ation. Gen. Lee had. not yet despaired of the cause of the Confederacy.
He was gravely sensible of the danger ; in frequent conference with com-
mittees of the Congress at Richmond, he stated frankly his anxiety, but
urged levies of negro troops, held out what hope he could, and expressly
and firmly discountenanced any surrender of the Confederate cause by
premature negotiations with Washington^ On one of these occasions he
made the personal declaration for himself that he had rather die on the
battle-field than surrender — a sentiment which provoked the sneer of a
a^ell-known " Union " man in Richmond, and the remark that " Gen. Lee
talked like a school-girl."

The populace of Richmond was but little aware of the terrible decrease
of Gen. Lee's army ; and indeed the people of the Confederacy were studi-
ously kept in the dark as to all details of the military situation. So reti-
cent had the Government become, that the newspapers were forbid pub-
lishing anything of military afi'airs beyond the scanty doles of information
and the skeleton telegrams furnished to the reporters by an official au-
thority, and copied at the desks of the War Department. It thus hap-
pened that while there was a general despondency of the public mind,
there were few outside the severe official circles of Richmond who knew
the real extremities to which the arms and affairs of the Confederacy had
fallen. There was a dull expectation of what was next to happen ; there
was a vague condition of the public mind, in which, although not able to
discover any substantial and well-defined ground of hope, it yet plodded
on under the shadow of old convictions, and with a dim anticipation of
something favourable in the future. While every one affirmed that the
affairs of the Confederacy were in a bad way, and while every one ap-
peared to have a certain sense of approaching misfortune, there were very
few who knew the real condition and numbers of the armies of the Con-
federacy, and realized how far had been undermined its systena of defence.
It was difficult indeed to believe that the Army of ISTorthem Yirginia —
that army, whose name had been for four years as the blast of victory —
had declined to a condition in which it was no longer capable of offensive
operations. It was difficult indeed to abandon altogether the idea that the
happy accident of a victory somewhere in the Confederacy might not, after
all, put a new aspect on affh,irs. Even if the conclusion of subjugation had
become probable, its day was at least uncertain, distant ; and the opinion
of Gen. Lee was quoted in the streets of Richmond that in any event the
Southern Confederacy was likely to last another year's campaign. Many
lived in the cii'cle of each day ; the idea of Independence was yet in the



THE FORTKESS MONROE CONFERENCE. 681

loose coaversations of the people ; and the favourite cantatrice of the Kich-
mond Theatre sung to nightly plaudits, " Farewell forever to the star-
spangled banner!" Then there were those rumours of extravagant for-
tune, always indicative of a weak and despairing condition of the public
mind ; among them endless stories of peace negotiations and European
" recognition." A few weeks before Richmond fell, the report was credit-
ed for the space of three or four days by the most intelligent persons in the
city, including some of the editors of the newspapers and President Davis'
pastor, that a messenger from France had arrived on the coast of North
Carolina, and was making his way overland to Kichmond, with the news
of the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by the Eniperour Na-
poleon !

But in this dull condition of the public mind there came a well-defined
rumour of " peace ; " an event in which another and last appeal was to be
made to the resolution of the South.



THE FORTRESS MONROE CONFERENCE.

At different periods of the war the ambition of individuals on both
sides had attempted certain propositions of peace, and sought to bring the
parties at Richmond and Washington into such a position that they could
not avoid negotiations, without subjecting themselves to the injurious im-
putation of preferring war. In pursuance of this diplomatic errantry,
Mr. Francis P. Blair, a skilful politician, in January, 1865, obtained a
passport from President Lincoln to go through the Federal lines, visited
Richmond, and while disclaiming any official instructions or countenance
from Washington, sought to prevail upon President Davis to send, or re-
ceive, commissioners to treat of peace between the contending parties. On
the 19th January, Mr. Blair returned to Washington, taking with him
a written assurance, addressed to himself, from President Davis, of his will-
ingness to enter into negotiations for peace, to receive a commissioner
whenever one should be sent, and of his readiness, whenever Mr. Blair
could promise that he w^ould be received, to appoint such a commissioner,
minister, or other agent, and thus " renew the effort to enter into a con-
ference with a view to secure peace between the two countries.'''' The
reply of Mr. Lincoln was no less diplomatic. He wrote that he was
â– ' ready to receive any agent whom Mr. Davis or any other influential per-
son now resisting the national authorit}^, may informally send me, with a
view of securing peace to the people of our common country.''''

