Posted on 04/26/2018 6:05:43 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his Army and all Confederate troops in NC, SC, GA and FL to Major General William T. Sherman. With the surrender of these 89,000 troops, the Civil War, East of the Appalachian Mountains, effectively comes to an end.
General Johnston disobeyed a direct order from Jefferson Davis when he surrendered.
Think Davis was pretty much out of touch with the real situation at the time.
Sherman strayed into politics in offering overly generous civil terms to Johnston. The mood in Washington had hardened following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2015/spring/cw-surrenders.html
“”Johnston, who had received advice from both Governor Vance and Confederate President Davis regarding peace talks, reached out to Sherman to discuss terms of his surrender. Several days passed before Sherman and Johnston eventually met near Durham Station on April 17. Sherman offered Johnston the same terms as those given Lee at Appomattox.
Johnston suggested that they take it one step further and “arrange the terms for a permanent peace.” Sherman saw an opportunity to not only end the war for his opponent’s army but to end the war entirely.
Talks continued the following day with Confederate Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge accompanying Johnston.
Sherman, Johnston in Accord, But Washington Says “No”
Sherman agreed to seven principal provisions. The agreement, however, went beyond military terms and the surrender of Johnston’s army. The agreement applied to any (read all) Confederate armies still in existence. The troops would disband and return to their state capitals, where they were to deposit their arms and public property at the state arsenals. The federal executive would recognize state governments, including their officers and legislatures. Where rival governments existed, the U.S. Supreme Court would decide which one would be recognized.
Federal courts would be reestablished in southern states, and the people would have their political rights and franchises guaranteed, including their rights of person and property. The war would cease, and a general amnesty would be provided.
Sherman was convinced his signed agreement with Johnston would end the war. In his cover letter awkwardly addressed to Grant or Halleck, Sherman argued that the agreement, “if approved by the President of the United States, will produce peace from the Potomac to the Rio Grande.”
In a follow-up letter to Halleck the same day, Sherman advised: “please give all orders necessary according to the views the Executive may take, and influence him, if possible, not to vary the terms at all, for I have considered everything.”
Sherman had overplayed his hand. He did not realize that neither the President nor any high-ranking member of the federal government would ever agree to the terms outlined in his accord with Johnston. The plan he worked out with Johnston was quickly rejected by federal authorities.
Sherman, thinking he ended the war, was surprised by the response he received from Washington...””
Fortunately for the men under his command, Johnson did. Why sacrifice any more men to a cause that was long lost? Besides, Davis was on the run and out of contact.
In the end, Johnston surrendered under pretty much the same terms that Lee and accepted for Grant.
And when Federal troops tracked Jefferson Davis to an isolated farmhouse, he tried to flee disguised in women’s clothing JUST KIDDING!!
;^)
Well, some in the Yankee press said so (and they weren’t kidding!), but this is disputed.
From History.com:
A certain amount of controversy surrounds his capture, as Davis was wearing his wife’s black shawl when the Union troops cornered him. The Northern press ridiculed him as a coward, alleging that he had disguised himself as a woman in an ill-fated attempt to escape. However, Davis, and especially his wife, Varina, maintained that he was ill and that Varina had lent him her shawl to keep his health up during their difficult journey.
One account has it that Davis tried to run from the farmhouse to the barn where his horses & weapons were kept. His wife flung her shawl over his head in an attempt to disguise him but he had no time to cast it aside before being captured.
“The Civil War: the further in time it retreats from us, the closer to us it comes.”
The war was over for the South the moment it decided to launch it.
No argument from me on your observation. It was only a matter of time before the power of the North would eventually crush the Confederacy.
It wasn’t just the power of the North. It was the immorality of the South’s cause.
If ever the South chose a more obstinate, incompetent and petty tyrant then Jefferson Davis they’d have been hard pressed to find one.
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