Our One Common Country (57 page)

218.
Alec Stephens was there:
Avary,
Recollections,
p. 183; Johnson, “Peace Conference,” p. 376; Schott, p. 448; Furgurson, p. 293; Rabun, p. 319; McElroy, p. 441.

219.
Repeated calls were made for the Vice President:
Richmond Dispatch,
February 7, 1865, reprinted in
Baltimore Sun,
February 11, 1865.

220.
“a squalid, half-famished wretch”:
Willcox, 605.

220.
Grant wired Washington: OR,
ser. 1, v. 46, pt. 2, p. 415.

 

CHAPTER 21

221.
Petroleum V. Nasby:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 238.

221.
Thaddeus Stephens disagreed:
Congressional Globe,
February 7, 1865, p. 645.

221.
“I hope you will burn all cotton”:
OR, ser. 1, vol. 47, pt. 2, p. 342.

222.
“I hear of but few officers killed”:
Meade, p. 261.

222.
“He told the boys to take this ring”:
Bradds, p. 5.

222.
Lee lost over a thousand; The North lost more:
www.civilwar.org/battlefields/hatchers-run-history-articles/the-batttle-of-hatchers-run.

222.
“no favor in these parts”:
Worthington Chauncey Ford,
A Cycle of Adams Letters 1861–1865
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), pp. 252–53.

222.
Seward's message to Adams:
OR,
ser. 1, vol. 46, pt. 2, p. 472; Escott, p. 271 n. 8.

222.
a peace policy now treason
:
New York Times,
February 7, 1865.

223.
“dream of a reunited country”: Richmond Dispatch,
February 7, 1865, reprinted in
New York Times,
February 10, 1865.

223.
Snow had turned to rain:
Jones, vol. 2, pp. 411–12.

223.
Then he met with Judge Campbell:
Kean, p. 199.

223.
all was lost; he would stay a few weeks and go: Id.

223.
“scramble is going on”:
Jones, vol. 2, p. 412.

223.
“He has a ghostly appearance”; “with locked doors”: Id.,
p. 413.

223.
Lincoln . . . called on Preston Blair:
Letter from Blair to Lincoln, February 8, 1865, Lincoln papers, Library of Congress.

223.
Lizzie knew how depressed her father was:
Elizabeth Blair Lee, p. 473.

223.
He would soon tell a New York Congressman:
New York Daily Tribune
, February 6, 1865.

223.
Sumner introduced a resolution: Congressional Globe,
February 8, p. 657.

223.
they “drank thirstily”:
Pierce, vol. 4, p. 205.

223–224.
Lincoln's wire to Grant and Grant's reply:
OR,
ser. 1, vol. 46, pt. 2, pp. 473–74.

224.
a bright and frosty Thursday:
Jones, vol. 2, p. 415.

224.
began at high noon: Richmond Sentinel,
February 10, 1865, reprinted in
New York Times,
February 13, 1865.

224.
“perhaps he cannot decline”:
Jones, vol. 2, p. 414.

224.
Campbell and Stephens did: Stephens to Linton Stephens, February 18, 1865, Manhattanville Library;
Connor, p. 171; Schott, p. 448.

224.
a stirring “La Marseillaise”
:
Winik, p. 56.

224.
“under the influence”:
Hunter, “Reply,” p. 306.

224.
Hunter's speech:
Richmond Sentinel,
February 10, 1865,
New York Times,
February 13, 1865; and Crist, vol. 11, p. 380 n. 3.

224–225.
Benjamin's speech:
Richmond Sentinel,
February 10, 1865, reprinted in
New York Times,
February 13, 1865; Jones, vol. 2, p. 415. Senator Graham said Benjamin's speech was “exceedingly indecorous and impolitic,” beyond what the press reported (Graham, pp. 230-31 and 234).

225.
The Speaker of the Virginia House:
Richmond Sentinel,
February 10, 1865, reprinted in
New York Times,
February 13, 1865.