While the intermediation of Mr. Blair was taking place in Richmond,
a number of Congressmen and leading politicians of the Confederacy had
been exerting themselves to use the peculiar influence of the Vice-Presi-



682 THE LOST CAUSE.

dent, Alexander H. Stepliens, in a negotiation -with AYasliington, and lor
this purpose to bring him and President Davis to a friendly understand-
ing. There had long been a coolness between these two high oflScers.
Mr. Stephens had blown hot and cold in the war. At the beginning of the
contest he opposed secession ; after the great battles of 1862 around Rich-
mond, he was intensely Southern, and thought the death of every indi-
vidual in the Confederacy preferable to subjugation ; at later periods of
the war he squinted at " reconstruction," and dallied with the " Union "
faction in the South. The reputation of this man is a striking example of
how difficult it is in all parts of America for the people to distinguish be-
tween a real statesman and an elaborate demagogue. Mr. Stephens had
a great idea of his personal consequence ; he was touchy and exacting in
his intercourse with other public men ; and he refused to pass a word with
President Davis until he had obtained from him the concession of a cir-
cuitous message that " the President would be glad to see Mr. Stephens."
In the interview which took place. President Davis remarked graciously,
but with a tinge of sarcasm in his tone, that he knew of " no one better
calculated to conduct a peace negotiation with the North than Mr. Alex-
ander H. Stephens." In the statement of his views the President was
remarkably liberal. He allowed Mr. Stephens to name for himself the
associate commissioners, who were R. M. T. Hunter of Yirginia, and J. A.
Campbell of Alabama ; he burdened him with no detail of instructions ;
he said : " I give you a carte-blanche, only writing on it the one word,
' Independence.' "

The anxiously expected conference did not take place until the 3d of
February. It was attended on the Federal side by President Lincoln him-
self, accompanied by his Secretary of State, Mr. Seward ; the presence of
the Northern President having been induced by an earnest telegram from
Gen. Grant, expressing his personal belief that the Confederate commis-
sioners, who had passed through his lines, were sincere in their desire for
peace, and his strong conviction that a personal interview with tliem on
the pai-t of Mr. Lincoln was highly desirable. The Confederate commis-
sioners were entertained on board of a steamer lying in Hampton Roads.
The conference was studiously informal ; there were no notes of it ; there
â– was no attendance of secretaries or clerks ; there was an irregular conver-
sation of four hours, enlivened by two anecdotes of Mr. Lincoln ; but there
being absolutely no basis of negotiation between the two parties, not even
a single point of coincidence between them, they separated without effect.
The Confederate commissioners obtained only from the interview the dis-
tinct, enlarged, and insolent demand of Mr Lincoln, that the South should
submit unconditionally to the rule of the Union, and conform to the ad-
vanced position of the Federal Executive on the subject of slavery, which
included an amendment to the Constitution abolishing this domestic insti-



THE FOETKESS MONROE CONFERENCE. 683

tution of the South, a bill establishing a Freedmen's Bureau, aud othei
measures looking to a new construction of relations between the black and
white populations of the country.

The report of the conference and its results was made in the following
message from President Davis, sent in to the Confederate Congress on the
5 th February :

" To the Senate and House of Representatives of tJie Confederate States of America:

" Having recently received a written notification whicli satisfied me that the President
of the United States was disposed to confer informally with unofficial agents that might
be sent by me with a view to the restoration of peace, I requested Hon. Alexander H.
Stephens, Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, and Hon. John A. Campbell, to proceed through our
lines to hold a conference with Mr. Lincoln, or such persons as he might depute to repre-
sent him.

