• Location: on the comfy loveseat with Abby
• Mood: geeky
• Music: Jay Unger-"Ashokan Farewell"

Lincoln's Last Days: April 1, 1865

Secretary of State William H. Seward had spent two days at City Point, but the biographies of Lincoln that I have read do not mention what the President and Seward discussed. On Saturday, April 1, 1865 (150 years ago today), Seward left City Point to return to Washington. Mary Lincoln also left for Washington along with Seward. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton also left for Washington. According to Lincoln's biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Lincoln's had a private discussion following the childish outburst that Mary Lincoln had a few days earlier when she saw Mary Ord, the wife of General Edward Ord, riding on her horse in the President's party, and became very jealous. Kearns Goodwin writes, at page 715 of Team of Rivals that "the Lincolns had apparently decided that, after her public outburst, she would be better off in the White House, away from prying reporters." Lincoln had told Mary about a dream he had about the White House catching fire. The author also writes that Mary wanted to return to "assure herself that all was well."



She continues:

Once she was aboard the steamer heading north, her spirits lifted abruptly. Fellow passenger Carl Schurz talked with her on the voyage. "She was overwhelmingly charming with me" he wrote to his wife. "She chided me for not visiting her, overpowered me with invitations, and finally had me driven to my hotel in her state carriage. I learned more state secrets in a few hours than I could otherwise in a year... She is an astounding person."

All that day, Lincoln haunted the telegraph office at City Point, anxiously awaiting news from Grant. Returning to the River Queen, he could see the "flash of the cannon" in the distance, signalling that the battle for Petersburg had begun. "Almost all night he walked up and down the deck," [bodyguard William] Crook recalled, "pausing now and then to listen or to look into the darkness to see if he could see anything. I have never seen such suffering in the face of any man as was in his that night."

The battle was intense, but by early morning, the Federals had broken through Petersburg's outer lines of defense and had almost reached General Lee's headquarters at the Turnbull House. Realizing that he could no longer hold on, Lee ordered his troops to withdraw both from Petersburg and from Richmond. That evening Lincoln received the news that Grant had "Petersburg completely enveloped from the river below to the river above" and had taken "about 12,000 prisoners." Grant invited the President to visit him in Petersburg the following day.