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God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” 1253

506. Sheridan's raid; fall of Petersburg and of Richmond; surrender of Lee and Johnston; assassination of Lincoln. In the field of war, events now moved rapidly toward the final crisis. Sheridan's cavalry destroyed (March 19, 1865) a part of the James River Canal and the Lynchburg Railroad which furnished supplies for Richmond. He then pushed on to Five Forks, twelve miles southwest of Petersburg, overwhelmed the Confederate garrison at that important road center (April 1, 1865), and took nearly 6000 prisoners. The capture of Five Forks cut off Lee's supplies for Petersburg. The Confederate general saw that he must abandon the town; 1254 but to give up Petersburg meant giving up Richmond.

The next day (April 2, 1865), Grant ordered the final assault on Petersburg. It was gallantly defended, but it fell. That night Lee retreated from both Petersburg and Richmond, and Jefferson Davis fled, but was soon afterward captured.* On the following day (April 3, 1865), the Union forces entered the Confederate capital.

Lee's only hope of escape now lay in moving southward and uniting with Johnston. But Lee's men were in a starving condition, and many threw away their arms and took to the woods. Sheridan intercepted the remnant of the Confederate leader's

* Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in Fort Monroe; he was indicted for treason; but was released on bail in 1867. On Christmas Day, 1868, President Johnson granted a full, unconditional pardon to all persons who had been engaged "in the late insurrection or rebellion." The Government, therefore, took no further action against Davis; with the single exception of disability to hold office, imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution (which Congress refused to remove), Davis was relieved from all penalties for his attempt to destroy the Union. He died at New Orleans in 1889.

force before he could reach Johnston. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Grant treated his fallen foe with characteristic magnanimity. He simply stipulated that Lee's army should lay down their arms and pledge themselves to obey the laws of the United States. He allowed the men to take their horses home with them "to work their little farms." 1235 The Union commander then issued an order to furnish Lee's half-famished army with 25,000 rations.* Meanwhile the " men in blue and the "men in gray" were mingling as friends. The Union soldiers made haste to share their provisions with their former antagonists; and the officers of both armies greeted each other with the heartiness of fellow-countrymen who felt that they were no longer foes, but that henceforth they would fight under the same flag.

Less than three weeks later, Johnston surrendered his army (April 26, 1865) to Sherman near Raleigh. But in the midst of the nation's joy a terrible crime had been committed. On the very day (April 14, 1865) that the Union flag was restored on Fort Sumter (§ 449), President Lincoln fell by the hand of an assassin. Many of the people of the South mingled their tears with those of the North over the bier of one whom "they

*In speaking of Lee's surrender Grant says: "I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us." Grant's "Personal Memoirs," II. 489.

↑ The President was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an obscure half-crazed actor. He died the following morning (April 15). Booth was one of a number of conspirators who formed a plot to assassinate the President, the Vice-President, Secretary Seward, and General Grant. The plot had no political significance and the Southern leaders had no knowledge of its existence. Booth escaped, but was soon afterwards shot in his hidingplace; the remaining conspirators were tried by military commission, and four were convicted of murder and hanged.

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Pound Armies of the M. Sales

LEE'S LETTER OF SURRENDER.

knew to have wished them well." The work of reconstruction which Lincoln had begun now devolved on President Johnson. 507. Summary of the fourth and last year of the war. In the spring of 1864, Grant began his famous "hammering campaign" against Richmond, while at the same time Sherman (by his orders) moved against Atlanta. After the capture of Atlanta, Sherman set out on his great march for Savannah. Thence he moved northward to Goldsboro', North Carolina, beating back Johnston as he advanced.

Meanwhile Farragut had entered Mobile Bay, and Grant, after a series of terrible battles, had moved round to the south side of the James River and begun the siege of Petersburg, sending Sheridan to drive the Confederates out of the Shenandoah Valley.

In the spring of 1865, Grant took Petersburg and Richmond, and forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Court House. A few weeks later, Johnston surrendered to Sherman. Meanwhile the national flag had been restored at Fort Sumter, but the President had been assassinated and the work of reconstruction had fallen to President Johnson.

508. Cost of the war in life and treasure. During the four years of the war, fighting was taking place somewhere along the line every day. The total number of engagements, great and small, count up over 2000. On the Union side the loss of life reached a total of over 360,000, of whom the greater part are buried in the national cemeteries at Gettysburg and elsewhere. Probably the South lost as many as the North; if so, we have a total of over 720,000.1 At the North more than two-thirds of the men who entered the ranks were

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*The total number of men who entered the Union army and navy is given by Phisterer, in his "Statistical Record" of the Civil War, at somewhat over 2,850,000 (counting those who reënlisted). The total number of colored troops included in the above estimate is 186,097. It should be noted that the border States of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky furnished no less than 252,122 to the Union Army; Tennessee (mainly eastern Tennessee) furnished 31,092; and West Virginia 32,068.

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