225.
“but quietly abide”; “I therefore left on the 9th”:
Stephens,
CV,
vol. 2, pp. 625–26; Cleveland, p. 200.

225.
Hunter was collecting statistics:
Jones, vol. 2, p. 416.

225.
“Thanks be to God”:
Quoted in Pollard, p. 470.

225.
The Raleigh
Progress: Quoted in James Ford Rhodes,
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the Final Restoration of Home Rule in the South in 1877
, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1909–19) (“Rhodes”), p. 73 n. 5.

226.
“dull, helpless expectation”:
Pollard, p. 473.

226.
the “worst” demanded peace: Id.,
p. 478.

226.
The idea was growing in the Southern mind: Id.,
p. 479.

226.
“There are ultras among us”:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 239.

226.
Lincoln's report to the House: Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress (
literally cut and pasted
)
; CW
, vol. 8, pp. 274–85. Noah Brooks describes its reading in
Lincoln Observed,
p. 163, and
Washington in Lincoln's Time,
pp. 229–32. The report is in the
Congressional Globe,
February 10, pp. 729–30. See
New York Times,
February 11, 1865.

227.
Washburne, Lincoln's friend and Grant's:
Hay Diary, p. 121; Simpson,
Grant,
p. 73.

227–228.
Brooks, Washburne, and Stevens on the House floor:
Congressional Globe,
February 10, pp. 730–35.

229.
John went back to the White House; “Suppose you take this along”:
Robert Stephens, p. 20.

229.
Lincoln's note to Stephens:
CW,
vol. 8, p. 287.

230.
“I could hear his deep breathing”:
Crook, “Lincoln As I Knew Him,” p. 111.

CHAPTER 22

231.
a “considerate friend”; “I did not utterly abandon my duty”:
Hunter, “Reply,” pp. 306–07.

231.
“to save as much as possible from the wreck”:
Lee, “Failure,” p. 478.

231.
The senators' visit with Davis:
Hunter recounts the conversation in Hunter, “Reply,” p. 307. He seems to have forgotten, twelve years after the fact, that Graham and Orr were with him, which Campbell confirms in Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 952. Davis tells his side of the story in Rowland, vol. 8, p. 124 . See Yearns, “Peace Movement,” p. 18. See Wakelyn, pp. 334–35 for a profile of Graham and pp. 208–09 for one of Orr. On Orr, see also Welles Diary, vol. 2, pp. 358–59.

231.
“with such a well-bred grace”:
Quoted in Yearns,
Confederate Congress
, pp. 221–22.

232.
Robert Woodward Barnwell: Wakelyn, p. 88; Rable, p. 209;
Biographical Directory.

232.
Davis summoned his Cabinet; Then he went alone to Senator Barnwell:
Rowland, vol. 8, p. 124.

232–233.
Barnwell's conversation with Hunter: Hunter, “Reply,” pp. 307–08.

233.
Hunter had the impression that Barnwell disagreed: Id.,
p. 307.

233.
The senators' conversation with Campbell: Campbell,
Reminiscences,
p. 22; Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 952.

233.
“bruited all over Richmond”; “destined to learn”:
Hunter, “Reply,” p. 308.

233.
“Had Mr. Davis agreed”:
Lee, “Failure,” p. 477. See Rowland, vol. 8, p. 128.

234.
Lee's conversation with Hunter: Hunter, “Reply,” pp. 308–09. When Hunter's account of his meeting with Lee was published after the war, Davis refused to believe it, unlike his wife, who reminded him how he refused to believe in the final months that Lee thought the war was lost (Strode, pp. 469–70).

234.
He mentioned no duty of his own:
Nolan,
Lee Considered.
Nolan's revisionist assessment of the sainted Lee is eye-opening.

234.
Hunter's conversation with Breckinridge: Hunter, “Reply,” p. 309.

234.
“I cannot make you feel how large they were”:
Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 950.

