[
221]
becoming the political reconstructor of the Nation, and thus the most prominent character emerging from the war.
Before any pronounce this theory chimerical, let them read the narratives, extracts, and records which follow.
The material points of
General Sherman's account of his negotiations with
General Johnston are these:
On April 14, 1865, a note was received from
Johnston, dated the day before, asking whether, since ‘the results of the recent campaign in
Virginia have changed the relative military character of the belligerents,’
General Sherman was willing, in order ‘to stop the further effusion of blood and devastation of property,’ to ask from
General Grant a suspension of hostilities for the purpose of permitting ‘the civil authorities to enter into the needful arrangements to terminate the existing war.’
General Sherman wrote
Johnston the same day that he had authority to suspend hostilities, that he would meet
Johnston to confer upon the subject, and added: ‘that a basis of action may be had, I undertake to abide by the same terms and conditions as were made by
Generals Grant and
Lee at Appomattox Court House on the 9th inst., relative to our two armies.’
The same evening he wrote
General Grant as follows, though this letter is not given in the Memoirs:
‘I send copies of a correspondence begun with General Johnston, which I think will be followed by terms of capitulation.
I will grant the same terms as General Grant gave General Lee, and be careful not to complicate any points of civil policy.’
On the 17th the opposing commanders met alone in a farm-house near
Durham Station, when, after some conversation over the assassination of
Mr. Lincoln,
Sherman says:
I then told Johnston that he must be convinced that he could not oppose my army, and that since Lee had surrendered he could do the same with honor and propriety.
He plainly and repeatedly admitted this, and added that any further fighting would be “murder,” but he thought that instead of
