This memoranda was satisfactory to all present at the conference, as a
proposition to be forwarded by special messenger to the President, who
called a special meeting of the Cabinet to take it into consideration.
The cabinet at once rejected it. This disapproval was communicated to
General Sherman by General Grant, who was ordered by the President to
proceed immediately to the headquarters of General Sherman, and direct
operations against the enemy. The dispatch was received by General
Sherman on the morning of the 24th, and he immediately gave notice to
General Johnston as follows: "You will take notice that the truce, or
suspension of hostilities, agreed to between us on the 18th instant,
will close in forty-eight hours after this is received at your lines."
He also wrote Gen. Johnston at the same time: "I have replies from
Washington to my communication of the 18th. I am instructed to limit my
operations to your immediate command, and not attempt civil
negotiations, I, therefore, demand the surrender of your army, on the
same terms as were given to General Lee, at Appomattox Court House, Va.,
the 9th of April, instant, purely and simply." Within an hour after the
reception of General Grant's dispatch, a courier was riding rapidly with
this notice and demand upon General Johnston. Gen. Sherman also issued
orders to the army to be in readiness to march at 12 m. of the 26th, on
the routs previously described.
These arrangements were already made when General Grant arrived at
Raleigh. He informed General Sherman that he had orders from the
President to direct all military movements, but that he was so well
pleased with the situation, that he concluded not to interfere, and
would leave the execution of the arrangements already made, to General
Sherman. And now, comrade, whoever you may be, who read these pages,
what do you think? This book is not written for any political purpose,
not in the least. We are writing about the times that are past and gone;
about the days when we marched side by side together through the land of
the cotton and the cane. When our glory and our pride was "Uncle Billy,"
whom we would have followed to the end, wherever that may have been, and
you know it. He had been our guiding star in God's hands. Under him we
had gone through campaigns only equalled, but never excelled, in the
annals of war, and now, on the eve of the consummation of our labors,
the "laurel wreath" was to be snatched from his brow, and instead of
being permitted to execute the will of the government as determined upon
by the administration, he was to see another placed in the position
which by right was his. It seemed hardly fair then, and even at this
late day, we cannot think it was. We are no politician, we are not
learned in the mysteries, the devilments, and the general cussedness of
state intrigue, but we say that W. T. Sherman was the grandest man that
ever led an army of the United States, or any other country, and he
showed his grandeur and his nobility by brushing to one side, as he
would the passing wing of a mosquito, the hint of incapacity that was
sought to be fastened on him by those grand and mighty warriors, who, in
their cushion bottomed chairs at Washington, dared for one instant to
insinuate, that it was they who had guided us through the brake, and
through the swamps, from the hillsides of Kentucky, to the walls of
Richmond, by their orders to our general and our leader. But _we_ knew
only Sherman. God bless him, wherever he may be. He is a hero and a
nobleman, not by a long line of ancestral descent, perhaps, but by that
God given inspiration that makes him so. We believe that our comrades of
former days, feel with us an intense loyalty to William Tecumseh
Sherman, a true patriot whom the tinsel, and the glare, of worldly
intrigues, could not swerve from the path of duty. Excuse us, dear
reader, for this little variation, this view that we may have given you
to the secret chamber of our heart, we can not help it, we love the man
of whom we have been writing, and the honor of having been a soldier
under his command, will be one which our children's children, as they
come after us, can reflect upon with pride and glory. But we have
forgotten, it seems to us, who we are, we have been talking to you about
an individual, the most glorious—stop—we will wait until to morrow to go
on with our work, we must not forget the humble position we occupy, that
of giving to you a record of our lives as an army organization.