"ON TO RICHMOND" AT LAST!
The fall of the Confederacy--In Richmond just after the
evacuation--A search for Confederate archives--Lincoln's
propositions to the Virginians--A meeting with the Confederate
Assistant Secretary of War--Andrew Johnson turns up at Richmond--His
views as to the necessity of punishing rebels--The first Sunday
services at the Confederate capital under the old flag--News of
Lee's surrender reaches Richmond--Back to Washington with Grant.
It was evident to all of us, as the spring of 1865 came on, that the war
was drawing to a close. Sherman was coming northward from his triumphant
march to the sea, and would soon be in communication with Grant, who,
ever since I left him in July, 1864, had been watching Petersburg and
Richmond, where Lee's army was shut up. At the end of March Grant
advanced. On April 1st Sheridan won the battle of Five Forks; then on
April 2d came the successful assaults which drove Lee from Petersburg.
On the morning of April 3d, before I had left my house, Mr. Stanton sent
for me to come immediately to the War Department. When I reached his
office, he told me that Richmond had surrendered, and that he wanted me
to go down at once to report the condition of affairs. I started as soon
as I could get a steamboat, Roscoe Conkling and my son Paul accompanying
me. We arrived at City Point early on April 5th. Little was known there
of the condition of things in Richmond. There were but a few officers
left at the place, and those were overwhelmed with work. I had expected
to find the President at City Point, he having been in the vicinity for
several days, but Mr. Lincoln had gone up to Richmond the day before.
I started up the river immediately, and reached the town early in the
afternoon. I went at once to find Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, who was
in command of the United States forces. He was at his headquarters,
which were in Jefferson Davis's former residence. I had heard down the
river that Davis had sold his furniture at auction some days before the
evacuation, but I found when I reached the house that this was a
mistake--the furniture was all there.
Weitzel told me that he had learned at three o'clock in the morning of
Monday, April 3d, that Richmond was being evacuated. He had moved
forward at daylight, first taking care to give his men breakfast, in the
expectation that they might have to fight. He met no opposition, and on
entering the city was greeted with a hearty welcome from the mass of
people. The mayor went out to meet him to surrender the city, but missed
him on the road.
I took a walk around Richmond that day to see how much the city was
injured. The Confederates in retreating had set it on fire, and the
damage done in that way was enormous; nearly everything between Main
Street and the river, for about three quarters of a mile, was burned.
The custom house and the Spotswood Hotel were the only important
buildings remaining in the burned district. The block opposite the
Spotswood, including the Confederate War Department building, was
entirely consumed. The Petersburg Railroad bridge, and that of the
Danville road, were destroyed. All the enemy's vessels, excepting an
unfinished ram which had her machinery in perfect order, were burned.
The Tredegar Iron Works were unharmed. Libby Prison and Castle Thunder
had also escaped the fire.
Immediately upon arriving I began to make inquiries about official
papers. I found that the records and documents of the departments and of
Congress had generally been removed before the evacuation, and that
during the fire the Capitol had been ransacked and the documents there
scattered. In the rooms of the Secretary of the Senate and of the
Military Committee of the House of Representatives in the State House we
found some papers of importance. They were in various cases in drawers,
and all in great confusion. They were more or less imperfect and
fragmentary. In the State Engineer's office also there were some boxes
of papers relating to the Confederate works on the Potomac, around
Norfolk, and on the Peninsula. I had all of these packed for shipment,
without attempting to put them in order, and forwarded at once to
Washington.
General Weitzel told me that he had found about twenty thousand people
in Richmond, half of them of African descent. He said that when
President Lincoln entered the town on the 4th he received a most
enthusiastic reception from the mass of the inhabitants. All the members
of Congress had escaped, and only the Assistant Secretary of War, Judge
John Archibald Campbell, remained in the fallen capital of the
Confederacy. Most of the newspaper editors had fled, but the Whig
appeared on the 4th as a Union paper, with the name of its former
proprietor at its head. The night after I arrived the theater opened.
