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 THE SURRENDER OF GEN. JOHNSTON 
 Letter from Gen. Sherman 
 
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 THE SURRENDER OP GEN .JOHNSTON 
 Letter from Gen.Shersan 
 
 Hie t. Mag. 
 May, 1869 
 
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 €>f tfte Class of 1889 
 
 (Ipsno.i'i-iifcb'f 
 
1869.] 
 
 HISTORICAL MAGAZINE 
 
 333 
 
 XV.— FLOTSAM. 
 
 CThese scraps have been picked tip in various places and 
 brought to this place, " as they are," without any voucher 
 for their correctness and with no other object than to secure- 
 f or them the attention of our readers. 
 
 We invite discussion concerning each of them* and if 
 any of them are incorrect or doubtful, we invite correc- 
 tions. — Editos Historical Magazine. 
 
 The Surrender of Gen. Johnston. Letteb 
 from General, Sherman. 
 
 To the Editor of The Tribune : 
 
 Sir : In your issue of yesterday is a notice of 
 Mr. Healy's picture, representing the interview 
 between Mr. Lincoln, General Grant, Admiral 
 Porter, and myself, which repeats substantially 
 the account published some time ago in Wilkes's 
 Spirit of the Times, explanatory of that interview, 
 and attributing to Mr. Lincoln himself the pater- 
 nity of the terms to General Johnston's Army at 
 Durham, in April, 1865. 
 
 I am glad you have called public attention to 
 the picture itself, because I feel a personal interest 
 that Mr. Healy should be appreciated as one of 
 our very best American artists. But some friends 
 here, think, by silence, I may be construed as will- 
 ing to throw off on Mr. Lincoln the odium of 
 those terms. If there be any odium, which I doubt, 
 I surely would not be willing that the least show 
 of it shoHld go to Mr. Lincoln's memory, which I 
 hold in too much veneration to be stained, by any- 
 thing done or said by me. I understand that the- 
 
334 
 
 HISTORICAL MAGAZINE. 
 
 [May, 
 
 substance of Mr. Wilkes's original article was com- 
 piled by him, after a railroad conversation with 
 Admiral Porter, who was present at that interview, 
 as represented in the picture, and who made a 
 note of the conversation immediately after we sep- 
 arated. He would be more likely to have pre- 
 served the exact words used on the occasion than I, 
 who made no notes, then or since. I cannot now 
 even pretend to recall more than the subjects 
 touched upon by the several parties and the im- 
 pression left on my mind, after we parted. The 
 interview was in March, nearly a month before the 
 final catastrophe; and it was my part of the plan 
 of operations to move my army, reinforced by 
 Schofield, then at Goldsboro', N. C. , to Burkes- 
 ville, Va., when Lee would have been forced to 
 surrender in Richmond. The true move left to 
 him was a hasty abandonment of Richmond ; join 
 his force to Johnston's ; and strike me in the open 
 country. The only question was : Could I sustain 
 this joint attack till General Grant came up in pur- 
 suit? Mr. Lincoln, in hearing us speak of a fi- 
 nal bloody battle, which I then thought would 
 fall on me near Raleigh, did exclaim, more than 
 once, that blood enough had already been shed ; 
 and he hoped that the War would end without 
 any more. We spoke of what was to be done 
 with Davis, other party leaders, and the rebel 
 army; and he left me under the impression that 
 all he asked of us was to dissipate these armies and 
 get the soldiers back to their homes, anyhow — 
 the quicker the better — leaving him free to apply 
 the remedy and the restoration of civil law. He 
 (Mr. Lincoln) surely left upon my mind the im- 
 pression warranted by Admiral Porter's account, 
 that he had long thought of his course of action 
 when the rebel Armies were out of his way ; and 
 that he wanted to get civil governments reorgan- 
 ized at the South, the quicker the better, and strict- 
 ly conforming with our general system. 
 
 I had been absent so long that I presumed, of 
 course, that Congress had enacted all the laws ne- 
 cessary to meet the event of Peace, so long expect- 
 ed, and the near approach of which must then 
 have been seen by the most obtuse ; and all I aim- 
 ed to do was to remit the rebel Army, surrendering 
 to me, to the conditions of the laws of the country, 
 as they then existed. At the time of Johnston's 
 surrender at Durham, I drew up the terms with 
 my own hand. Breckinridge had nothing at all 
 to do with them, more than to discuss their effect, 
 and he knew they only applied to the military; 
 and he proceeded to make his escape from the 
 country— a course that I believe Mr. Lincoln wish- 
 ed that Mr. Davis should have succeeded in effect- 
 ing, as well as all the other leading Southern pol- 
 iticians, against whom public indignation always 
 turned with a feeling far more intense than against 
 Generals Lee, Johnston, and other purely military 
 men. 
 
 I repeat that, according to my memory, Mr. 
 Lincoln did not expressly name any special terms 
 of surrender ; but he was in that kindly and gentle 
 frame of mind that would have induced him to 
 approve fully what I did, excepting, probably, he 
 would have interlined some modifications, such as 
 recognizing his several Proclamations antecedent, 
 as well as the Laws of Congress, which would 
 have been perfectly right and acceptable to me 
 and to all.parties. 
 
 I dislike to open this or any old question, and 
 do it for the reason stated, viz.: lest I be constru- 
 ed as throwing off on Mr. Lincoln what his friends 
 think should be properly borne by me alone. 
 
 If, in the original terms, I had, as I certainly 
 meant, included the Proclamations of the Presi- 
 dent, they would have covered the slavery question 
 and all the real State questions which caused the 
 War ; and had not Mr. Lincoln been assassinated 
 at that very moment, I believe those "terms " 
 would have taken the usual course of approval, 
 modification, or absolute disapproval, and been 
 returned to me, like hundreds of other official acts, 
 without the newspaper clamor and unpleasant con- 
 troversies so unkindly' and unpleasantly thrust 
 upon me at the time. 
 
 I am truly yours, 
 
 W. T. Sherman, General. 
 
 Washington, D. C, April 11, 1869. 
 
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