alarm there, 535.
-- the condition of the Confederacy considered perilous, 536.
-- Lee tries to escape
-- capture of Fort Steadman, 537.
-- Grant's preparations for a Grand advance, 538.
-- the Confederate right again menaced, 539.
-- National troops at Dinwiddie Court
-- House, 540.
-- Lee Strikes another blow for his safety, 541.
-- battle of the five Forks, 542.
-- assault on the Petersburg lines, 543.
-- Lee orders the evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg, 544.
-- flight of the Conspirators and their followers from Richmond.
545.
-- Richmond set on fire by the Conspirators, 546.
-- Weitzel on the alert
-- signaling, 547, 548.
-- surrender of Richmond to the National troops, 549.
-- the Repossesion of the Confederate capital, 550.
-- rejoicings at Washington, and among the loyal people, 551.
At the opening of the spring of 1865, the
Rebellion was so shorn of its inherent strength and props that it was ready to fall.
The last effort to win peace by other means than by conquering it, had been tried in vain.
That effort was a notable one, as the outline here given will show.
We have seen how futile were the missions of
Mr. Greeley to
Niagara, and of
Messrs. Jaques and
Gillmore to
Richmond, the previous summer, in the interest of peace.
1 A few months later,
Francis P. Blair, senior, a venerable politician of
Maryland, who had given his support to the administration, and who was personally acquainted with the principal actors in the rebellion, then in
Richmond, conceived the idea that he might bring about reconciliation and peace by means of his private influence.
So he asked the
President for a pass through
Grant's lines, and on the 26th of December,
Mr. Lincoln handed him a card on which was written--“Allow the bearer,
F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines to go south, and return,” and signed his name to it. “I was
informed,” said
Mr. Lincoln, in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives,
“that
Mr. Blair sought the card as a means of getting to
Richmond, Virginia, but he was given no authority to speak or act for the
Government, nor was I informed of any thing he would say or do, on his own account, or otherwise.”
With this the self-constituted peace commissioner went to
Richmond, where,--for several days, he was the guest of
Robert Ould, the
Confederate Commissioner for the exchange of prisoners, and had several interviews with
Davis.
Finally, at the middle of January, he made his way back to
Washington, with a letter written to himself by
Jefferson Davis, in which the