" I herewith submit, for the information of Congress, tlie report of the eminent citi-
zens above named, showing that the enemy refuse to enter into negotiations with the
Confederate States, or any one of them separately, or to give our people any other terms
or guarantees than those which a conqueror may grant, or permit us to have peace on
any other basis than our unconditional submission to their rule, coupled with the accept-
ance of their recent legislation, including an amendment to the Constitution for the
emancipation of negro slaves, and with the right on the part of the Federal Congress to
legislate on the subject of the relations between the white and black population of each
State.

" Such is, as I understand, the effect of the amendment to the Constitution which has
been adopted by the Congress of the United States.

.,o«r,. "JEFFERSON DAVIS.

•' Executive Office, Bichhond, February 5, 1865."

" Richmond, Vieoinia, February 5, 1865.

" To the President of the Confederate States :

" Sir : Under your letter of appointment of 28th ult., we proceeded to seek an informal
conference with Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, upon the subject men-
tioned in your letter.

" The conference was granted, and took place on the 3d inst., on board a steamer an-
chored in Hampton Roads, where we met President Lincoln and Hon. Mr. Seward, Secre-
tary of State of the United States. It continued for several hours, and was both full and
explicit.

" "We learned from them that the message of President Lincoln to the Congress of the
United States, in December last, explains clearly and distinctly his sentiments as to terms,
conditions, and method of proceeding by which peace can be secured to the people, and
we were not informed that they would be modified or altered to obtain that end. We
understood from him that no terms or proposals of any treaty or agreement looking to an
ultimate settlement would be entertained or made by him with the authorities of the
Confederate States, because that would be a recognition of their existence as a separate
power, which under no circumstances would be done ; and for like reasons, that no such
terms would be entertained by him from States separately; that no extended truce or
armistice, as at present advised, would be granted or allowed without satisfactory assur-
ances in advance of complete restoration of the authority of the Constitution and laws
of the United States over all places within the States of the Confederacy ; that whatever



684 THE LOST CAUSE.

consequences may follow from the re-establishment of that authority must be accepted,
but the individuals subject to pains and penalties under the laws of the United States
might rely upon a very liberal use of the power confided to him to remit those pains and
penalties, if peace be restored.

" During the conference the proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United
States, adopted by Congress on the 31st ult., were brought to our notice. These amend-
ments provide that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, should
exist withia the United States, or any place within their jurisdiction, and that Congress
should have the power to enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation.

" Of all the correspondence that preceded the conference herein mentioned and lead-
ing to the same, you have heretofore been informed.

"Very respectfully, your obedient servants,

" ALEX. H. STEPHENS,
" R. M. T. HUNTER,
" J. A. CAMPBELL."

It was doubtless calculated by President Davis that the issue of the
Fortress Monroe Conference would give a flat answer to the party in the
Confederacy that had been clamouring for peace negotiations, and make
an opportunity to excite anew the spirit and indignation of the Southern
people. It was indeed a powerful appeal to the heart of the South ; it had
displayed the real consequences of subjugation ; it had declared what
would be its pains and penalties and humiliation ; it was the ultimatum
of an enemy calculated to nerve the resolution of a people lighting for
liberty,, and to make them devote anew labour and life for the great cause
of their redemption. It was thought in Richmond that the last attempt at
negotiation would date a new era of resolution and devotion in the war.
On the return of the commissioners a day was appointed for an imposing
expression of public opinion on the event of the conference ; all business
was suspended in Richmond ; at high noon processions were formed to the
diflferent places of meeting ; and no less than twenty different orators, com-
posed of the most effective speakers in Congress and the Cabinet, and the
most eloquent divines of Richmond, took their stands in the halls of legis-
lation, in the churches and the theatres, and swelled the eloquence of this
last and grand appeal to the people and armies of the South. Two of the
returned commissioners, Messrs. Hunter and Campbell, were among the
orators of the day. Mr. Stef)hens had been urged to speak ; but he had
a demagogue's instinct of danger in the matter ; it was an awkward
occasion in which he might say too much or too little ; and so he plead ill-
health, and escaped to Georgia. It was an extraordinary day in Rich-
mond ; vast crowds huddled around the stands of tlie speakers or lined the
streets ; and the air was vocal with the efforts of the orator and the re-
sponses of his audience. It appeared indeed that the blood of the people
had again been kindled. But it was only the sickly glare of an expiring
flame ; there was no steadiness in the excitement ; there was no virtue in



BATTLE OF HAKe's HILL. 688

huzzas ; the inspiration ended with the voices and ceremonies that invoked
it ; and it was found that the spirit of the people of the Confederacy was
too weak, too much broken to react with effect, or assume the position of
erect and desperate defiance.

A few days before this popular convocation in Richmond, and just on
the return of the commissioners, President Davis himself had addressed a
popular audience in the African Church. He was attended to the stand
by the Governor of Virginia. He made a powerful and eloquent address ;
but in parts of it he fell into weak and bombastic speech, and betrayed that
boastfulness characteristic of almost all his oral utterances in the war. As
a writer, Mr. Davis was careful, meditative, and full of dignity ; but as a
speaker, he was imprudent, and in moments of passion, he frequently
blurted out what first came into his mind. On this occasion he was boast-
ful, almost to the point of grotesqueness.^He declared that the march which
Sherman was then making would be " his last," and would conduct him
to ruin ; he predicted that before the summer solstice fell upon the country
it would be the North that would be soliciting peace ; he affirmed that the
military situation of the Confederacy was all that he could desire ; and
drawing up his figure, and in tones of scornful defiance, heard to the re-
motest parts of the building, he remarked that the Federal authorities who
had so complacently conferred with the commissioners of the Confederacy,
" little knew that they were talking to their masters]^ " Such swollen
speeches of the President offended the sober sense of the Confederacy ; and
it was frequently said that he attempted to blind the people as to the ac-
tual condition of affairs, and never dealt with them in a proper spirit of
candour. But this estimate of President Davis is probably a mistaken
one. He was not insincere ; in all his strange and extravagant utterances
of confidence he probably believed what he spoke ; and to the last he ap-
pears never to have apprehended the real situation. He was blinded by
his own natural temper ; in the last moment he was issuing edicts, playing
with the baubles of authority, never realizing that he was not stiU the
great tribune ; he was sustained by a powerful self-conceit, and a sanguine
temperament ; and he went down to ruin with the fillet of vanity upon
his eyes.



BATTLE OF HAEE 8 HILL.

In the last days of March, 1865, Gen. Lee made his last offensive dem-
onstration, which ended in failure, and plainly and painfully revealed the
condition of his troops. He determined to try Grant's lines south of the
Appomattox ; the attack being immediately directed by Gen. Gordon on
the enemy's works at Hare's Hill. The project of assault was bold • its



686 THE LOST CAUSE.

promises were large ; one success might lead to another ; and if the troopa
once got possession of a part of the enemy's line, in the flush of success
they miglit be carried to the capture of the neighbouring works, and Geii.
Lee might even venture on the great enterprise of getting possession of
Grant's military road and cutting his entire right fi-om its base at City
L*oint and from the army north of the James.

The disposition of Gen. Lee's force was generally as follows : Lono -
street commanded the Confederate left, across the James, and his rio-ht
division extended to within a few miles of Petersburg. Gordon came
next, with his three divisions, reduced by arduous and fatiguing marches
and bloody battles in the Shenandoah Valley, to the dimensions of only
respecta.ble brigades. He commanded just in front of Petersburg, from
the Appomattox to a small stream to the right of the city. It was along
this line, almost its entire length, that a continuous struggle for months
had been kept up, and in some places the opposing forces were but a few
yards apart, A. P. Hill, with his three divisions, held the right, extend-
ing to Hatcher's Run, while the cavalry guarded either flank.

