TALK OF PEACE.
Second Federal Move against Fort Fisher and Wilmington
Harbor--Confederate Disaffection--Act of Congress appointing a Supreme
Commander of the Armies--Montgomery Blair's Peace
Conference--Longstreet has a Meeting with General Ord, Commander of
the Army of the James--Military Convention proposed--Correspondence
between General Grant and General Lee--Longstreet's Suggestions for
Measures in the Critical Juncture near the Close of the War.
The second expedition against Wilmington was sent in January, 1865,
General Terry commanding the land and Rear-Admiral Porter the naval
forces. After very desperate work the fort and outworks were carried, the
commander, General Whiting, being mortally and Colonel Lamb severely
wounded. All points of the harbor were captured by the enemy, the
Confederates losing, besides most of the armaments of the forts, about two
thousand five hundred officers and men in killed, wounded, and prisoners.
General Terry's loss was about five hundred. A remarkable success,--the
storming of a position fortified during months and years of labor and by
most approved engineering.[202]
As the first months of 1865 passed, the Confederate Congress realized the
extreme tension of affairs, and provided, among other expedients, for the
enrollment of negroes as Confederate soldiers. Other measures for giving
confidence and strength to the cause were adopted.
On the 21st of January the Confederate President was informed of
disaffection in the Virginia Legislature, and, what was more significant,
in the Confederate Congress, where a resolution expressive of want of
confidence in the Chief Executive was under informal consideration, and
would undoubtedly pass by a large vote if introduced. At this critical
juncture it seems that a compromise was effected. It was agreed that
Congress should enact a law providing a supreme commander of the
Confederate armies, this law to be approved by the President, who should
then call General Lee to the exercise of the functions of that office. The
intention was to invest him with dictatorial power.
During the early days of February, Hon. Montgomery Blair visited Richmond
upon a mission of peace, and brought about a meeting at Hampton Roads
between President Lincoln and Secretary Seward and the Confederate
Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, and the Hon. R. M. T. Hunter and
Judge J. A. Campbell. President Lincoln was firm for the surrender of the
Confederate armies and the abolition of slavery, which the Confederate
President did not care to consider.
About the 15th of February, Major-General J. C. Breckenridge was appointed
Secretary of War, and Brigadier-General F. M. St. John was appointed
commissary-general of subsistence.
General Ord, commanding the Army of the James, sent me a note on the 20th
of February to say that the bartering between our troops on the picket
lines was irregular; that he would be pleased to meet me and arrange to
put a stop to such intimate intercourse. As a soldier he knew his orders
would stop the business; it was evident, therefore, that there was other
matter he would introduce when the meeting could be had. I wrote in reply,
appointing a time and place between our lines.
We met the next day, and presently he asked for a side interview. When he
spoke of the purpose of the meeting, I mentioned a simple manner of
correcting the matter, which he accepted without objection or amendment.
Then he spoke of affairs military and political.
Referring to the recent conference of the Confederates with President
Lincoln at Hampton Roads, he said that the politicians of the North were
afraid to touch the question of peace, and there was no way to open the
subject except through officers of the armies. On his side they thought
the war had gone on long enough; that we should come together as former
comrades and friends and talk a little. He suggested that the work as
belligerents should be suspended; that General Grant and General Lee
should meet and have a talk; that my wife, who was an old acquaintance and
friend of Mrs. Grant in their girlhood days, should go into the Union
lines and visit Mrs. Grant with as many Confederate officers as might
choose to be with her. Then Mrs. Grant would return the call under escort
of Union officers and visit Richmond; that while General Lee and General
Grant were arranging for better feeling between the armies, they could be
aided by intercourse between the ladies and officers until terms honorable
to both sides could be found.
I told General Ord that I was not authorized to speak on the subject, but
could report upon it to General Lee and the Confederate authorities, and
would give notice in case a reply could be made.
