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to be occupied by an overwhelming force of Union troops, he withdrew. When Richmond was made the Rebel capital, and the Rebel forces of the State of Virginia made a part of the Rebel army, Lee's rank was fixed as a brigadier-general. After the death of General Garnett, in Western Virginia, General Lee was appointed to succeed him; and on the 12th of September, 1861, was defeated by General John F. Reynolds, at Cheat mountain, and compelled to retreat with heavy loss; owing, it was said, to the failure of one of his subordinate officers to carry out his plans. He subsequently threatened Rosecrans' position at Big Sewell, Western Virginia, but did no more fighting there. In December, he was transferred to South Carolina, and ordered to take charge of the coast defences of South Carolina and Georgia. He put the coast defences in good condition, and in March, 1862, was summoned to Richmond, and put in charge of the defences of Richmond. In the battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines, General J. E. Johnston, then in command of the Rebel army, was wounded severely, and General Lee was appointed to succeed him. In the subsequent battles of the seven days on the Peninsula, the Rebel army of Northern Virginia was under his command, and he led it also in the battles of Pope's campaign, crossed the Potomac, and commanded in person at Antietam; and after the drawn battle there, retreated into Virginia, and took up his position on the Rappahannock, near Fredericksburg. All the subsequent battles of the war, in Northern Virginia, and the battles of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, and Falling Waters, Maryland, were fought under his personal direction. At Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville he displayed decided strategic ability; while the expedition into Pennsylvania, in June and July, 1863, terminating with the battles at Gettysburg, so disastrous to the Rebels, was perhaps less creditable to his military abilities, inasmuch as, with the full knowledge of the condition of affairs at Richmond, it was extremely hazardous on his part to undertake it. In the subsequent operations of the autumn of 1863, on the Rapidan, and north of it, he displayed much talent, though not always successful. In the great campaign of 1864, he managed his army with consummate skill, and though convinced that his cause was hopeless as early as December, 1864, he did not desist from the most strenuous exertions to defend his position, and to maintain the war. Early in January, 1865, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the entire military forces of the Rebels, and accepted the position reluctantly, from a conviction that their cause was past salvation. On the 3d of April, 1865, he evacuated Richmond and Petersburg, and, on the 9th, surrendered to General Grant. He is still (December, 1865) on parole, but has been for some months President of Washington College, Virginia.

CHAPTER LXXII.

THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT-THE CIRCUMSTANCES—ATTEMPT TO MURDER OTHER HIGH OFFICERS OF GOVERNMENT—THE sorrow AND GLOOM OF THE NATION-ARREST AND PUNISHMENT OF THE ASSASSINS-SKETCH OF LINCOLN-THE STABILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATED—THE ADVANCE OF SHERMAN TO SMITHFIELD AND RALEIGH-HIS ARMY RECEIVE THE INTELLIGENCE OF LEE'S SURRENDER-DISPOSITIONS MADE TO COMPIL JOHNSTON'S SURRENDER-JOHNSTON ASKS AN INTERVIEW—HIS DESIRE FOR TERMS EMBRAC ING ALL THE REBEL ARMIES-SECOND CONFERENCE THE MEMORANDUM" DRAWN UP AND

SENT TO WASHINGTON-ITS TERMS-ITS REJECTION BY THE CABINET-GENERAL GRANY BEARS THE NEWS, AND IS AUTHORIZED TO TAKE COMMAND-SHERMAN'S PROMPT ACTION— JOHNSTON SURRENDERS ON THE SAME TERMS AS LEE-SHERMAN'S VISIT TO SAVANNAHHIS FIELD ORDERS-HE MARCHES HIS ARMY TO RICHMOND AND WASHINGTON, AND TAKES LEAVE OF IT-DISBANDING OF THE FORCES-STONEMAN'S EXPEDITION-GENERAL OSBAND'S EXPEDITION FROM VICKSBURG-CANBY'S SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF MOBILE-SURRENDER OF THE REBEL FLEET-GENERAL DICK TAYLOR'S SURRENDER, and that OF THE SUBORDINATE OFFICERS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY-WILSON'S CAVALRY EXPEDITION-ITS NUMBERS AND ARMS-THE MARCH-CAPTURE OF MONTEVALLO AND RANDOLPH-CROXTON'S SEPARATE EXPEDITION-THE BATTLE AND CAPTURE OF SELMA-ITS GREAT STRENGTH-CAPTURE OF MONTGOMERY, WETUMPKA, ALA., AND COLUMBUS, GA.-BATTLE AT WEST POINT, GA.ITS CAPTURE-LA GRANGE, GRIFFIN, AND FORSYTH CAPTURED SHERMAN'S ARMISTICE— CAPTURE OF MACON-DETENTION AT MACON-CROXTON'S RETURN TO THE MAIN ARMY— HIS ACHIEVEMENTS-THE SURRENDER OF ALL THE REBEL TROOPS EAST OF THE CHATTAHOOCHIE-DISTRIBUTION OF TROOPS-PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS-" THE POOR OLD MOTHER" AND HER BOOTS--DISPOSITION MADE OF THE PRISONER-RESULTS OF WILSON'S CAMPAIGN-KIRBY SMITH'S SURRENDER-SHERIDAN ON THE RIO GRANDE.

