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On the sixth of March, Mr. Fessenden, who had never regarded himself as permanently in the office of Secretary of the Treasury, resigned; and Hugh McCulloch of Indiana was appointed to his place. Further than this, Mr. Lincoln introduced no changes into his cabinet. The people had not only indorsed Mr. Lincoln, but they had indorsed his administration. On the eleventh of March, the President issued a proclamation, in pursuance of an act of Congress, calling upon deserters to return to their posts, and promising them pardon. The proclamation called many of the wanderers back to their duty. The draft for three hundred thousand men was commenced on the fifteenth of the same month, and every necessary measure was adopted for a continuance of the war, should the constant accumulation of federal successes fail to bring the rebellion to a close.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE affairs of the rebellion were hurrying to a crisis. In January, General Sherman started northward with his hosts; and the borders of South Carolina were reached on the thirtieth. They swept through the state, a very besom of de struction-tearing up railroads, burning bridges, living on the country, and attracting large numbers of negroes to them, to learn that they were free. Columbia was occupied on the seventeenth of February, and the public property destroyed. The arteries that fed the life of Charleston were cut, and the proud city was evacuated without the cost of a life. Though threatened often, the army marched with scarcely more difficulty than they experienced in their march across Georgia. Fayetteville, North Carolina, was reached and occupied on the twelfth of March; and then communication was established with Generals Terry and Schofield at Wilmington, and the army received such supplies as were needed. Battles occurred at Averysboro and Bentonville; but still the march was resistless, and the forces gathered in front, under command of General Johnston, were driven northward as the forest leaves are driven by the wind. On the twenty-second of March, Goldsboro was occupied; and there the army remained for some days, while General Sherman visited City Point, for consultation with General Grant.

The army of Sherman was aiming at Richmond. There was no doubt of that; but Lee was held to the rebel capital. by Grant, and could not get away. The grand campaign

was culminating; and, on the day that Sherman entered Goldsboro, Mr. Lincoln arrived at City Point, partly to relieve himself of official cares that had made him sick, and partly to be near operations which involved momentous consequences to the country. On the twenty-fifth of March, Lee attacked and captured Fort Stedman, but was driven out of it with terrible losses; and Mr. Lincoln visited the scene on the same day, cheered by the soldiers wherever he appeared. The day had been fixed upon for a grand review, in honor of the President; but Mr. Lincoln said: "This is better than a review." On the twenty-eighth of March, a council of war was held on the steamer River Queen, at City Point, attended by the President and Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Meade, and Ord; and, soon afterwards, Sherman left to rejoin his army.

New dispositions of troops had been in progress for several days; and, on the day following the council of war, the grand movement of the army of the Potomac began. Before the morning was passed, a new line of battle had been formed, whose right was on the extreme left of the former position; and here the army commenced entrenching. A sharp little fight occurred in the afternoon, without material results. On the following day, it rained; but on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Grant's whole line was engaged in a series of heavy battles; and, while these were in progress, the President remained at City 1 oint, receiving dispatches from the field, and forwarding the substance of them to the country. His first dispatch, on Saturday, reported that there had been much hard fighting that morning, in which our forces had been driven back. Later in the day, he announced that the ground had all been retaken, and that our troops were occupying the position which the rebels held in the morning. On Saturday, Sheridan and Warren met with great successes. On Sunday, the President announced "the triumphant success of our armies, after three days of hard fighting, during which the forces on both sides displayed unsurpassed valor." At halfpast eight in the evening, Mr. Lincoln telegraphed to Mr. Stanton that, at half-past four in the afternoon, General Grant

reported that he had taken twelve thousand prisoners, and fifty pieces of artillery. In the smoke of this great day of battle, the rebellion was overthrown. Lee, with his shattered army reduced to half of its original numbers, by the three days of fighting, evacuated Richmond. The rebel rams and wooden fleet were blown up during the night, with terrific explosions. On the north side of the James, lay General Weitzel's corps, waiting to occupy Richmond, whenever the signs should indicate the safety of an advance. On Monday morning, April third, Weitzel pushed out the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry to reconnoiter; and they reported that no enemy was to be found. At eleven in the morning, he announced by telegraph that he entered Richmond at a quarter past eight; that the enemy had left in great haste; that he had many guns; that the city was on fire; and that the people received him with enthusiastic expressions of ioy. His dispatch closed with the statement that Grant had started to cut off Lee's retreat, and that President Lincoln had gone to the front.

The day on which Richmond fell will long be remembered by the people of America, in both sections of the country. When the news was made public on Monday, the whole North was thrown into a frenzy of joyous excitement. Every bell on every public building, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was rung for hours. Cannon answered to cannon, from mountain to mountain, and from valley to valley. Men grasped one another's hands in the streets, and wept, or embraced each other in the stress of their joyous enthusiasm. Public meetings were called, at which the deeds of the gallant heroes who had won the decisive victories were praised and cheered, and the public exultation found expression in speech and music. Nothing like it was ever seen upon the continent. The war was over. Richmond, that had so long defied the national authority and resisted the national arms, was ours. The rebel President and his associates were fugitives. Lee's army was running away, and Grant was pursuing them. The sun of peace had fairly risen. The incubus of war that had pressed upon the nation's heart for four long, weary years, was lifted; and the nation

sprang to its feet, with all possible demonstrations of joyous exultation

The pursuit of Lee was relentlessly prosecuted by our vic torious forces; and, after two or three battles, the rebel General was obliged to surrender his whole army, which had been reduced by his losses to less than twenty thousand men. Within a period of less than two weeks, the city of Richmond was taken, and the proud army of Virginia passed out of existence, The capture of Lee was made the occasion of another day of popular rejoicing; and the scenes and sounds that followed the capture of Richmond were repeated.

Of the feelings of Mr. Lincoln, as he sat in his tent at City Point, receiving the dispatches which informed him of the momentous movements in progress at the front, no imagination can form an exaggerated estimate. But he could not sustain the excitement of those days without relief; and he found it in a way which none but he would have adopted. Just before he arrived at City Point, a pet cat, belonging to General Grant, had presented the General with a little family of kittens. On their owner's departure, the President took them into his care; and, during all those days of battle, in the intervals while he waited for dispatches, he relieved the pres sure upon his heart and brain by playing with these kittens. When Richmond had fallen, and he was about to start for the front, he took up one of the kittens, and said: "Little kitten, I must perform a last act of kindness for you, before I go. I must open your eyes." He then manipulated the closed lids as tenderly as a mother would handle her child, until he had accomplished his purpose. Then he put her down, and, as he stood enjoying her surprise at being able to see, he said sadly: "Oh that I could open the eyes of my blinded fellowcountrymen, as easily as I have those of that little creature!" The eyes of his blinded fellow-countrymen were soon opened, but alas! it involved the closing of his own!

Mr. Lincoln belied his own estimate of his physical courage, by going directly into the fallen capital, so lately swarming with armed enemies, and so crowded still with sullen rebels.

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