William Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid

[256] destruction as long as there remains a reasonable hope of successful resistance to the arms of the United States.

The question, therefore, whether the terms of the military convention should be accepted will depend upon whether the Confederate States are in a condition further to prosecute the war with a reasonable hope of success, and this question will be answered by a brief review of our military situation.

The Army of Northern Virginia, for four years the pride and boast of the Confederacy, under the lead of the General-in-Chief, whose name we have been accustomed to associate with victory, after having been defeated and reduced to a mere remnant by straggling and desertion, has capitulated to the enemy. All who were not embraced in the capitulation have thrown away their arms and disbanded beyond any hope of reorganization.

Our only other army east of the Mississippi, the Army of Tennessee, contains now about thirteen thousand effective men, of infantry and artillery, and is daily melting away by desertion. It is confronted by one of the best armies of the United States, fifty thousand strong. Manifestly it can not fight, and if it retreats, the chances are more than equal that, like the Army of Northern Virginia, it will dissolve, and the remnant be forced to capitulate. If it should retreat successfully, and offer itself as a nucleus for reorganization, it can not be recruited. Volunteering is long since at an end, and conscription has exhausted all its force. East of the Mississippi, scattered through all the States, we have now about forty thousand organized troops. To oppose these the enemy have more than two hundred thousand. Persevering efforts for many months past have failed to overcome the obstacle to the removal of troops from the west to the east of the Mississippi. We can, therefore, look for no accession of strength from that quarter. If a returning sense of duty and patriotism should bring back the stragglers and deserters in sufficient numbers to form a respectable army, we have not the means of arming them. Our supply of arms is very nearly exhausted, our means of manufacturing substantially at an end, and the blockade of our ports prevents their introduction from abroad, except in small quantities, and at remote points. In view of these facts our two generals highest in command in the field have expressed in decided terms our inability longer to continue the struggle. Observation has satisfied me that the States of Virginia and North Carolina are finally lost to our cause. The people of the latter are utterly weary of the war, broken and despairing in spirit, and eager to accept terms far less liberal than the convention proposes. In the absence of a general arrangement they will certainly make terms for themselves. Abandoned by our armies, the people of Virgina will follow their example, and it will be impossible to arrest the process of disintegration thus begun.

This melancholy array of facts leaves open but one conclusion. I am unhesitatingly of the opinion that the convention ought to be ratified.

As to the proper mode of ratification, greater doubt may be reasonably entertained. The Confederate Government is but the agent of the States, and as its chief executive you can not, according to our governmental theory, bind