Civil War Historian
This Week in Civil War History
April 22-28, 1865
BY MICHAEL K. SHAFFER
www.civilwarhistorian.net
For the Washington County News
Unwilling to approve the surrender terms, which Major General William T. Sherman offered to General Joseph E. Johnston, officials sent Lieutenant General U.S. Grant to North Carolina to discuss the matter with his old friend Sherman. Before Grant’s arrival on April 24, Sherman had learned of the Federal government’s rebuke of his terms. Incensed over the actions of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, whom Sherman blamed for the rejection, Grant, on greeting his subordinate, had to calm the angry general before they could discuss matters.
Grant told Sherman he could only extend to Johnston the same terms offered to General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House. Embarrassed at the turn of events, Sherman sent word to Johnston of the rejection, and told him he stood ready to resume active military operations. Johnston telegraphed President Davis the news and sought direction on future actions. Ironically, Davis had just approved the original terms when he received word from Johnston. Davis ordered Johnston to disband his troops, and sent instructions for them to reunite at a point determined in the future. Johnston opted to ignore Davis’s directive, and dispatched Sherman seeking another meeting. The Bennett farm once again hosted the two officers on April 26.
Continuing to harbor ill feelings toward Stanton and others in President Andrew Johnson’s administration, Sherman asked Major General John Schofield to attend the meeting. Since Sherman planned to name Schofield military commander of the district, he took advantage of this pending action to remove himself, at least partially, from further scrutiny. Schofield wrote the terms, which mirrored those of Grant at Appomattox, and signed the document along with Johnston. Sherman did not attach his name to this second surrender document, which resulted in almost 90,000 Southern troops stacking arms.
As the officers in North Carolina finished their final discussions, several hundred miles to the north, on the Garrett farm near Bowling Green, Virginia, Federal troops finally caught-up with John Wilkes Booth. Booth, trapped inside a burning barn, fell mortally wounded when Sergeant Boston Corbett fired on the assassin. The nation, still mourning the death of President Abraham Lincoln, found some solace in Booth’s death, as the news began circulating throughout the land.
Skirmishing continued in parts of Georgia and western North Carolina, where elements of Major Generals James Wilson and George Stoneman’s forces continued to battle pockets of Southern resistance. Time would pass slowly before news of the final terms between Sherman and Johnston filtered throughout the Confederacy. Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Confederate cabinet continued their efforts to stay one-step ahead of the Federal forces. Davis wrote to his wife Varina of his plans to move westward, and with a cavalry escort, try to make his way to the Trans-Mississippi theater.
Traveling up the same body of water Davis would have to cross in effecting his escape – the Mississippi River – a steamship, the Sultana, carrying over 2,000 Federal soldiers, many of them former prisoners, exploded north of Memphis on April 27. The overcrowded vessel – the captain received payment from the government for each passenger – struggled to navigate against the current until her boilers could no longer handle the strain. The massive explosion sent over 1,200 souls to a watery grave.