Lincoln's Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days that Changed a Presidency, March 24–April 8, 1865

By Noah Andre Trudeau

From a New York Times–bestselling author, “a vivid account of Lincoln’s sixteen days at the front in Virginia” (James McPherson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom).
 
March 1865: The United States was at a crossroads and, truth be told, Abraham Lincoln was a sick man. I am very unwell, he confided to a close acquaintance. A vast and terrible civil war was winding down, leaving momentous questions for a war-weary president to address. A timely invitation from Gen. Ulysses S. Grant provided the impetus for an escape to City Point, Virginia, a journey from which Abraham Lincoln drew much more than he ever expected. This book offers the first comprehensive account of a momentous time in his presidency.
 
Lincoln made the trip to escape the constant interruptions in the capital that were draining his vitality, and to make his personal amends for presiding over the most destructive war in American history in order to save the nation. Lincoln returned to Washington sixteen days later with a renewed sense of purpose, urgency, and direction that would fundamentally shape his second-term agenda.
 
This was his longest break from the White House since he had taken office, and until now little has been known about it. Lincoln’s Greatest Journey represents the most extensively researched and detailed story of these decisive sixteen days at City Point, in a narrative laden with many previously unpublished accounts that fill in gaps and clear up misconceptions. A fresh, more complete picture of Lincoln emerges, set against a dramatically new narrative of what really happened during those last weeks of his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781611213270

Noah Andre Trudeau

Noah Andre Trudeau is the author of Gettysburg. He has won the Civil War Round Table of New York's Fletcher Pratt Award and the Jerry Coffey Memorial Prize. A former executive producer at National Public Radio, he lives in Washington, D.C.

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LINCOLN’S GREATEST JOURNEY

Sixteen Days that Changed a Presidency March 24 - April 8, 1865

NOAH ANDRE TRUDEAU

March 1865: The United States was at a crossroads and, truth be told, Abraham Lincoln was a sick man. I am very unwell, he confided to a close acquaintance. A vast and terrible civil war was winding down, leaving momentous questions for a war-weary president to address. A timely invitation from General U. S. Grant provided the impetus for an escape to City Point, Virginia, a journey from which Abraham Lincoln drew much more than he ever expected. Lincoln’s Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days that Changed a Presidency, March 24–April 8, 1865, by Noah Andre Trudeau offers the first comprehensive account of this momentous time.

Lincoln traveled to City Point, Virginia, in late March 1865 to escape the constant interruptions in the nation’s capital that were carrying off a portion of his vitality, and to make his personal amends for having presided over the most destructive war in American history in order to save the nation. Lincoln returned to Washington sixteen days later with a renewed sense of purpose, urgency, and direction that would fundamentally shape his second term agenda.

Previous coverage of this unprecedented trip—his longest break from the White House since he had taken office—has been sketchy at best, and often based on seriously flawed sources. Lincoln’s Greatest Journey represents the most extensively researched and detailed story of these decisive sixteen days at City Point in a narrative laden with many heretofore unpublished accounts. The richly shaped prose, a hallmark of Trudeau’s pen, rewrites much of the heretofore misunderstood story of what really happened to Lincoln during this time.

A fresh, more complete picture of Lincoln emerges. This is Lincoln at a time of great personal and national change, the story of how he made peace with the past and became firmly future-focused, all set against a dramatically new narrative of what really happened during those last weeks of his life. It infuses the well-worn Lincoln narrative with fresh sources to fundamentally change an often-told story in ways large and small. Rather than treat Lincoln as a dead man walking when he returns to Washington, Trudeau paints him as he surely was—a changed man profoundly influenced by all that he experienced at City Point.

Lincoln’s Greatest Journey represents an important addition to the Lincoln saga. The conventional wisdom that there’s nothing new to be learned about Lincoln is due for a major reset.

About the Author: Noah Andre Trudeau is a history graduate of the State University of New York at Albany and prolific author. His first book, Bloody Roads South, won the Civil War Round Table of New York’s prestigious Fletcher Pratt Award, and enjoyed a cameo appearance in the hit web television series House of Cards. His fourth book, Like Men of War, a combat history of black troops in the Civil War, won the Jerry Coffey Memorial Book Prize.

September 1, 2016 l Abraham Lincoln / Civil War

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Praise for Award-winning and Best-selling Author Noah Andre Trudeau

Lincoln’s Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days that Changed the Presidency, March 25 - April 8, 1865

Trudeau’s is a finely-grained study with a rich cast of characters. He weaves together threads of military, political, social, and personal history to create a fascinating chronicle of sixteen unique—and until now largely unexamined—days of Lincoln’s presidency.

— Larry Tagg, author of The Battles that Made Abraham Lincoln

"Lincoln’s Greatest Journey presents the gripping story of President Abraham Lincoln’s daring and important visit, first to City Point, Virginia, and then on to the Confederate capital in Richmond. After an introductory chapter, Trudeau spends 16 chapters covering 16 days of the Civil War’s endgame. The rich detail in this wonderful read, grounded upon many new sources, delicately presents the horror of war, the chaos of war, and the politics of ending a long and bloody civil war. The best of Abraham Lincoln comes through in this insightful new book."

— David Hirsch and Dan Van Haften, authors of Abraham Lincoln and the Structure of Reason

Trudeau demonstrates great insight by allowing the reader to view this short, but critical, period in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. In this sixteen-day stretch, Lincoln visits City Point to ‘participate’ in the last days of the Civil War. It is not only relief from the politics and stress of Washington, but a chance for the President to see and meet with his General in Chief, other officers, and especially the troops. It changed the President in a way that was reflected in his evolving policy on how to deal with the Confederates after imminent surrender. His Reconstruction policy was also evolving during this time, and his thoughts on extending some of rights of citizenship to the U.S. Colored troops and their families had become more than an embryo. This is a most worthy addition to the 16,000 volumes written about Lincoln since 1865.

— Frank J. Williams, founding Chair of The Lincoln Forum and Chair of The Ulysses S. Grant Association and Presidential Library

"Noah Andre Trudeau’s Lincoln’s Greatest Journey is a groundbreaking work that changes our perceptions of this little-known and largely unexplored critical time during the last days of the Lincoln administration. Drawing on a myriad of primary sources and beautifully written in the author’s well-known style, Trudeau firmly demonstrates that the final days of the Civil War brought about a transformation in Lincoln and re-energized America’s greatest president for the challenges ahead in reconstructing the Union. Unfortunately, his assassination changed the course of American history. This important new work is highly recommended for anyone interested in the end of the Civil War, Lincoln, or Reconstruction."

— Eric J. Wittenberg, author of many Civil War titles including The Devil’s to Pay! John Buford at Gettysburg. A History and Walking Tour, the recipient of the 2014 Gettysburg Civil War Round Table book award

*   *   *

Bloody Roads South:

The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864

—Winner of the Fletcher Pratt Award—

A powerful and eloquent narrative…. Grant vs. Lee in the Wilderness, at Spotsylvania, and at Cold Harbor has never been told better.

— Stephen W. Sears, award-winning Civil War historian

Not a formal campaign study, this is a dramatic account told through the eyes of soldiers, civilians and government leaders.

— Publishers Weekly

This popularly written account of the initial months of Grant’s decisive Virginia campaign against Lee will find a ready audience among Civil War buffs. Done in the episodic, you-are-there style of such writers as Cornelius Ryan, it rests mainly on a host of published first-hand accounts and regimental histories. Excellent for the general reader and libraries of any size.

— Library Journal

The Last Citadel: Petersburg, June 1864 - April 1865

"The Last Citadel is most impressive, almost like an account of a newly discovered war. How Trudeau amassed so much fresh material is a wonder. I found the narrative powerful and compelling and the air of authenticity complete. This is the first real Civil War narrative I have read in years."

— Burke Davis (1913-2006), noted Civil War author

"The Last Citadel succeeds marvelously at presenting the first full portrait of an immensely important operation, the siege of Petersburg. This is popular history at its finest—grounded in very impressive research, written with literary flair, and filled with new testimony from myriad witnesses whose voices help bring into focus one of the war’s most important episodes. The Last Citadel merits the attention of anyone seeking to understand the final phase of the war in Virginia."

— Gary W. Gallagher, John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War, University of Virginia, and award-winning author

"In the same style as his previous work Bloody Roads South, Trudeau provides the reader with an easy-to-understand, month-by-month, topic-by-topic description of one of the lesser-known campaigns of the war. With its easy-to-understand maps, period-artist illustrations, and thought-provoking analysis of the entire military operation, this book will be a must for enthusiasts on all levels of interest."

— Chris Calkins, author of Battles of Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House, April 8-9, 1865

"Trudeau has, with the publication of The Last Citadel, enhanced his reputation as a worthy successor to Bruce Catton. Blending his journalistic talents with those of a historian, Trudeau has given us an outstanding overview of the campaign, one that underscores that good history is more exciting and relevant than the best novel."

— Edwin C. Bearss, author of The Petersburg Campaign: The Eastern Front Battles, June – August 1864 and The Western Front Battles, September 1864 – April 1865

In masterly fashion Trudeau tracks the tactical struggle as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant seeks weak spots in Gen. Robert E. Lee’s lines while Lee, forced to spread his smaller army ever more thinly, contests Grant’s flanking movements in a series of hard-fought battles…. This oft-ignored major campaign of the Civil War receives expert examination here.

— Publishers Weekly

Trudeau salts his narrative with healthy doses of official testimony and soldiers’ personal accounts to create a brisk documentary flavor of campfire and war council. [O]ne of the most arresting narratives of any Civil War campaign. This is the stuff of high drama.

— Library Journal

Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War, April-June 1865

Impressive research and moving prose.

— James I. Robertson, Jr., award-winning author of Stonewall Jackson

In this concluding volume of a trilogy, Trudeau relies on firsthand accounts to tell the compelling story of the Confederacy’s death throes…. This is a major contribution to the field.

— Publishers Weekly

"Trudeau wonderfully concludes his Civil War trilogy by looking beyond Appomattox. It is impossible not to be moved by the graphic descriptions of the sinking of the Sultana, the flight of Jefferson Davis, and the last battle of the war in the west. This is a fitting conclusion to a series that masterfully intertwines personal accounts with descriptive narrative. In the words of Lieutenant Colonel Branson upon hearing the last volley: ‘That winds up the war.’"

— Library Journal

Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865

Jerry Coffey Memorial Book Prize

The story of black troops in combat during the Civil War is told comprehensively for the first time, however, in this remarkable history by Trudeau, who takes readers into battle with the U.S. Colored Troops…. In an era when standards of manhood were as high as in any other, few whites who saw black troops in action ever again questioned their courage. The legacy was long obscured, but it never disappeared, and its compelling recovery makes this book a major addition to Civil War literature.

— Publishers Weekly

Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage

Bursting with fresh anecdotes, shrewd analysis, and sterling judgment….

— Douglas Brinkley, award-winning presidential historian

Making comprehensive and sophisticated use of a broad spectrum of archival and printed sources, [former] National Public Radio executive producer Trudeau enhances his reputation as a narrative historian of the Civil War with what is to date the best large-scale single-volume treatment of those crucial three days in July 1863, elegantly reconstructing the battle and the campaign from the perspectives of the participants…. The operational narratives are remarkable for their clarity.

— Publishers Weekly

Trudeau skillfully intertwines his narrative with firsthand accounts using letters, diaries, memoirs, and after-action reports from local residents, soldiers, and officers. He unearths many little-known human interest stories and brings to light the trials and tribulations of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances…. A monumental work, thoroughly researched and well written, this is the best recent single-volume history of the campaign.

— Library Journal

Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea

Trudeau, a prize-winning Civil War historian, addresses William T. Sherman’s March to the sea in the autumn of 1864…. Trudeau praises Sherman’s generalship, always better at operational than tactical levels. He presents the inner dynamics of one of the finest armies the U.S. has ever fielded: veteran troops from Massachusetts to Minnesota, under proven officers, consistently able to make the difficult seem routine. And Trudeau acknowledges the often-overlooked contributions of the slaves who provided their liberators invaluable information and labor. The march to the sea was in many ways the day of jubilo, and in Trudeau it has found its Xenophon.

— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

ALSO BY

Noah Andre Trudeau

Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage

Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865

Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War, April-June 1865

Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864

The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865

Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea

Robert E. Lee: Lessons in Leadership

© 2016 by Noah Andre Trudeau

All maps by author.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

First Edition, first printing

ISBN-13: 978-1611213-26-3

eISBN-13: 978-1611213-27-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Trudeau, Noah Andre, 1949- author.

Title: Lincoln’s Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days that Changed a Presidency (March 24-April 8, 1865) / by Noah Andre Trudeau.

Description: First edition. | El Dorado Hills, California : California, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016017919| ISBN 9781611213263 (hardcover: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781611213270 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Military leadership. | Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Travel--Virginia--Hopewell. | Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Campaigns. | United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Peace. | Civil-military relations--United States--History--19th century. | City Point (Hopewell, Va.)--History, Military--19th century. | Hopewell (Va.)--History, Military--19th century.

Classification: LCC E457.2 .T77 2016 | DDC 973.7092--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016017919

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Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: January-March, 1865

Chapter 2: Saturday, March 25, 1865

Chapter 3: Sunday, March 26, 1865

Chapter 4: Monday, March 27, 1865

Chapter 5: Tuesday, March 28, 1865

Chapter 6: Wednesday, March 29, 1865

Chapter 7: Thursday, March 30, 1865

Chapter 8: Friday, March 31, 1865

Chapter 9: Saturday, April 1, 1865

Chapter 10: Sunday, April 2, 1865

Chapter 11: Monday, April 3, 1865

Chapter 12: Tuesday, April 4, 1865

Chapter 13: Wednesday, April 5, 1865

Chapter 14: Thursday, April 6, 1865

Chapter 15: Friday, April 7, 1865

Chapter 16: Saturday, April 8, 1865

Chapter 17: Sunday, April 9, 1865

Epilogue

Appendix One: Sources Casebook

Appendix Two: Marine Muster Roll, USS Malvern

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

List of Maps

Journey to City Point

Battle of Fort Stedman, March 25, 1865

Petersburg-Richmond Front, March 1865

City Point, Virginia, March 1865

Petersburg/City Point, Forts and Lines, 1865

White Oak Road/Dinwiddie Court House/Five Forks

Petersburg Fighting, April 2, 1865

Lincoln Visits Petersburg, April 3, 1865

Lincoln Visits Richmond, April 4, 1865

Routes to Appomattox Court House

Return to Washington

Preface

The

tragic saga of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is profoundly etched in American memory, so much so that a striking story within that story has been all but lost. That inexorable accumulation of small events and ominous portents, building to a frozen moment in time on the night of April 14, 1865, compels our attention like few other chapters in U.S. history. Some 700,000 people annually visit Ford’s Theater. New books, films, documentaries, and articles about the president’s martyrdom appear just about every year. The image that inevitably dominates this narrative is that of a great man helplessly caught in a fateful vortex, with virtually every aspect of his life in those final weeks viewed through the dark prism of his pending doom. It is a powerful tale, yet one that obscures Lincoln’s last and perhaps greatest personal achievement as President of the United States.

For all of his first term and the start of his second, Abraham Lincoln was in a fully reactive mode. I claim not to have controlled events, he admitted in early 1864, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. The immense task of prosecuting the war consumed him, and at times it seemed an endless ordeal. It also brought out qualities of leadership that helped define his greatness. Historian Eric Foner, who believes that Lincoln had grown enormously during the Civil War, identifies some of them as an open-mindedness, a willingness to accept criticism, a firm finger on the people’s pulse, and an ability to work with just about anyone to achieve his goals. Lincoln had challenged Congress and the American people at the start of the crisis to think anew and act anew,¹ and there’s nothing to suggest that he was any less prepared to apply those skills and follow that dictum as the war was ending than he was when it began.

Lincoln’s crystal ball was decidedly murky at the beginning of March 1865. As late as his Second Inaugural Address early that month, he was unwilling to predict when the war might end. Some 30 days later everything changed. A new Lincoln emerged, one firmly on a leadership path actively anticipating the postwar era. He was at long last in a position and—equally important—a state of mind to begin to control events. It was a transformation as remarkable as it was unprecedented.

This metamorphosis from a president in time of war to one in time of peace did not—and could not—happen in Washington. It took place in City Point, Virginia, at the headquarters of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Lincoln left Washington for what he intended to be a few days away from the Oval Office to rest. Those few stretched into an unprecedented 16, during which the President performed very little of the Chief Executive’s business. Instead, he lost himself in the minutiae of a major military campaign, personally witnessed the carnage of combat, came to understand the fears and uncertainties of a defeated society, found a deeper compassion for the aspirations of a long subjugated people, steeled himself to confront the self-inflicted damage and destruction of the war, performed a striking public act of honoring the war’s wounded, and, in the end, reset his internal compass to begin to lead the country out of the storm.

This extended period away from Washington demands our attention. Of the 52 days he was out of town during his first term, his longest continuous absence was just eight, and those trips were all business. The prospect of escaping the Executive Mansion to recharge was something many of Lincoln’s successors would embrace as absolutely necessary. Dwight D. Eisenhower spent 456 vacation days away from the White House, Lyndon B. Johnson 484, Franklin D. Roosevelt 958, and George W. Bush 1,020. President Lincoln’s City Point respite represents his longest time unfettered by the official duties of his office.

It is an inalterable historical fact that the singular trajectory of this new Lincoln ended in his violent death before it had fairly begun. Why, that being the case, does it all matter? It matters because it adds a new piece to the eternally fascinating puzzle that is Abraham Lincoln. It matters because it more fully reveals his determination to lead this nation into a future guided by the principles of malice toward none … charity for all.² It matters also because although no one knows precisely what Lincoln would have done in a full second term, his experiences at City Point offer tantalizing clues to some of what might have been. Most important, it signals that the man had changed—and was in the process of changing more—when he returned to Washington after his extended time out. Such was his greatness, and such is the story told here.

In charting this great Lincoln journey, it is important to pin down details as much as possible. We need to know what he did, when he did it, what he saw, whom he met, what he said, who saw him, what they thought, what they heard. I began my research using the standard template of Lincoln’s City Point sojourn; after all, it’s a tale that had been told and retold over the years with little variation. I soon realized that the testimonies of the most often cited witnesses to these events were all flawed — some slightly, others substantially. I had to tear down the old edifice and build a wholly new background against which the Lincoln transformation story unfolds. Readers familiar with the basic elements of his activities during this period will note that some celebrated stories have been expunged and the sequence of events is altered in places from the long accepted versions. I have also added new witnesses to Lincoln’s visit, many making but brief appearances. Even these little dots, when considered in the aggregate, fill in the picture. Readers interested in the stories behind some of my choices are directed to the Sources Casebook at the book’s end.

In his immortal Gettysburg speech, Lincoln spoke to the moment and looked to the future. When, 16 months later, he departed Washington for the Virginia front, the nation was still fully engaged in a great civil war. He returned from his trip a leader looking ahead to the challenges of bringing the nation its new birth of freedom. His point of view was forward, not backward, and his purpose was to help the nation reinvent itself, guided by one of his essential principles. As he said: I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind; and therefore, without entering upon the details of the question, I will simply say, that I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.³

The time has come to stop defining Lincoln by the melodramatic manner of his death, and to understand him as a dynamic national leader, hardened and wearied by war, but still capable of personal growth and change. It is my hope that this book is a step in that direction.

Meet the Lincolns: Mary, Robert (in uniform), Tad, and Abraham. LOC

The Grants in early 1865 in front of his headquarters/living quarters cabin at City Point, Virginia: Ulysses, Jesse, and Julia. LOC

Chapter One

January - March, 1865

It was an immense relief to him to be away from Washington.

Four

years of Civil War had taken a heavy toll of Abraham Lincoln. Friends and colleagues were shocked by the man they now encountered. A Springfield acquaintance visiting in late February 1865, thought that he looked badly and felt badly—apparently more depressed than I have seen him since he became President, while another at the same time observed that he appeared to be worn out and almost completely exhausted. I am very unwell, Lincoln confided to a close acquaintance at this time. A reporter for the Chicago Tribune wrote that many of the president’s visitors were painfully impressed with his gaunt, skeleton-like appearance, while the editor of the New York Tribune described his face as care-ploughed, tempest-tossed and weatherbeaten. Lincoln was so ill by mid-March that he had to conduct a Cabinet meeting in his bedroom. I shall never live to see peace, he told Harriet Beecher Stowe at this time, this war is killing me.¹

The stresses began with personal matters. His wife, Mary, was continuing to show signs of what later writers would characterize as bipolar disorder: depression, migraines, and obsessive tendencies. Not having the benefit of such a modern analysis, Lincoln feared his wife was going crazy. Atop that were worries about his eldest son, Robert, who was eager to see something of the war in uniform. Father and son were willing, but Mary opposed it. I am so frightened he may never come back to us, she said. The matter assumed a political dimension when the First Lady was challenged by a New York senator who demanded to know: Why isn’t Robert in the army?² She finally compromised on the arrangement that saw her eldest attached to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s staff. Though not a field officer, Robert’s duties put him in harm’s way, and the Lincolns—who had lost a son from illness as recently as 1862—worried about losing another.

Then there were the stresses connected to the Office of the President. Lincoln’s reelection once more opened the floodgates for job seekers eager to be rewarded for their efforts on his behalf. He tried to get ahead of the problem by announcing that he would be making very few changes this time around. Still they came, and it seemed to Lincoln that every one darted at him, and with thumb and finger carried off a portion of his vitality. When he attended a March opera performance in the company of Colonel James Grant Wilson, he explained that he didn’t come for the music, but for the rest. I am being hounded to death by office-seekers, who pursue me early and late, and it is simply to get two or three hours’ relief that I am here. He called on a friendly senator from New Hampshire and pleaded, Can’t you and others start a public sentiment in favor of making no changes in offices except for good and sufficient cause? It seems as though the bare thought of going through again what I did the first year here would crush me.³

Looming over all of this were the profound stresses of being commander-in-chief in a time of war. Lincoln was not the first American president to govern in wartime, but none of the previous occasions had so pervaded the national fabric as this. No one realized it more than the man whose decisions had sent thousands of young men to their death. Speaking in June 1864, Lincoln explained his perspective in the starkest of terms. War, at the best, is terrible, he said, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible. It has destroyed property, and ruined homes; it has produced a national debt and taxation unprecedented…. It has carried mourning to almost every home, until it can almost be said that the ‘heavens are hung in black.’ Yet it continues.⁴

It speaks to Lincoln’s ability to focus on what was important that, despite the distractions, he quietly and patiently pulled strings in early 1865 to assure Congressional approval of the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery. It further drained him, but he persisted and made full use of the prestige and patronage of the Executive branch to muster the necessary House support. When the vote was called on January 31, 1865, it passed with just three more than the needed two-thirds majority. Lincoln declared it a great moral victory.⁵ In its aftermath, he began thinking more and more about escaping Washington for a while.

Since taking office on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln had been a reluctant and very occasional out-of-town traveler. During his entire first term he had undertaken just 16 trips away from the capital, averaging 3.25 days apiece. These excursions invariably involved either military matters or official appearances. What passed for a rest break were the early summer and late fall weeks (variously from June 1862 to November 1864) that he spent with his family in a house on the grounds of the Soldiers’ Home in northeast Washington, an easy three-mile ride from the White House. Even there he was not free from the press of visitors or the need to commute nearly every day to the office to handle necessary matters. With spring military operations in the offing, time away seemed like an unobtainable luxury. Still, he had made no definite decision when an unexpected telegram arrived on March 20, 1865, that made it for him.

Approximately 130 miles south from Washington was City Point, Virginia, known today as Hopewell, just where the Appomattox River entered the James River. Once the clearinghouse for shipping intended for Petersburg (ten river miles distant), since June 1864, it had been the logistical hub for Union forces operating against Richmond and Petersburg. Perched atop a long bluff rising over a busy waterfront and at the point of land thrust between the two rivers was the plantation manor of Dr. Richard Eppes, whose family had occupied the house for more than a century. The current residents had been uprooted when Union troops arrived and the good doctor spent much of the war working as a contract surgeon in a Petersburg Confederate military hospital.

A row of small rustic log cabins (replacing tents in the fall of 1864) stretched out in an orderly line running east of the plantation house. These unassuming habitations represented the command-and-control center for all the armies of the United States. A visitor about this time mused that the whole place reminds one of a frontier settlement on the skirts of our Indian territories. Near the middle of the line was a two-room structure that doubled as head- and living-quarters for General Grant, who had been general-in-chief for the army’s operations since March 1864. Beginning right after January 1, 1865, the cabin was also occupied by Grant’s wife, Julia, and their young son, Jesse. Julia described herself as snugly nestled away and assured a friend that her general’s headquarters can be as private as a home.⁶

The task of prosecuting the war was Grant’s principal, but not his sole, responsibility; even with an abundantly manned War Department in Washington and a modest staff at City Point, the general’s days were filled with matters large and small. On the small side, Grant had to intervene in the first three weeks of March for several officers regarding official recognition of their proper ranks, investigate fraud charges laid against an officer at Fortress Monroe, and settle a turf war between the officer commanding in the Baltimore area and the irate railroad president whose trains he was appropriating. A sad personal matter was injected on March 19 when he learned of the death of his oldest sister, Clara, who had passed away thirteen days earlier. His father wrote two letters announcing the fact, the second taking his son to task for his silence. Your last letter made me feel very badly, Grant told his father.⁷

The list of more significant items requiring his attention that month seemed endless. There were touchy issues regarding the treatment and exchange of prisoners of war, the matter of commodity traders with official Washington passes attempting to move merchandise (mostly tobacco and cotton) between the battle lines, and various military districts needing replacement officers. Important matters to be sure, but they paled in comparison with the decisions Grant had to make every day to keep the prosecution of the war on track.

The essence of Grant’s overall plan was to simultaneously press the enemy across the country in as many strategic places as possible, but he found instilling a sense of urgency in distant commanders both a challenge and a frustration. Topping his list of problem people was Major General Edward R. S. Canby, headquartered in New Orleans and charged with capturing the Confederate port of Mobile, Alabama. Grant had wanted it done back in December when Major General William Tecumseh Sherman was beginning his sweep through Georgia, but Canby found reasons to procrastinate. He sidestepped several specific instructions Grant gave him regarding officer appointments and seemed to be spending more time building an infrastructure than organizing an advance. I am very much dissatisfied with Canby, Grant complained to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on March 14.⁸

Another key officer whose actions fell below Grant’s expectations was Major General George H. Thomas. Thomas had delivered a significant victory to the Union in December 1864 at Nashville, but since then he had consistently underperformed, at least in Grant’s estimation. Grant did not hesitate to take from Thomas the infantry he needed to support offensives elsewhere. His hope now was that the general would dispatch his ample cavalry in several important raids, but instead of reports of actions accomplished, Grant received a litany of reasons for delay. He vented some of his frustration in a March 16 letter, describing Thomas as slow beyond excuse.⁹ Every dalliance at this critical stage, Grant believed, raised the specter of a long summer of costly operations.

The two shining stars in his constellation were William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan. Of the pair, he was closest to Sherman. They shared a biography that included a hardscrabble youth, West Point studies, civilian interludes where failure was a regular visitor, and a feeling that the military life offered the only viable framework for success and recognition. Their personalities, however, were decidedly different. Sherman thought himself more susceptible to doubt than his friend. I am more likely to change my orders or countermarch my command than he is, explained Sherman. He uses such information as he has according to his best judgment; he issues his orders and does his level best to carry them out without much reference to what is going on about him and, so far, experience seems to have fully justified him.¹⁰

Only Sherman could have convinced a skeptical Grant to allow the operation that became known as the March to the Sea, or that tramping his men overland from Savannah to Virginia was better than waiting for sufficient sea transportation to materialize. Both men grasped the intricacies of modern operational planning, and both had the self-confidence to know when to act and the courage of convictions to act decisively. To you, Sherman confided to Grant, I can always unfold my thoughts as one worthy and capable of appreciating the feelings of a soldier and gentleman.¹¹

Grant’s relationship with Sheridan was different. Grant relied on him to efficiently and effectively accomplish any task given him—just as he trusted Sherman. He knew Sheridan to be a master of the military craft, amply provided with determination, courage, and sheer force of will; unbending in his execution of orders, and ambitious. In many ways he was Sherman without the massive intellectual framework that gave Sherman the confidence to operate independently. Sherman and Grant complemented each other and enhanced each other’s skill set; Sheridan always seemed to require an element that Sherman’s or Grant’s support provided. With their backing he was unstoppable.

Both men had contributed to Grant’s anxieties in early March as they disconnected communications in order to carry out their missions. Each was out of contact with higher authorities for days and even weeks as they managed their operations—Sherman somewhere in North Carolina and Sheridan deep in the southern Shenandoah Valley. Grant was reduced to reading Richmond newspapers to glean some evidence of their activities, though the Rebel editors always made it seem as if each had met with disaster. It wasn’t until March 12 that he established direct contact with Sheridan, and March 16 with Sherman.

Grant could now finalize his plans to break the Petersburg stalemate and (he hoped) end of the war. He believed that his superior numbers and resources would prevail if he could lever Lee’s army out of its entrenchments and transform the situation to a more fluid fight in the open. He had known this since the Petersburg campaign began in June 1864, but now, nearly a year