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

WAR DEPARTMENT,         

March 3, 1865 — 12 p.m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

I send you a telegram written by the President himself in answer to yours of this evening, which I have signed by his order. I will add that General Ord's conduct in holding intercourse with General Longstreet upon political questions not committed to his charge is not approved. The same thing was done in one instance by Major Key, when the army was commanded by General McClellan, and he was sent to meet Howell Cobb on the subject of exchanges, and it was in that instance, as in this, disapproved. You will please in future instruct officers appointed to meet rebel officers to confine themselves to the matters specially committed to them.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       

Secretary of War.

[Inclosure.]

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume 46, Part 2 (Serial No. 96), p. 802