I have and your note of this date, though not enter taining the opinion you express of the hopelessness of futter tame on

the part of the army

M. Me_ I mcipworate you disive to avoid useless, effesion of blood, I therefore before Consider the leams you with offer on ins your proportion ask Condition of its surrender પ

Dry refer you Obtint

Corind Armies of the M. Sales

LEE'S LETTER TO GRANT RESPECTING THE SURRENDER OF THE

CONFEDERATE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA

THE END OF THE WAR.

321

ing his victorious army at Goldsboro, went to City Point, on James River, Virginia, to consult with Grant.

355. The End of the War. Sheridan now made a raid south through the Shenandoah Valley, in which he destroyed the railroad and canal from Lynchburg, on the west of Richmond, nearly up to the Confederate capital. This had the effect of cutting off a large part of the provisions for Lee's army. Sheridan next (March 29, 1865) made a similar raid to the south of Richmond. Lee had now only forty thousand men to Grant's one hundred thousand. While the Confederate general was trying to guard against Sheridan, Grant threw his whole force on Petersburg and captured it (April 2, 1865). Lee retreated from Richmond, and the next day (April 3, 1865) Grant's forces entered the capital of the Southern Confederacy, and raised the old flag over the city. Jefferson Davis escaped to North Carolina. Lee's forces were now completely broken up; and many of his men were so weak from want of food that they could not shoulder a musket. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court-House, a little place about seventy-five miles west of Richmond. Nothing could be more nobly generous than the terms given by General Grant to the defeated Confederates. The only conditions he demanded were that the men should lay down their arms and return to their homes. Those who had horses were permitted to take them with them; for, as Grant remarked. they "would need them for the ploughing." Finally, the victorious general issued an order to serve out twenty-five thousand rations of food to Lee's half-starved men. The Union bread must have

1 Jefferson Davis was captured in Georgia, May 11, 1865. He was sent to Fortress Monroe as a prisoner. He remained there two years, and was then released. Johnston surrendered near Raleigh, North Carolina, to Sherman, April 26, 1865. By the end of May all the Confederate forces had surrendered and disbanded. None of the leaders or men engaged in the War of Secession were brought to trial for having taken up arms against the national government; but Henry Wirz, the Swiss commandant at Andersonville, Georgia, was tried by courtmartial at Washington, convicted of horrible cruelty in his treatment of Union prisoners, and was hanged November 10, 1865.

tasted sweet to them after their long fast. Five days afterward (April 14, 1865), General Anderson hoisted the identical flag over Fort Sumter, under whose starry folds he had fought against Beauregard. It was exactly four years to a day since the Confederates had won their first victory in the Civil War.

Thus ended the great contest, which had cost in all probably over half a million of lives and thousands of millions of dollars.1 The triumphant joy of those who had fought to save the Union was quenched in tears; for on the evening following the celebration at Fort Sumter (April 14, 1865), the President was shot by an assassin.2 Many of those who had fought against him in the South wept at his death. He was the friend of every American; none of us or of our children, North or South, will ever know a more unselfish or a truer man than Abraham Lincoln.

356. The North and the South in the War. So far as sacrifice of life was concerned, the North and the South suffered alike, and in both sections sisters, wives, and mothers were mourning for those who had fallen on the battle-field. But in every other respect the privations and sufferings of the war fell almost wholly on the South. At the North business went on as usual, or with increased activity. All the seaports were open, and trade and commerce flourished. In the quiet homes of many millions of people the progress of the war was only known by newspaper reports. The hardships, the horrors, of the struggle touched none of them directly.

Thanks to the financial ability and the unfailing energy of Treasurer Chase, the government never lacked means to carry on the contest. Whatever money could do for the equipment and

1 The total war debt of the North was nearly $3,000,000,000; this, however, represents but a part of the expense. The greatest number of men engaged in the Union armies at any one time was about 1,000,000; in the Confederate, about 700,000, though the Southern armies generally did not reach a total of above 350,000.

2 President Lincoln was shot at the theatre by John Wilkes Booth, who was the leader of a conspiracy for the assassination of the President, Vice-President, the cabinet, and General Grant. Booth was pursued and shot, four of the other conspirators were hanged, and four imprisoned.

FOURTH AND LAST YEAR OF THE WAR.

323

comfort of the Union forces was done without stint or murmur, even when the expenses exceeded $3,500,000 a day.

In addition to all this care for the men by the government, the Sanitary and the Christian Commissions were unwearied in their great work of love and mercy among the wounded and the sick. Once in hospital no one was ever asked on which side he had fought; but tender hands ministered to his needs, and soothed his sufferings, whether he wore the "blue" or the "gray."

With the people of the South all was different. Their ports were blockaded, their business ruined. The country had no money, no manufactures; the negroes had been set free. In their extremity Southern ladies cut up their carpets to make blankets and clothes for the soldiers, and churches gave their bells to be cast into cannon. Long before the final surrender there was sore want everywhere throughout the South, and everywhere the people were either suffering from the destruction necessarily caused by invading armies or from the dread of such invasion. The wonder is not that they had to yield at last, but that under such discouragements and such hardships they held out so long and so bravely.

357. Summary of the Fourth and Last Year of the War, April, 1864, to April, 1865.-This year was marked by Grant and Sherman's "hammering campaign," which ended in the destruction of the Confederate power in the West and in the East, and was followed by the surrender of Lee and his army. This, with the surrender of Johnston, which occurred soon after, ended the four years' war, and established the Union on a solid foundation of freedom for all men within its borders.