There was much suffering and poverty among the population, the rich as
well as the poor being destitute of food. Weitzel had decided to issue
supplies to all who would take the oath. In my first message to Mr.
Stanton I spoke of this. He immediately answered: "Please ascertain from
General Weitzel under what authority he is distributing rations to the
people of Richmond, as I suppose he would not do it without authority;
and direct him to report daily the amount of rations distributed by his
order to persons not belonging to the military service, and not
authorized by law to receive rations, designating the color of the
persons, their occupation, and sex." Mr. Stanton seemed to be satisfied
when I wired him that Weitzel was working under General Ord's orders,
approved by General Grant, and that he was paying for the rations by
selling captured property.
The important question which the President had on his mind when I
reached Richmond was how Virginia could be brought back to the Union. He
had already had an interview with Judge Campbell and other prominent
representatives of the Confederate Government. All they asked, they
said, was an amnesty and a military convention to cover appearances.
Slavery they admitted to be defunct. The President did not promise the
amnesty, but he told them he had the pardoning power, and would save any
repentant sinner from hanging. They assured him that, if amnesty could
be offered, the rebel army would be dissolved and all the States return.
On the morning of the 7th, five members of the so-called Virginia
Legislature held a meeting to consider written propositions which the
President had handed to Judge Campbell. The President showed these
papers to me confidentially. They were two in number. One stated reunion
as a _sine qua non_; the second authorized General Weitzel to allow
members of the body claiming to be the Legislature of Virginia to meet
in Richmond for the purpose of recalling Virginia's soldiers from the
rebel armies, with safe conduct to them so long as they did and said
nothing hostile to the United States. In discussing with me these
documents, the President remarked that Sheridan seemed to be getting
rebel soldiers out of the war faster than the Legislature could think.
The next morning, on April 8th, I was present at an interesting
interview between General Weitzel and General Shepley, who had been
appointed as Military Governor of Richmond, and a committee of prominent
citizens and members of the Legislature. Various papers were read by the
Virginian representatives, but they were told plainly that no
propositions could be entertained that involved a recognition of the
Confederate authorities. The committee were also informed that if they
desired to prepare an address to the people, advising them to abandon
hostility to the Government at once, and begin to obey the laws of the
United States, they should have every facility for its circulation
through the State, provided, of course, that it met the approval of the
military authorities. The two Union generals said that if the committee
desired to call a convention of the prominent citizens of the State,
with a view to the restoration of the authority of the United States
Government, they would be allowed to go outside the lines of Richmond
for the purpose of visiting citizens in different parts of the State and
inducing them to take part in a convention. Safe conduct was promised to
them for themselves and such citizens as they could persuade to attend
the convention. They were also told that if they were not able to find
conveyances for themselves for the journey into the country, horses
would be loaned to them for that purpose. All this, they were informed,
was not to be considered as in any manner condoning any offense of which
any individual among them might have been guilty.
Judge Campbell said that he had no wish to take a prominent part in the
proceedings, but that he had long since made up his mind that the cause
of the South was hopeless. He had written a formal memorial to Jefferson
Davis, immediately after the Hampton Roads conference, urging him and
the Confederate Congress to take immediate steps to stop the war and
restore the Union. He had deliberately remained in Richmond to meet the
consequences of his acts. He said that if he could be used in the
restoration of peace and order, he would gladly undertake any labor that
might be desired of him.
The spirit of the committee seemed to be generally the same as Judge
Campbell's, though none of them equalled him in ability and clearness of
thought and statement. They were thoroughly conscious that they were
beaten, and sincerely anxious to stop all further bloodshed and restore
peace, law, and order. This mental condition seemed to me to be very
hopeful and encouraging.
