Chapter 17:
- The terms with Johnston -- the first draft made by a Confederate Cabinet officer.
General Sherman sneers at political generals, and then devotes thirty pages of his Memoirs to an inaccurate history of his own political surrender to General Jos. E. Johnston near Raleigh. The country will never forget its joy over the news from Appomattox, or the chill which shortly after fell upon it when the true character of Sherman's terms became known. If the country at large ever does forget the circumstances attending the latter event, those who were at Raleigh at the time never will. The real character of these terms was carefully concealed there, even from very prominent officers, and was known first at the North. It was given out at Sherman's Headquarters that the terms granted Johnston were virtually the same as those extended by Grant to Lee, and special stress was laid upon the statement that in no sense had General Sherman recognized the political existence of the Confederacy. When General Grant arrived and announced the prompt rejection of these terms, their real nature first became known. There was much indignation in consequence at Sherman's course, and many comparisons of views among officers of rank as to his motives. The speedy and successful correction of his great error, and the immediate close of the war, over which the Nation was so busy with its rejoicing, alone saved him from damaging criticism. If it had been made known then that
