Saturday, January 27, 2018

Major-General William T. Sherman to Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant & Edwin M. Stanton, April 15, 1865

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,           
Raleigh, N. C., April 15, 1865.
General U.S. GRANT and SECRETARY OF WAR:
(Care of General Easton, New Berne or Morehead.)

I send copies of a correspondence begun with General Johnston, which, I think, will be followed by terms of capitulation.* I will accept the same terms as General Grant gave General Lee, and be careful not to complicate any points of civil policy. If any cavalry have started toward me caution them that they must be prepared to find our work done. It is now raining in torrents, and I shall await General Johnston's reply here, and will propose to meet him in person at Chapel Hill. I have invited Governor Vance to return to Raleigh with the civil officers of his State. I have met ex-Governor Graham, Mr. Badger, Moore, Holden, and others, all of whom agree that the war is over, and that the States of the South must resume their allegiance, subject to the Constitution and laws of Congress, and that the military power of the South must submit to the national arms. This great fact once admitted, all the details are easy of arrangement.

W. T. SHERMAN,    
Major-General.
_______________

* See Johnston to Sherman and Sherman to Johnston, April 14, pp. 206, 207.

[APRIL 15, 1865. — For Grant to Sheridan, in relation to co-operation with General Sherman, see Vol. XLVI, Part III, p. 760.]

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. 221-2

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