Friday, January 26, 2018

Edwin M. Stanton to Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, March 3, 1865 – 12 p.m.

President Lincoln's Instructions.
MARCH 3, 1865 12 p.m.
Lieutenant-General GRANT:

The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no conference with General Lee, unless it be for the capitulation of General Lee's army or on some minor and purely military matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political question. Such questions the President holds in his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meantime you are to press to the utmost your military advantages.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       
Secretary of War.


The orders of General Sherman to General Stoneman to withdraw from Salisbury and join him will probably open the way for Davis to escape to Mexico or Europe with his plunder, which is reported to be very large, including not only the plunder of Richmond banks, but previous accumulations. A dispatch received by this Department from Richmond says:

It is stated here by respectable parties that the amount of specie taken south by Jeff. Davis and his partisans is very large, including not only the plunder of the Richmond banks, but previous accumulations. They hope, it is said, to make terms with General Sherman or some other Southern commander, by which they will be permitted, with their effects, including this gold plunder, to go to Mexico or Europe. Johnston's negotiations look to this end.

After the cabinet meeting last night General Grant started for North Carolina to direct operations against Johnston's army.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       
Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume 47, Part 3 (Serial No. 100), p. 285-6

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