235.
a mortal political sin: Id.,
p. 951; Yearns, “Peace Movement,”
passim;
Drew Gilpin Faust,
The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988),
passim;
Rable, pp. 271–73 and 280–81.

235.
“superstitious dread”;
resulting in nothing at all:
Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 952.

235.
Campbell's efforts to find leaders to negotiate peace:
Id.,
pp. 951–53; Campbell, “Papers,” p. 69; Campbell,
Recollections
, p. 7–8; Campbell,
Reminiscences,
p. 42; Campbell, “Hampton Roads Conference,”
Southern Magazine,
p. 188; Ambler, pp. 255–56.

235.
Davis, who repeated himself:
Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 952. See Davis, “Peace Conference,” pp. 68–69.

235.
he dreaded being charged:
Mallory, vol. 2, p. 209.

235.
If the Senate had faced the truth: Id.

235.
The idiosyncrasy of one man:
Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 952. South Carolina Senator James L. Orr put it more bluntly: “We have failed through the egotism the obstinacy and the imbecility of Jeff Davis” (Orr to Governor Pickens, April 29, 1865, Pickens and Dugas Family papers, Southern Historical Collection, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

236.
“with its usual malice”; “in the thickest of the fight”; “your Meade art gallery increased”:
Meade, p. 263.

236.
Lee called for “new resolution”: OR
, ser.1, vol. 46, pt. 2, pp. 1229–30.

236.
“I am afraid we were too faint”:
Pryor,
Reminiscences,
p. 329.

236.
“furloughing, detailing, and discharging”; “the sooner the better”:
Jones, vol. 2, p. 417.

236.
“immovable in his determination”: Id.,
pp. 421–22.

236–237.
Campbell's conversation with Kean: Kean, pp. 204–05. On the Northern 
conferees' disappointment that no Southern offer was made, see Graham, pp. 235-36 and 246.

237.
“the last days of the Confederacy”;
“Mr. Hunter seems more depressed”:
Jones, vol. 2, p. 427.

237.
Sickness had slowed Alec Stephens:
Stephens to Linton Stephens, February 18 and 23, 1865, Manhattanville Library;
New York Times,
July 22, 1895; Johnston and Browne, p. 486.

237.
“He has been a weight for two years”:
Crist, vol. 11, p. 463.

238.
Stephens assembled his slaves:
Avary,
Recollections,
p. 144.

238.
In exchange for that sum; Then he taught him how to manage: Id.,
pp. 144–45.

238.
Little Alec told friends at dinner:
Rowland, vol. 7, p. 61; vol. 10, pp. 20–21.

238.
Stephens told a fellow Georgian: Id.

239.
Whom God would destroy:
Avary,
Recollections,
p. 145.

239.
Senator Graham's letter: Graham, p. 252.

 

CHAPTER 23

240.
“I have nothing to report this morning of unusual interest”: OR,
ser. 1, vol. 46, pt. 2, p. 1254.

240.
a resolution declaring the unalterable determination:
John Goode, “The Confederate Congress,” 4
The Conservative Review
(September–December 1900) (“Goode”), p. 106.

240.
“still hankering after peace”:
Gorgas, p. 172.

240.
Senator William Graham: For a profile of Graham, see Richard Current, ed.,
Encyclopedia of the Confederacy
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), pp. 705–08.

240.
Campbell replied in a letter:
The letter is in Campbell, “Papers,” pp. 58–60, and in Campbell,
Reminiscences,
pp. 22–26. See Campbell, “Open Letters,” p. 952; Campbell,
Reminiscences
, p. 68 n. 2; and Campbell, “Hampton Roads Conference,”
Southern Magazine,
pp. 188–90.

241.
Graham shared Campbell's letter: Id.,
p. 188.

241.
Campbell submitted a report to the Secretary of War:
The report is in
OR
, ser. 1, vol. 51, pt. 2, pp. 1064–67 and in Campbell,
Reminiscences,
pp. 26–31.

241.
“or even to veil its nudity”: Id.,
p. 36.