WHILE Lee's surrender betokened to the minds of all the citizens of the Republic the speedy return of peace, and the intelligence of each hour brought new joy and hope that the four years' struggle was ended, and that the beloved chief magistrate, twice chosen of the people, would soon, as he had promised in his first inaugural, repossess the forts and property of the nation, and rule over a united instead of a divided Republic, there fell upon the nation a terrible and crushing blow, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, and wrapped the continent in gloom.

President Lincoln, who had been at City Point during the last few days of the campaign which ended in the evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg and the surrender of Lee's army, and who had entered Richmond and spent one day there, had returned to Washington, satisfied that the last days of the Rebellion had come, and that both the nation and himself were about to experience those halcyon days of peace and quietness, of which hitherto, during his administration, there had been no example. Cheered with this prospect, and rejoicing that, on the 14th of April, the national flag, which that day, four years before, had been lowered by Rebel orders, would again float over what remained of the battlements of

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Sumter, Mr. Lincoln, on the evening of that day (Good Friday), at the earnest solicitation of friends, went to Ford's theatre with his wife, and the daughter and stepson (Major Rathbone) of Senator Harris, of New York, to witness the play of the "American Cousin." During the second scene of the third act of the play, about ten o'clock, P. M., an assassin suddenly entered Mr. Lincoln's box, and discharged a pistol at the President, the ball taking effect in the back of his head, and passing upward and forward through the posterior portion of the brain. Major Rathbone attempted instantly to seize the desperado, and though severely wounded in the arm, clung to him; but as the assassin leaped from the box upon the stage, his hold gave way. In this leap, the spur upon the boot of the murderer caught in the flag, and he fell; but springing up, he flourished a bowie-knife, and shouting " Sic semper tyrannis" (the motto of Virginia), rushed across the stage, and out by a rear passage, where he had a horse in waiting, which he mounted, and on which he fled. The moment it was ascertained that the President had been shot, the most intense excitement prevailed. Mr. Lincoln was borne from the house, insensible, to a dwelling near, where he lingered, without return of consciousness, till twenty-two minutes past seven in the morning of the 15th, when he expired. At the same hour, another assassin entered the residence of Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State-who was very ill from injuries received from being thrown from his carriage a few days before-and pretending to have been sent by his physician with some medicine for him, forced his way into his chamber, though not without great resistance, and having inflicted severe injuries upon three men, Messrs. Robinson and Hansell, the attendants of Mr. Seward, and Mr. Frederick W. Seward, son of the Secretary, attempted to cut Mr. Seward's throat; but owing to the dressing upon his face, which had been fractured by his fall, he only succeeded in laying open the cheek and jaw. He also fled. It was soon ascertained that it had been intended by the conspirators to murder not only Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, but VicePresident Johnson, Secretary Stanton, General Grant, and Chief Justice Chase and the desperate plot had partially failed, through unexpected movements of some of the intended victims, and the cowardice of some of the conspirators. The intelligence of the murder of the President sent a thrill of horror through the entire nation, and overwhelmed it in the deepest grief.

"When the sad day (April 18th) came, in which the body of the Republic's most honored magistrate, martyred in its cause, was to be borne to its final resting-place in the distant Prairie State, a scene was witnessed such as had never before taken place in human history. The whole nation mourned with a depth and intensity of grief unparalleled in all the records of the past, the loss of its chosen head, its father and its friend.

