Lincoln's Generals' Wives by Candice Shy Hooper

Author:Candice Shy Hooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Kent State University Press

Sherman recalled that at the second meeting on the River Queen, he initiated the questions about “What was to be done with the rebel armies when defeated? And what should be done with the political leaders, such as Jeff. Davis, etc.? Should we allow them to escape, etc.?” According to Sherman, Lincoln said, “all he wanted of us was to defeat the opposing armies, and to get the men composing the Confederate armies back to their homes, at work on their farms and in their shops. As to Jeff Davis, he was hardly at liberty to speak his mind fully, but intimated that he ought to clear out, ‘escape the country,’ only it would not do for him to say openly. … I inferred that Mr. Lincoln wanted Davis to escape, ‘unbeknownst’ to him.”6

By the conclusion of the meeting with Lincoln, Sherman wrote that he was “more than ever impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy … and that his earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily without more bloodshed or devastation, and to restore all of the men of both sections to their homes.” What Sherman heard from Lincoln at that meeting was in tune with his own philosophy of hard war, soft peace. Unlike their first meeting almost exactly four years earlier, this one was harmonious. They had not agreed at all in 1861 on how to begin fighting the war, but in Sherman’s mind, the two men agreed on how it should be ended. “Of all the men I ever met,” Sherman reflected in his memoirs, Lincoln “seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other.”7

Sherman left immediately after the meeting. Returning to Goldsboro, he prepared his army to move north to Petersburg, intent on preventing Johnston from linking up with Lee before his forces could arrive. He also took time to write Ellen. “I made a hasty visit to City Point to see Genl. Grant, to confer with him on points of importance and am back before Joseph Johnston or the newspapers found out the fact.” He did not mention meeting Lincoln. He knew she was in Chicago about the Sanitary Fair, and he feared reporters would learn about the visit from her. “Don’t go near those Tribune men. They are as mean sneaks as possible,” he told her later in her visit there. “They would report your conversations, and pick your pockets of my letters and publish them if it would contribute to their temporary advantage.”8

On April 5, he wrote Thomas Ewing: “I am preparing to go butt end, at Joe Johnston towards Raleigh.” He also told Ewing that he was sending a messenger to Ellen with “the Rebel flag that was over the State House of Columbia S.C. as a contribution to the Fair of which it seems she is a patroness.” Sherman remained concerned about the propriety of sending the flag. “The Col. of this Regt. Sends the flag to Ellen

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