Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, April 20, 1865.
I am glad you were so prompt in putting your house in
mourning for the loss of the President, and I am also glad to see the press in
Philadelphia take so much notice of you.
Lyman,1 much to my sorrow and regret, leaves me
to-day, he considering the destruction of Lee's army as justifying his return
home. Lyman is such a good fellow, and has been so intimately connected
personally with me, that I feel his separation as the loss of an old and valued
friend.
I have had for the last two days as guest at my headquarters
Mr. Charles J. Faulkner, late Minister to France. He is on his way to Richmond,
to assist in bringing back Virginia to the Union. He acknowledges the
Confederacy destroyed, is in favor of a convention of the people to rescind the
ordinance of secession, abolish slavery, and ask to be received into the
Union. This is in my judgment the best course to be pursued. Mr. Faulkner goes
from here to Richmond. We also had yesterday the arrival of a Confederate
officer from Danville, who reported the rumored surrender of Johnston, and the
flight of Jeff. Davis to the region beyond the Mississippi, from whence I have
no doubt he will go into Mexico, and thence to Europe.
_______________
1 Theodore Lyman, aide-de-camp to General Meade.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 274
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