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the first draft of Sherman's terms was written by the rebel Postmaster-General at a consultation had between this member of Davis' Cabinet, his Secretary of War, Generals Johnston, and Wade Hampton, it would have made General Sherman's position most uncomfortable before the people.
But in view of the services he had rendered, this, and other unpleasant facts did not find their way to the public then.
Now that he has so recklessly invited criticism, and published an inaccurate version of these very negotiations, he can not complain if the beliefs which were entertained among prominent officers at Raleigh, find expression, and documents captured soon after the surrender are made public.
The theory of General Sherman's negotiation with General Johnston, as held by many prominent officers, whose opportunities for obtaining knowledge were excellent, was about this:
General Sherman was elated almost beyond measure at his March to the Sea, and northward through the Carolinas.
He had rested and refurnished his army at Goldsboro, and had just issued an order for it to march for the purpose of joining the Army of the Potomac, when down came the news, first, of the evacuation of Richmond, and, following close, of the surrender of Lee. General Grant had captured the great army of the Confederacy; all the rest must follow, as a matter of course; Sherman was not in at the death; the war was to close with General Grant its greatest military hero.
Then came the proposal for a conference from Johnston.
While first writing to Johnston that he would extend the same terms given by Grant to Lee, and immediately writing General Grant that he would ‘be careful not to complicate any points of civil policy;’ yet, doubtless influenced by his own reflections upon the secondary position in which events were leaving him, and by the cunning manipulations of the rebel Cabinet, he conceived the idea, not only of receiving the surrender of the remaining military forces of the rebellion, and declaring ‘peace from the Potomac to the Rio Grande,’ but of
Cincinnati: Wilstach, Baldwin & Co. 1875.
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