And now Mr. Lincoln gave his whole attention to the movements of the
armies, which, as he confidently hoped, were on the eve of final and
complete triumph. On the 27th of March he visited the head-quarters of
General Grant, at City Point, to concert with his most trusted military
chiefs the final movements against Lee, and Johnston. Grant was still at
bay before Petersburg. Sherman with his veterans, after occupying
Georgia and South Carolina, had reached Goldsboro', North Carolina, on
his victorious march north. It was the hope and purpose of the two
great leaders, whose generous friendship for each other made them ever
like brothers, now and there to crush the armies of Lee and Johnston,
and finish the "job."
An artist has worthily painted the scene of the meeting of Lincoln and
his cabinet, when he first announced and read to them his proclamation
of Emancipation. Another artist is now recording for the American people
the scene of this memorable meeting of the President and the Generals,
which took place in the cabin of the steamer "River Queen," lying at the
dock in the James River. Three men more unlike personally and mentally,
and yet of more distinguished ability, have rarely been called together.
Although so entirely unlike, each was a type of American character, and
all had peculiarities not only American, but Western.
Lincoln's towering form had acquired dignity by his great deeds, and the
great ideas to which he had given expression. His rugged features,
lately so deeply furrowed with care and responsibility, were now radiant
with hope and confidence. He met the two great leaders with grateful
cordiality; with clear intelligence he grasped the military situation,
and listened with eager confidence to their details of the final moves
which should close this terrible game of war.
Contrasting, with the giant-like stature of Lincoln, was the short,
sturdy, resolute form of the hero of Fort Donelson and Vicksburg, so
firm and iron-like, every feature of his face and every attitude and
movement so quiet, yet all expressive of inflexible will and never
faltering determination, "to fight it out on this line."
There, too, was Sherman, with his broad intellectual forehead, his
restless eye, his nervous energy, his sharply outlined features bronzed
by that magnificent campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta and from
Atlanta to the Sea, and now fresh from the conquest of Georgia and South
Carolina. On the eve of final triumph, Lincoln, with characteristic
humanity deplored the necessity which all realized, of one more hard and
deadly battle. They separated, Sherman hastening to his post, and Grant
commenced those brilliant movements which in ten days ended the war. Now
followed in rapid succession the fall of Richmond, the surrender of Lee,
the capitulation of Johnston and his army, the capture of Jefferson
Davis, and the final overthrow of the rebellion.
The Union troops, on the morning of the 4th of April, entered the rebel
capital. Among the exulting columns which followed the eagles of the
Republic, were some regiments of negro soldiers, who marched through the
streets of Richmond singing their favorite song of "John Brown's soul is
marching on."
On the day of its capture, President Lincoln, with Admiral Porter,
visited Richmond. Leading his youngest son, a lad, by the hand, he
walked from the James River landing to the house just vacated by the
rebel President. From the time of the issuing of his proclamation to
this, his triumphant entry into the rebel capital, he had been ever
ready and anxious for peace. To all the world he had proclaimed, what he
said so emphatically to the rebel emissaries at Hampton Roads. "There
are just two indispensable conditions of peace, national unity, and
national liberty." "The national authority must be restored through all
the States, and I will _never recede_ from my position on the slavery
question." He would never violate the national faith, and now God had
crowned his efforts with complete success. He entered Richmond as a
conqueror, but as its preserver he issued no decree of proscription or
confiscation, and to all the South his policy was, "with malice toward
none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gave him
to see the right, he sought to finish the work, and do all which should
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace."
On the 9th of April he returned to Washington, and had scarcely arrived
at the White House before the news of the surrender of Lee and all his
army reached him. No language can adequately describe the joy and
gratitude which filled the hearts of the President and the people.
And here, before the attempt is made to sketch the darkest and most
dastardly crime in all our annals, let us pause for one moment to
mention that last review on the 22d and 23d of May, of these victorious
citizen soldiers, who had come at the call of the President, and who,
their work being done, were now to return again to their homes scattered
throughout the country they had saved.
These bronzed and scarred veterans who had survived the battle-fields of
four years of active war, whose field of operations had been a
continent, the brave men who had marched and fought their way from New
England and the Northwest, to New Orleans and Charleston; those who had
withstood and repelled the terrific charges of the rebels at Gettysburg;
those who had fought beneath and above the clouds at Lookout Mountain;
who had taken Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Atlanta, New Orleans, Savannah,
Mobile, Petersburg, and Richmond; the triumphal entry of these heroes
into the National Capital of the Republic which they had saved and
redeemed, was deeply impressive. Triumphal arches, garlands, wreaths of
flowers, evergreens, marked their pathway. Acting President and
Cabinet, Governors and Senators, ladies, children, citizens, all united
to express the nation's gratitude to those by whose heroism it had been
saved.
But there was one great shadow over the otherwise brilliant spectacle.
Lincoln, their great-hearted chief, he whom all loved fondly to call
their "Father Abraham;" he whose heart had been ever with them in camp,
and on the march, in the storm of battle, and in the hospital; he had
been murdered, stung to death, by the fang of the expiring serpent which
these soldiers had crushed. There were many thousands of these gallant
men in Blue, as they filed past the White House, whose weather-beaten
faces were wet with tears of manly grief. How gladly, joyfully would
they have given their lives to have saved his.