Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1875-06-29
Especial to the New York SUM-
THE LAST ACT OF THE WAR,
The Object of MIR. LincOIn's Wis
it to City Point.
The Terms of Gen. Lees Surre,f-
der Arranged by the Presi-
dent-NO Discretion Al
lowed to the Conquer
ing General of the
Army.

WASHINGTON, June ia gentle
man attached to one of the foreign
legations, i'll speaking of the leader i'm
tO-day's Sun on Mr.. Stanton and Gen.
Sherman, told me the following inter
esting story; II was" he said ''in-
Vited to accompany the party who at
tended President Lincoln to City
Point few days previous to the sur
render of Lee at AppOmattOx. 1t was
pretty generally understood that the
end had been reached, and that in a
very few days Lee and his army would
be captured and compelled to surren-
der but | was not aware of the pur-
pose of Mr.. Lincoln's visit TO CITY
Point. 4 number of prominent gen
tlemen were in the party, and among
them Senator sumner, who; it was
understood, was soon to be made Seq
ret9ry of State. On the way down the
river we received the news on board
our boat that Mr.. Seward had been
thrown from his carriage and that his
life was despaired of, and that, moro
over, he had expressed an earnest de-
sire 20 see the President before he ex-
pired. | think a dispatch to this eff
feet was received by Senator Sumner,
The boat on which the President was
had the start of ours, and we did not
Overtake it until we reached our des-
tinatiOn. | remember that Mr.. Sum
ner lost no time in hunting up the
President and enquirlng about the
message from Secretary Seward. Mr..
Lincoln replied that he had received
the news of the accident to Mr.. Sew
ard, and the message the then sup
posed dying man had sent to him !;
but, said Mr.. Lincoln, i cannot re-
turn l have mole important duties
to attend to here
1.-The day was spent in looking about
and chatting, and Mr.. Lincoln did not
appear to be very much occupied or
concerned about anything. and l was
unable to imagine what important
duties he had to attend to but toward
evening he excused himself, saying
he had some matters that required
his attention, and taking with him q
confidential telegraph operator who
accompanied him he went to the tele-
graph station and was closated there
for several hours. The party returned
that night, and on the voyage up / was
with Mr. Sumner on board the boat
which carried the President.
In the course of the evening, while
the party was c1nversing III the cabin
of the boat, Mr.. Lincoln said that he
had piece of news to communicate.
1t will in all probability be known to
the world before we reach Washing
ton !; therefore l can see no reason,
said lie, why | should keep yOu in ig-
nOrance of what has happened. There
upon lie drew from his pocket parcel
of papers and read the correspondence
which had passed between himselfand
Gen Grant that afternoon. From
this it appeared that the President had
arranged by telegraph through Gen.
Grant the terms of Lees surrender. l
remember that the correspondence be-
tween Grant and Lee formed part of
what the President read, and the sub
stance of Grants replies were dictated
in Mr. Lincoln's dispatches to him
1t impressed me at the time that no
discretion whatever was allowed to
the conquering General, and that even
the unimpOrtant details of the suTren-
der were looked after by the Presi-
dent