the theatre, in the evening, with President Lincoln; but he had not seen his family for a long time and started for Burlington, N. J., where his children were at school. That night the nation was plunged into gloom by the assassination of its loved President, in the theatre, by an actor named John Wilkes Booth, and by the attempted assassination of Sec.

of State, Wm. H. Seward, by an associate conspirator named Payne. Grant was at once telegraphed for by the Secretary of War, and he returned to Washington that night. The next day, April 15th, Lincoln expired and Vice-President Johnson was inaugurated. The time was portentous, the whirl of events rapid and demoralizing. No one knew the breadth of that foul conspiracy. The shock of murder in high

place, "the deep damnation of that taking off," the sudden transition from triumphal cheer to funereal tear, the mistrust of a new administration, the pour of unforeseen, responsible and delicate duties, rendered the presence of the Lieutenant-General in Washington a comfort and necessity.

On April 10th, the day after Lee's surrender, Grant sent word

to Sherman at Goldsboro to "push on and finish the job with Lee and Johnston's armies." Sherman immediately moved upon Johnston at Smithfield. But Johnston was now in no mood for a fight. He beat a hasty retreat through Raleigh, which place Sherman occupied on the 13th. On the 14th, a message, dictated by Jefferson Davis, came through Johnston to

Sherman, asking that the civil authorities be permitted to make arrangements to end the war. Sherman replied that he had full power to conduct and accept a surrender. On the 16th, Johnston agreed to meet Sherman between the two armies. The interview became a long talk about terms, to which neither party agreed. Another meeting was had on the 18th, at which terms were agreed upon. They were lengthy and unfortunate, for while they embraced the surrender of all the Confederate armies, they committed the government to a course in the future, which would have amounted to a dangerous concession of its prerogatives. Both Sherman and Johnston felt that the terms were too far beyond their authority as army officers, too legislative and political in their scope, to be final without the sanction of the civil authorities. So Sherman sent a copy to Washington for such sanction. Grant received them on the night of April 21st, and immediately sent them to the Secretary of War, with a note suggesting that they be acted upon in cabinet without delay. He saw their importance, as well as the danger of approving them. That same night a cabinet meeting was called and Sherman's terms were repudiated unanimously. The President and Secretary of War were bitterly outspoken in their dissent. They regarded his concessions as highly dangerous, and his assumption of authority as unprecedented. Grant generously came to Sherman's defence, and while he did not sanction the terms, he defended his lieutenant against all imputations, and declared that whatever his errors of judgment, his motives were beyond question.

Grant was instructed by the President to give notice to Sherman of the official repudiation of his terms of surrender, and to command him to resume hostilities at the earliest possible moment. To make all sure, he was ordered forthwith to the scene to take control of operations in person. Instructions were also sent in various directions to Sherman's subordinates to disregard his orders. Starting on the 22d, Grant made all

haste toward Raleigh, anxious to save the reputation of his trusted lieutenant, and still more anxious to bring the military status to where Lee's surrender left it. It was a moment of supreme danger. One false step now, one hour of unnecessary delay, might undo all that Appomattox had done and reopen the smouldering fires of war. As Grant hurried toward Sherman, he ordered Sheridan to push to Greensboro, North Carolina, with all his cavalry and a corps of infantry. There was to be no escape for Johnston and no terms but those which were unconditional. He reached Raleigh on April 24th, and in a delicate manner informed Sherman of the disapproval of his terms. - Sherman at once accepted the situation and notified Johnston that their agreement had not been sanctioned by the authorities, and that the only terms of surrender which could be accepted would be those which Lee had signed at Appomattox. At the same tire he sent word that the armistice would end in forty-eight hours. Johnston referred these dispatches to Jefferson Davis, who ordered that officer to disband the Confederate infantry, and beat a retreat with all his mounted force and such artillery as could be taken along. Johnston ignored this last and unworthy order from the Confederate President. He could not conscientiously sacrifice his sturdy footmen to the privileged riders, the veteran soldiery to the civic officials. He would make no mounted body guard for the fugitive President and cabinet, to be pursued remorselessly through the south leaving another trail of blood and destruction. So he wrote another set of terms in consonance with those presented by Grant to Lee, and asked for another conference on the 26th. These were signed on that day, and he surrendered thirty-one thousand two hundred and forty-three men, who were paroled, together with cannon, small arms and munitions.

General Grant acted with great kindness and delicacy toward Sherman during these transactions. He did not appear in the

final interview with Johnston. While he supervised all of Sherman's acts and permitted nothing to be done without his approval, he signed no papers except the last on which he wrote "approved" over his own signature. It is said that Johnston did not even know of his presence in Raleigh. Grant then returned to Washington to find the sentiment in a flame over Sherman's blunder, and his reputation under a cloud of doubt and aspersion. Again he threw himself into the breach, and this time was forced to stay the storm of excitement and indignation by using for his friend the shield of his own reputation, declaring that Sherman's loyalty was as undoubted as his The fact undoubtedly was that Sherman's mistake in undertaking to legislate for the government in these terms of surrender was due to a pardonable feeling of leniency in the moment of victory, which the diplomacy of Johnston and Breckinridge, shrewder and less conscionable than his own, took greedy advantage of.

As we have seen, Mobile fell into Canby's hands on April 9th. After Lee's surrender, Stoneman swung his cavalry column from Lynchburg to Johnston's rear, where he was doing an immense amount of damage when notified of the surrender. Wilson, with a command of twelve thousand and five hundred cavalry, had swept Alabama and Georgia, capturing all the towns in his course, and engaging in a severe night battle, April 16th, which gave him Augusta. This was the last battle of the war. On the 21st, Macon surrendered, with sixty field guns and twelve thousand militia, including Howell Cobb and four other generals. Here Wilson's cavalry campaign was ended by news of the armistice between Johnston and Sherman. Dick Taylor surrendered to Canby, on May 4th. On May 11th, Jefferson Davis was captured, in female disguise, at Irwinsville, Ga. Kirby Smith, beyond the Mississippi, remained defiant till he heard of Davis' capture, and the movement of a heavy force to his department, under Sheridan, when he left