The assault of the 25th March was made two miles south of the Appo-
mattox and just to the left of the Crater. Massing two divisions, Gordon,
in the early light of the morning dashed on the Federal works. The ene-
my was surprised ; the sharpshooters of Grimes' division, composing the
advance, succeeded in driving the Federal troops from their works, and the
Confederates occupied their breastworks for a distance of a quarter of a
mile, with comparatively a slight loss and with the loss to the enemy of
one i^rincipal fort (Steadman), and some five hundred prisoners. Had this
opportunity been taken advantage of, there is no telling tlie result ; but
the troops could not be induced to leave the breastworks they had taken
from the enemy, and to advance beyond them and seize the crest in rear
of the line they had occupied. They hugged the works in disorder until
the enemy recovered from his surprise ; and soon the artillery in the forts
to the right and left began their murderous fire on them. When fresh troops
were brought up by the enemy, their advance was almost unresisted, and
an easy recapture of the fort was obtained, the Confederates retiring under
a severe fire into their old works. Nearly two thousand men took shelter
under the breastworks they had captured, and surrendered when the enemy
advanced, and the result was a Confederate loss much greater than that of
the foe. This affair demonstrated to all that the day of offensive move-
ments on the part of the Confederates was gone. The experiment had
entailed a loss that could be ill afforded by Gen. Lee ; and one more such
disaster might have been irreparable.



LAST BATTLES AROUND PETEESBUKG. 687



THE LAST BATTLES AROUND PETERSBURG.

Geii. Grant had at first designed to await the junction of Sherman's
forces for his final operations upon Richmond, so as to complete his assur-
ance of victor}^. But he feared that if Sherman crossed the Roanoke river,
Johnston would take the alarm, and move to Lee's lines ; and as the cir-
cumspect Federal commander was careful to risk nothing, even approach-
ing to an equal match of force, he determined to dispatch his final move-
ment upon Richmond, and to make his experiment upon Lee's little army
with no further occasions of delay. The area of critical operations in the
Confederacy was now within close and narrow boundaries. Its fate was
to be practically decided in operations taking place between the Roanoke
and James Rivers in one direction, and tlie Atlantic Ocean and the Alle-
ghany Mountains in the other. In this circumscribed space Richmond was
the prominent figure, the critical point, and Lee's army the chief contestant.

The usual preliminary to a great action of the Federals — a movement
of cavalry — was directed by Gen. Grant before the time assigned for a
general movement of the armies operating against Richmond. The imme-
diate object was to cut ofi* all communications with the city north of
James River ; and on the 27th February, Sheridan moved from the Shen-
andoah Yalley with two divisions of cavalry, numbering about ten thou-
sand sabres. On the 1st March he secured the bridge across the middle
fork of the Shenandoah, entered Staunton the next day, and thence pushed
on towards Waynesboro', where Early, with less than twelve hundred men,
disputed the dehouche of the Blue Ridge. This force — a remnant of the
Army of the Yalley — was posted on the banks of a stream, with no way
open for retreat ; and Sheridan's magnificent cavalry easily ran over it,
and took more than nine hundred prisoners. Gen. Early, with two of his
staff officers, escaped by taking to the woods. The next day Charlottes-
ville was surrendered ; and here Sheridan paused to await the arrival of
bis trains, busy meanwhile in destroying the railroads towards Richmond
and Lynchburg. His instructions prescribed that he should gain Lynch-
burg on the south bank of the James. From that point he was to effectu-
ally break U]3 those main branches of Lee's communications, the Lynch-
burg railroads and James River Canal, after which he was to strike south-
ward through Virginia to the westward of Danville and join Sherman.
But moving towards the James River, between Richmond and Lynchburg,
Sheridan found himself confronted by a swollen and impassable stream. He
fell back, rounded the left wing of Lee's army, crossed the Pamunkey
River at the White House, and on the 25th March joined Gen. Grant in
the lines before Petersburg. He had not completed the circuit designed



688 THE LOST CAUSE.

for him ; but he had traversed thirteen counties, and done enormous
damage. The damage to the canal was almost irreparable ; every lock
had been destroyed as far as Dugaldsville, twenty miles from Lynchburg ;
and as for the railroads radiating from Charlottesville to Waynesboro,
Amherst Court-house and Louisa Court-house and extending from the
South Anna to Chesterfield Station and the Chickahominy river, every
bridge, nearly every culvert, and scores of miles of the rail itself had been
completely destroyed.

Sheridan's cavalry, diverted back from its intended tour to North Caro-
lina, proved a timely and important accession to Grant's strength in hia
final encounter. There were indications that that encounter was near at
hand. There had been days of painful expectation along the Confederate
line. In the vicinity of Petersburg the heavy booming of guns was occa-