General Lee was called over to Richmond, and we met at night at the
President's mansion. Secretary-of-War Breckenridge was there. The report
was made, several hours were passed in discussing the matter, and finally
it was agreed that favorable report should be made as soon as another
meeting could be arranged with General Ord. Secretary Breckenridge
expressed especial approval of the part assigned for the ladies.
As we separated, I suggested to General Lee that he should name some
irrelevant matter as the occasion of his call for the interview with
General Grant, and that once they were together they could talk as they
pleased. A telegram was sent my wife that night at Lynchburg calling her
to Richmond, and the next day a note was sent General Ord asking him to
appoint a time for another meeting.
The meeting was appointed for the day following, and the result of the
conference was reported. General Ord asked to have General Lee write
General Grant for an interview, stating that General Grant was prepared to
receive the letter, and thought that a way could be found for a military
convention, while old friends of the military service could get together
and seek out ways to stop the flow of blood. He indicated a desire on the
part of President Lincoln to devise some means or excuse for paying for
the liberated slaves, which might be arranged as a condition and part of
the terms of the convention, and relieve the matter of political bearing;
but those details were in the form of remote probabilities to be discussed
when the parties became advanced in their search for ways of settlement.
On the 1st of March I wrote General Lee giving a report of the second
interview, and on the 2d he wrote General Grant as follows:
"HEAD-QUARTERS CONFEDERATE STATES ARMIES,
"March 2, 1865.
"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. GRANT,
"_Commanding United States Armies_:
"GENERAL,--Lieutenant-General Longstreet has informed me that, in a
recent conversation between himself and Major-General Ord as to the
possibility of arriving at a satisfactory adjustment of the present
unhappy difficulties by means of a military convention, General Ord
states that if I desired to have an interview with you on the subject
you would not decline, provided I had authority to act. Sincerely
desiring to leave nothing untried which may put an end to the
calamities of war, I propose to meet you at such convenient time and
place as you may designate, with the hope that upon an interchange of
views it may be found practicable to submit the subjects of
controversy between the belligerents to a convention of the kind
mentioned. In such event I am authorized to do whatever the result of
the proposed interview may render necessary or advisable. Should you
accede to this proposition, I would suggest that, if agreeable to you,
we meet at the place selected by Generals Ord and Longstreet for their
interview, at eleven A.M. on Monday next.
"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"R. E. LEE,
"_General_."
The letter was sent to me open, with instructions to read, seal, and
forward. I rode into Richmond to ask that some other business should be
named as the cause of the call for the interview, but he was not disposed
to approach his purpose by diplomacy, and ordered the letter to be
delivered.
He sent another letter, however:
"HEAD-QUARTERS CONFEDERATE STATES ARMIES,
"March 2, 1865.
"LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. GRANT,
"_Commanding United States Armies_:
"GENERAL,--Lieutenant-General Longstreet has informed me that in an
interview with Major-General Ord, that officer expressed some
apprehension lest the general terms used by you with reference to the
exchange of political prisoners should be construed to include those
charged with capital offences.
"General Ord further stated that you did not intend to embrace that
class of cases in the agreement to exchange. I regret to learn that
such is your interpretation, as I had hoped that by exchanging those
held under charges by each party it would be possible to diminish, to
some extent, the sufferings of both without detriment to their
interests. Should you see proper to assent to the interview proposed
in my letter of this date, I hope it may be found practicable to
arrive at a more satisfactory understanding on this subject.
"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"R. E. LEE,
"_General_."
To which General Grant replied,--
"CITY POINT, VIRGINIA,
"March 4, 1865.
