Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, April 21, 1865

On the morning of Friday, the 21st, I went by appointment or agreement to the Capitol at 6 A.M. Stanton had agreed to call for me before six and take me in his carriage, the object being to have but few present when the remains were taken from the rotunda, where they had lain in state through Thursday, and were visited and seen by many thousands. As I knew Stanton to be uncertain and in some respects unreliable, I ordered my own carriage to be ready at an early hour. I wished also to take my sons with me to the obsequies, the last opportunity they or I would have to see the remains and to manifest our respect and regard for the man who had been the steady and abiding friend of their father. Stanton, as I expected, was late, and then informed me he had not, as he agreed he would, informed Governor Dennison of our purpose. He said he had to go for another friend, and wished me to take up Governor D. Not until I had got to Dennison's house was I aware of Stanton's neglect. It was then about six. Governor D., who had not yet risen, sent me word he would be ready in three minutes. I think he was not five. Stanton, I perceived, did not tell me the truth about another visitor. He moved in great haste himself, being escorted by the cavalry corps which had usually attended the President.

We hurried on, reached the Capitol, and entered the rotunda just as Mr. Gurley was commencing an earnest and impressive prayer. When it was concluded, the remains were removed and taken to the depot, where, in waiting, were a car and train prepared for the commencement of the long and circuitous journey of the illustrious dead to his last earthly resting-place in Springfield, in the great prairies of the West. We were, as we had intended, an hour in advance of the time, and thus avoided the crowd, which before the train departed thronged the roads and depot.

The meeting of the Cabinet was not protracted. Stanton did not bring forward his reconstruction or reëstablishing scheme. He seemed desirous of evading or avoiding the subject. I alluded to but did not care to press it, if no one seconded me. We discussed the measure of amnesty, and the Attorney-General expressed his views as to the construction which he would put upon the proclamation and declarations of the late President. Stanton and he, I perceived, were acting in concert, and one if not two others had been spoken to in advance.

Stanton called at my house about 6 P.M. and invited me to a hasty Cabinet convention at 8 P.M. on important matters requiring immediate action. When we had assembled, General Grant and Preston King were also present. Stanton briefly mentioned that General Grant had important communications from General Sherman, and requested that he would read them, which he did. It stated he had made a peace, if satisfactory, with the Rebels, etc., etc. This and everything relating to it will be spread before the world. Among the Cabinet and all present there was but one mind on this subject. The plan was rejected, and Sherman's arrangement disapproved. Stanton and Speed were emphatic in their condemnation, though the latter expressed personal friendship for Sherman. General Grant, I was pleased to see, while disapproving what Sherman had done, and decidedly opposed to it, was tender to sensitiveness of his brother officer and abstained from censure. Stanton came charged with specified objections, four in number, counting them off on his fingers. Some of his argument was apt and well, some of it not in good taste nor precisely pertinent.

It was decided that General Grant should immediately inform General Sherman that his course was disapproved, and that generals in the field must not take upon themselves to decide on political and civil questions, which belonged to the executive and civil service. The military commanders would press on and capture and crush out the Rebels.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 293-5

Major Charles Wright Wills: May 5, 1865

 Near Nottaway River, May 5, 1865.

Crossed the Meherrin river (a Copperas creek affair) this morning and pass through Laurenceburg, a 100-year old town, just as large as the top of a very small hill would hold. Such oceans of negroes; never saw half as many before in the same distance in Virginia. Sheridan was through this country ten days ago, but hearing that Johnston had surrendered he turned back. Kautz and Wilson were also raiding last summer, but there are no signs that war is known to the people by experience. We see Lee's and Johnston's men all along the road, taking a look at Sherman's army. All the soldiers and citizens we see seem to submit to the Government, and the war feeling is dead among them, but there is no love for us or ours, and they regard us only as subjugators. That is as warm a sentiment as I ask from them. I believe every family has lost a member by the war. I saw a member of Pickett's Rebel division this evening. He said that when his division surrendered to Grant, they stacked but 45 muskets. It was nearly 10,000 strong on the 24th of March, 1865.

This boy put in one of the 45 muskets. They all give Sheridan's cavalry the credit for doing the best fighting they ever knew “Yanks" to do.

They all speak highly of our 6th (Wright's) corps. The good conduct of our men continues even to the astonishment of the men themselves. I have heard of but one indiscretion, and that was only the carrying off of the table cutlery after dining with a citizen. We are traveling too fast, but our corps commanders are racing to see who will make Petersburg first. Heard of Booth being killed to-day. Also got a Herald of the 24th with Sherman and Johnston's peace propositions. We are very much shocked at Sherman's course. I have not heard an officer or soldier who had read them, sustain our general. It is hard on us and we regret his action as much as any calamity of the war, excepting the Washington horror. There isn't an element of man worship in this army, but we all had such confidence in Sherman, and thought it almost impossible for him to make a mistake. The army is very sore over the affair. We can't bear to have anybody say a word against Sherman, but he did act very strangely in this thing.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 377-8

William T. Sherman to George Mason Graham, Saturday, February 10, 1860

Saturday, Feb. 10, 1860.

DEAR GENERAL: Mr. Smith goes to visit you to-day. St. Ange is sick, and I am ordered by a higher power than our tyrannical military dictator to teach Spanish – I mean by tyrant necessity. Well I can give them the true “greaser" pronunciation which is the Spanish they will use in after life as we ride over and trample down that vestige of a once brave and noble people that stands in the way of our boasted civil progress. .

Every time I think of Mr. T—r's letter I feel inclined to laugh. The idea of T—r's being oppressed is too good. Last evening after drill I could not resist the temptation to call him to me, and ask him who had oppressed him here. He said Mr. Boyd. What had Mr. Boyd done? Why one boy tied a pig's-tail to another boy's coat, as they were marching into their recitation room, and he was so convulsed with laughter thereat that Mr. Boyd ordered him to quit the section-room.

 That was the tyranny, and that was all, the precision of time, the fine course of study spread before them, the regular and good supplies of food, clothing, lights, etc., everything that any gentleman's son could expect are nothing; but because T—r was ordered to quit the section room very properly by his professor, he must tell a cock and bull story to his father and he must undermine the authority of gentlemen whom he has never seen. There is the radical cause of the destruction of every educational establishment in Louisiana. Parents while they boast of the hardships they overcame in early life and admire the brave and noble deeds of the past, are willing to listen to and extend the whims of their boys, who have nobody to wash their faces and comb their hair in the morning. Indeed are you the rock, alone on which can be built any structure in Louisiana, with any chance of stability. I say this in no spirit of flattery, and I deeply, painfully regret that you are afflicted both in your eyes and the unceasing calls on your time and patience. I ought from this cause alone to abstain from boring you with long letters, in so rapid and illegible a hand.

I have read your letters to Mr. T—r, to Mr. Smith, and to Mr. Boyd and we could not help laughing at T—r's complaint.

[P.S.] St. Ange is in no serious danger. We have had some pretty bad dinners, but the day before yesterday it came to a crisis and brought St. Ange to death or rather his injective apparatus. The rest of us bear with patience Jarreau's prolonged absence, and the want of foresight and preparation that must not be— for the first time yesterday the report came in of a scarcity of meat on the cadet's tables which I must notice.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 151-2