April 27, 1865. |
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Johnston's Military Department, which comprised the sea-board States south of Virginia.
On the 4th of May, General Taylor surrendered, at Citronelle, the Confederate forces in Alabama, to General Canby, on terms substantially like those accorded to Lee and Johnston.
At the same time and place, Commander Farrand, as we have observed,1 surrendered, to Rear-Admiral Thatcher, the Confederate navy in the Tombigbee River.2
The capitulation was followed, the next day,
by special Field Orders, issued by General Sherman, in which the surrender of the Confederate army was announced; directions given for the cessation of hostilities and relief of the distressed inhabitants near the army, and orders for the return of a greater portion of the soldiers to their homes.
General Schofield, commanding the Department of North Carolina, was left there with the Tenth and Twenty-third Corps and Kilpatrick's cavalry.
Stoneman was ordered to take his command to East Tennessee, and Wilson was directed to march his from Macon to the neighborhood of Decatur, on the Tennessee River. Generals Howard and Slocum were directed to conduct the remainder of the army to Richmond, Virginia, in time to resume their march to Washington City by the middle of May.
We have observed that all of Johnston's army was surrendered excepting some cavalry under Wade Hampton.3 That leader refused to abide by the terms of the capitulation, and dashed off with a considerable body of troopers, toward Charlotte, to follow the fortunes of Jefferson Davis.
He had returned from the presence of Davis (who had resolved to gather all the fragments of armies possible, and find or force his way to Mexico), after the capitulation was signed, but he cared not for faith or honor, for he was, as one of his partisans declared, “the most uncompromising cavalier in all the South.”
Davis, as we have observed, with the “Government,” fled from Danville on hearing of the surrender of Lee. They journeyed to Greensboroa, where they found very few sympathizers, and were compelled to make their residence
1 See note 3, page 514.
2 In the brief account of the Confederate pirate ships, given in Chap. XVI., in which the cruise of the Shenandoah, the last of these vessels afloat, was mentioned [see page 488], a notice of the powerful ram Stonewall was omitted. She was a British built, armed and manned steamer. She depredated upon American commerce for awhile, and was finally blockaded in the port of Ferrol, on the coast of Spain, by the National vessels Niagara and Sacramento. She slipped out, and ran across the Atlantic to Havana, where she arrived after the end of the war. The Spanish authorities there took possession of her, and handed her over to Rear-Admiral Godon, who was then cruising among the West India Islands, with a powerful squadron, in search of her. Godon took her to Hampton Roads,
June 12, |
3 In a communication to General Kilpatrick, this leader signed his name “Ned Wade Hampton.” Major Nichols, in his Story of the Great March, speaking of this notorious rebel, at the first conference between Sherman and Johnston, says: “It should be said of Hampton's face — that is, what could be seen of it behind a beard which was unnaturally black for a man of fifty years of age — that it seemed bold, even beyond arrogance, and this expression was, if possible, intensified by the boastful fanfaronade which he continued during the whole period of the conference.”
Of General Johnston, Major Nichols says: “He was a man of medium height and striking appearance. He was dressed in a neat gray uniform, which harmonized gracefully with a full beard and mustache of silvery whiteness, partly concealing a genial and generous mouth, that must have become habituated to a kindly smile. His eyes, dark brown in color, varied in expression — now intense and sparkling, and then soft with tenderness, or twinkling with humor. The nose was Roman, the forehead full and prominent. The general fast of the features gave an expression of goodness and manliness, mingling a fine nature with the decision and energy of the capable soldier.”
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