One day, after the meeting of this committee, I was in the large room
downstairs of the Spotswood Hotel when my name was called, and I turned
around to see Andrew Johnson, the new Vice-President of the United
States. He took me aside and spoke with great earnestness about the
necessity of not taking the Confederates back without some conditions or
without some punishment. He insisted that their sins had been enormous,
and that if they were let back into the Union without any punishment the
effect would be very bad. He said they might be very dangerous in the
future. The Vice-President talked to me in this strain for fully twenty
minutes, I should think. It was an impassioned, earnest speech that he
made to me on the subject of punishing rebels. Finally, when he paused
and I got a chance to reply, I said:
"Why, Mr. Johnson, I have no power in this case. Your remarks are very
striking, very impressive, and certainly worthy of the most serious
consideration, but it does not seem to me necessary that they should be
addressed to me. They ought to be addressed to the President and to the
members of Congress, to those who have authority in the case, and who
will finally have to decide this question which you raise."
"Mr. Dana," said he, "I feel it to be my duty to say these things to
every man whom I meet, whom I know to have any influence. Any man whose
thoughts are considered by others, or whose judgment is going to weigh
in the case, I must speak to, so that the weight of opinion in favor of
the view of this question which I offer may possibly become
preponderating and decisive."
That was in April. When Mr. Johnson became President, not long after, he
soon came to take entirely the view which he condemned so earnestly in
this conversation with me.
Toward the end of the first week after we entered Richmond the question
about opening the churches on Sunday came up. I asked General Weitzel
what he was going to do. He answered that all the places of worship were
to be allowed to open on condition that no disloyalty should be uttered,
and that the Episcopal clergymen should read the prayer for the
President of the United States. But the next day General Shepley, the
military governor, came to me to ask that the order might be relaxed so
that the clergy should be required only not to pray for Davis. I
declined giving any orders, having received none from Washington, and
said that Weitzel must act in the matter entirely on his own judgment.
Judge Campbell used all his influence with Weitzel and Shepley to get
them to consent that a loyal prayer should not be exacted. Weitzel
concluded not to give a positive order; his decision was influenced by
the examples of New Orleans, Norfolk, and Savannah, where, he said, the
requirement had not been at first enforced. In a greater measure,
however, his decision was the result of the President's verbal direction
to him to "let the people down easy." The churches were all well filled
on Sunday, the ladies especially attending in great numbers. The sermons
were devout and not political, the city was perfectly quiet, and there
was more security for persons and property than had existed in Richmond
for many months.
On Monday morning the news of Lee's surrender reached us in Richmond. It
produced a deep impression. Even the most intensely partisan women now
felt that the defeat was perfect and the rebellion finished, while among
the men there was no sentiment but submission to the power of the
nation, and a returning hope that their individual property might escape
confiscation. They all seemed most keenly alive to this consideration,
and men like General Anderson, the proprietor of the Tredegar works,
were zealous in their efforts to produce a thorough pacification and
save their possessions.
The next morning I received from Mr. Stanton an order to proceed to
General Grant's headquarters and furnish from there such details as
might be of interest. It was at this time that I had an interesting talk
with Grant on the condition of Lee's army and about the men and arms
surrendered. He told me that, in the long private interview which he had
with Lee at Appomattox, the latter said that he should devote his whole
efforts to pacifying the country and bringing the people back to the
Union. Lee declared that he had always been for the Union in his own
heart, and could find no justification for the politicians who had
brought on the war, the origin of which he believed to have been in the
folly of extremists on both sides. The war, Lee declared, had left him a
poor man, with nothing but what he had upon his person, and his wife
would have to provide for herself until he could find some employment.
The officers of Lee's army, Grant said, all seemed to be glad that it
was over, and the men still more so than the officers. All were greatly
impressed by the generosity of the terms finally granted to them, for at
the time of the surrender they were surrounded and escape was
impossible. General Grant thought that these terms were of great
importance toward securing a thorough peace and undisturbed submission
to the Government.
I returned to Washington with General Grant, reaching there the 13th,
and taking up my work in the department at once.