The south-western., 1869-04-28
Letter from Lieut.. Gen. Sherman.

| THE SURRENDER OF GEN. J. E. JOHNSTON.
To the Editor of the New York Tribune:
Sr-In your issue of yesterday is notice of Mr.
/ Healy's picture, representing the interview betwee
Mr.. Lincoln Gen. Grant, Admiral Porter and myself
which repeats substantially the account published SOM
time ago in Wilkes Spirit of the Times, explanator,
of that interview, and attributing to Mr. Lincoln him
self the paternity of the terms to Gen. Johnstons arm
at Durham, April, 1865.
l am glad you have called public attention to thu
picture itself because I feel personal interest tha
Mr. Healy should be appreciated Of our very
best American artists. But some friends here thinl
| by silence may be construed as willing to throw of
on Mr.. Lincoln the odium of those terms.
| If there be any odium, which l doubt, I surel,
would not be willing that the least show of it shoult
60 to Mr.. Lincon's memory, which hold in too mucl
veneration to be stained by anything done said b.
me- l understand that the substance of Mr.. Wilkes
original article was compiled by him after railroad
conversation with Admiral Porter, who present a
that interview represented in the picture and who
made note OF the conversation Immediately after
separated He would be more likely to have pre-
served the exact words used that occasion than
who made no notes. then or since. cannot now ever
pretend recall than the subjects touched upor
by the several parties and the Impression left on my
mind after parted The interview was in March
nearly month before the final catastrophe and it
my part of the plan of operations to move my army
reinforced by Scbofeld, then at Godsboro North Car
olna, to Burkesvie, Virginia, when Lee would have
been forced to surrender in Richmond.
The true move left to him the hasty abandon
Re eht q me m re ope % co fe f. oy ss oS
was could sustain this Joint attack till General GIan
came up. in pursuit? / was confident could but al
the very moment of conversation General Grant
moving Gen. Sheridans heavy force of cavalry tC
his extreme left to prevent this very contingency. MIR
Lincoln, in hearing us speak of final bloody battle
which then thought would fall me near Raleigh
did exclam more than that blood enough had al
ready been she'd and he hoped that the would end
without any more.
We spoke of what was to be done with Davis, other
party leaders, and the rebel army and he left un
der the impression that all he asked of was, to dis
sipae these armies and get the soldiers back to their
homes anyhow, the quicker the better, leaving him
free to apply the remedy and the restoration of civil
law He. (h1r Lincoln) surely left upon my mind the
impression warranted by Admiral Porter's account
that he had long thought Of his of action when
the rebel armies were out of his way and that he
wanted TO get civil governments re0rganised at the
South the quicker the better and strictly conforming
with our general system.
had been absent so long that presumed Of course
that Congress had enacted all the laws necessary to
meet the event of peace, so long expected and the
near approach of which must then have beensseen by
the most obtuse and all aimed to do to remit tie
rebel army surrenderrg to me to the conditions Of
the laws Of the country they then existed. At the
time of Johnston's surrender at Durham | drew up
the terms with my own hand. Breckenridge had moth
ing at all to do with them, more than to discuss their
effect, and he knew they only applied to the military
and he forthwith proceeded to make his escape from
the country, that believe Mr.. Lincoln wished
Mr.. Davis should have succeeded in electing, well
all the other leading Southern politicians, against
whom public indignation always turned with feeling
far intense than against Gers Lee, Johnston and
other purely military men,
Irepeat that according to my memory, Mr.. Lincoln
did expressly any specific terms of surrender
but he was in that kindly and gentle frame of mind
that would have induced him to approve fully what
did, excepting probably he would have interned some
notifications, such as recognising his several proca
nations antecedent, well the laws of Congress,
which would have been perfectly right and acceptable
to me and to all parties.
/ like open this any other old question, and do
it for the stated, viz: Lest be construed as
throwing off on Mr. Lincoln what his friends think
should be borne by me alone
If in the original terms had as certainly meant,
included the procamations of the President they would
have covered the slavery question md all the real
State questions which caused the war; and had not Mr.
Iineoln been assassinaed at that very moment be-
of approval absolute dsapprova1
to me- like hundreds of other official acts, without the
newspaper camor and unpleasant controversies so un
kindly and unpeasantly thrust upon me at the time.
l am truly yours,