CHAPTER XL.

TWENTIETH ADMINISTRATION— EVENTS OF 1865.

Abraham Lincoln, President.

Andrew Johnson, Vice-president.

562. Sherman in South Carolina.-After a month's rest in Savannah, Sherman pursued his "grand march" through the Carolinas. Columbia was taken, February 17, after its stores of cotton had been set on fire. The flames spread to dwellings, and a great part of the city was consumed. General Hardee found it necessary to abandon Charleston. The immense.magazines of cotton were kindled by his orders; unhappily the fire reached a mass of powder, and two hundred lives were destroyed by the explosion.' Though every effort was made to arrest the flames, the fair city became a scene of ruin and desolation.

563. Passing into North Carolina, Sherman was met by Johnston, who had been again placed in command. The latter was defeated at Averysboro and Bentonville, and, April 13, Sherman took possession of Raleigh. The forces of the Confederacy now consisted of the remnant of Johnston's troops and Lee's army of 40,000 men, which lay behind the earth-works of Richmond and Petersburg, hemmed in by Grant's 100,000 veterans.

564. The Last Effort. To disguise his plan of moving southward to join Johnston, Lee attacked and took Fort Steedman, but it was almost immediately recaptured. Three thousand men were lost in the vain assault, and Grant made no movement to relax his hold upon the Southern roads. On the first of April Sheridan advanced to Five Forks, twelve miles in the rear of Lee's position, and captured its garrison of 5,000 men.

565. Advance upon Richmond.-The next morning the Union army advanced upon Richmond. Resistance was no longer possible. President Davis was in church when the news reached him that the lines were broken and that Lee was forced to retire from the capital. Measures were immediately taken for removing the papers and other property of the Confederate government. Citizens took the alarm, and soon the streets were clogged with wagons carrying household goods and valuables. The confusion increased all night. The city authorities ordered the destruction of all intoxicating liquors; but some soldiers managed to secure a portion, and added the horrors of a mad carousal to those inseparable from the abandonment of the city.

566. Burning of Richmond.-Four great store-houses of tobacco were set on fire by General Ewell's order; ironclads were blown up; bridges burnt; the flames "leaped from street to street," and the roar of the conflagration was heard above the rumbling of wheels and all the other sounds of flight. On Monday morning, the 3d of April, the National forces occupied the Confederate capital.

567. Lee's Surrender.-Lee retreated westward, closely pursued by Grant. His men had nothing to eat but the shoots of trees, and were so worn out that their progress was very slow. Arms were thrown away, and hundreds deserted at a time. Sheridan, with his cavalry, hung on his flanks, and captured thousands of prisoners. Finally, on the 9th, Lee surrendered his entire command, then consisting of less than 28,000 men, at Appomattox Court-house, Virginia. Officers and men, having given their word of honor to fight no more against the United States, "until properly exchanged," were dismissed to their homes. Johnston surrendered on similar terms to Sherman, April 26th, and the few scattered forces of the Confederacy followed the example.

568. President Davis, after a feeble attempt to keep up the forms of a government at Danville, escaped to the southward. He was arrested by Union forces near Irwinsville, Georgia, and was held for two years a prisoner at Fortress Monroe. Then he was released on bail, and the proposed trial for treason never took place.

569. Mr. Lincoln's second Inaugural Address, on the 4th of March, 1865, fairly stated the positions of the two parties in the Civil War: "Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. . . . The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. . . . With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the Nation's wounds, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

.

It was believed that the same just and manly spirit which

had guided the nation through the tempest of civil war would best preside over its interests in the restoration of peace. But so it was not to be.

570. Thanksgiving Day.-The fourth anniversary of the surrender of Sumter was appointed by the President as a day of thanksgiving for the close of the war. By his invitation a party of distinguished civilians repaired to Charleston, and witnessed the raising of the stars and stripes April 14. above the ruined fort." He remained at his post in Washington. In the evening, learning that the people would be disappointed if he failed to appear at the theater, he went thither accompanied by his wife. A half-mad actor, named John Wilkes Booth, who had been nerving himself to the horrid deed by draughts of brandy, entered the President's private box and shot him through the head; then, leaping to the stage, escaped, took horse, and spurred away into the darkness. At the same time another murderer visited the house of Mr. Seward, who was ill in bed, and stabbed him several times, but not mortally.

571. Death of the President.-Mr. Lincoln lingered until the next morning in unconsciousness, and then died. The horror and indignation excited by the wicked plot was not confined to the North. It was found, however, that only a few persons of no great reputation were concerned in it.1 Booth was overtaken and shot, as he refused to surrender; four of his accomplices were hanged, and three were imprisoned for life.

As the funeral escort of the dead President passed through the northern cities to his old home in Springfield, Illinois, it was attended by many tokens of the love and grief of the people.

572. The Seventeenth President.-Vice-president Andrew Johnson took the oath of the highest office on the day of Mr. Lincoln's death, and became the seventeenth President of the United States.

573. Nevada was the third state formed (1864) from the lands acquired from Mexico. Its rich silver mines, discovered in 1859, have drawn a crowd of adventurers; and in no state have such sudden and immense fortunes been made. Carson City and Virginia City are centers of mining interests.

Several territories were divided during this period, and Dakota, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana received regular territorial governments.

Read histories of the Civil War by Greeley, Draper, Stephens, Pollard, and Lossing: Moore's "Rebellion Record;" Badeau's "Life of Grant;" Johnston's "Narrative of Military Operations."

NOTES.

1. "Some boys had discovered powder at the depot of the "Northwestern Railway," and amused themselves by throwing some of it on the burning cotton in the street. The powder dropping from their hands soon formed a train, along which fire ran to the large quantity stored at the depot. A terrible explosion followed, by which the city was shaken to its foundations."-Lossing.

2. Terms of surrender were first agreed upon between Sherman and Johnston on the 18th of April. But the terms were considered too liberal by the Government, and were refused.

3. On this occasion a well-deserved compliment was paid to Anderson, then a major-general. With his own hands he raised the identical flag that he had been compelled to lower four years before.

4. It was at first supposed that Jefferson Davis and a number of leading Confederates were implicated in the plot, and President Johnson accordingly offered rewards for their capture: $100,000 for Davis, $25,000 each for four others, and $10,000 for another.