On Monday the 10th of April all preparations were completed for our
further advance. On the 11th we moved out of camp and marched about
seven miles, and on the next day the 12th, the march began in earnest.
Foraging was continued as heretofore, but orders were given to use more
prudence, and not go in advance of the advance guard, but to look more
to the right rear for our supplies of corn meal, bacon, etc. Our wing,
the left, was to aim straight for the railroad bridge near Smithfield,
thence up the Neuse river to the railroad bridge over that stream, north
east of Raleigh, then to Warrenton where the army would concentrate.
Johnston had his army well in hand about Smithfield. It was estimated at
infantry and artillery, 35,000; cavalry from 6,000 to 10,000. We pressed
the enemy closely, and by 10 a. m. of the 13th, our corps entered
Smithfield closely followed by the 20th. Johnston had loaded his trains
on the cars and retreated, burning the bridge over the Neuse river at
Smithfield. The pontoons were brought up and the crossing of the army
commenced without resistance.
Here it was that the glorious news reached us that Lee had surrendered
his army to General Grant at Appomattox. We had arisen at the usual
hour, and the bugle sounded the assembly, when off to our left
cannonading and shouting were heard; we could not account for it, what
did it mean? A staff officer of our brigade, with an orderly, was
dispatched to find out what was the meaning of the cannonading. He
returned with the startling and welcome news that Lee had surrendered.
We could hardly believe it, and finally concluded it was a camp rumor,
but our doubts were soon dispelled by Capt. Wiseman, the division
adjutant general, hastily riding up and requesting Col. Langley, in
command of the brigade, to draw up the command in close column by
regiments. The request was quickly complied with and he then proceeded
to read to us the official announcement of the surrender. What a sight
was then witnessed. For a time all discipline was cast aside and we made
the pine woods ring "with the glad tidings of great joy." The artillery
boys had seized the guns of the battery and were sending forth from the
grizzly mouths of the cannon, round after round. The officers were
seized and carried around on the shoulders of the men, strong men wept
and embraced each other, and the air was filled with knapsacks and hats
flung up in the exuberance of our joy. We felt as if the war was over,
as for Johnston's army we had no fear of them, for we knew that we would
run him like a rat to his hole, before many days would pass. Were we
going to get home at last? Was the cruel war over? These were the
questions asked on all sides. We moved out of camp that morning in the
highest possible spirits. General Sherman issued orders to drop all
trains, and we marched in pursuit of Johnston to and through Raleigh,
the capitol of the state, reaching that place on the morning of the
13th. During the next two days the cavalry and the different corps were
pushed forward, menacing the enemy in front, flank and rear, with
Johnston's army retreating rapidly on the roads from Hillsboro to
Greensboro, Johnston himself being at Greensboro. Thus matters stood
when Gen. Sherman received a communication from Gen. Johnston,
requesting an armistice, and a statement of the best terms on which he
would be permitted to surrender the army under his command. To this Gen.
Sherman promptly returned answer:
"I am fully empowered to arrange with you any terms for the
suspension of the hostilities, as between the armies commanded by
you and those commanded by myself, and am willing to confer with you
to that end. That a base of action may be had, I undertake to abide
by the same terms and conditions entered into by Gens. Grant and
Lee, at Appomattox court-house, Virginia, on the 9th instant."
These pages were intended to be a history or record of a single regiment
in Sherman's army, but as it is intended, also, to be a record of all
the events happening to that portion of the army of which our regiment
was a part, we have inserted some things among our pages which perhaps
may not seem at a first glance, to the reader, to be pertinent to the
subject, but which will, we trust, on second thought be considered
admissible. We have followed the fortunes of our arms from Kentucky
through Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, and
before we arrive at home will have to go into Virginia and the District
of Columbia, so from this on we shall record events as they happened,
without consideration altogether as to the particular movements of our
own regiment, for we think that the affairs which happened in such close
succession at the close of the rebellion are all matters of interest,
and should always be kept alive in the memories of our people, showing
how a great rebellion that had been secretly coming to a head for thirty
years was crushed, the perpetrators of it allowed to live, through the
magnanimity of our government, and slavery in America forever blotted
out; removing from our national banner the odium which had rested on it
by this foul blot, but which now floats over all our land as the emblem
of the free, and respected in every port and harbor of the known world.
With this apology, although we do not think it will be deemed necessary
by our readers, we will proceed with our writing. The dispatch, to which
we have referred, from some cause or other was delayed, and Johnston's
answer was not received until late in the day of the 16th. In Johnston's
reply he requested an interview with General Sherman near Durham
Station, with a view to arranging terms of capitulation. General Sherman
fixed the time for the interview at 12 m. on the 17th. The meeting was
held according to appointment, and Johnston acknowledged the terms to be
fair and liberal, but asked the consideration of additional facts. He
stated that the treaty between Gens. Grant and Lee had reference to a
part only of the confederate forces, whereas he proposed the present
agreement should include all the remaining armies of the rebels, and
thus the war should be at an end. He frankly admitted that the cause was
lost, that there was no longer any hopes for the success of the
confederacy, and that slavery, state rights and every other cause for
which the war had been inaugurated was lost, never to be recovered. He
desired that the fragments of the confederate armies might preserve
their company and regimental organizations, and be marched to the states
where they belonged, in such order, to prevent their being broken up
into predatory bands to overrun the country and vex the inhabitants;
that this was a favorable occasion to inaugurate the beginning of a
period of peace and good will between the people destined to live under
the same government. The proposal was a most flattering one, calculated
to dazzle the mind and awaken the pride of almost any man, laying claim
to the possession of the most ordinary ambition. To be the happy
instrument of bringing again to his country, so long devastated with
violence, rapine and death, the glorious boon of peace, by a single
stroke of diplomacy, was of itself sufficient to place the author in the
front rank with the greatest men of his time, and hand down to posterity
his name as the savior of his country. Such a brilliant vision may have
flitted before the mind of Sherman. But did these men have the necessary
authority? Could they bind their government, their superiors, to such
terms as they might arrange between themselves? Gen. Sherman thought
not, but Johnston assured him that having the rebel secretary of war,
Breckenridge, with him, and it having been Mr. Lincoln's repeated
declaration, that he was willing to negotiate a peace with any person
who could control the rebel armies, he saw no reason why so desirable an
end should not be consummated, and asked that the conference might be
adjourned over until the next day, to enable him to confer with
Breckenridge. This was agreed on, and the conference was adjourned until
the next day at 12 m. at the same place.