Diary of 2nd Lieutenant John S. Morgan, Sunday, April 9, 1865

Revelie this morning on the drums which is the first time while we have been before Spanish fort. Soon as breakfast is over many of the men go out to see the forts. The report on their return the roads & all arond the forts in the very grond we walked over was planted with hundreds of torpedos & it was a wonder that hundreds of men had not been killed, the reason is the caps over the tops put there to protect them had not been removed the Pioneer Corps are taking up dead loads of them, the cannon 30 in no were spiked with wraught iron which is taken out of most of them allready, directly after breakfast the general blows, it begins to rain, is 12 before we move up on the hill by Div Hd Qtrs when 4 days rations is issued to the men, is 1. P. M. when we start out for Blakely when, we had gone about a mile Lt Rice rides up & tells us the news at the landing is that Petersburg & Richmond is evacuated & Lee fallen back to Lynchburgh, 2 mile out & just outside of Smiths rear the 13th Ind cav is out on review Latter part of the roads very bad & were until 9. P. M. getting to camp, in the evening we are on a forced march for some purpose, as we near Blakely meet some soldiers who say. you need not run yourselves to death for Blakely is ours. on inquiry learned that it had surrendered about 12 hour before having been carried by assault. Our men losst heavily many of them torn to pieces by the explosion of torpedos captured about 2400 prisoners & 25 pieces of artilery, some 100 lbers we meet 9. ambulance loads of wounded, hear that 2 rams run in & surrendered after the fort had surrendered. The negros in the charge are said to have taken few prisoners on account of one of their men having been shot who was captured, (this is all rumor) a slight sprinkle of rain this evening.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, Thirty-Third Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, Vol. XIII, No. 8, Third Series, Des Moines, April 1923, pp. 587-8

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, April 3, 1865

Intelligence of the evacuation of Petersburg and the capture of Richmond was received this A.M., and the city has been in an uproar through the day.

Most of the clerks and others left the Departments, and there were immense gatherings in the streets. Joy and gladness lightened every countenance. Secessionists and their sympathizers must have retired, and yet it seemed as if the entire population, the male portion of it, was abroad in the streets. Flags were flying from every house and store that had them. Many of the stores were closed, and Washington appeared patriotic beyond anything ever before witnessed. The absence of the Assistant, Chief Clerk, and Solicitor compelled my attendance until after 3 P.M. close of mail.

Attorney-General Speed and myself met by agreement at Stanton's room last night at nine, to learn the condition of affairs with the armies. We had previously been two or three times there during the day. It was about eleven before a dispatch was received and deciphered. The conversation between us three was free, and, turning on events connected with the Rebellion, our thoughts and talk naturally traveled back to the early days of the insurrection and the incipient treason in Buchanan's cabinet. Stanton became quite communicative. He was invited, as I have previously understood, through the influence of Black. Says Buchanan was a miserable coward, so alarmed and enfeebled by the gathering storm as to be mentally and physically prostrated, and he was apprehensive the President would not survive until the fourth of March. The discussion in regard to the course to be pursued towards Anderson and the little garrison at Sumter, became excited and violent in December, 1860. On the 27th or 29th of that month there were three sessions of the Cabinet in council. Sitting late at night, Buchanan, wrapped in an old dressing-gown or cloak, crouched in a corner near the fire, trembled like an aspen leaf. He asked what he should do. Declared that Stanton said he ought to be hung and that others of the Cabinet concurred with him. This, Stanton said, grew out of his remarks that if they yielded up Sumter to the conspirators it was treason, and no more to be defended than Arnold's. In the discussion Holt was very emphatic and decided in his loyalty, Toucey the most abject and mean. When called upon by the President for his opinion, Toucey said he was for ordering Anderson to return immediately to Fort Moultrie. He was asked if he was aware that Moultrie was dismantled, and replied that would make no difference, Anderson had gone to Sumter without orders, and against orders of Floyd, and he would order him back forthwith. Stanton says he inquired of Toucey if he ever expected to go back to Connecticut after taking that position, and Toucey said he did, but asked Stanton why he put the question. Stanton replied that he had inquired in good faith, that he might know the character of the people in Connecticut or Toucey's estimate of them, for were he, S., to take that position and it were known to the people of Pennsylvania, he should expect they would stone him the moment he set foot in the State, stone him through the State, and tie a stone around his neck and throw him in the river when he reached Pittsburg. Stanton gives Toucey the most despicable character in the Buchanan cabinet, not excepting Floyd or Thompson.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 272-4