'Amid the stirring April days, while springing grass and greening boughs proclaimed that summer drew nigh, the procession left the capital, which never before had been so shaken with pain, and grief, and righteous rage. They took the same route which he had traversed when coming in life to his high place, and bore him forever from the scene of his eventful sway. And as they went, the great capitals of the land welcomed, with such demonstrations of honor as no preceding experience had witnessed, the shrunken, discolored, and pulseless frame. The city through which he passed before in a sheltering privacy, now crowded tremulous, in tearful affection, around his bier. The great metropolis, whose mob then hated him, the leaders of whose fashion turned from him with contempt, and whose authorities sought to insult him, now poured from every street and lane to witness the sad procession of his mourners. Its whole business was suspended; its houses were hung from base to roof with funeral pomp; its pavements were thronged with silent, patient, unmoving crowds; its windows gleamed with pallid faces, as through the hushed, expectant avenues wound, hour by hour, while bells were tolling, and minute-guns, with measured boom, were counting the instants, that vast, uncounted, unparalleled procession. Not capitals only, but States themselves, became his mourners. Churches put off their Easter emblems to hide pillar and wall and arch in sable woe. Each railway was made a via Dolorosa. The spontaneous homage of millions was offered through the uncovered head, the crape, the wreath, through all the sombre insignia of grief, as the train, with its precious burden, sped on. The country shrouded its weeping face, and all the blooms of spring around could bring no flush to its changed countenance; the song and sparkle, and the fresh impulse, of which the very air was full, could stir no pulse of gladness or of hope while still that spectacle haunted its gaze. For over every loyal heart there brooded a sorrow as if the most revered had fallen, as if the shock of personal bereavement had smitten separately every household."

While this sad procession was thus slowly drawing toward the final resting-place of the martyred President, the Vice President-who had taken the oath of office as President and the Cabinet, were unwearied in their efforts to ascertain and bring to justice the miscreants who had been guilty of a deed so horrible. The murderer of the President was recognized as one John Wilkes Booth, a profligate and desperate actor, who had availed himself of his knowledge of the theatre and his free access to it (having formerly performed there) to plan the details of his infamous crime. But the fact that the attempt was made to murder all the leading officers of the Government showed conclusively that the conspiracy was an extensive one, and involved others than the immediate actors. Payne, alias Powell, the attempted assassin of Mr. Seward, was arrested two days after, at the residence of a Mrs. Surratt, toward whom suspicion pointed as

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having been extremely intimate with Booth; and both he and Mrs. Surratt were at once placed in close confinement. Atzerot, a German, who was to have murdered Vice-President Johnson; Arnold, whose complicity had been ascertained by correspondence found in Booth's trunk; O'Laughlin, also implicated; and Spangler, an employee of the theatre, who had aided Booth in escaping, were arrested, and the detectives were engaged in tracking Booth and Harold, a youth who had been his confidant and companion. On the 26th of April they were brought to bay in a barn in Caroline county, Va., between Bowling Green and Port Royal, on the Rappahannock, and Harold surrendered; but Booth refusing to surrender, the barn was set on fire, and Booth, attempting to fight his way out, was shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett, and died after three hours of fearful suffering. He had broken his leg in his leap upon the stage, and a Dr. Mudd, who had been one of the conspirators, had set it, but it had had no opportunity to unite. Dr. Mudd was arrested and brought to Washington for trial with the rest. The military court which was to try these cases, found that John H. Surratt, a son of Mrs. Surratt, had also been an active coadjutor in the conspiracy, but he had made his escape. There was also ample evidence implicating Jefferson Davis, the late Rebel President; Mr. Seddon, the late Rebel Secretary of War; Clement C. Clay; Beverly Tucker; Jacob Thompson, formerly Secretary of the Interior; George N. Sanders and others, as accessories before the fact in the assassination, and as having furnished the money and rewards for it. The parties already under arrest were tried by a military court, and with every advantage of counsel. Payne or Powell, Atzerot, Harold, and Mrs. Surratt were condemned to death, and were hung July 7th, 1865. Mudd, O'Laughlin and Arnold were imprisoned for life on the Dry Tortugas, and Spangler for six years.

Let us, before proceeding farther, sketch briefly the remarkable career of this noble man, who, coming to the chief magistracy in troublesome times, by his wise conduct, his burning patriotism, and his unflinching integrity, as well as his martyrdom for his country's sake, endeared himself, above all other men of his generation, to the hearts of the people of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, February 12th, 1809. His ancestors were Quakers. In 1816, his father removed to Spencer county, Indiana, and Abraham was thus early put to work with an axe to clear away the forest. In the next ten years, he received about one year's schooling in such schools as were taught in that new country. At the age of nineteen years, he made a trip to New Orleans, as a hired hand on a flat boat. In March, 1830, he removed with his father to Decatur, Illinois, and aided in building a cabin, settling the family in their new home, and providing for them during the ensuing winter. In 1831, he again made a trip to New Orleans, and on his return, became a clerk in