"GENERAL R. E. LEE,
"_Commanding Confederate States Armies_:
"Your two letters of the 2d instant were received yesterday. In regard
to any apprehended misunderstanding in reference to the exchange of
political prisoners, I think there need be none. General Ord and
General Longstreet have probably misunderstood what I said to the
former on the subject, or I may have failed to make myself understood
possibly. A few days before the interview between Generals Longstreet
and Ord I had received a despatch from General Hoffman,
Commissary-General of Prisoners, stating in substance that all
prisoners of war who were or had been in close confinement or irons,
whether under charges or sentence, had been ordered to City Point for
exchange. I forwarded the substance of that despatch to
Lieutenant-Colonel Mulford, Assistant Agent of Exchange, and presumed
it probable that he had communicated it to Colonel Robert Ould. A day
or two after, an officer who was neither a prisoner of war nor a
political prisoner, was executed, after a fair and impartial trial,
and in accordance with the laws of war and the usage of civilized
nations. It was in explanation of this class of cases I told General
Ord to speak to General Longstreet. Reference to my letter of February
16 will show my understanding on the subject of releasing political or
citizen prisoners.
"In regard to meeting you on the 6th instant, I would state that I
have no authority to accede to your proposition for a conference on
the subject proposed. Such authority is vested in the President of the
United States alone. General Ord could only have meant that I would
not refuse an interview on any subject on which I have a right to act,
which, of course, would be such as are purely of a military character,
and on the subject of exchanges which has been intrusted to me.
(Signed) "U. S. GRANT,
"_Lieutenant-General_."
Under the impression that General Lee would construe the act of Congress
in its broad sense and proceed to handle the Confederate armies and
affairs under his own good judgment, I wrote, begging that he would call
General Joseph E. Johnston back to service and command, and presently
suggested and then wrote that I was credibly informed that there was
plenty of produce in the country which the farmers would cheerfully
deliver at Richmond or Petersburg if liberal prices _in gold_ could be
paid them; that the authority given to impress bread and meat stuffs
should be applied as including gold; that right or wrong the emergency
called for it, and that I would undertake to secure the gold upon his
authority. I suggested that as Grant's combinations were looking to
concentration against the Army of Northern Virginia and Richmond, we
should use the railways for collecting and drawing detachments from
southern points, calling cavalry by the dirt roads, while the farmers were
bringing their produce by private conveyance. Furthermore, I cited the
fact that there were eight or ten thousand non-combatants in Richmond who
could be put in my trenches as conscripts, and officered by the officers
of the department on duty there, and twelve hundred in Lynchburg that
could be made similarly available; and argued that using them in the
trenches would enable him to draw the First Corps out for a movable force
to meet flanking efforts of his adversary, and keep open his lines of
communication. In that way, I continued, he could collect a hundred
thousand men at Richmond, with a good supply of rations, while General
Grant was drawing his two hundred thousand together to attack us; that
when concentrated Grant would find himself obliged to give speedy battle,
as he could not long supply his large force; that our interior lines would
enable us to repel and break up the attack and relieve Richmond.
The times were heavy of events, Executive authority intended to be
suspended, and it seemed possible that the use of a little gold would so
manifest its power as to induce our people to let cotton and tobacco go
for foreign exchange which might put us on a gold basis for a
twelvemonth. This was the expedient that offered light and hope for the
future, and the times called either for heroic methods or the giving over
of the forms of war.
General Lee agreed that the provisions were in the country and would be
delivered for gold, but did not think the gold could be found. He made his
orders assuming command of the armies, but instead of exercising authority
on a scale commensurate with the views of Congress and the call of the
crisis, applied to the Richmond authorities for instructions under the new
assignment, and wrote that he would call General Johnston to command if he
could be ordered to report to him for duty.
General Johnston was so ordered, and was assigned to command of such
fragments of troops as he could collect in the Carolinas. General Wade
Hampton was relieved of duty as chief of cavalry in the Army of Northern
Virginia and ordered to join General Johnston. After collecting such
detachments as he could gather, General Johnston threw them from time to
time along the flank of Sherman's march from Georgia for Virginia, and had
some spirited affairs with that army, which was gathering strength along
the seaboard as it marched.