"You will take notice that the truce or suspension of hostilities agreed to between us on the 18th instant will close in forty-eight hours after this is received at your lines."

At the same time he wrote:

"I have replies from Washington to my communications of the 18th. I am instructed to limit my operations to your immediate command, and not attempt civil negotiations. I therefore demand the surrender of your army on the same terms as were given to General Lee at Appomattox, Va., on the 9th April, instant, purely and simply."

Within an hour after the reception of General Grant's dispatch, a courier was riding with all haste towards Durham's Station with this notice and demand for General Johnston. Immediately on the return of the messenger, General Sherman issued orders to his troops terminating the truce on the 26th, at twelve o'clock M., and ordered all to be in readiness to march at that time, on routes previously prescribed in the special field-orders of April 14th, from positions held April 18th. These dispositions were already made when General Grant arrived at Raleigh. He then informed General Sherman that he had orders from the President to direct all military movements, and General Sherman explained to him the exact position of the troops. General Grant was so well satisfied with the situation, that he concluded not to interfere with the arrangements already made, and to leave their execution in the hands of General Sherman.

As for General Johnston. he was powerless; he could neither fight nor retreat. He must either disperse his army or surrender it on the terms proposed. On the 25th he invited General Sherman to another conference, with a view to surrender. It was now the province of General Grant to take the lead in the negotiations, but he preferred that the entire business should be consummated by General Sherman. Nevertheless, he recommended and even urged General Sherman

to afford General Johnston another interview, which was finally appointed to take place at the hour designated for the termination of the truce.

At this conference final terms were soon concluded, and the second grand army of the Confederacy was surrendered to the power of the United States upon the following terms :

"Terms of a military convention entered into this twenty-sixth (26th) day of April, 1865, at Bennett's house, near Durham's Station, North Carolina, between General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army, and Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding the United States Army in North Carolina.

"All acts of war on the part of the troops under General Johnston's command to cease from this date. All arms and public property to be deposited at Greensboro', and delivered to an ordnance officer of the United States Army. Rolls of all officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be retained by the commander of the troops, and the other to be given to an officer to be designated by General Sherman. Each officer and man to give his individual obligation in writing not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly released from this obligation. The sidearms of officers, and their private horses and baggage, to be retained by them.

"This being done, all the officers and men will be permitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as they observe their obligations and the laws in force where they may reside.

General Sherman says, in his report :—

"And although undue importance has been given to the socalled negotiations which preceded it, and a rebuke and public disfavor cast on me wholly unwarranted by the facts, I rejoice in saying it was accomplished without further ruin and devastation to the country; without the loss of a single life of those gallant men who had followed me from the Mississippi to the Atlantic; and without subjecting brave men to the ungracious task of pursuing a fleeing foe that did not wish to fight. And I challenge the instance, during the last four years, when an armed and defiant foe stood before me, that I did not go in for a fight; and I would blush for shame if I had ever struck or insulted a fallen foe."

It will now become necessary to recur to events transpiring at Washington and Richmond during the absence of the lieutenant-general.

CHAPTER XXXII.

CORRESPONDENCE DURING THE TRUCE.

In order to a more perfect understanding of the intentions of the framers of the original memorandum of agreement, in proposing and consenting to the terms of the armistice, it is now necessary to refer to the correspondence that took place during the period that intervened between the signature of the agreement by General Sherman and General Johnston on the 18th of April, 1865, and the night of the 23d of the same month, when General Sherman received the first notification that the Government had refused to ratify his action.

Immediately on signing the truce, Sherman dispatched the following order, by a flag of truce, through the lines of the Confederate army to General Stoneman, commanding the cavalry in Johnston's rear :

"GENERAL-General Johnston and I have agreed to maintain a truce in the nature of statu quo, by which each agrees to stand fast till certain propositions looking to a general peace are referred to our respective principals. You may, therefore, cease hostilities, but supplies may come to me near Raleigh.

"Keep your command well in hand, and approach Durham's Station or Chapel Hill, and I will supply you by our railroad. As soon as you reach the outer pickets report to me in person or by telegraph."

This was indorsed by General Johnston for the guidance of his troops, as follows:

"The above order is given by agreement between MajorGeneral Sherman and myself. The march of Major-General Stoneman's command under it is not to be interfered with by Confederate troops.

"J. E. JOHNSTON,

"General."

At the same time the following communication was dispatched, through the same channels, addressed to the commanding general of the armies of the United States in Virginia :

"GENERAL-I have agreed with General Joseph E. Johnston for a temporary cessation of active hostilities, to enable me to lay before our Government at Washington the agreement made between us, with the full sanction of Mr. Davis, and in the presence of Mr. Breckinridge, for the disbandment of all the armies of the Confederacy from here to the Rio Grande.

"If any of your forces are moving towards Johnston, I beg you to check them where they are, or at the extremity of any railroad where they may be supplied, until you receive orders from General Grant, or until I notify you that the agreement is at an end and hostilities resumed."

On the 19th, orders were sent to General Gillmore to cease active operations in South Carolina.

"You may now recall General Hatch to the Santee," Sherman wrote to General Gillmore. 'Keep pickets about Branchville and the Santee Bridge, and await the further developments. I have no doubt that a general surrender of all the Confederate armies is arranged, and only awaits a confirmation from Washington. All is well with us and everywhere."

Thus far, however, no measures had been taken to check the devastation caused by the bold Wilson's unembarrassed raid through Georgia and Alabama. General Johnston, therefore, wrote to General Sherman as follows: