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in consultation, a messenger came with a parcel of papers, which General Johnston said were from Mr. Reagan, Postmaster-General.
He and Breckinridge looked over them, and, after some side conversation, lie handed one of the papers to me. It was in Reagan's handwriting, and began with a long preamble and terms, so general and verbose that I said they were inadmissible.
Then recalling the conversation of Mr. Lincoln at City Point, I sat down at the table and wrote off the terms, which, I thought, concisely expressed his views and wishes, and explained that I was willing to submit these terms to the new President, Mr. Johnson, provided that both armies should remain in statu quo until the truce therein declared should expire.
I had full faith that General Johnston would religiously respect the truce, which he did; and that I would be the gainer, for, in the few days it would take to send the papers to Washington and receive an answer, I could finish the railroad up to Raleigh, and be the better prepared for a long chase.
‘Neither Mr. Breckinridge nor General Johnston wrote one word of that paper.
I wrote it myself, and announced it as the best I could do, and they readily assented.’
General Johnston, in his Narrative, gives the following account of the consultation held at
President Davis' quarters at
Charlotte, after the news of
Lee's surrender was received:
In a telegram dated Greensboro, 4:30 P. M., the President directed me to leave the troops under Lieutenant-General Hardee's command, and report to him there.
Taking the first train, about midnight, I reached Greensboro about eight o'clock in the morning on the 12th, and was General Beauregard's guest.
His quarters were a burden car, near, and in sight of those of the President.
The General and myself were summoned to the President's office in an hour or two, and found Messrs. Benjamin, Mallory, and Reagan with him. We had supposed that we were to be questioned concerning the military resources of our department, in connection with the question of continuing or terminating the war.
But the President's object seemed to be to give, not to obtain information; for, addressing the party, he said that in two or three weeks he would have a large army in the field by bringing back into the ranks those who had abandoned them in less desperate circumstances, and by calling out the enrolled men whom the conscript bureau, with its forces, had been unable to bring into the army.
It was remarked, by the military officers, that men who had left the army when our cause was not desperate, and those who, under the same circumstances, could not be forced into it, would scarcely, in the present desperate condition of our affairs, enter the service upon mere invitation.
Neither opinions nor information was asked, and the conference terminated.
Before leaving the room, we learned that Major-General Breckinridge's arrival was expected in the course of the afternoon, and it was not
